iMac 12,2 (mid 2011) airport (wireless) problem

Just been on the phone to apple and have registered that there was a problem with the wifi. The guy was extremely helpful. He got me to create and change to a new location using

system preferences> network

Then location dropdown

Click edit locations.

Then click on the + button to add a new location. Accept the one named Untitled and click OK.

Now back in the Network window there is a section with Ethernet, Firewire and Airport, underneath that there is a + - * Click the Star (configure) Button then click set service order. Then drag and move the airport text to the top of the list. Click OK.

Now select this new location in the dropdown list in the network window and then use the network name dropdown to select your wireless network. Then you may be prompted for your wireless Key.

I have only been on my Mac for about 10 minutes and have not experienced any problems as yet. I will report back as and when I get the wifi drop out.

MC

Actually I just tried to upload this and my connection dropped out again twice and I had to cycle my wifi twice ...

Please try the above if you have problems but I think there is still a problem.!!! DOH

Back on the phone perhaps tomorrow now, i'm having my tea!

Martinimac, I also created the network name Home WiFi and moved it to the top of the list as you describe. That was several days ago and I have had the AirPort connection freeze once since then. Not certain that change will make a diff, but everything is worth trying at this point.

Agreed.

Nice people on the phone though aren't they? I nearly adopted the bloke!

My daughter has gone to bed now so not ringing them now. At least my case is logged. My only worry now is that I installed a full version of Windows 7 on the mac in bootcamp and If I have to get a new mac the licence will go with it! I have had trouble with microsoft before, with licences - I have only had the thing installed for about a week.

Did you "activate" the Widows install? If yes, you are probably going to have difficulty xfr the license to a diff machine.

Yes I did, Things are not good...

That's a drag. Lucky for you Microsoft is a very understanding company when it comes to licensing issues. :)

Oh, the things we must endure to own and use computers. Keep the faith a bit longer that Apple will resolve our issues with Airport. They have until June 8th to correct mine :)

Cheers!

Why the 8th. I thought you were taking it to the apple store tomorrow?

After my flurry of support emails and sending of logs to the Apple Engineer, I've decided to postpone hauling the iMac into the Apple Store. Depending on what happens during the next few days I'll decide if the people at the Apple Store will get a crack at it (literally) or not.

My date of sale according to Apple, is May 9th. I have 30 days to return it for refund so am setting my drop-dead must decide date as June 8th 🙂

Hi Jakester,

I have had an email from an apple guy now and am trying to replicate the problem now, so that I can send off the details. problem is that its a bit intermittent. Happened loads yesterday and now today its behaving itself! I wonder how many people are experiencing this problem. Perhaps I should change my router to a wireless N? hmmm.

Hi Martini,

My failures have also been intermittent. The Apple engineer focused on my failures occurring when the iMac was running Time Machine backups to the Airdisk (USB drive) attached to my Airport Extreme router. As I look back over my failures, I had Time Machine enabled and it had even failed to make the initial backup (some 50G of data) to the Airdisk. Time Machine is currently off on my iMac.

Granted, Time Machine backups should work. However, I'll happily connect a local disk for Time Machine to use if it means solving the Airport issue. In fact I have an external USB drive attached now for SuperDuper! backups, so allowing Time Machine to backup to it is as simple as creating 2 partitions on the drive.

As far as changing your router to 802.11n, it shouldn't matter. Your Airport connection should work fine at 802.11g, 2.4 GHz band. I upgraded from my single band (2.4 GHz), dual mode Airport Extreme do a dual band (2.4 & 5 Ghz) dual mode Airport Extreme to improve performance while streaming movies over the WiFi (such as Netflix to our Apple TV2). When my daughter would connect to the single band AE with her 802.11g devices, it would drag all of the 802.11n devices down to the slower speed of her device. With the dual band, the 'g' devices can run slow in 2.4 Ghz band while the 'n' devices run fast in the 5 GHz band.

It all depends on what your LAN is being used for and what devices you have in it. Back in the days when I used a LinkSys WiFi router, I had significant problems with weak signals and dropped connections. Since switching to an Airport Extreme (single or dual band) all of those connection issues ceased. The signal and reliability of the Airport Extreme has been excellent.

That is one reason why I believe the new iMac's Airport issues are with the iMac alone. Most likely software. All of the other WiFi devices in our household are performing perfectly (3 other Macs, 3 iPads, ATV, and more).

p.s. Apple went to a new three antenna system on the mid 2011 iMacs, this may have something to do with the issues we are experiencing:

Apple has improved AirPort performance by building three WiFi antennas into the new iMac, allowing three channels with 150 Mbps bandwidth for a maxmimum bandwidth of 450 Mbps.

Article mentioning the antennas here: http://lowendmac.com/imacs/imac-mid-2011.html

Yes I heard about the antenna redesign and am happy with the speed. Just not the connection reliability.

I have been sitting on my computer for about 3 hours now waiting for the connection to drop out so I can send the report to the apple engineer. Screen is soooo nice.

So what do you think of apple TV I was thinking about that for a while but I have been using my PS3 for movies etc. Is it worth the money?

It is definitely only the iMac. I have numerous other devices here that are not experiencing any problems including a new MacBook Air purchased the same day. Also I have streamed a lot of video on the TV without a blip.

I doubt it has anything to do with time machine -- my iMac is so new I haven't even done a backup yet. But still having the connection problems. It appears to be random.

10.6.8 is currently being developer-tested; the second beta build was released the day before yesterday. Both Airport and networking are among the items on the test list. I would guess that it will be released by the first week in June. Hopefully the update will address this issue.

Lion (10.7) is still a month or two away.

Definitely going to get lion when it comes out. I wonder what the new OS will be like after Lion? This is the last release is it not?

Interesting that the airport is on the test list. hmmm

not sure what you mean. you can see the new info about lion on the apple site. I would guess 10.6.8 would be the last release on snow leopard