Bad WiFi - solution?

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Level 1

4 points

Bad WiFi - solution?

I have a MacBook Air which continually fails to connect with my router, telling me to “Turn-WIFI on”. No other devices give me this problem and I’ve had this problem since — you guessed it — my warranty ran out!

So, I’ve tried several USB WiFi dongles, but none worked dependably. Some didn’t work at all. Thank goodness for Amazon’s easy returns for PRIME members!

I get perfect connection when I connect directly to the rear of the router. Problem is, I work about 30 feet away from the router through the laundry room, through the kitchen, down the hall across the dining room into the living room. Not practical.

So I’m thinking, what if I had another router and put it into (I think it’s called) repeater mode, and plug my network cable into one of the ports in the back of the router — would I have an internet connection?

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 8, 2020 1:19 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Rafael Scheid

Level 5

5,334 points

Sep 8, 2020 1:41 PM in response to rochacha

First do some check on your Mac

1 - Reset SMC https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295 and NVRAM https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

2 - Start the Mac holding Command S to enter Safe Mode. During this boot macOS does some maintenance under the hood and solves some problems.

3 - Reset your network connections

Open Sys Prefs > Network and remove the connections by clicking the minus (-) button.
Reboot.
Re-add the connections by clicking the plus (+) button

4 - Start your Mac holding D to enter Apple Diagnostics and see if brings you any errors related to the Airport Card (module responsible for wi-fi and bluetooth connections).

Try reconnecting and see if the problem persists.

Let us know.

And of course, the wi-fi signal should probably be improved. If signal is a problem, maybe when adding the repeater in between you and the router you'll probably not need to wire your Mac to it once it'll be improving the signal closer to your workplace.

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Answer 2

Sep 8, 2020 1:30 PM in response to rochacha

Yes, you can do that. There are also powerline adapters that run the ethernet signal over your home AC wiring. Alternatively, consider a better WiFi system, e.g. a mesh network (eero, google, linksys, etc.).

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Bad WiFi - solution?

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