OS X 10.6.4 update killed my wifi

msr911nl wrote:
I have a MBP model 5.2 mid 2009, and after updating to 10.6.4 from 10.6.3 my wifi won't connect or is dead slow. I have never had any problems with it.

You might try resetting your connection settings using the steps listed in this message:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10695921&start=1

They're not guaranteed to solve the problem, but they'll only take you a minute or so to try.

Thanks for the tip. For those of us with Macbook Pros, the steps are a bit different and are detailed here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US

I just gave it a try, but will have to keep my eye on it, since it seems to be kind of random and inconsistent. On the plus side, Air Port Utility seems to be working again for me, but we'll see how it goes.

Of course, I'll curse myself by writing this, but ever since I reset the SMC according to the Support Document I linked to, things have been working well and consistently for me. Here's the link again:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964?viewlocale=en_US

I rolled back to 10.6.3 and I thought that helped but in fact it didn't. 😟

I also did try all the fixes (deleting airport, deleting prefs) but none of them seemed to work. I did a couple of things all together (welcome to trouble shooting ****) and I've been able to get an IP from my router without any hassle.

The things I did included:
- resetting router settings (I am using an O2 box)
- power off router for a while (more than 1 minute)
- reset PRAM and NVRAM ( http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379)
- cleared caches using AppleJack: you need to restart into single user mode.

The combination of these steps seemed to have solved it for me. Hope that helps.

I would be very wary of installing iStumbler. Unless they have significantly upgraded it, it was one of the programs for me and others that was leading to multiple rogue programs running on Slow Leopard, which mopped up all free resources. For anyone who is still having issues, may I suggest that if you still have free support via Applecare or for new machines, you log this issue with the assistance folks and ALSO report it here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8824.html . What I cannot understand is that everything works perfectly one day and is total c**p the next. I am about 800 meters from the nearest house, so it is not cross interference. I have got to the point that I am going to replace my main modem router (Netgear DG834PN), which is about 5 years old with a top of the range Cisco SRP 527W, with a big aerial. I do also have a TimeCapsule on the network (on an non-confliciting band) but the wireless signal from it is quite weak. My house in France is a 1970's avant-garde house with 1 meter thick stone and reinforced concrete walls and lots of steel and aluminium around, so a difficult environment for WiFi. Nevertheless, it was working quite well on 10.6.3.

Wilson

OK, folks. One more thing to check that I haven't seen anybody mention here yet. Apparently there is a known issue with 802.11n speeds and WPA passwords:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3361

Check your access point to make sure that it is using WPA2 only (not set to WPA/WPA2). I made the change last night and saw a pretty dramatic overall speed increase and it's still solid this morning. However, I'll need to observe this over time to see if it comes back. Still worth a try though.

I was having the same issue. I could connect to wi-fi, but not to the internet. I followed the instructions here http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10695921&start=1
and I am up and running.

Apple FIX THIS! Totally ridiculous that we have to wait this long to get an answer!!!!!

No, they don't. This is strictly a user driven community (yes, supplied by Apple, so subject to their TOS).

You could reference a topic like this in your contact, but not sure it would help much.

Another way, is to go to http://www.apple.com/feedback

It seems they do at least keep track of those. But for support, you're better off calling Apple Care. Even if you don't think you are covered by them at this point, you could still try.

I found a solution to my Wifi slowness issues and constant flooding of DNS look ups for 'SOA local.' - it turns out there is a 'feature' in some EPSON driver software (I installed the software that came with the V300 scanner) that has some 'network discovery' feature and it's easy to turn off - see the post here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2519348&tstart=0&start=15

Who knows what this software is actually doing, but with the network discovery feature turned off peace and sanity has been restored to my world 🙂

My problem is finally fixed!

Experiencing the same problem. I have a MacBook 2009 (not unibody) and after updating to 10.6.4 from 10.6.3, Airport has serious difficulty connecting to my D-Link wifi router. And when I manage to connect, it will randomly disconnect by itself from time to time. I've also noticed "dead slow" connection at times.

I also have the same problem!
I noticed that it will not accept my WPA password.
Airport always says Invalid Password. However the password is correct!
And the WLAN is working fine I can access everything with my PC or LAN directly on my router.

After a bit more playing it seems to connect to the router, my router says it has assigned an IP address.
However Airport says "AirPort has the self-assigned IP address 169.254.47.17 and will not be able to connect to the Internet."

Same deal here....13" MB unibody...mid 2009 airport extreme. "Upgraded" to 10.6.4 last night now MB can't get an IP but iPhones and Windows machines have no problems getting wifi. AppleCare runs through power cycling and it fixes it but on wakeup the next time it can't find it.

Similar issue here on my late-2008 13" unibody Macbook. I've got two routers, one running G and a TIme Capsule (1st gen) running N.

After the update, everything was fine for a couple of days, and was even working most of yesterday. Yesterday, I started having all sorts of connection issues, and went through the typical steps of resetting the routers, modem, checking channels, looking for new sources of interference, etc.

But the odd thing is that I would try to switch between routers on my Air Port, and suddenly it was asking me for my WAP passwords. When I entered them, sometimes it would take, usually it wouldn't. Air Port Utility was having trouble finding the Time Capsule as well.

At the end of the night, I could connect to the Netgear over G and get a connection, although it was showing rocking DL speeds in iStat menu of 1.2 KB/s at its max, but it simply refused to make any kind of connection over the Time Capsule over N.

This morning, I was resigned to getting up and restoring a backup to 10.6.3, but lo and behold, I'm connected to the Time Capsule over N and my speeds are normal. The Macbook wasn't rebooted, I put it to sleep before I went to bed.