Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

I have an update on my issue. I've pretty much tried every setting that there is - everything listed in this forum, and still had the network drop outs. I was using a Motorola SB6580 modem with built in wireless gateway. I spoke with a Motorola engineer who stated that there is newer firmware for the modem that has a lot of fixes for wifi issues. My cable internet provider has not finished testing this firmware yet, so they are not going to push it down to my box. However, I wanted to try everything I could, so I had my internet provider send me one of their MTA (modem with built in wireless gateway). This one is an Arris.

It's been a few weeks now, and I have not had any wifi issues yet. I'm hoping this fixed my issue, but of course time will tell. I believe the problem and fix is more complex than simply the modem itself. I think there is an issue with OS X, and the way that it interacts with some firmware from the modem/wifi router. Not all modem/wifi routers are impacted by this - many use different chips - many vendors use the same chips. So it's hard to say. It could be signal related...some modems are more sensitive to signals than others (I use to work in the cable industry so I know this for a fact). I'm just letting you know that I swapped out my modem with built in wireless gateway for a different vendor's product, and now my issue has cleared for now. If you've just had it with this issue, this may be something else to try. It worked for me, and I think I've tried just about everything else.

eROCK1 wrote:

If you've just had it with this issue, this may be something else to try. It worked for me, and I think I've tried just about everything else.

I really can't stress how important it is to make sure you have the right firmware fixes in your router. It's a computer system and the software it uses is large and complex. Apple is pushing 802.11n to the max, while many cheaper PCs don't have 802.11n support, or only use 2.4ghz etc. Glad you found a fix.

I agree about the firmware fix. The problem I had though is that I did not have an external router that I could get firmware from the vendor. I had a MODEM with the wireless router built in. The enduser (me) is unable to upgrade the firmware on this type of setup. Only the cable company can do this through their CTMS/DHCP server via TFTP. This is for security reasons. Since my firmware was the latest release that my cable company approved, they were not going to upgrade my firmware to the absolute latest that Motorola had out in the field since it had not gone through all of their testing yet.

So my only other option was to swap out the modem/router for a different brand of modem/router - which of course uses different firmware and processors. So was the issue caused by firmware or hardware? I'm not sure, but I can say that I have not had the problem return since doing this.

Well I had tried just about everything with no success . ! have a 2009 IMAC running 10.8.2. 4 visits to my local Apple store for all sorts of adjustments and reloads....no luck. Finally I started to focus on my cisco router. Did a firmware update which seemed to improve the speed of internet browsing but the connectivity problem slowly retruned. Then on a call with an Apple tech person i was asked about my router/WIFI settings. When I mentioned that my security was set using WEP she strongly recommended WPA2 Personal. I got on line with CISCO (great support 24/7) and they walked me through changing over to WPA2 Personal..they also recommended changing my Wi FI name.

so a firmware upgrade, changing over to WPA2 and changing WI FI name have produced a combination of a fix. 5 days now and I have not lost connectivity.

I should add that I first backed up everything and reloaded the Lion 10.8.2 operating system. Now I will reload all my files and data with Time Machine and keep my fingers crossed.

I'll keep you posted

kasdba wrote:

...

so a firmware upgrade, changing over to WPA2 and changing WI FI name have produced a combination of a fix. 5 days now and I have not lost connectivity.

I should add that I first backed up everything and reloaded the Lion 10.8.2 operating system. Now I will reload all my files and data with Time Machine and keep my fingers crossed.

I'll keep you posted

This is awesome to hear. Certainly, their should not be WEP bugs in the Apple WiFi software, but apparently there are. WEP should no longer be used, by anyone, except in extremely rare circumstances with ancient devices that only support WEP. If that's the case, I'd give serious thought to using two different wifi radios so that you can still have WEP for those odd devices. The issue with WEP, is that it can take a very short amount of time to "break in" as discussed on pages like http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/understanding-wep-weaknesses.html. WPA2 is what Apple recommends, so if you are not using WPA2, or don't know how to make sure, find someone to help you out. The router manufacturers do usually have support as described here which can help you out.

update.....backed up my data with time machine and all continues to go well....so whatever part or combination of the fixes and tweaks I did with support from Apple and Cisco (they were most cooperative), the problem seems fully resolved ! My guess ....the router/WPA2 Personal switch combined with renaming my WiFi was a big part of the resolution !

Has anyone else tried this ?

I'm sorry, but this is just a big waste of time and the biggest pile of .... you can imagine. This problem is caused solely by Apple and Apple alone. Apple did something with (Mountain) Lion what's causing these issues, not Cisco, Linksys, Netgear or any other manufacturer of wireless routers. It's great that Apple (supposedly) is pushing 802.11n to the max, but when that means I can only connect reliably to certain hardware of certain vendors and have to mix and match that with certain firmware versions, thanks but no thanks. I'd rather have a connection which is a little bit slower, but allows me to connect to any access point I want.

I have done a lot of testing on this, even tried all of the 'desperate' nonsense solutions, but when you have an early 2008 Macbook running Lion, you can't keep wifi connected to certain access points. It's really annoying, because on the same Macbook, Snow Leopard works fine, Leopard works fine, heck even Windows Vista and Windows 7/8 work fine. Only Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, is having issues. Thus I repeat one more time:

TL;DR

Apple screwed something up and apparently won't fix it, quit making excuses.

Can't confirm.

Happel wrote:

I'm sorry, but this is just a big waste of time and the biggest pile of .... you can imagine. This problem is caused solely by Apple and Apple alone. Apple did something with (Mountain) Lion what's causing these issues, not Cisco, Linksys, Netgear or any other manufacturer of wireless routers. It's great that Apple (supposedly) is pushing 802.11n to the max, but when that means I can only connect reliably to certain hardware of certain vendors and have to mix and match that with certain firmware versions, thanks but no thanks. I'd rather have a connection which is a little bit slower, but allows me to connect to any access point I want.

I have done a lot of testing on this, even tried all of the 'desperate' nonsense solutions, but when you have an early 2008 Macbook running Lion, you can't keep wifi connected to certain access points. It's really annoying, because on the same Macbook, Snow Leopard works fine, Leopard works fine, heck even Windows Vista and Windows 7/8 work fine. Only Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, is having issues. Thus I repeat one more time:

TL;DR

Apple screwed something up and apparently won't fix it, quit making excuses.

Can you share which routers and hardware/firmware versions you have problems with? That might help others understand that their combination may present problems like yours has.

I know it's a pain, but the "standards" really are the issue. There tons of router manufacturers, and not all of them have "perfect" software running on their routers. They are fixing it continuously, and unfortunately, they don't have auto update procedures that just install/fix bugs for you. People just don't seem to understand the importance of updating router firmware. There are many router manufactures using Linux to do the "router" controls for them. It's very capable and has the right stuff. But, there are still bugs, new features and drivers that need to be managed, it's software. The consumer holds the burden, unfortunately, of doing the updates.

Buying a new "router" doesn't always create a better situation, because the newest routers always seem to have the most opportunity to have out of date software in them. Only the Apple routers that I have purchased have ever had the "newest" firmware in them (and not all of those did, but the airport management software tells you about it and you just click to fix it). Netgear, Linksys/Cisco, ubnt.com and others have always needed to have a firmware update done.

Many of them now provide a "setup CD" that will automate the update for you. If you don't use that CD (and many people don't because of the notorious adware problems with them), you need to do the update yourself.

If you don't like having to update your routers firmware and hate the incompatibiilty issue, you might spend some time crying on your router manufactures shoulder too. They share at least half the blame for these kinds of problems. If they've updated their firmware, they shipped it before with bugs, and that's a checkbox in the "bad product" box for me.

Hello you all,

I also had the problem of a disconnecting wifi while my imac was sleeping. I did not have the reconnecting issue after sleep, but the lost connection issue during sleep which made it impossible to reach my imac for things like homesharing, apple tv or remote desktop. I have a late 2012 iMac with a clean ML 10.8.2 on it and wirelessly connected to an apple time capsule (same as an airport extreme). My partner has a mid 2007 iMac, also with an ML 10.8.2 on it.

I tried every single solution I could find on the internet, such as changing the router's security from wpa2 to wpa, changing the MTU from automatic to manual 1453, router reboots, re-installations, re-configurations, keychain clean-ups, everything.

Eventually I solved my problem with these steps and now it works as a charm. I can still find the iMac with the remote app, even after 12 hours of sleep:

My time capsule router is set on automatic MTU and encrypted with WPA2 and I use the 5Ghz network!

1. Cleaned all the wifi passwords in keychain on my iMac

2. Created a new network location in system preferences

3. In this location I deleted the bluetooth pan and bluetooth dun connection.

4. In this location I changed the preferred connection-order to wifi on #1 and ethernet on #2.

5. Restarted my iMac.

Now I still have a connection when it sleeps and I can wake it to low profile using the remote app (homesharing) and everything works fine.

Hope more people wille be helped by this.

Hello you all,

I also had the problem of a disconnecting wifi while my imac was sleeping. I did not have the reconnecting issue after sleep, but the lost connection issue during sleep which made it impossible to reach my imac for things like homesharing, apple tv or remote desktop. I have a late 2012 iMac with a clean ML 10.8.2 on it and wirelessly connected to an apple time capsule (same as an airport extreme). My partner has a mid 2007 iMac, also with an ML 10.8.2 on it.

I tried every single solution I could find on the internet, such as changing the router's security from wpa2 to wpa, changing the MTU from automatic to manual 1453, router reboots, re-installations, re-configurations, keychain clean-ups, everything.

Eventually I solved my problem with these steps and now it works as a charm. I can still find the iMac with the remote app, even after 12 hours of sleep:

My time capsule router is set on automatic MTU and encrypted with WPA2 and I use the 5Ghz network!

1. Cleaned all the wifi passwords in keychain on my iMac

2. Created a new network location in system preferences

3. In this location I deleted the bluetooth pan and bluetooth dun connection.

4. In this location I changed the preferred connection-order to wifi on #1 and ethernet on #2.

5. Restarted my iMac.

Now I still have a connection when it sleeps and I can wake it to low profile using the remote app (homesharing) and everything works fine.

Hope more people wille be helped by this.

I tryed many of suggestions on my 2010 iMac. No issue on my MBA2012, but no solution on the iMac.

This is definitively a BUG FROM APPLE in mountain lion and this is incredible that Apple does not profide a fix.

Without fix I will go to linux or Windows.........

mgranger wrote:

I tryed many of suggestions on my 2010 iMac. No issue on my MBA2012, but no solution on the iMac.

This is definitively a BUG FROM APPLE in mountain lion and this is incredible that Apple does not profide a fix.

Without fix I will go to linux or Windows.........

Can you share what brand of wireless router you are using and what model number it is? That might help others find information about the same combination of issues.

Very specific as I am in France. I am using a FREEBOX v6 router (from my internet provider). In the french forums there are a lot of people with this problem, with different routers. This is why this is a problem with ML. I have no issue with Iphoes, Windows, Ipad and the problem arrived when I upgrade my iMac 2010 from 10.7.x to ML (not on my MBA???).

Troubleshooting Wi-Fi issues in OS X