10.6.5 and wifi issues

It appears to be a sending issue somehow and not a receiving issue. Once you get an HTTP request sent, you need to be lucky to get it through. But once that's done, you can download a huge chunk of data without a problem. This is very problematic for realitme back and forth transmissions like skype or torrenting. Just browsing sometimes lasts for 10 minutes. Idling can go on for hours. Skype usually drops within a few seconds.

But of course all that doesn't bring us any closer to a real solution...

//on rant
Can we please stop pretending this is somehow NOT Apple's fault and wake up Al Gore to let him tell Jobs this is important? It's not (yet) forbidden to say that the once so perfectionist company is letting it slip a little. And it's cool as long Apple don't take weeks to admit their flaws and months before they fix them.

Commenting on the people stating that Apple is enforcing certain standards, that weren't applied before: same thing with the whole Flash/HTML 5 issue: don't use your customer-base as political leverage.

This is day 8 working on a wired laptop and it's starting to become annoying that The Beatles and a Safari 5.0.3 update are more important to Apple than this.

I agree with the general tone that Apple is going backwards in terms of testing their own gear. Same WiFi issues seem to appear in Golden Master of iOS 4.2?

//off rant

I just checked my other computer, but I don't have the old plist files for either. I can see how that might have been useful for someone who can read them. Sorry I cannot help with that. Meanwhile, both machines are back in order.

What steps have you taken to actually try to diagnose the problem? If you are so passionate about this issue, why not call AppleCare? Or, why not join ADC (its free) and file a bug with your specific wireless issue?

Thinking that Apple can test every piece of 3rd party wireless hardware, or in every environment is unrealistic.

As for your thoughts on standards, comparing flash to IEEE standards are not even in the same ball park. IEEE standards exist for a reason. If everyone would follow the standards, there would be far fewer compatibility issues out there.

If you are actually looking for help for your issue, then let's start by looking at your setup and go from there.

1. Give us a detail description of the problem you are seeing. Just saying wireless is broken does not help. Are you losing your wireless connection (AME losing all of its bars)? Is your connection solid, but you cannot get out to the Internet? etc. There are ton of tools that come built into the Mac that can be used to diagnose various connection problems.
2. What kind of access point are you using? Make, Model, Rev Number, Firmware.
3. Does you access point have the latest firmware?
4. What wireless security are you using?
5. What Frequency are you on? Have you tried changing frequencies? Does your AP support 5GHz? If so, have you tried 5GHz?
6. Have you looked at your scan list to make sure you are not using a channel that overlaps with neighbors? (Look in System Profiler, AirPort.)

Darn that *****.

For anyone else having issues, before you trash your PLIST files, back them up to your desktop. Then try the PLIST removal. If this solves the issue, then you can post the PLISTs (old and new) and we can do a diff on them.

You could also take both sets of PLISTs (again if trashing them corrected your wifi issue) and file a bug via ADC. I would include your system profiler in the bug as well. If there is a problem with the 10.6.5 affecting AirPort PLISTs with the upgrade, then this is our best avenue of getting the problem corrected.

MacBook having exact same issues with wireless range after install of 10.6.5.

Followed directions in this thread - reset SMC and redownloaded the combo updater with no improved results. Thinking it's time to reinstall 10.6 and upgrade to 10.4.

The reduced wireless range is killing me! I have to be sitting right next to (or under) the WAP to get a signal...UGH!

The prevailing solution has been to restrict DMA accesses to the first 1GB of addresses, as the Broadcom440x driver has problems with DMA mapping after 1024 (as reported elsewhere).

Add a Kernel Flag to your com.apple.Boot.plist in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration:
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>max valid_dmaaddr=1024</string>

P.S. I don't take credit for this fix.
MAJ

Does anyone know how to identify a Broadcom card? My system profile for WiFi shows an Airport Extreme (0x168c, 0x86)
with firmware Atheros 5424 2.0.19.10

Thank you satcomer, this 'non-geek' 8 step method worked perfectly.

Resetting the SMC and/or the PRAM of the Mac is kinda like slaughtering a chicken in hopes of a cure. Let's see if we can understand what is going on:

1. About how far away can you get from your AP before you loose connection? When you are really close to the AP, use the option+click on the AME and see report what your signal strength is and your data rate.
2. What kind of access point are you using? Make, Model, Rev Number, Firmware.
3. Does you access point have the latest firmware?
4. What wireless security are you using?
5. What Frequency are you on? Have you tried changing frequencies? Does your AP support 5GHz? If so, have you tried 5GHz?
6. Have you looked at your scan list to make sure you are not using a channel that overlaps with neighbors? (Look in System Profiler, AirPort.)

Where did you find this type of solution? Why would restricting the Direct Memory Access of the BRCM driver to 0-1024 really help? If there are over runs, Mallocs, or something else to prove this, I would like to see the kernel log from the affected Mac.

I would caution anyone from trying this, before we fully understand the theory and the empirical evidence to support it.

You have a BRCM based card. All cards denoted as "Extreme" are BRCM based. If it was an Atheros card, it would say Atheros.

Checking in with a MBP and an iMac both upgraded to 10.6.5, both having WIFI problems where the WIFI signal is completely lost at random times and a reboot is necessary in order to connect to my WIFI network again.

Checking in to say your "Me Too" post does not help anyone here in the discussion forum or Apple even attempt to help solve your wireless issue.

1. What distance are you from your Access Point? If you option+click the AME, what is the Signal Strength and Data Rate shown?
2. What kind of access point are you using? Make, Model, Rev Number, Firmware.
3. Does you access point have the latest firmware?
4. What wireless security are you using?
5. What Frequency are you on? Have you tried changing frequencies? Does your AP support 5GHz? If so, have you tried 5GHz?
6. Have you looked at your scan list to make sure you are not using a channel that overlaps with neighbors? (Look in System Profiler, AirPort.)

1. I'm usually using my MBP while in my family room where my router is located, 13 ft away from where I sit. My iMac is approximately 20 ft away from the wirless router. Signal strength on both computers is 5 bars.
2. I'm using a Netgear Wireless-N VPN Wireless Router Model# SRXN3205
3. No, but I've been using this router for the last year and a half with zero problems up until I installed 10.6.5 on both machines. And upgrading the firmware could introduce other problems on the hardware side.
4. WPA2 Personal
5. I'm running dual band, both G and N 2.4Ghz Again, I've been using this router for a long time, no problems, no conflicts until I installed 10.6.5
6. Refer to all my other statements about running the same hardware for an extended period of time. Both of our iPhones connect and have no problems staying connected to my WIFI signal from further distances. Only my MBP and iMac are having issues.

Sly,
I noticed your router is draft2.0 11n compatible. It is possible that some fix that went into 10.6.5 resulted in a better support of the standard ( 11n which is ratified now) and hence you are seeing these issues.
Here's a quick test. Downgrade to 11g instead of 11n on your wireless network's and check if you still see the issue. I suspect that you won't see this issue with plain 11g.
You might just have to upgrade to a 11n ratified ( WiFi Certified) router if 11g/11a works but 11n does not.