WiFi Issues With MacBook Air

I got the 2011 11" MBA a few days ago and had similar problems. My Sony Vaio Z series was right next to the MBA and the wifi speed was normal on the Sony but slow on the MBA. I tried a few fixes from the above but nothing. I was suspecting that my old D-Link router might be the problem so I went out and got a Time Capsule and after installing it, everything works great now. Both systems have the same speed according to DSL speed tests. Thankfully it worked or I would have return everything and left the Mac world as this is my first Mac laptop.

the real issue is in the LAP part of "LAPTOP"

I've been reading this very long post and replies.

we all agree that if Jobs would have ever had a chance to speak to someone in the "Genius Bar" would have told them they're "****", we know he would have used that exact word.

these people are no geniuses, and there's no way they can fix any issue unless you're an overly ******** user who can't turn a mac on pushing the "on" button.

installing windows (still laughing at that) is no option for me, as it would really require too much effort to be able and use a proper shell on an OS made for Exchange users, gamers, and people who like clutter.

and I'm not defending Lion here, because I believe that it's still not good enough when compared to Snow Leopard.

and here I'd love to thank Apple for giving us iOS 5 and requiring Lion to sync with iCloud.

thank you, Apple, we love being slowed down when we need to be productive.

that said, I had some issues at wake up that were sort of resolved changing the services' order, but the real issue for me is that this "laptop" can't really be held on my lap.

if I have a connection lag, the solution for me is to lift it by at least 5cm (2") and the connection will immediately restore to its full.

now... what the **** am I supposed to do?

would Apple acknowledge this and give anyone new laptops?

will the next MBA 11" have the same issues.

I've had mine for a year (late 2010) and I'm about to upgrade in a couple of months.

what if this is another Apple antenna woe and they're just covering up?

that'd be annoying, wouldn't it?

ubi

As somebody already told removing the security (WEP or WPA) made my life a little easier. Now most of time this laptop connects directly and connection doesn't drops. I reserved MAC address in router access list, at least I still have a kind of security. This is of course not a fix to me but barely a workaround, because someday i may move in hotel or workplace with security and I would have same issues.

However, although connection is "a little" more stable, is still slow and I cannot use tools or sites that requires high bandwidth like youtube and Skype and, of course, copying big files from my desktop is impossible.

Not sure what the cause or correlation of the problem is yet. This MBA was working fine for one full year and then this November, around the 24th, it started giving me WiFi connection issues. NOTHING CHANGED. The newtwork is the SAME, the MBA is the SAME and the only software change was from 10.7.1 to 10.7.2 as far as I can tell.

it is very frustrating!!!! The wifi connection keeps dropping, it is difficult to acquire one now and when I do it is not consistent.

I've tried the "fixes" from various Blogs and Wikis but NONE of them have worked.

PLEASE HELP!!

There isn't much anyone here can do. We are all waiting on Apple.

But I did install Windows 7 (via bootcamp) and it works wonderfully. I can close the lid, move around the house - keep the wireless connection alive. No issues. So it's a driver issue on the mac end.

If this issue isn't fix by the next update I'm gonna give up and use windows. I bought this machine to travel with and it's been nothing problems (with the wireless).

I purchased Netgear WNDR4500 router and wanted to set it up the way that my MacBook Air (2010/Snow Leopard with latest updates) connects to it via 5Ghz network only.

The problem is that when I start up my Air one of the three times a message pops up on my MacBook saying "None of your prefered networks are available"

but below the message it offers to connect to the other found networks and my 5Ghz connection is listed there. If I press it connection starts immediately. Sometimes it connects without a problem.

If I add 2.4Ghz to known networks and MacBook can't connect to the 5Ghz (It's first prefered network in list) it connects to 2.4Ghz. There are no such problems with the other band.

However I'd like have automatic connection to 5Ghz allways not manual.

I tried different settings in router (security modes, no security, speed settings, network card access list, channels etc) but no luck...SSID's are CCC and CCC 5Ghz respectiveley.

I'm suprised at the mentality of the apple users, who say things like

"I switched to Apple because of the reliability - and this has been a real let down"

This for me is testament to what a great bullsh1t artist Steve Jobs was; the reality is Apple spend more time on asthetics than they do on functionality.

OSX is extremely restrictive and has very few options to customise features such as tweaking hardware settings.

It's made for dummies who like to look cool.

To the person who said, "Installing Windows is not an option for me", i felt the same, i felt it spoils the charm of the unit as it was designed to go hand in hand with the Apple OS, but the fact is, Apple's operating system doesn't work properly and in the end I had no choice after 6 months but to exchange the faulty Apple OS for Windows and these problems vanished

- Bluetooth Audio Delay

- Packet loss on certain routers

- Wifi dropouts

I run a very demanding business on the move and sadly, after speaking to Apple and after various escalations I became tired with the rather offensive advice i was being given (such as making sure I wasn't too close to a Microwave Oven and prefering wooden tables to glass ones. They need to rewrite their drivers and kernel so it works.

The reality is, Apple has such a tiny market share they are inexperienced in the OS market, whereas Windows, love it or hate it has evolved with the support of most of the world for the past 20 years; recent incarnations from XP onwards are extemely robust and work well.

<Edited by Host>

Installing Windows is easy and you can run it alongside the Apple OS, so when you've finished doing something productive like I do, you can switch the OS to OSX and enjoy the asthetics of swiping web pages left and right off the page.

I always considered Macs to be for creating. Windows were for cubicles. Through marketing, people are now spending $2,000 on a laptop to play solitaire, check their Facebook postings, and listen to music.

I have the same problem of the wifi dropping out after 5 to 30 mins on my 2 month MBA 13".

I suspect the wifi chip is defective, it drops out very quickly if the MBA gets hot and the fans are on.

The only thing which worked is to buy the small Billion BiPAC 3011N Wireless-N USB Adapter from Harris technology in Sydney. I have heard that the Edimax EW-7811Un USB adapter also works (but has a shorter range). However you loose a USB port - not an ideal solution, but at least the MBA is connected to WIFI.

I just wanted to add to this. I was given an air 13" as a Christmas present which is fantastic.

I am getting this WiFi issue with it not reconnecting after sleep.

No issues with Win7, XP, Android, Wii, Sony TV, Blackberry etc on same network.

Support have been good, but it's still not resolved.

Would be great to get this sorted.

Just to chime in, I'm noticing the same issues. I have an MBA running 10.7.2. I notice that when I'm trying to connect to 802.11g networks I get the infuriating "!" symbol. Around me, PC users are happily surfing while I hover in disbelief not actually willing to accept that they're on the Internet and me and my Mac are shore bound. The only thing that sometimes works is a hard reset of the router which, other than at the most accommodating coffee shops (where I often work on the road), is impossible. Any fixes out there?

Could anyone please explain, are bluetooth-wifi interference (aka "turn bluetooth off - wifi works ok") and wifi-wake-from-sleep (aka "wake from sleep - wifi doesn't connect") the same issue? Is this topic about wifi-bluetooth or about wifi-sleep? Both?

I have a new MBA 13 and a wifi-bluetooth one. When I turn on bluetooth and magic keyboard+trackpad, I have 80% packet loss on wi-fi network. When I turn bluetooth off, everything is fine again.

Beevee_ru - I have both of those issues. When my Bluetooth is turned on, whether it's connected to anything (magic mouse/wireless keyboard) or not, I get interference and the wifi connects very slowly/inconsistently and/or doesn't recognize preferred networks. One of the symptoms is that wifi does not connect when I wake my MBA 11-inch 2011 up from sleep. It doesn't find my preferred networks, and oftentimes when I manually select them from the list, it tries to connect for about 20 seconds then I get a "connection timeout error" message popup. This doesn't happen every time, but it happens most of the time. Other times, wifi will try to connect for abotu 20 seconds, then I just get the little exclamation point on the wifi menu logo instead, and it says "couldn't find IP address" or something like that.

I've tried deleting passwords, keychain access etc for known networks and starting from scratch, I've had my wireless card replaced, I've wiped the hard drive and started over, I've created a test account to see if it was my files that are causing this, I've had my whole machine replaced, I've tried changing the service order on my Network settings so that wifi is first. Whew.

When bluetooth is turned off, I have virtually no problems. However, this is NOT a decent workaround since I use BT wireless keyboard and magic mouse at work with an external display every single day at work. I shouldn't have to turn BT on and off at the beginning and end of every day just to connect to the internet.

Problem seems to be solved by switching router to channel 11 (channel 6 does not help). Of course, this is not an option at work or at public places.

UPDATE: this effect is probably random. As you can see on this picture, BT and Wi-Fi overlap on all channels:

Interesting. I'll probably try that at home anyway. Do you have a Verizon router?

Though honestly, my MBA still has some difficulty connecting to preferred networks even when BT is off. Or rather, it connects when I find the network manually, it just doesn't remember it to connect automatically.