MacBook Pro drops Wi-Fi connection after upgrading to 10.6.5. Fixed!
MacBook Pro drops Wi-Fi connection after upgrading to 10.6.5. Airport says no IP is detected then suddenly reconnects?
This has been a problem I’ve been troubleshooting for the last month. I’m new to the Mac family and have loved my experience up until this point. I was under the impression that mac’s are supposed to be so user friendly that even your grandmother could use one with out having any technical knowledge. I mean I shouldn’t have to be deleting drivers or reformat my mac because of an OS update glitch? (That’s what the guy at the Genius Bar told me to do.) What I refused to succumb to was that I’m really good with computers. I get at least a phone call every other week from someone asking me for tech support. So I’d like to think that nothing I’ve done to the system would have caused this anomaly.
After numerous attempts of troubleshooting and researching forms I believe I’ve discovered a solutions that seems to be working for me.
Here are the steps I took to create a consistent connection to my Wi-Fi. I believe it was a combination of all these steps to create success.
1.) Changed my router to use G Wireless Only. (I’m assuming this removed any unnecessary frequencies to allow G to broadcast stronger?)
2.) Did a scan on the other networks in my area to find out what channel everyone else was broadcasting on. Copy and past the text below into a terminal window.
sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resourc es/airport /usr/sbin/airport
This will allow you to simply type “airport” in the terminal window to execute the command.
Type airport –s
This will display all the networks in your area and what channel they are broadcasting on.
3.) Changed my router to use a channel that no one in my area was using. (This helped to make my network stronger and free of interference.)
The last steps will help your home network improve but these next steps I believe helped fix any install errors caused maybe by the 10.6.5 update on my mac.
4.) Boot your Mac into safe mode by holding down the shift key while booting.
5.) Open System Preferences and Click on Network.
6.) Click the drop down menu from Locations at the top of the screen. Click edit locations..
7.) Create a new location by clicking the + and give it a new name.
8.) Delete the old location by clicking on the old locations name and click the – to remove.
9.) Reboot
10.) Open System Preference and click on Network.
11.) Click on the settings sprocket next to the + and – and click on Set Service Order…
12.) Drag Airport to the top of the list of devices then click Ok.
Now this last step is what seemed to eliminate the issue. I hardcoded my IP address to my network. This way my computer will always use the same IP and not have to search.
13.) Click on Advanced under Network.
14.) Click on TCP/IP. Click on the drop down for Configure IPv4 and change it to Manually.
15.) Fill out the fields with your IPv4 Address: 192.168.1.1xx (x=whatever number) Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Router: 192.168.1.1 (All of these settings are pretty standard for most home networks.)
16.) Click on the drop down for Configure IPv6 and change it to Off.
17.) Next click on the DNS tab at the top.
18.) Click the + to add a DNS Record.
To find your DNS Server open a Terminal window by launching Applications --> Utilities --> Terminal
Then Type cat /etc/resolv.conf
(There is a space between cat and /. Without it you’ll get no such file or directory.)
This should return two addresses. Your ISP’s DNS Servers.
19.) Add both records to the DNS and click Ok.
20.) Click Ok then under Network Click Ok.
21.) Reboot router then Mac
22.) Fixed my connection issue
The symptoms I experienced eluded me to believe that something with the DHCP is going into an idle then disconnecting. Before when DHCP was set to automatically assign the network signal would time out then searchers for a new IP resulting in Airport displaying No IP is detected. By setting my IP to a fixed address I still notice a slight drop in bandwidth at moments but because of the assigned IP I never loose connection. I can now stream video, play games, chat all without getting disconnected.
I believe this fix will work for my home network but I also noticed this issue at work so for each location that I connect for the time being I’ll create each there own location and hardcode the IP address to that network. I’ve been reading that 10.6.6 is coming soon so maybe this will be resolved for good in the next update.
Let me know if this helps or if you have any questions.
Best of luck.
Message was edited by: erockdabass
Message was edited by: erockdabass
This has been a problem I’ve been troubleshooting for the last month. I’m new to the Mac family and have loved my experience up until this point. I was under the impression that mac’s are supposed to be so user friendly that even your grandmother could use one with out having any technical knowledge. I mean I shouldn’t have to be deleting drivers or reformat my mac because of an OS update glitch? (That’s what the guy at the Genius Bar told me to do.) What I refused to succumb to was that I’m really good with computers. I get at least a phone call every other week from someone asking me for tech support. So I’d like to think that nothing I’ve done to the system would have caused this anomaly.
After numerous attempts of troubleshooting and researching forms I believe I’ve discovered a solutions that seems to be working for me.
Here are the steps I took to create a consistent connection to my Wi-Fi. I believe it was a combination of all these steps to create success.
1.) Changed my router to use G Wireless Only. (I’m assuming this removed any unnecessary frequencies to allow G to broadcast stronger?)
2.) Did a scan on the other networks in my area to find out what channel everyone else was broadcasting on. Copy and past the text below into a terminal window.
sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resourc es/airport /usr/sbin/airport
This will allow you to simply type “airport” in the terminal window to execute the command.
Type airport –s
This will display all the networks in your area and what channel they are broadcasting on.
3.) Changed my router to use a channel that no one in my area was using. (This helped to make my network stronger and free of interference.)
The last steps will help your home network improve but these next steps I believe helped fix any install errors caused maybe by the 10.6.5 update on my mac.
4.) Boot your Mac into safe mode by holding down the shift key while booting.
5.) Open System Preferences and Click on Network.
6.) Click the drop down menu from Locations at the top of the screen. Click edit locations..
7.) Create a new location by clicking the + and give it a new name.
8.) Delete the old location by clicking on the old locations name and click the – to remove.
9.) Reboot
10.) Open System Preference and click on Network.
11.) Click on the settings sprocket next to the + and – and click on Set Service Order…
12.) Drag Airport to the top of the list of devices then click Ok.
Now this last step is what seemed to eliminate the issue. I hardcoded my IP address to my network. This way my computer will always use the same IP and not have to search.
13.) Click on Advanced under Network.
14.) Click on TCP/IP. Click on the drop down for Configure IPv4 and change it to Manually.
15.) Fill out the fields with your IPv4 Address: 192.168.1.1xx (x=whatever number) Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Router: 192.168.1.1 (All of these settings are pretty standard for most home networks.)
16.) Click on the drop down for Configure IPv6 and change it to Off.
17.) Next click on the DNS tab at the top.
18.) Click the + to add a DNS Record.
To find your DNS Server open a Terminal window by launching Applications --> Utilities --> Terminal
Then Type cat /etc/resolv.conf
(There is a space between cat and /. Without it you’ll get no such file or directory.)
This should return two addresses. Your ISP’s DNS Servers.
19.) Add both records to the DNS and click Ok.
20.) Click Ok then under Network Click Ok.
21.) Reboot router then Mac
22.) Fixed my connection issue
The symptoms I experienced eluded me to believe that something with the DHCP is going into an idle then disconnecting. Before when DHCP was set to automatically assign the network signal would time out then searchers for a new IP resulting in Airport displaying No IP is detected. By setting my IP to a fixed address I still notice a slight drop in bandwidth at moments but because of the assigned IP I never loose connection. I can now stream video, play games, chat all without getting disconnected.
I believe this fix will work for my home network but I also noticed this issue at work so for each location that I connect for the time being I’ll create each there own location and hardcode the IP address to that network. I’ve been reading that 10.6.6 is coming soon so maybe this will be resolved for good in the next update.
Let me know if this helps or if you have any questions.
Best of luck.
Message was edited by: erockdabass
Message was edited by: erockdabass
MacBook Pro 13", Mac OS X (10.6.5), iPhone4 (4.2.1)
