MacBook Air Wi-Fi only connects for five minutes

1CM2 wrote:

I've been using my Macbook Air in the same location for years. All of a sudden it won't connect to my gateway - if I turn the wifi off and on again, it will connect for about five minutes. Any clues? My windows machine works fine

Shutdown the computer

Shutdown the Access Point and wait about 1 minute

Restart the Access Point and wait for the lights to be come solid

Start up the computer and test

Still have wifi dropping after 5 minutes ?

Part 1 of 2

Restart the computer in Safe Mode 

Do the issues persist ?

If not - there could be something in the main User Account playing up.

To further isolate this - Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac.

Then log out of the Main User account and log into the dummy account and test again if the issue persists.

If the issue is present in the dummy account - then, this appears to be a System Wide issue on the computer.

Part 2 of 2

To Drill Down further and to avoid a game of 20 questions  

Download the Application Etrecheck  ( External Link ) directly from the Developer.

The Application is Not a " Silver Bullet "  and is  only a tool to examine the Hardware / Software used on this computer 

This is a Diagnostic Tool that makes no changes to the computer Hardware / Software used on this computer 

The application is free or paid from added features. 

The Report will Not Reveal Any Personal Information. 

Post back the Full Report - Share Report >> Copy , then  paste  >>>> using the Additional Text Icon  <<<<

I got a similar problem... Could it be that you have a tool like Cisco Secure Client / Cisco Any Connect?

Because for me this was the problem because every about 5 mins it started to "crash" / disrupt my WIFI network...

So the only option for me was to completely uninstall it (and its deamon) and the problem was gone.

The trick then for me was to pack the auto-launch of it (after a clean reinstall) into a cage where I set the File Permission (chmod 000) so macOS can't read it. and when I need it I switch it and enable read. The bound this to terminal shortcuts and now I control when I need it and when not.

1CM2 wrote:

I've been using my Macbook Air in the same location for years. All of a sudden it won't connect to my gateway - if I turn the wifi off and on again, it will connect for about five minutes. Any clues? My windows machine works fine

Did you try shut down and restarting any associated modem/router/gateway including the MacbookAir...?

@leroydouglas I know... But as soon as I read the OP's problem, this immediately came to mind, since I had the exact same issue three weeks ago with my university's Wi-Fi and its VPN. If this situation doesn't apply to the OP, he or she can just ignore my input.

MasterSpam wrote:

@leroydouglas I know... But as soon as I read the OP's problem, this immediately came to mind, since I had the exact same issue three weeks ago with my university's Wi-Fi and its VPN. If this situation doesn't apply to the OP, he or she can just ignore my input.

Although your computer setup may not apply to OP's issue

It does not discount it from being a possibility

Thank you for taking the time to share

@MasterSpam—There was no mention by the OP of an enterprise-grade VPN and endpoint security software...(?)