Q: WiFi Issues With MacBook Air

I solved all my DNS / WIFI issue on my MBA with 10.7.2, editing: /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

and adding a new value under "ProgramArguments". the value is "-AlwaysAppendSearchDomains"

I'll post "programArguments" array as it looks after editing:

<key>ProgramArguments</key>

        <array>

                <string>/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder</string>

                <string>-launchd</string>

                <string>-AlwaysAppendSearchDomains</string>

        </array>

- To edit this file you need a root access, i use to edit in Terminal so it's enough typing:

sudo nano /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

save (ctrl+o), and quit (ctrl+x).

Now you can restart Daemon typing:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

Or reboot your machine...

i hope this help..

thanks for the advice above. however.. I can confirm that this doesn't help for me. as soon as I close the lid, and then open it again after 10 seconds or so, I find that wifi has disconnected, and I need to connect manually again. bluetooth has always been turned off also.

Stephen Cox wrote:

 

I can reproduce his "bug" at will. Turn bluetooth on, close lid (or let the Air go to sleep) = drooped connection. Everytime. I"ve considered taking it back to Apple.

 

In clam shell mode it's just terrible when using bluetooth devices. So the ONLY solution for me is to turn of bluetooth. That means, no using an external monitor, keyboard or mouse (all Apple devices, by the way) with the machine.

Same here, Stephen.  Glad I dropped $xxxx on a bunch of useless peripherals.  Hard to turn Bluetooth off as a "solution" when I have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.

andyp.uk wrote:

 

thanks for the advice above. however.. I can confirm that this doesn't help for me. as soon as I close the lid, and then open it again after 10 seconds or so, I find that wifi has disconnected, and I need to connect manually again. bluetooth has always been turned off also.

I agree that the previous poster's solution is unlikely to work in the long term.  The symptom that causes DNS problems is actually one of the primary ones related to this bug that this thread is about.  There's nothing really wrong with DNS as configured, and as proven by the countless other devices that continue to work just fine no matter what changes are implemented.

Hi!

Gosh, it's been quite some time since I've posted on the spple discussions forums!

I just wanted to add my name to the growing number of people who are having wifi issues with the MBA.

I've had the computer since November 2010 and I noticed that randomly my wifi would drop (still full bars, just unable to connect to anything external) while my gf (sitting next to me) would be fine (on her macbook pro).

I immediatly thought this was a DNS issue and I added the google dns to my setup. The issue didn't present for a few days but quickly came back again. My graphics card died randomly and so when I took the system in to get looked at for this issue, I asked them to look at the wifi. They basically replaced the guts of the whole system, and gave it back. I left next next day for asia on business and could not get a working connection to the hotel wifi while the people in the room next worked fine. It got to the point where I had the hotel let me look at the network set up to confirm it's configured correctly (I'm a network architect).  My MBA was just giving the connect connect to internet error.

I went for those two weeks with no internet in my hotel room.

I then noticed that I was getting connection time out issues while other people sitting next to me could connect to a network no problem. My MBA would show full bars in the menu bar wifi detector, but I couldn't connect to those networks. I'd reboot the system, and it would connect fine, work for a little while, and then bunk out. I started bring my older MBP with me when I went out in public, and every time I couldn't connect on my MBA I'd try and connect on my MBP. It became pretty apparently that my MBA was unble to connect to many of the networks my MBP was able to connect to.

Today I finally got sick of this all when, sitting in a coffee shop I was given the password to their wifi, I got the ( ! ) -- fiddled with the dns, rebooted a few times, made new random network connections, pinged and ponged, created custom dns, and touched my nose while rubbing my head and randomly, finally, and quite mystically, it started working.

I know a fair amout about networking, and I have no idea what the **** is going on, other than the wifi on my MBA is just simply weird... I presume it's a software issue, but who really knows.

Best,

j.

I have logged a bug report with Apple for this - id 10391140.  Others may have done the same.

Neom,

please share with us what exactly did you do to get in to work, since I (and most of the ppl here) have the same problem as you've described.

I tried every described possible solution and still cannot get it to work.

My MBA used to work with my home network and now it just stopped, although it connects and shows full bars.

Please help.

my MBA (late 2010) isn't affected by your issue (open/close/reopen the lid)

i solved my issue as i described in my reply, i tried 1 hour ago on 2 other MBAs (all late 2010)

and now, on this network, they all works well.

I have added the string AlwaysAppendSearchDomains  

But now I have no internet-access.

I have copied the original plist - but still no internet with Safari or Google Chrome.

What can I do???

I have posted everywhere I can find people with the same problem. I have a mid '11 MBA, dropped almost 2K on it because i was hopping to keep it for a few years.  I just started having these issues with the wifi dropping, freezing seems like it happend about the time Apple released iCloud (for me). Same as everyone else I called, surfed, and done just about everything.

The way I see it we all just got screwed. All I want from Apple now is to just tell me, "yeah we know about it and we won't fix it, your just going to have to put up with it...sorry, but not really ". I'd rather no now then to hear, "we are working on it"

but it sure is small. maybe i can use it for a paper weight.

Add me to the list as of the 10.7.2 update.  I bought my 2011 air at the end of July, and everything was working wonderfully, any and all wifi connections at home or away.  Today I couldn't connect to a coffee shop wireless. Would show that I was connected, but wouldn't load pages.    I tried fiddling and troubleshooting, and the troubleshooter would just say it couldn't find the problem.  (Um. thanks.).

Since I set up iCloud and Find My Mac, I had the alternate guest login on the start page, and tried logging in as guest with the basic settings (surfing only).  Lo and behold, it connected to the coffeeshop wireless, opened a Safari window, and let me login to their internet page.  Then I restarted and logged in with my usual login.  It worked after that.

I'm hoping I don't have any more problems, because the restarting, troubleshooting, etc. were a big pain.  I'm not impressed that things that worked before 10.7.2 stopped working. 

This is my first mac, and I have been raving.   I'm raving a little less today.

Hi,

Owner of a Macbook Air 11 (late 2010), i had no particular issue for month to connect to my home network (or never really noticed it), I was on 10.6 and migrated to 10.7 still no issue with the Wifi.

But i did have a problem with my screen and needed a replacement under warranty.

And it's when i got my macbook air with the new screen that all the wifi related in this post happen to me.

Wifi drop, horrible ping to my routeur, ramdom connection after a restart with sometime ping under 10 ms to have a usable internet and drop to more 1000ms with lot of time out.

Posting in a different forum, it looked like something happen when they changed my screen, maybe related to an antenna not connected correctly.

I then took a first appointment at the Apple store was, able to reproduce the issue on one of the network but the other was working fine.

First visit (after 5 days waiting for an opening)

Genius acknowledge the issue, took my MBA in the back, come back telling that it refixed the antenna and apologize for the previous mistake.

we do a quick test, page are loading, i feel like it's the end of it.

Come back home and got the same issue with my home network, so i check my router, all ym other PC or phone are connected correctly, i deceide the separate the 2.4 and 5ghz network on my linksys E4200. but nothing happen and i can't get a stable conenction without lot of drop out or high response time.

Second visit (the same day)

I went back right to the apple store, of course without appointment they made me wait for a free genius (1 hour wait) .

Genius take my MBA, see it got lion and said that it's an OS issue, plus an external hardrive with snow leopard. try again and internet work. i try to reproduce the issue but it seems to be stable.

He then tell me to reinstall OSX snow leopard to fix the issue for the time being.

When home, i find my USB stick with snow leaopard, wipe out my disk and put a fresh install of Snow leopard.

fist connection on the brand new OS, i connect to the wifi but got bad connection with the same issue. I cannot even update OSX as the update server time out.

Very disapointed i take another appointement with the Apple store.

Third visit

I explain again my issue, one of the genius start to say that it come from the osx and explained that i putted back snow leopard.  In the apple store i show that the connection isn't good on their wifi, he compare on his mac book pro and got the same 300ms response to ping and said it's normal.

I explained that i tried with three difeerent localtion and network and can even reproduce it with their wifi connection. and after 15 min of pushing that i think the antenna within my screen aren't working he accept to change the screen again and the airport card.

Got my MBA a week later (visibly it was ready the next day, but it seems that their phone call never reached my phone) try again in the apple store, got a ! mark error and high latency. i let the genius know that i will check at home.

Came back home and have the same issue  . only way to have a connection it's to physically site the MBA on my lynksys routeur. I also installed istumbler to check the strenght of the signal and 3 meter from the routuer it's already down to 50% when my Vaio show 98% signal.

In the mean while i reinstalled snow leaopard again to be sure that i don't get the Lion OSX is the issue

After that, i am not that convinced that the issue is fully related to OSX as i didn't have any particular issue even with lion, before i had my screen replaced. so maybe the issue is related to the antenna and some of screen have Issue with it.

For those who had an issue, could you install istumbler and check the strenght of your signal. and if you have another mac without any issue, install it on it too and compare the two result.

on my case, i don't know what to do, probably another trip to the apple store, in order to receive the same condescending talk.

Thanks for any advice on how resolve this.

Chris

^ I feel your pain Chris and cmtyeson.

I tried to do some investigation on signal strength when I got the dreaded black screen freeze up tonight. This has happened on my beautiful MBA about a dozen times since I bought it. It it not a crash and I don't even think a freeze per se but the screen simply goes black and there is nothing you can do except restart...

There is a related issue when the MBA will not wake from sleep also.

These issues along with the ongoing WiFi problems are rendering this Mac almost useless as a traveling and/or business computer.

What advice do we get from Apple - always the same crap - reinstall your OS. And of course that almost never fixes ANYTHING. That is why I refuse. It simply takes too long to get everything set back up again.

I am going to try to tell my story to someone senior at Apple in Customer Service or write a letter to Tim Cook and let one of he "aides" read it.

This is one of the worst computers I have owned, period.

Anyway back to signal strength... One should probably use dBm as an absolute scale instead of a somewhat arbitrary percentage from a particular app. In my case iStumble reports a 30% reduction from the room with my router to my normal use spot, but the WiFi indicator in the menu bar always shows all 4 bars. That same 30% change in iStumble corresponds to almost an 40 dBm change in signal strength. It seems very odd the a 40 dBm change makes no change in the 4 bars. You can get the dBm number by holding the option key while clicking on the WiFi icon in the menu bar. Thinking maybe a bug in reported signal strengths (just like what happened with the iPhone 4) was involved I checked my wifes MacBook with OSX 10.6.8 and found a similar pattern from room to room.

Just wanted to chime in here, i'm experiencing very slow connection to pretty much any wireless network I try. Even at home with my brand new router the Macbook Air 13"/i7/256 doesn't automatically connect, I have to choose the network manually (yes the network has been saved in the preferences). Sometimes it doesn't even connect on the first go, I have to choose it manually in the wireless drop down 2-3 times to connect.

I hope this is a software issue, and can be resolved in a coming update.

I can't evne get iStumbler to stay running. It keep crashing. But I did get a reading of 55% signal strength about 25 feet from an the Airport router.

I'll report my finding with a 2009 MBP tomorrow (it's in the office).