Q: WiFi Issues With MacBook Air

I have a 2012 MacBook Air and am currently experiencing increasing connection problems to my home wifi network (Linksys E200 router). At first it would drop connection for a while, and then it progressed to connecting, but with no internet access (wifi icon shows an exclamation mark).

I inadvertantly found a fix that has continued to work for the last day since I implemented it. I connected to the Guest access point instead of the main access point. I don't know why this works, it makes no sense.

I hope this helps.

kblade

I just installed Mountain Lion, and it DOES NOT solve the issue.

I'm probably just going to return this.

I get WiFi drops as soon as another pc is connected to my router in the same room as my MBA. Also the other PC starts to lag. It sounds strange but no other PC in my houshold disrupts the network like this macbook air (and there are about 5 other).

Good to know. I wont bother with the upgrade.  I wish I had the option of returning this one.  I bought the expensive Apple router assuming it would work well with their computers.  Terrible assumption.

My Windows Vista and Windows 7 machines have NO problems.  We have an older Mac Book Pro and it's fine.  Our 2 Mac Book Airs?  Nothing but unpredictability. 

They remind me of a box of chocolate.  You never know what you're gonna get.  Sometimes they connect.  Sometimes they don't.  Sometimes you get coconut.  Sometimes you get nougat. 

Funny thing is, if these were Windows boxes Microsoft would be all over a fix.  Apple assumes that we as customers dont mind the abuse and have short memories. 

I can't wait for the Surface to come out.  I have a feeling a couple of Mac Book Airs will get listed on ebay. 

Just bumping this up.

I downloaded Mountain Lion this morning, and once I turned on Bluetooth, the connection started to resume the same old issues.

This is so dissappointing and frustrating.

Apple, Please give a **** for once.

Thats a shame as it did fix my issues. I have a Macbook Air Mid 2011.

I had similar issues to the ones that seem to be plaguing people in this thread. However, I found a solution that worked for me, and will hopefully help you and some others!

System prefs > Network > Cog/gear button on the bottom left (sorry dont now what it's called) > Set service order.
If you find that the service order puts bluetooth ahead of Wifi, try switching Wifi up to the top spot. It worked for me. Let me know how it goes, hopefully it works!

Best of luck, Chris

I can confirm, that this probably resolves issue with exclamation sign on wifi icon.

Nothing except service order has changed.

I can not explain, how services order can be related to the issue, however - the issues is now resolved.

This worked for me too.  At least it has worked for about a day so far. 

My MacBook Air already had WiFi prioritized over Bluetooth. I have upgraded to Mountain Lion. Problems continue. On my home network, the fan and drop down menu show a WiFi connection, but I cannot get on the Internet. On a hotel network yesterday, I could connect to WiFi, but the connection would drop, typically in about a minute or less. Thank goodness for the iPhone personal hotspot.

works for me too (so far), thanks

I have the same connection issues but the only difference is mine didn't start until AFTER i upgraded to mountain lion. Had 0 problems at all on lion. Kind of ****** off now, i have the worst luck with apple laptops.

I also have the issues and had none before the upgrade.

Whilst my MBA is not dropping connectivity to my wifi router, I am having the same problem as others on this thread which is EXCEEDINGLY slow connection to the internet - my ethernet cabled iMac worked fine.  I bought my MBA in late 2011 and runs the latest Lion software.

This may sound really weird but when I hold my laptop in a 'portrait' position - i.e. on its side - then my speeds shoot up.

Using Thinkbroadband.com to test my speed, I can consistently go from very slow download speed (100kbps! when the MBA is in its normal position) to in excess of 15Mbps (when the MBA is on its side).

I have tried all of the other proposed solutions on every forum and none have worked so far. But this seems to have done the tick - albeit totally unpractically. I read about issues with the aerial in the screen portion of the laptop so this 'solution' may fall into this category.

Any thoughts or can someone else try this 'solution' and see if using the MBA on its side has similar results?

Cheers

Also having problems with my 2012 Air, both before and after upgrade to Mountain Lion. If I log out, or if the computer goes to sleep, it absolutely will not reconnect to my Wifi network unless I reset the PMU. Doing that every single time I need Wifi gets pretty tedious.

Apple, please fix this.