Q: new macbook pro 2011 weak and dropping wireless connection

yozhbk,

To clarify so that there is no confusion, this is NOT specific only to early 2011 MBPs. I have much older MBP Model A1151, probably 2009 or so, and I have this problem as well. Further, I was not having problems on earlier releases of OSX. Hence, my conclusion that this is a software problem and not hardware. Having said that, it is certainly something interacting between the OS and the hardware, which may well be hardware specific to the MBP, explaining why no problems on other Macs. The WiFi on the MBP is a removable card, not mounted on the motherboard. When I was having problem with MBP, I jumped to the conclusion that it must be the hardware. So, I changed out the card for a new WiFi card (more recent version of the card, with support for N speeds as well). Experiencing same problems with that new card, same as the old card. Only conclusion I can draw from this plus the many earlier posts, is that my original card was not bad, the new card did not fix the problem, and the problems arrived with 10.6.x and not before, and that it is not my router, my environment, etc. as other devices located right next to the MBP work fine at the same time.

Again please stop posting here about your issues it is NOT the same I had a 2009 MacBook and people on here put machine side by side. ThIs is not the same issues. Again look at my earlier post on how to compare. Please post in appropriate thread. Thanks

Hi there!

Maybe I've got the solution guys!

I don't know if all of u already have tried to do this, for me it seems to work, no so good, but I think my MacBook Pro works a little bit better after that.

All u have to do is, go to the /Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/ folder and remove the file called "com.apple.alf.plist." Then reboot the system and log in again.

I hope I could help.

Let me know if it work.

Good luck for us.

Hello,

I wanted to update this as I got my computer swapped out completely and the problem is still happeing.  This seems to NOT be a hardware issue unless it is a very common hardware issue.  The two apple genuises did not have any knowledge of a common issue like this.  Honestly neitehr one of them understood what I was talking about when I explained dropped packets and showed them the ping output.

Also wanted to comment on removing the "com.apple.alf.plist" will disable your firewall settings.  I am unsure why this would fix things and if it does it should not be a perminate fix, removing security to gain ability to transmitt data is not a valid option.  My firewall settings are set to off and I got the new computer and the settings should be clean on a new machine and I am still having this issue.

-chrisl

Try using FireFox and see if it makes any difference.

It seems to work much better (a lot fewer drops) with FireFox.

This issue is not just in browsing with Safari, Firefox or Chrome.  Example I was updating all my podcasts last night with iTunes and I have some large video podcasts.  While doing this I was watching the network and getting lots of dropped packets and even some of the downloads to iTunes failed and had to be started again.  Ended up moving to wired connection to download the largest one because it was so slow and kept failing.

Hiya, have already posted this a while ago but in case it helps anyone else...

Had no end of trouble with new macbook pro losing connection with virgin media wireless router (netgear). In the end changed settings on router to WEP (instead of WPA) and also changed channel used to 3 (was set to 10 before). Have now been trouble free for around 2 months. Apparently WEP is less secure but am willing to take the risk in the name of stability!

Hope that helps somebody!

I just want to chime in …

When I purchased a 2010 i5 MBP last year, my wife would laugh at me losing wifi all the time. Back then I thought, our two machines (hers an elderly C2D MBP at that time) basically don't want to be too close together when using our wlan. My problem seemed to be the bigger the closer the two MBPs were.

Now, me still on the i5 and her on a 2011 i7 MBP, we both experience the same wifi drops all the time.

I can't determine, why one day I'm the one who gets bitten most and on the other it's her. I just can say: it's a REAL PAIN IN THE <cut it>

We were on a AVM Fritzbox 7270 last year and this year are on a 7390. Made no difference, after all.

Is there anything to be found in the system logs?

Jason

Please some info about Lion and Airport!!!

ro3er wrote:

 

Please some info about Lion and Airport!!!

Please post in the Lion forum for help.

Hi all,

Since this thread is specifically about the mcbp 2011 and wifi reception, it would be wonderful if we could see some postings and observations about the performance of this machine with Lion. My machine is working okay on some connections but still dropping connections. If LION really is better, I'll probably upgrade right away. Some feedback from all of you would be helpful.

I'm pretty hesitant since I'm a creative pro working on tight deadlines. However, enhanced wifi would greatly enhance my overall workflow.

Cheers,

Noah

i think no one can give helpful feedback about airport on lion yet.

i use lion for about 6 hours now and didn't have a wifi drop so far.

but as i didnt have wifi drops every day this is not really helpful for anyone..

i will post again if any wifi problems occure or in one or two weeks if it is stable.

so far it looks good for me

I am on Lion now, too. I have just arrived at home and did a couple of quick ping tests. Telling from that, I have stable and quick wifi transfer. But I guess it's way to early to say it's okay now. I'll keep looking.

Seeing same behavior as before with transfers, pings drop when doing a large transfer over N network. I do think this is due a hardware defect or perhaps a firmware issue not  something to do on a higher level, such as drivers and stuff. But looks a bit better will test more later.

yozhbk wrote:

 

Seeing same behavior as before with transfers, pings drop when doing a large transfer over N network. I do think this is due a hardware defect or perhaps a firmware issue not  something to do on a higher level, such as drivers and stuff. But looks a bit better will test more later.

I thought I read somewhere that these problems didn't exist when running Windows under Boot Camp.  If that's the case, then the problem is almost certainly a software/driver issue.  If it were a hardware/firmware issue, we'd be seeing the issue under Bootcamp also.