MacOS Sequoia installed. Internet will randomly drop connection

Expanding on my comment about WiFi settings and the settings

Off: Your network interface uses the default MAC address it was

given when it was manufactured.

• Fixed: The new default setting, Fixed gives your network interface

a different, private MAC address, the upshot of which is that devices

on your local network (such as routers and other computers) will

still be able to track you by MAC address, but tracking beyond your

local network (that is, anywhere else on the internet) is harder.

• Rotating: With this setting, your Mac periodically changes the

network interface’s MAC address, which makes it harder for other

devices to track you, whether or not they’re on your local network.

We just don't know Apple means by "periodically". I found that running a router that has a setting on it for Mac Address filtering that the Fixed and Rotating play havoc on it and have turned it OFF.

Well if you have MAC Filtering enabled on your router this new feature that Apple instituted with little forewarning in the WiFi settings>Details it throws your connecting to the internet right off. The three settings are

Off: Your network interface uses the default MAC address it was

given when it was manufactured.

• Fixed: The new default setting, Fixed gives your network interface

a different, private MAC address, the upshot of which is that devices

on your local network (such as routers and other computers) will

still be able to track you by MAC address, but tracking beyond your

local network (that is, anywhere else on the internet) is harder.

• Rotating: With this setting, your Mac periodically changes the

network interface’s MAC address, which makes it harder for other

devices to track you, whether or not they’re on your local network.

Thanks etresoft.

The computer is managed. It is a work computer.

No VPN in use, but we do have EDR/AV implemented.

Because the security apps are centrally managed and deployed it's non-trivial to simply disable them. And if I need to disable our corporate security measures to accommodate this OS version that will be a problem.

If this does turn out to be a problem between the security apps and the OS I fully expect Apple and the other vendors will work it out quickly.

In the meantime I'll be at my desk testing things. :-)

And if I learn anything I'll update this thread.

Thanks.

NoahsMyBro wrote:

The computer is managed. It is a work computer.

Then your IT staff should have figured this out a couple of months ago or blocked you from doing the upgrade.

Unfortunately, managed computers often have custom configurations and software. There is no way that we can help over a user-to-user tech support forum like this. There is just too much about your system that isn't standard and we can't reproduce.

Seeing similar behavior here, no little snitch installed. Tried setting the MAC rotation to both off and fixed, neither worked reliably, it just seemed to change the frequency of disconnect which honestly could have been confirmation bias. ZScaler is installed as a VPN, disabling it and rebooting has no effect. Problem is affecting local and internet destinations similarly, all Windows and Linux machines in the house are working just fine. Wireshark trace on the macbook showing significant number of retransmissions, unexpected frames with no predecessor, resets, etc. as would be expected if the MAC address was still trying to change.

Hi, I have an desktop iMac M1 with 8 GM memory and I am having the same issues. I just went into my network settings and adjusted the private wi-fi settings from "fixed" to "rotating" and I tried Zoom again this morning and its still slow but I didnt get the "unstable internet connection" error...yet. Here's hoping! I use zoom everyday all day for work and I dunno what to do, other than switching to my macbook pro laptop, until Apple fixes this. I dont really understand the comments about the "little snitch" in the VPN...what is that? I am really struggling with this as I am not a computer person so I am a bit tech illiterate.

Pray for me....I may end up sending this iMac to the moon, Alice! But seriously...if anyone comes up with a fix, please let me know!

I got the same problem here.

I did remove Adguard, Adguard VPN, turn off private Wifi address, one thing that i can't that remove Check point VPN because I need this for my work and godam I wasted the whole day but can't connect to my VPN or connect but really slow and interruption sometime. This driving me crazy :). Apple could you please help?

And If I use 4G, hotspot from my mobile I feel its better.

As I noted in another thread, this is a widely reported bug in Sequoia (just google intermittent internet connection Sequoia). As stated, on that thread and here, turning off the built-in firewall usually works, it did on my 2019 intel imac and 2023 mac M2 studio. If you have a managed mac and cannot turn of firewall no good options that I know of. Interestingly, the packet filter (PF) firewall app MURUS works just fine on both my computer's but not the built-in firewall setting when enabled. Curious since Murus is just a GUI app for macOS built-in PF firewall.

pest1 wrote:

Interestingly, the packet filter (PF) firewall app MURUS works just fine on both my computer's but not the built-in firewall setting when enabled. Curious since Murus is just a GUI app for macOS built-in PF firewall.

The packet filter is a low-level networking system. The application firewall that is causing so much trouble is actually a different system. People who have investigated it in the past say that it seems to be implemented using pf underneath.

I had same identical problem. I turned off firewall and Safari came back up. Once it looked like things were stable i restarted firewall. I'm hoping I keep on. Went and ordered adapter to direct connect to my router - maybe I should've waited :). Anyway hope this helps. i used Private = rotating and Limit IP address tracking. i know a lot of folks are using VPN and i'm not so not sure if this will fix that problem.

For me it's even worse: the whole network stack randomly stops working at all. Independent of WiFi or wired. My last third party app is Defender, but it's not a workaround to disable the AV solution. Already a nightmare that the FW is disabled

I have this problem too. I installed MacOS Sequoia from Monterey, and the disconnection occurred on my wifi, then came back again after more than 30 secs. I notice it because I'm playing games with my friends. If there's no fix, I'll probably downgrade back to Monterey.

Same here and the latest OS update did not resolve the issue

Ever since I installed Tailscale... Now it is uninstalled

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=14 ttl=55 time=47.022 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=15 ttl=55 time=62.702 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=16 ttl=55 time=48.437 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=17 ttl=55 time=30.948 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=18 ttl=55 time=31.870 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=19 ttl=55 time=245.318 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=20 ttl=55 time=282.732 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=21 ttl=55 time=313.667 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=22 ttl=55 time=28.261 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=23 ttl=55 time=28.631 ms

64 bytes from 77.238.180.11: icmp_seq=24 ttl=55 time=29.847 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 25

Request timeout for icmp_seq 26

Request timeout for icmp_seq 27

Request timeout for icmp_seq 28

ping: sendto: No route to host

Request timeout for icmp_seq 29

ping: sendto: No route to host

Request timeout for icmp_seq 30

ping: sendto: No route to host

Request timeout for icmp_seq 31

ping: sendto: No route to host

Request timeout for icmp_seq 32

ping: sendto: No route to host

Macs Pain wrote:

"Anyone using Handbrake? Transcoding videos completely breaks the

internet connection now on that Mac, doesn’t matter if WiFi or wired…"

Looks like the 15.0.1 update fixed this for me. :)

15.0.1 makes it worse for very many people. Suggest avoiding this update. Turning off the firewall helps, assuming you have Little Snitch as well. Do not suggest running with absolutely no firewall.

After reading through all the thoughtful comments and trying every suggestion, my Zoom still sounds like I am in a barrel. It is sad and frustrating that Apple still hasn't fixed the issue. I called their senior support yesterday. The man was very nice, but everything he suggested I have tried.