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10.6.5 and wifi issues

Since I upgraded to 10.6.5, my MacBook Pro (Early 2006) cannot connect to my USR9110 (802.11 g) access point.
From 10.6 on, there's been always troubles when resuming after sleep, but now even at startup the connection goes timeout.

All other devices (an iPhone,an iPad and a MacBook Pro (Late 2006) with 10.5) work perfectly.

I tried rebooting, changing the wifi channel, updating the access point firmware, turning on and off airport, resetting the SMC, switching to WEP, switching to WPA, switching to unencrypted. Nothing changes, connection timeout.

MacBook Pro 1,1, Mac OS X (10.6.5), early 2006

Posted on Nov 11, 2010 5:53 AM

496 replies

jramos03

Level 1

0 points

Apr 7, 2011 4:16 AM in response to Nonstopdrivel

I solved my problem by disabling the security of my router. Not WEP nor WAP I set it to "disabled". I also changed the channel from 6 to 10. Try it. We're using the same airport card.

Apr 7, 2011 5:40 AM in response to satcomer

Thanks for the tip, but it looks like it won't be necessary. Today I took my laptop to the university IT representative here, and she said her Mac has the exact same problem. She advised me to try connecting to a parallel wireless network operated by the university, one that doesn't use the Cisco VPN Client but rather requires the entering of one's credentials, and that works perfectly.

Oddly, too, I noticed last night that my wireless is working almost flawlessly at home. The only glitch I noticed was that Gmail chat failed tell me when I had been booted, so I never realized I was offline. Other than that, speed is good and the connection is for the most part stable. I haven't had to disable and reenable Airport once. My range is also vastly improved over the previous night. I was able to stream a movie (albeit in low quality) in my living room instead of being confined to my dining area.

I haven't changed a thing, yet it is working well now. It makes no sense. But I figure I should do the right thing and not just complain when it goes wrong, but also point out when it goes well.

Apr 27, 2011 7:28 PM in response to matteocaldari

What a joke. I tried to get the family to convert to mac. My first real hardware, a used 2007 MacBook is now near useless since Nov 2010.

I have had an apple Dev contact me directly in November. He totally dropped the ball. Asked for all kinds of info. I sent it to him. Waited, waited, then contacted again. He said the info did not transmit in the email. I posted it on my server, emailed it again. Now he wont even respond to my emails.

Four months in the making and I have no help. I did not realize Mac OS X was still in Beta. ***

Thanks Suresh, for NOTHING!

anyone want to buy a macbook? It has a really good ethernet connection!

Apr 27, 2011 8:47 PM in response to volkswagner

There is no use flying off the handle; what are the router specifications in terms of encryption used, channel set up, whether there are any neighbouring networks, what brand is the router etc.

Apr 28, 2011 4:33 AM in response to KawaiGardiner

Other than flying off the handle the only thing I can do is hack my system to roll back the firmware. When an Apple dev contacts me to help, I'd expect some help.... not for him to drop the ball several times in four months... all while making excuses.

As for my router hardware I have one Asus

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833320023&cm_re=asus_route r-_-33-320-023-_-Product

running DD-WRT v24-sp2 (10/10/09) mini with WEP 64 on channel 8.

I have a second access point, Linksys WRT54g with no encryption on channel 2 with different essid, also running :DD-WRT v24 (05/24/08) micro

Some WiFi devices (ya know some cheap netbooks or 8 year old Dell laptops 😉) can see neighboring signals but very week .

The macbook only sees my two, of course only for a few short moments at a time without resetting the hardware airport on/off.

I have tried various things on my network, all suggested by folks unwilling to admit it is a firmware issue, such as turning off my secondary network, changing essid and channel.... none of which had any impact on performance.

Don't you think at over four hundred posts in this one thread, there may actually be an issue with the Mac OS X update after 10.6.4? Mac OS X is not immune to errors. Windows and Linux both have had updated break things why not Apple?

Apr 28, 2011 6:21 AM in response to matteocaldari

Thank you tenortim!

I now have a working Macbook airport. I downgraded the kext and I can surf without wires!

Welcome to 2011 volkswagner!

If only Appple could come up with a fix. Hopefully folks will stop blaming other hardware and realize this is not a coincidence of failures. This is an update that breaks wireless for those running Atheros 5416.

Come on Apple Get real!

jacf01

Level 1

0 points

Apr 28, 2011 9:31 PM in response to tenortim

I'm using Broadcom routers and reverting to the previous version of the driver as suggested by tenortim improved the connectivity on my MBP 2,2. Awesome.

May 5, 2011 6:02 AM in response to matteocaldari

Well I have not totally given up on apple yet.

I got a second macbook, same(similar) to the unit I already had.

I suspect there is an issue with the upgrade process, or some odd stored data for wireless profiles. Perhaps apple fixed the issue?

I did a fresh install of 10.6.0. I then updated directly to 10.6.7. I did this all withou using wireless. I chose to use alternate config after initial install (wired LAN). The install and upgrade went without a hitch. My wireless seems stable and with good strengh/speed.

Running Atheros 5416 firmware 2.1.14.5

May 6, 2011 8:42 PM in response to volkswagner

For me, I discovered it was the router channel i was using. Here's what happened and how i fixed it:

I was advised to change the channels my wireless router uses to avoid interference. The router was on channel 1 and i moved it to channel 13. Macbook Air worked fine on 1 and not on 13. I didn't know it was a channel problem and tried all similar solutions above and nothing worked. I also had a PC i was using at the same time and was testing this simultaneously on the PC so I knew it was uniquely a Mac problem.

Then when checking details on my Airport configuration, I noticed it supports channels 1 through 11 and then a bunch of higher chanels. I switched my router channel to 11 and now it works.

So you may want to go into your router configuration. Buried in there is some option to change your chanels. You might have to uncheck "enable auto channel scan" or something similar. Reassign a new channel - something from 1 to 11. See if that works for you.

May 7, 2011 8:32 AM in response to matteocaldari

Since I had good luck with second macbook, I figured why not give update 10.6.7 a chance on my macbook which I reverted firmware on.

Well,,,, update to 10.6.7 using firmware from 10.6.4 broke wireless. First reboot after update got apple grey screen of death. Hard reboot now results "no airport installed".

Looks like I'll be wiping out my SL install and starting fresh as I did with second macbook. use wired lan connection and upgrade directly to 10.6.7 before even enabeling wireless.

😟

May 30, 2011 2:29 PM in response to foodtrekker

disabeling Auto-Channel was no garant for the bug to vanish .. what an ugly bug - really eats my brains :-o

Jun 8, 2011 10:33 AM in response to Matt4mac

I hope this is a universal fact, but, as a developer, I'm on 10.7 DP4 and the chip firmware has been updated from the dreaded, ill-fated 10.6.5 version and...

... say it very quietly...

... it's working for me!

And this from someone who downgraded the kext to the 10.6.4 version as I was going quietly insane.

The only caveat I would make is that I can only vouch for the Broadcom chipset as I currently have, in the all new and exciting "System Report":

Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.11)

Fingers crossed for everyone else.

Jun 24, 2011 4:58 PM in response to Beth Shoshan

Is anyone having the same issue with the 10.6.8 update? To recap, I have an Atheros 5416. I originally had wireless working flawlessly on my 10.6.4 (atheros firmware 2.0.19.10). After upgrading to 10.6.5 (atheros firmware 2.1.14.5), wireless broke. However, after downgrading the kext file to 2.0.19.10 using tenortims guide, it worked fine again. For ever upgrade since (10.65, 10.6.6, 10.6.7 and the latest, 10.6.8) I have had to downgrade the wireless cards firmware to 2.0.19.10.

Unfortunately, this fix does not seem to work anymore with 10.6.8. I still get weak signal strength and dropping wireless connections. Does anybody know a solution?

Thanks!

Jul 12, 2011 12:24 AM in response to matteocaldari

Oh no. I was so happy to find this thread, I had been searching without any luck for weeks. Finally I came across the beautiful fix to revert back to the old firmware, got it to go and....no change. But now I'm worried no one else will post anything on this issue, since quite some time has passed!

Anyway, please, now that we have gotten up to 10.6.8, has anyone found success? I'm hoping that reverting to 10.6.7 while keeping a firmware version from 10.6.4 isn't the only option. What else are we missing?

Is there a compatible (generic?) firmware that could be used? I want to get this thread opened back up, let's get this thing sorted out!

-JB

Jul 12, 2011 4:03 AM in response to dabellator

Well I have two MacBooks with the Atheros chip. One is happy running 10.6.7 with firmware Atheros 5416: 2.1.14.5, while the second refuses to use the newer firmware. I used the same procedure to install SL. There must be different revisions of the card. Both cards are identified by "Airport Extream (0x168C, 0x87). I have not taken the unit apart to see if there are revision numbers on the card.

Since It is not difficutl to install the older Kext, that is what I have done. I'll keep a local copy of the instructions and file. don't expect Apple to help.

One thing I do notice when checking the profile. The unit running the newer hardware shows other (Neighboring) wireless networks after the network it is connected to, while the unit with older firmware only listes the connected network in profiler.

10.6.5 and wifi issues