Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

Thanks so much for replying!

Wanted to give an update - after a few failed attempts at creating a new location and manually entering in some numbers (and deleting a few .plist files) - I ended up booting in Recovery Mode (Command-R) and reinstalling Lion over the existing system (without deleting all my files). Article here: http://www.macworld.com/article/1167870/hands_on_with_mountain_lions_os_x_recove ry_and_internet_recovery.html

I'm back up and running with no issue!*

*Until the next time I decide to run Software Update. Which I'm hesitant to ever do again.

Thanks again for the support!

As a freelance Network Administrator and IT Consultant i can safely confirm that there are some serious issues with 10.8 (10.8.1) when it comes to WiFi connectivity. I support around hundred Apple Computers from simple 13 inch Macbooks to Company Server environments and since the release of ML i had a HUGE increase in phone calls with complaints about dropping WiFi...ALL of them running 10.8 or 10.8.1.

So far the issues seems to arise only on certain routers and network configurations. No issues over ethernet as it already has been stated a million times. My clients are mostly in the creative departement and tend to travel a lot using a multitude of WiFi networks so i got a good picture on the issue. Some have no problems at all, some experience drops on certain networks and some get drops contantly no matter where they are.

While i as many others here search for a stable solution to this mess i also have to state that it is not the users responsibility to change Routers/Modems/Access Points/ISPs which have worked flawlessly for months or years with 10.6/10.7 or Windows/Linux Computers. Today i had a raging movie producer on the phone who was rightfully ****** that his new 2000 Dollar Macbook Air performs worse in terms of connectivity than his sons 300 dollar china plastic netbook. And while i am a huge supporter of Apple i can do nothing else but to agree with him. This is pathetic and seriously disrupts the workflow.

Don`t get me wrong Apple i earn my money with supporting Apple Users but this is just bad performance and already causes bad publicity as i can tell. I have no choice at the moment but to recommend NOT to buy any Apple Product running ML or upgrading to it because of this simple issue. Today i spent almost 10 hours with four different 10.8.1 Macbooks ranging from 2009 models to the actual lineup with no real progress on the problem. And i played out all my cards up to the point where i pretty much wrecked the WiFi config on my own Macbook in attempts to experiment my way to a decent workaround.

About one hour ago a good friend of mine dropped by with his new and shiny Retina MacbookPro and BAM the issue showed up pretty much after doing the initial set up. His face expression was somewhere between the urge to blow his new purchase up and sitting in the corner crying for the rest of the week after i explained the current situation to him.

People EXPECT to have a reliable WiFi connection especially after buying a premium product. Get this fixed ASAP!! Running constant pings in the background, playing around with .plists, messing around with well established Network/DNS setups and brutalizing the systems down to 10.6 Kext is NOT a solution for the daily user! The daily user feels pretty much betrayed at the moment...

Apple - Mac OS X - Feedback

AlterDuo wrote:

As a freelance Network Administrator and IT Consultant i can safely confirm that there are some serious issues with 10.8 (10.8.1) when it comes to WiFi connectivity. I support around hundred Apple Computers from simple 13 inch Macbooks to Company Server environments and since the release of ML i had a HUGE increase in phone calls with complaints about dropping WiFi...ALL of them running 10.8 or 10.8.1.

So far the issues seems to arise only on certain routers and network configurations. No issues over ethernet as it already has been stated a million times. My clients are mostly in the creative departement and tend to travel a lot using a multitude of WiFi networks so i got a good picture on the issue. Some have no problems at all, some experience drops on certain networks and some get drops contantly no matter where they are.

Can you share what you've found about the actual network state? Is the WiFi signal strength always grey, sometimes grey, always black when they experience a non-functioning WiFi? I keep asking people for details, because this really is like an illness. The visible details all help with the diagnoses.

Everyone of your "customers" with new hardware should be calling AppleCare, or you should be for them, and hitting them up for an answer, or some confirmation that they have a fix coming ASAP.

What security mode is involved, what manufacture routers, what is the area of the world etc?

Information from a large diverse set of circumstances can be a lot of information, but can be very revealing about what is really going on.

gphonei wrote:

AlterDuo wrote:

As a freelance Network Administrator and IT Consultant i can safely confirm that there are some serious issues with 10.8 (10.8.1) when it comes to WiFi connectivity. I support around hundred Apple Computers from simple 13 inch Macbooks to Company Server environments and since the release of ML i had a HUGE increase in phone calls with complaints about dropping WiFi...ALL of them running 10.8 or 10.8.1.

So far the issues seems to arise only on certain routers and network configurations. No issues over ethernet as it already has been stated a million times. My clients are mostly in the creative departement and tend to travel a lot using a multitude of WiFi networks so i got a good picture on the issue. Some have no problems at all, some experience drops on certain networks and some get drops contantly no matter where they are.

Can you share what you've found about the actual network state? Is the WiFi signal strength always grey, sometimes grey, always black when they experience a non-functioning WiFi? I keep asking people for details, because this really is like an illness. The visible details all help with the diagnoses.

Everyone of your "customers" with new hardware should be calling AppleCare, or you should be for them, and hitting them up for an answer, or some confirmation that they have a fix coming ASAP.

What security mode is involved, what manufacture routers, what is the area of the world etc?

Information from a large diverse set of circumstances can be a lot of information, but can be very revealing about what is really going on.

So far i am still in the process of collecting data, i should get detailed feedback from three clients today on their network experience at home and at work. Symptoms are the same across the board. WiFi signal strength is always black with websites suddenly no longer loading. Pretty much what you experience when DNS problems start to show up yet the DNS Servers are working fine. Disable/Enable brings back connectivity for some time period.

My "customers" don`t have time nor motivation in hanging on the phone for hours to get help from AppleCare thats what they have me for. And since this is little Austria where we don`t even have an official Apple Store you can imagine how hard it is to get official support even if you call Apple Germany. The only big licensed retailer providing store support in this country is a high-horse hipster store where they deny all knowledge of this issue blaming it on the user themselves which of course is not helping at all. And YES of course i keep forwarding the fact that a fix is coming ASAP what else am i supposed to say? Suck it up?

I will be in a company later this day with Cisco Access Points and and 10.6.8 Xserve providing DNS/DHCP where everybody on 10.8.1 suffers from drops. Will sniff around there for a while to see if something interesting shows up or provides interesting data.

What is really interesting is that i am on a network at the moment which shows no drops for the user owning it. The guys details are:

2009 A1260 Macbook Pro 10.8.1 without any adjustments to the system. He just upgraded from 10.7.4 and never had WiFi issues so far.

Standard 20/1mbit XDSL from local provider with a dynamic public IP and DNS provided by the ISP.

The modem/router is a standard Fritzbox Fon Wlan 7170 SL providing DHCP.

WiFi Channel is on Auto in 802.11g+b mode, 802.11g++ mode is activated in addition.

Security is adjusted to WPA2(CCMP).

I will try to apply similar setting to the Cisco Access Points later today to see if it brings any changes, even my own laptop which drops constantly the last days works without issues on the Fritzbox WiFi so maybe i am up to something here. Will report back after i experimented with this hint.

Anyone having problems using Cisco equipment? Apparently over there they've found the solution:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2114266

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-26228

biggerboy wrote:

Anyone having problems using Cisco equipment? Apparently over there they've found the solution:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2114266

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-26228

This is an interesting find. This might be the answer for a lot of large campus environments/users. I wonder still, if there are also people with multiple routers, at home, on the same band with the same SSID but with different security modes?

Gphonei asket:

> I wonder still, if there are also people with multiple routers, at home, on the same band with the same SSID but with different security modes?

I am facing the issue and have a single Belkin N+ router configured with two distinct SSID: one hprimary lan with hdden ssid and based on WEP128 ( some devices would not support wpa2 ) and another one visible for guests based on WPA2 ( I consider it to be a kind of DMZ )

roxan wrote:

Gphonei asket:

> I wonder still, if there are also people with multiple routers, at home, on the same band with the same SSID but with different security modes?

I am facing the issue and have a single Belkin N+ router configured with two distinct SSID: one hprimary lan with hdden ssid and based on WEP128 ( some devices would not support wpa2 ) and another one visible for guests based on WPA2 ( I consider it to be a kind of DMZ )

Can you turn off one the "guest" network, or make it wep128 just to see if that provides any changes for the better?

When I first got my iMac, this was a major problem, and I spent HOURS on the phone with Apple. They said I might need a new wireless card, but with a 27" computer and no apple store within hundreds of miles of my apartment, it wasn't that easy to just pick it up and bring it to the store.

I was living in a large complex with many wireless networks.

Then, suddenly the problem went away. I moved to a different city where we shared our wireless with the apartment below--we were the only 2 apartments in the bldg (one on top of the other). We didn't pick up too many other signals from around. I had NO problem constantly being online.

Now I live in a NEW complex, where every apartment has their own wireless and router, and there are at least 20 being picked up on my list. The wifi problem has come back worse than EVER and I am literally constantly having to refresh my wireless (turn it on and off), every 30 seconds or minute. It's driving me crazy.

--> The point: I'm wondering if this problem is caused because there are SO many wifi signals being picked up that my iMac is confused? Since it wasn't a problem in my 2nd apartment, and now the problem is back, now that there are so many routers around. NEVERTHELESS, this is a major *iMac* problem, as my smartphone and laptop pick up the signal fine.

How do we get around this? Can't believe this isn't fixed yet! Does anyone know how to change to a new wifi channel on iMac OSX Lion (10.7.5)

Edit: and P.S., it ALWAYS says I have a full bars. But nothing requiring internet will function (browsers/skype/email/itunes store, etc)

bombadillo wrote:

How do we get around this? Can't believe this isn't fixed yet! Does anyone know how to change to a new wifi channel on iMac OSX Lion (10.7.5)

Edit: and P.S., it ALWAYS says I have a full bars. But nothing requiring internet will function (browsers/skype/email/itunes store, etc)

Your WiFi router controls the "channel" that is used. What brand and model WiFi router do you have? You will want to try channels 1, 6 or 11. Using any of the other channel will just "double" the number of interfering routers, because then you'll be strattling two different sets of frequencies.

Can you open a terminal window, and try "ping -n 8.8.8.8" when the connection is down? That will tell us whether it's the "network", or just some types of "traffic" that is the problem.

Okay, I have NETGEAR and I downloaded NETGEAR Genie (you can see everything that's connected to your network, change name/password etc) last week to help recover my password and set up all things wireless. It's been so helpful. In NETGEAR Genie, I just discovered an option to change the Channel, so I just changed it to 6. Crossing my fingers that this works! Thanks for the help; I will post back here in a few days or a week if all goes well. Otherwise, you might be seeing a post earlier 🙂

So far 6 is still dropping... I'll try out another.

So, it seemed like every channel just made it worse. Then, when things were worst and it was dropping every 10 seconds, just to be safe I updated my router's firmware again, and.... for the last 15 min, I've had super fast internet with no dropping out... I'm kind of embarassed that I didn't triple check my firmware first. But... it seems like that might have been the problem. Again, I'll post here if there's any more trouble. Thanks!

bombadillo wrote:

So, it seemed like every channel just made it worse. Then, when things were worst and it was dropping every 10 seconds, just to be safe I updated my router's firmware again, and.... for the last 15 min, I've had super fast internet with no dropping out... I'm kind of embarassed that I didn't triple check my firmware first. But... it seems like that might have been the problem. Again, I'll post here if there's any more trouble. Thanks!

It seems that most of the WiFi device manufacturers are shipping products before the firmware has been finished these days. There's almost always a "new version" when you buy a new router because what you bought has set on the store shelf, or been in transit from its place of manufacturing and then through a warehouse or two, before you get it. Hopefully that will take care of your problems.