10.6.5 and wifi issues

Thanks for your help Dr.

I can't get the uni play with any of their settings, but here is the log file you requested:

Nov 27 19:13:19 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::cachePurge: Firing!
Nov 27 19:13:19 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::cachePurge: Rescheduling in 25 seconds.
Nov 27 19:13:22 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:32:e2 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:22 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:32:e1 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:22 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:34:b2 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:23 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:34:b1 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:23 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:8e:62 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:23 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:8e:61 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:24 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:3f:71:42 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:24 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:3f:71:41 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:24 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:ac:01 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:25 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:87:e1 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:25 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:ac:02 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:25 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:87:e2 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:26 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:98:82 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:26 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:98:81 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:26 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:96:21 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:27 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:81:52 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:27 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:96:22 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:27 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:81:51 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:13:28 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:23:92 No Ack
Nov 27 19:13:44 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::cachePurge: Firing!
Nov 27 19:13:44 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::cachePurge: Rescheduling in 8 seconds.
Nov 27 19:13:52 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::cachePurge: Firing!
Nov 27 19:13:52 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::cachePurge: NOT Rescheduling.
Nov 27 19:30:56 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::startScan: Broadcast scan request received from pid 190 ().
Nov 27 19:30:56 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::startScan: Initiating scan.
Nov 27 19:30:57 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::getScanResult: All scan results returned for pid 190.
Nov 27 19:30:57 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::startScan: Broadcast scan request received from pid 190 ().
Nov 27 19:30:57 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::getScanResult: All scan results returned for pid 190.
Nov 27 19:31:02 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::scanDone: Scheduling cache purge timer in 30 seconds.
Nov 27 19:31:02 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:32:e1 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:02 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:8e:61 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:03 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:34:b1 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:03 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:3f:71:41 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:03 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:ac:01 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:04 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:87:e1 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:04 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:96:21 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:04 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:81:51 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:05 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:97:f1 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:05 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:43:93:b1 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:05 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:30:51 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:05 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:30:51 Unsolicited Auth
Nov 27 19:31:06 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:34:23:91 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:06 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:3f:71:21 MAC AUTH succeeded
Nov 27 19:31:06 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: Auth result for: 00:3a:98:3f:71:21 Unsolicited Auth
Nov 27 19:31:32 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::cachePurge: Firing!
Nov 27 19:31:32 dhcp-10-6-115-116 kernel[0]: IO80211ScanManager::cachePurge: NOT Rescheduling.

mikeyslaw - are you saying your university wifi has no security at all? Or it uses WEP and you cannot influence their selection of poor encryption? The U should really have some security.

Get new DHCP lease:
In the Network > Air Port > Advanced, click TCP/IP and the "Renew DHCP Lease".
In theory that forces the Mac to ask for a new IP address

Conflicting software: I listed Parallels and VMware VM Fusion before, also found this one listed:

Uninstall Peer Guardian completely.

And I suggest you do look hard at any utilities that might be conflicting.

Another tip is to create a new account on your mac. Log into this and set up the wifi. This should start you with a clean slate of preferences and possibly skip any login items.

sean-o-mac

I am going to list the things we have seen working to solve the problems. You did not detail which you might have already tried. These are probably easier than reverting so worth trying. Sorry if some of them you have addressed, just faster for me to copy and paste from my list of tips. In particular I would advise you to go in and either delete/ re-install your Airport Network (to clear out everything) or edit your current location and remove the London network from your past networks list in the Advanced button for Airport (see below for details on how to get at these).

Change security to WPA or WPA2, I have confirmation that changing to WPA solved problem on a G protocol router of not finding wifi and not finding wifi after waking. Additionally the wireless N and WEP are not allowed in the IEEE spec so any router or OS update 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.

Changing or modifying your networking “location”.

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

Editing your current location in Network Preferances;
Another approach is to edit your current location (usually named Automatic) by deleting the wifi service and re-installing.
open "System Preferences", select "Network"
This is done with the little gear symbol at the bottom of the list of services in the left pane of Network Preferences. You may have to unlock this list before you can change.
Select the Airport service and click on the minus button.
Then click on the + button to re-add this to the Network.

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

Some advanced networking settings to change/check when you are in the Network Preferences after editing or changing locations:

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 but just edited your 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.

sean-o-mac

I also found this comment about Keychain losing your password causing this issue. And we have had other posters say if they change the password on their router (and again on their computer) solving problems.

Quoted from another post;

I deleted the airport password from my keychain, which must have been corrupted. Then when I joined the network I was asked for my password, which I entered thus creating a new keychain entry.

The reason that this problem is so hard to deal with is that you seem to have joined the network, despite the fact that your password in reality is no longer working. Put a different way, the network signal strength and everything looks good, its just that your are not really connected to it because your keychain password is no longer working. You need to delete all memory of the old password from your system and join again.

ctmurray - It is an open connection for all to connect to. Once you try to surf the web - an authentication page comes up. You must log in - if you dont you cannot access anything on the internet - no msn, outlook, skype - nothing.

Therefore with no WEP/WPA/WPA2 key - i assumed I would be able to connect. But cannot.

I will try the new user account.

I am connected wired right now and its fine.

Details on how to delete keychain listing for your password:

Fix Keychain password – if you see exclaimation symbol on your wifi connection in the Airport icon. On your hard disk Applications → Utilities ---> Keychain. Select your airport keychain and delete this. Then select your wifi from the airport icon in the menu bar and provide your password. Alternatively you can change your wifi password on the router and then log-in from your Mac with the new password. Solves a problem of the keychain corruption of your original password.

On my 2006 MBP 17" none of the above fixed it. However, running a few days on ethernet cable, installing Safari 5.0.3 and a few reboots got me up and working for a two days, untill I had a multi gigabyte tranfer coming in today.

Wifi started to drop again. Rebooting didn't solve it. I guess Apple doesn't even know where to start looking...

This is the spookiest problem I've had, and yes it is related to 10.6.5. Never had a wifi issue before, and certainly never with so many users at the same time. Plus those with a permanent fix on here are those who rolled back to 10.6.4, which is exactly what I'm going to do, after which I'm turning software update permanently off.

mikeyslaw wrote:
ctmurray - It is an open connection for all to connect to. Once you try to surf the web - an authentication page comes up. You must log in - if you dont you cannot access anything on the internet - no msn, outlook, skype - nothing.

Therefore with no WEP/WPA/WPA2 key - i assumed I would be able to connect. But cannot.

I will try the new user account.

I am connected wired right now and its fine.

Sounds like a hotel wifi connection, so be sure you understand your connection is open to all for eavesdropping.

Glad you can use the ethernet, this is safer in this environment by far.

If you ever get this working there is a work around for these unsecured networks. See this article on Lifehacker;

http://lifehacker.com/205090/geek-to-live--set-up-a-personal-home-ssh-server

Thanks for the reply, have copied your reply below and made notes to indicate what I have tried and what I haven't:

+Change security to WPA or WPA2, I have confirmation that changing to WPA solved problem on a G protocol router of not finding wifi and not finding wifi after waking. Additionally the wireless N and WEP are not allowed in the IEEE spec so any router or OS update strictly following the spec will have issues. WEP is being eliminated as a security protocol entirely due to the ease of cracking.+

This isn't possible in most situations where the user has no access to public routers, so in as much as its a good thing to try at home its not practical help unfortunately. I was able to check and the router I am accessing isn't WEP, but it is WPA.

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

No Parallels or VM on my computer, I have avoided anything which involves running PC software on my laptop (so far).

+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+

Tried this, no change.

+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.+

+Changing or modifying your networking “location”.+

+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+

+Editing your current location in Network Preferances;+
+Another approach is to edit your current location (usually named Automatic) by deleting the wifi service and re-installing.+
+open "System Preferences", select "Network"+
+This is done with the little gear symbol at the bottom of the list of services in the left pane of Network Preferences. You may have to unlock this list before you can change.+
+Select the Airport service and click on the minus button.+
+Then click on the + button to re-add this to the Network.+

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

+Some advanced networking settings to change/check when you are in the Network Preferences after editing or changing locations:+

+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 but just edited your 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.+

Also tried ALL of this, no difference. Also tried a very similar list of prefs deletions/reconfig in another post on this thread but with no result.

Julez-Edward wrote:
On my 2006 MBP 17" none of the above fixed it. However, running a few days on ethernet cable, installing Safari 5.0.3 and a few reboots got me up and working for a two days, untill I had a multi gigabyte tranfer coming in today.

Wifi started to drop again. Rebooting didn't solve it. I guess Apple doesn't even know where to start looking...

This is the spookiest problem I've had, and yes it is related to 10.6.5. Never had a wifi issue before, and certainly never with so many users at the same time. Plus those with a permanent fix on here are those who rolled back to 10.6.4, which is exactly what I'm going to do, after which I'm turning software update permanently off.

Several people have had permanent fixes by following the long list of things to try. No one thing works for all and I apologize if you have already tried these and posted they don't work.

These are the ones that have helped people most recently (they confirmed these changes solved the problems for them):

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

Editing your current location in Network Preferances;
Another approach is to edit your current location (usually named Automatic) by deleting the wifi service and re-installing (no reboot in between)
open "System Preferences", select "Network"
This is done with the little gear symbol at the bottom of the list of services in the left pane of Network Preferences. You may have to unlock this list before you can change.
Select the Airport service and click on the minus button.
Then click on the + button to re-add this to the Network.

Then reset your router and log back in.

Check for out of date software that might be conflicting. So far I have found the following software conflicted with 10.6.5. There probably are several applications that conflict so another suggestion is to set up a new account on the Mac and start fresh, this gives you a new set of preferences and avoids some start up items (installed by conflicting software?).

- Peer Guardian
- Parallels (needed to upgrade to new release)
- VM ware Fusion (also needed to upgrade)

Be sure you are using WPA or WPA2 security even for wireless G protocol.

Deleting the wifi keychain password OR giving your router a new password. Gets around any corruption of the keychain. Usually these people have seen an exclamation point on their router when viewed on the airport icon.

OK, will try this.

The only thing that seems a bit odd is that I never had a password added to my keychain for the wifi in the LHR Airline Lounge so there should not be a corrupted file to interfere with access in the first place. That said, the things tried (permissions fixed, prefs files deleted, etc.) weren't done when I tried on their network so its worth a shot.

Will reply back when I have a chance to try this out. I am off to try to replicate this issue using someone else's network first.

thx

sean-o-mac

Did you get a chance to try the keychain password deletion? That was one new thing I just posted that I found dealt with the exclamation point? (I found in other posts).

I would still like to know why my WIFI suddenly stopped connecting after 2.5 years of using this network?!

Difference between Hotel and University - is that only members of the faculty and students can open websites. You cannot view other users terminals unless you are specifically authorized to do so on the respective router.

Any ideas Apple!?

Message was edited by: mikeyslaw

It does not sound like you have a wireless issue. From your description, the wireless connection is established, hence you are getting solid bars. The exclamation mark, is telling you that your Mac is getting a self assigned IP address (meaning, something is happening with DHCP).

I can prove it to you with a tcpdump trace of the problem.

1. Recreated the problem where you are getting the exclamation mark in your AME icon.
2. Open a terminal
3. Do sudo tcpdump -i en1 -s0 -v port 67 or port 68 (please note I assume you are NOT using a MBAir, if you are then please replace en1 with en0).
4. Leave the terminal running
5. Go to System Preferences - Network - AirPort - Advanced -TCP/IP and hit renew IP Address
6. Wait a minute or two and see if the problem persists (most likely it will)
7. Hit ctrl-c in the terminal window and paste output to this forum. It will be easy to see what the Mac thinks it is getting for DHCP with this tcpdump trace.

Message was edited by: DrVenture

Most likely what you University uses is Open + No Encryption with an AD or OD backend that also creates MAC authentication. Meaning, you join the open network and you get presented a web portal. You then log in with credentials that authenticate to an AD or OD. If your log in is successful, then a MAC authentication entry is created for your laptop, thus letting you on the network and granting you access to certain areas of the network.