Vodafone Booster keeps dropping connection on Mac laptop

Hi,

We have recently upgraded from a Vodafone superfast 2 router and booster to a Vodafone Fibre 1 router and booster with VOIP. My wife uses a MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020) positioned in the same room as the router and the booster is at the other end of the house. It has always connected to the internet fine no issues. However when we switched to the new vodafone service and turned on the new booster, the mac keeps dropping the connection every 2-3 minutes. You then have to reselect the network and connect from the apple menu. This issue does not happen on any other devices in the house including iphones and ipads. The issue dissapears as soon as you turn off the vodafone booster. However I rely on this booster for my work at the other end of hte house. Any ideas? Anything we can try on the mac settings? Vodafone useless, BT confirmed no fault on line.

Thanks, Sam

MacBook Pro (2017 – 2020)

Posted on Jul 13, 2023 5:33 AM

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9 replies

Aug 4, 2023 2:32 PM in response to applebadger

Your RSSI signal strength of -41 is excellent, you must be very close to the access point.

You are making a connection using 802.11ac, at 80 MHz channel width, in the 5 GHz band.

Your transmit rate of 867 and MCS index 9 says TWO antennas are being used with the most complex pattern available (256 patterns per signaling interval) using two antennas on an 80 MHz channel.


However, the strength and number of other Routers around you is very high, and likely related to why you are having issues on channel 36, often the default channel.


If you use the entry on that menu to "open Wireless diagnostics". when you click (Continue) it will scan your settings and may make recommendations worth considering.



While that window is open if you choose SCAN from the Window menu,



...it will list the channel assignments of all networks is range, looks like this one:


(drag and drop on Preview to see larger)


What I am fishing for here is ˘ anyone else using any channels near your channel 36, up to and including 48, or a 160 GHz channel up to and including 64?


Nov 17, 2023 8:28 AM in response to applebadger

that scan has no trace of your previous Booster that was on channel 36. it shows only a more distant router with the same network-name on channel 112.


If you click on the column header for "channel" it will sort by channel number.


Is it possible the Booster is too far away from the base station and is unable to keep its connection? You may have to pull an Ethernet cable to connect it to the Base station, or locate the Booster closer to the base station.



Nov 18, 2023 7:38 PM in response to applebadger

All of those access points in your screenshot are incapable of a wireless connection since they have extremely poor signal strength (RSSI).....I'm surprised you can connect to any of them. The best ones are the two with -72db RSSI and that is still unusable. I have problems with WiFi connections once the RSSI gets to around -60db & -63db. The signal strength should be somewhere between -30db to -55db (with the -30db being the stronger signal).



Jul 18, 2023 2:38 PM in response to applebadger

Vodafone is not an Apple product.


If you're having problems with a 3rd party device, you need to contact its developer. Apple has no responsibility either to or for Vodafone.


Developers who produce products for use with Macs are responsible for making them work with macOS, not the other way around. And only the Mac is using macOS, other devices are using other operating system so saying they all work is not really giving added information pertinent to the issue you're having.

Nov 17, 2023 5:24 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi, Thank you for the reply, we ran wireless diagnostics but there were no issues found. Please see below screenshot from the window scan menu, please advise if this helps? I'm sorry I don't know the answer to "is anyone else using any channels near your channel 36, up to and including 48, or a 160 GHz channel up to and including 64?" but I'm hoping you can tell please?

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Vodafone Booster keeps dropping connection on Mac laptop

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