Mac 10.6.5 not picking up 802.11n wireless network

I also am having this problem on a Macbook 3,1 after installing 10.6.5.

Signal strength on a Wireless N (with G/B compatibility) dropped to an unusable point. iChat continually threw me errors (despite my buddy saying my messages were getting through), streaming video would play about one second before needing to rebuffer (which took about five or ten minutes). Web sites would load about 5% and then stop.

I can set it to 5 GHz N mode and internet works as normal, but then my devices that can't to 5 GHz can't connect.

The only workaround I've found to be successful is to manually set the IP information for my preferred wireless network. So, avoiding the DHCP issue.

Too chicken to try the SMC reset.

I resolved my problem by downloading and installing the combo updater.

Claudio

I have now tried the 10.6.5 combo update, a manual IP address and the SMC reset. I have also tried restarting the router (again) and I tried Windows 7 again which is still reporting a full 130mbps. 😟

Same problem here.

I first installed the version with the autouptade and then tried to download and install the combo version to fix it but nothing. I've tried reseting the SMC, setting up manually the IP confing witout DHCP, Turning on and of the Airport and the router, Use the Disc Utillity wich, by the way, finds a lot of error in the Airport.app. The Airport apears like conected to my network and all of this, but I can't ping my router or my other computer in the newtork

In my router I can't change between b/g or n mode so this is the only idead I haven't tried :S

Message was edited by: Santigs

My older Macbook doesn't have 802.11n, so I have my Airport Extreme set to "802.11n (802.11b/g compatible)".

Lost connection to my Macbook after the 10.6.5 update, and found that changing Airport to "802.11n (802.11a compatible)" brought my connection back. Unfortunately that killed connection to my iPod Touch and likely to my Roku box as well, so I changed back to my original configuration above. Weirdly, this time the Macbook was able to connect -- at least for the last 15 minutes or so. We'll see if it holds.

So maybe try switching base station radio modes back and forth and see if that does anything?

Message was edited by: octothorpe

This isn't just a WiFi issue. Since the .5 update, when my iMac wakes from sleep, it looses its ethernet connection. If I switch to WiFi, it is OK.

Also, my Sharespace NAS which stayed connected also looses it's connection after a snooze... All connected via Airport Extreme. I have the iMac wired for speed in sharing photos to a PS3 (also wired).

At least one case a person solved these issues by repairing permissions. I think permissions can need repair after an OS upgrade. So no harm trying.

Repair Permissions:
* Open Disk Utility, located at /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility
* Select your startup disk on the left of the Disk Utility window
* Select First Aid from the tabs
* Click the "Repair Disk Permissions" button

My colleague had the same issues after upgrading to 10.6.5 so I repeated my procedure. And that's when it occurred to me I had done another thing in trying to resolve the matter: disable Back To My Mac.

Now I tried it on my laptop and the moment I enable Back To My Mac on a Wifi network. The whole computer starts clogging up again and I have to force a poweroff to get it under control again.

So the steps I took to (successfully) fix the issue were:
1. Disable Airport
2. Fix disk permissions
3. Disable Back To My Mac and log out of MobileMe
4. Install Combo updater
5. Reset SMC
6. Boot and enable Airport

It might be that not all steps are completely necessary, but it fixed things for me on two identical Macbook Pro's!

Hope this helps you too!

Strange. All seemed to work perfectly fine for me - still collected to my wireless n network on the 5GHz band.

I too can't get into my wireless-N-only router since the 10.6.5 upgrade, and I already use WPA. Seeing the range of fixes/workarounds that have worked for different folks, I wonder if there are some router-specific interactions? I use a Linksys/Cisco WRT320N with the manufacturer's firmware. Does anyone else who is having the 10.6.5 connection issue? If so, what solution worked for you?

This may not be relevant, but I experienced these problems SEVERAL WEEKS AGO, (before 10.6.5), across all THREE of my home machines: two Mac Book Pros, one iMac.

It took a lot of dickering around, and I'm not sure what caused the problem. In my case, I have AT&T DSL and a NetGear dual band router.

Whatever caused the problem -- I suspect some sort of security update from Apple -- one by one none of my machines would connect to my router.

I never found out definitively what the actual cause was, but it seemed as if I had to REBOOT the router AND the Mac -- for each machine when the problem surfaced. Once I did that, the problem never returned. But it was very, very odd -- and sounds a lot like some of the reports here.

Stephen

my 2010 13 inch mbp using wep 802.11n only suddenly would not connect after 10.6.5 upgrade. its exactly same error, "see administrator" tried changing encryption types tried everything. apple have somehow botched it up so osx cant connect at 802.11n speeds. setting router to mixxed mode g+n and it connects at g speeds.

very annoyed. tried resetting smc, tried ressetting pram.

I have 2 routers here, an At&t router running at G speeds and a linksys broadcasting N. I have no problem with G, but can't get my MacBook Pro to connect to the N router.

I have a mac mini running 10.6.4 and it is connected to the N network, no problem. In fact, it is the computer I'm using to connect to this forum. I am only able to connect to the network on my MacBook Pro by using the G router.

I've tried resetting all the routers and restarting the MacBook Pro. None of that has helped. I've also tried changing the password protocols on the N router from WPA Personal to WEP. That didn't help. I was able to connect to the N router if I removed security from it. It did take a long time for the MacBook Pro to log onto the N router even with no security. I would agree that it seems like something within the network security settings may be broken in the new update.

My iPhone on the G network works, and my Mini(10.6.4) on the N network works, and the MacBook Pro(10.6.5) will work on the G network but not the N.

So, seems like maybe the update has broken my N connection to the MacBook Pro. Strange. I hope that this gets fixed soon. I'm holding off updating the Mini until I hear some feedback.

I got some other weird issues too, non-functioning Function keys (Volume up/down, brightness) and crashing System Preferences. Did some Googling and found a possible relation to VMware fusion.

So I deinstalled VMware (I use Parallels most of the time anyway now..) and rebooted. Somehow the buttons started working again and I can even turn on Back To My Mac again without clogging up the system!

Maybe this helps some of you too..