10.6.5 and wifi issues

humorously, after installing the Safari 5.0.3, wifi seems to work again.

I'm sure it wasn't one of the solutions posted here because I simply have no rights to switch the router channel or upgrade the firmware.

This must be Apple's silent fix. It somehow explains why this thread all of a sudden died too.

Glad it's over. Too bad they failed to communicate with their customers once again.

As a result of some emails with Ken at Apple I changed my security settings on my wifi router (i.e. changed WEP to WPA and also changed SSID from hidden to not hidden) and my MBA has connecting to the wifi normally.

Lots of thanks to Ken and I guess the lesson is to make sure wifi settings and router software are up-to-date.

Is there any logical reason (i.e. are there drivers in the Safari package?) to assume Julez-Edward's statement that Safari fixed the bug is true?

Mine still isn't working. I did the trick with the SystemConfig folder, deleted all network adapters, updated all mac software. still same problem. Connection Timeout.

Im on a university network. It was all fine, until I rebooted the system.

I guess his problem was with his Safari installation and not with wifi. Most probably a corrupted plist or cache file.

Any advice then?!

Well if u got the problem that ff works but not Safari similar to mentioned earlier. Im confident Safari upadet wont have any quiet update to networking stuff. If network works in some apps but not others there is an other problem. Either corrupted files somewhere, Safari app, plist files. But also cache files.

You could try flush all cache files user and System cache files and then reboot. After that you need to find what has become corrupted if cache flushing didn't work.

Message was edited by: JuanSkom

Yesterday - everything worked fine! I was browsing the net and all.

I havent rebooted my mac for a while, so decided to reboot it.

I couldnt connect through the airport to the same university wireless network I am always on. It keeps saying connection timed out. I went to IT services, and no updates have been done on their end and my account is active without any blocks.

I did the Mac Software update today incase it was something there - still no fix.

I removed the airport under network config, and readded it.

I deleted everything from Macintosh HD\Library\Preferences\SystemConfig and hasnt helped.

I need my wireless - any suggestions?

My standard first advice - you have tried some of them, but look this over and see if there is anything you missed. My favorite these days is the repairing of permissions, I have a confirmed "yet this worked".

Starting with the easiest:

If you are using WEP security change to WPA. Wireless N and WEP are not allowed in the IEEE spec so any router strictly following the spec will have issues. WEP is being eliminated as a security protocol entirely due to the ease of cracking.

Old versions of Parallels and VM Fusion or VMware caused wifi issues.

I actually fixed someone's problems with this tip.
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

Other suggestions;

Remove plists to reset the wireless system (Apple will have you do this first anyway if you call for help)
Go to Macintosh HD -> Library -> Preferences -> SystemConfiguration ->
Delete the following Plists:
com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
com.apple.nat.plist
come.apple.network.identification.plist
com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
Networkinterfaces.plist

(you can drag them out of that folder onto the desktop to keep them if you wish to re-use them). They get re-created when you connect again. You might have to then go into the Network System Prefs mentioned below and set up your location and wifi access.

New Location in Network Preferences
open "System Preferences"
select "Network"
click on "Location" drop-down menu
select "edit locations"
create a new one (name it whatever you like, e.g. "10.6" or so
obviously select Airport to the left (and remove everything else you don't need)
select the network in the "Network Name" drop-down menu to the right
hit "apply" on the lower right corner

Another approach is to edit your current location (usually named Automatic) by deleting the wifi service and re-installing. This is done with the little gear symbol at the bottom of the list of services on this same Network Preferences. You may have to unlock this list before you can change.

Reset your router for either the new location or editing the current location.

In the same Network Preferences, highlight the airport icon and click on Advanced button. On the TCP/IP tab disable Iv6 support.

If you did not create a new location, then on the Airport Tab you have a list of preferred networks, you can delete them all and add back the one you use most of the time so it is on the too.

If any one of these work please reply back so I can keep score.

JUST FOR INFORMATION as to where the wireless problem lies.

I installed 10.6.5 on my Early (2006) MBP and it broke the Wireless connectivity.

So I erase/ installed from a backup to 10.6.2.

Wireless is now solid again and works beautifully.

Last night I saw an Airport update (Airport Base Station update 5.5.1. As it was only 12Mb I thought I'd give it a go.

Guess what?-No Wireless AGAIN ! BROKEN.

So thanks Apple for nothing.

Just to underline ctmurray's point that

"If you are using WEP security change to WPA. Wireless N and WEP are not allowed in the IEEE spec so any router strictly following the spec will have issues. WEP is being eliminated as a security protocol entirely due to the ease of cracking."

I use Wireless G and changing WEP to WPA solved my wifi connectivity problems.

ctmurray,

Thanks for your reply.

I have done all of those steps besides changing the WEP security - that is because I am on a university network and are unable to change it. It has no security when you connect, then an authorization page is to pop up which you enter your details into. However, I cannot even connect to any of the two open network since the Connection Timeout issue persists.

The AirPort update looks like it was just for the AirPort utility, did it update your base station firmware?

So when you post, "JUST FOR INFORMATION as to where the wireless problem lies." Does that you mean you have diagnosed exactly where the problem lies? Or are you just making a generalization that somehow the 10.6.5 update affects your wireless performance?

What are the wireless problems? Disconnects? Low throughput? Gravity reversing?

What wireless security type are you using? What wireless channel are you on? Can your Mac see other wireless networks (you can check your System Profiler - AirPort to see the channels) on overlapping 2.4GHz channels?

If you want help, you have to supply a little more information than just, my wireless is Broken, thanks Apple.

Message was edited by: DrVenture

Interesting..

Try going into System Preferences - Network - Advanced - AirPort and deleting the preferred network for you University. Hit apply and ok. Then choose your University's wireless network from the scan list and see if it can join.

Does your University use Cisco access points? If so, you might be able to ask them to run a trace using your AirPort Mac address on their Cisco controller (that is of course if they are using lwap or capwap APs and not autonomous ones). The cisco command would look like this:

debug client XX.XX.XX.XX.XX.XX (where the X's = your AirPort's Mac address)

On the Mac itself you could turn on airport debugging and post what you see in your kernel log here.

1. Open a terminal
2. do sudo /usr/libexec/airportd debug +alluserland +alldriver +allvendor
3. note the time on your Mac
4. re create the problem a couple of times
5. post what you get in the kernel.log (in /var/log/) here making sure you post about a minute before the problem was recreated and a minute after.
6. to turn off debugging do (in terminal) sudo /usr/libexec/airportd debug -alluserland -alldriver -allvendor

Lets start with this and see where it goes.

I have the same problem, late 2008 MBP, everything rock solid until last update; tried connecting at the airport lounge in London, got online briefly then nothing afterwards (don't know the connection type of course), then tried to get online wirelessly - ethernet working fine so far - at the place I am staying (WPA2 connection type) with no joy at all.

Have tried the couple of the detailed fixit methods listed in this post, none of which have worked. All I get is the exclamation mark on the airport icon in the menu bar.

One thing to note is that it shows that there is a signal from the router and that its full bars. It also clearly 'sees' the router and lists its name in my networks, I just get the message that no internet connection can be made. I am using the same router to send this post using ethernet so clearly my mac has no particular issues with this router or the connection its making to the worldwideweb...

1 - any more ideas?
2 - is there any easy way to revert back to 10.6.4 without going back to the DVD and installing from scratch?

I must say this is too bad, this is the first and only time I have had any issues with updates or this particular MBP. Lets hope this is temporary.