new macbook pro 2011 weak and dropping wireless connection

I've been plagued with slow internet for awhile on my 11' MBP (other W7 PCs in the house are fine).. Usually don't spend much time on the internet, so it hasn't bothered me too much. Tonight I did a bunch of surfing to try and find a generator for Irene.. I had it with the slow internet..... My generator search turned into a "fix my expensive 2011 MBP"..

I'll skip to the solution, then b**ch..

It seems to be fixed (10 min into fast browsing, so hopefully it stays this way)..

-Disabled IP6

-Set MTU to manual 1452

-DNS = 8.8.8.8

- pinged my router

- rebooted everything

Definitely screaming now..

Now I'll b**ch.

I am new to MAC. Love the HW, but was skeptical on the OS. All my MAC fanboy friends insisted - it just works. There have been some learning curves (expected), some frustrations (expected), but this is un-exceptable.. It seems to be fixed, but this certainly doesn't "just work".. Something as primary as browsing should be high on the list of things that "just work" on apple products..

Frustrated, but still liking apple stuff so far..

"Cupertino, we have a problem ... "

However folks, in addition to working this thread, you have to send feedback directly to Apple on this issue.

Apple can (and must) fix this problem so that all our MBPs are as reliable as any PC when it comes to Internet connectivity.

After giving it a try for a couple of days, I can still say that the situation has improved – but it's still much worse than I would expect from a machine at this price point. Apple needs to further improve WiFi performance SOON.

I updated to 10.7.1 and now my wifi-connection seems to be stable...

Had some problems with my network printer after the update. Cause ot that, I rebooted and reseted several times my router. Maybe this had also an effect... I don't know.

Didn't know that: there is a WiFi diagnostics tool in Lion!

http://www.mactechnews.de/news/index/Lion-enthalt-praktisches-Wi-Fi-Diagnostics- 151032.html [German!]

Basically you can start the tool by entering the following in a Terminal window:

open "/System/Library/CoreServices/Wi-Fi Diagnostics.app"

Currently, I'm not on WiFi. Will check that out at home.

I have been plagued with this issue for a long time. After I upgraded to Lion my problem is even worse. After I finish my latest series of deadlines, I'm sending my MacBook pro in for a service. Issue going on 5 months now.

I am having the same issue with my early 2011 MacBook Pro. I cannot keep a connection via wireless to the internet. I experience slow browsing when it decides to connect. I usually have to reboot my machine to get it to work for any period of time. (yes I have tried toggling wi-fi on and off but that does not always fix the issue and if it does, only for a short time) I am a huge Mac guy. I have had many MacBook Pro's, Mac Pro's, iMac's, iphone's, ipad's, ipod's and the apple HW has always been rock solid. This MacBook Pro (early 2011) is not rock solid. I am plagued with this wireless issue as well as freezes that I have not experienced on any of my previous Apple products. There appears to be a real issue with this model as I find MANY MANY others having the exact same issue.

APPLE PLEASE FIX THIS and keep me an APPLE FAN. I am now having to use my Lenovo (Windows) machine because my >$2300 MacBook Pro can't hold a wireless connection or freezes too often to get work done.

PS. I have tried an Airport Extreme Router (newest one), a Cisco E3000 router and a Netgear WNDR4000. These are top of the line routers and the ONLY device on my wireless network having an issue is this expensive MacBook Pro. I have always believed in paying the "Apple Tax" (high pricetag) for the benefit of rock solid HW and SW. This is very disheartening.

My 2 week old Macbook Pro 13" i5 with 8GB RAM 500GB HD OS X V. 10.7.1 has a persistent problem connecting to the internet and staying connected. When connected, it's very slow.

My reference point is the laptop I'm using to post this message - an ancient HP Compaq nc4200 running MS XP on a 1MG RAM.

This is my first Mac and starting to regret the switch. Tried to install Parallels 7 but having problems.

Are Macs simply show ponies or do I have a lemon?

This thread has gone relatively quiet over the last couple of months, does this mean that on the whole the majority are connecting okay ? This was the hottest thread in Town for the first half if the year.

After swapping my initial machine over in march, I've been relatively trouble free, either at home on a virgin N network, in cafe's and hotels and anyone's business that I may be in. I'm still on 10.6 and yet to make the Lion leap, but can't be the only one out here who is now working good, positive posts of good news as useful as all the negatives.

My ping times are good too........

Nope, I am still having problems, I'm on 10.6 and reluctant to upgrade to Lion without some confirmation that it will fix the problem.

I went on RV vacation for 2 weeks. Very frustrating, could not get good WiFi connection no matter where we were. Yet, my wife's PC and both our iPhones worked in the RV just fine with WiFi. Had to resort to terse responses to emails using my iPhone because I could not depend on Macbook to get a connection long enough to download emails, let alone send a reply. That sucked.

Today I went to Fry's and bought a 7 dB gain omni antenna and will install on my router. Shouldn't need to do this, as everything else I own works throughout the house no problem, just not this **** macbook. Used to, some number of past releases back when, but not now. Only way to make this bleeping macbook work is to be sitting right next to the router, ***? Might as well just hook a hardwire ethernet to it and call it a day. This is just plain LAME Apple.

Nope - still erratic behavior for me, some pages won't load, emails sometimes don't send, movies hang mid stream…

One work around that SOMETIMES works is if I put my cursur at the end or the URL and send it again by hitting enter. Sometimes the page will load on the second or third try.

The most annoying thing is trying to pay bills online. I can't reload those pages due to security techniques. So when I send a payment the page often will just hang and I don't get any confirmation. Sometimes the payment goes through sometimes not.

I've gotten around hanging movies and software downloads by stopping then restarting in the browser.

I'm on a 2008 MBP. Always worked flawlessly until I updated to SL. If I boot into Leopard there's no problem. And my other MBP from the same generation which was not updated to SL runs fine as well.

If I'm on a network with a new Apple Airport base station the problems seem to go away. But if I'm on my old (original Snow) Airport or any network with a third party router the problems persist.

So, for me at least, the problem started with SL.

Onward.

PS... but advertisements and Pop-ups seem to work just fine though.

😕

That's about the time my WiFi stopped working, upgrading to Snow Leopard. Never been right since.

Gee, APPLE, what are you waiting for? It's not like this problem isn't well-documented and there's not a large user base that is affected. Get off your duffs and FIX IT! Or at least tell us what's going on and a timeline. I'm ready to dump my MBP and switch to my (oh the horrors) Dell POS laptop - at least it works and it's paid for.

Here's my problem with 3 week old 17'' MBP 2.3 i7 8GB SSD

My wifi has full bars, I'm connected and it's running smoothly, however, randomly, I will see no signal on my iStatPro, even with "full bars" displayed on the wifi display and my win 7, ipad, iphone are all connected just fine...

Only way for me to get it to work "NORMALLY" is to turn off wifi on the MBP and turn it back on, and yes I get connection instantly right after I proceed with my steps of turning off and on, but this gets very annoying because on some days, I have to do this 5-10 times a night... Sometimes, no problems at all.. anyone know what's up with this?

Gnatcnoel,

Welcome to the club. I will assume since you have a new MBP that you are running Lion? If so, it would appear as confirmation that my upgrading to Lion won't fix the problem - something I had been contemplating and hoping for a solution. Well no need to upgrade now, looks like Lion doesn't fix it.

What is causing this is Apple's inability, unwillingness, incompetence or neglect with respect to addressing something that is clearly a serious software issue.

Based on what I, and other posters have been able to piece together, it seems to occur when you are in a low or medium signal strength area and have surrounding WiFi networks operating in the vicinity. I am not 100% sure of this, but I strongly suspect it is the case. I (we) also suspect this is a problem that didn't exist prior to Snow Leopard upgrades, which leads one to believe it is either a firmware or software problem, not a hardware design flaw.

But since Apple has been uncommunicative on this issue, and it has been dragging on, literally, for many many months (over a year now?), only recourse for us older mbp users is to suck it up, sit next to the WiFi router or use a hardwire connection.

SINCE you have a new MBP, do yourself a favor. Go to your Apple store, or call Apple, and raise hole HE**. If enough NEW MBP buyers do this, perhaps someone will finally get the message. When dealing with Apple, don't let them give you the ol' two-step. Tell them you've spent time researching the problem on the support forums, and there's a very long thread (this one), with many, many users (old and new MBP) complaining about the same thing. DEMAND that they address your problem. You'll be doing all of us a HUGE favor if you get them off their duffs.

FINALLY, if you do get a solution that works (as in a software upgrade, or some errant file that needs to get deleted), please PLEASE come back here and let everyone know. You will receive great psychic rewards and a lot of atta-boys.

Good Luck, may the force be with you.