Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

I've been having a similar problem with 10.7 and 10.8 Powerbooks. Conncect for a minute, drop for a mintue, repeat. What has fixed it is deleting Network Preferences->Wi Fi->Advanced->Proxies and then delete any "Bypass proxy settings..." and unclicked "Use Passive FTP". Not sure unclicking "Use Passive..." is needed.

I have a 2011 imac running Mountain Lion. This just started happening to me (connection to wifi constantly dropping, had to restart machine in order to reconnect) and nothing fixed it until I found this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTiQRtUeNRA

Works swimmingly now, hope that's true for you!

I have a 2012 macbook pro with OS X 10.8.4 (12E55), a ASUS RT-AC66U, and I've been experiencing problems while copying large amounts of data from my macbook to my NAS. What appears to be working for me was enabling the QOS function on my router. I'm not sure why that is helping or what it has changed, but I thought I'd add it here in case it sparks any thoughts. Thanks!

I am sure this post will annoy everynie on this forum, but I am a brand new mac user. I have never had problems with my wifi on my pc and my brand new macbook pro is constantly dropping out. I know the issue is not my router. I assume this is a bug. The problem for me is that because I do not know my way around the setting, etc in a mac I cannot quickly change them. Can anyone direct me to a step by step list of things to try to fix the issue of the wifi cutting in and out. As if a 5 year old is changing the settings - nothing is intuitive for me since I have been a pc user all my life!!

This forum was created for issues with WiFi in early versions of Lion (10.7) in certain machines with certain routers. Those issues are well over a year old now. Anyone purchasing a new Mac will have Mountain Lion (10.8), and will not be affected in any way by this issue. You should probably check out the Mountain Lion forums if you have need.

That said, I will do my best to point you in the right direction Sheri. Networking runs on some sort of dark voodoo magic, and it is frequently very difficult to say why one thing works and another does not. You may want to try calling AppleCare. They are generally pretty helpful, and your computer should have come with 90 days of free phone support.

If you want to putz around yourself, all of the system settings you will be messing with are in the Apple menu in the top left corner, under "System Preferences". Once you are in System Preferences, you will see a variety of options, ranging from simple personalization to more technical aspects of the machine (this is essentially your Control Panel from Windows). You want the one labeled "Network".

There are a lot of options and information under the Network panel, so I'm not sure where to direct you from there. You might try googling your specific computer, your specific OS version, and your specific router. See if anything useful comes up.

What router are you using?

Ubee DDW 3610. I have fairly high speed internet and my cable company Time Warner provides the modem for the service I have - I have no choice in the matter.

All I can contribute is that your router must be 802.11n compliant. I briefly looked up your router ongoogle but could not find it the specs. A little searching should find it. THe most common problem is that many router companies did not adopt the technology necessary for something called Bonjour SLeep Proxy protocol - which Apple started using with Snow Leopard.

Anyhow find out if your router is 802.11 (n) compliant. The "n" is important

thanks - I will check this or call the cable company if I have to....

Sheri Hammerstrom wrote:

I am sure this post will annoy everynie on this forum, but I am a brand new mac user. I have never had problems with my wifi on my pc and my brand new macbook pro is constantly dropping out. I know the issue is not my router. I assume this is a bug. The problem for me is that because I do not know my way around the setting, etc in a mac I cannot quickly change them. Can anyone direct me to a step by step list of things to try to fix the issue of the wifi cutting in and out. As if a 5 year old is changing the settings - nothing is intuitive for me since I have been a pc user all my life!!

Do not assume that because anything, such as your router, is new,.that it will function correctly. Routers from a large number of manufactures have various problems, all of which cause them to reboot with no abandon, as the manufactures have implemented such mechanisms to try and at least recover from bugs in a timely manner.

Here's some things to do.

1) When you network connection goes down, try to ping your router. You can look in Network Preferences to find out what your router's address is. It will typically be visible on the "Advanced" page that has a button you can click to open, when you select the "WiFi" network in System Preferences->Network.

2) Look on the manufactures website for your router/modem. Find the manual. Figure out how to get into the administration pages and see what version of "firmware" it has. Look on the manufactures web site for any upgrades, and install them.

3) Call your ISP and tell them your modem/router keeps rebooting and interrupting your internet service (or what ever is going on with it because of what you find out in (1) above. Ask them to please upgrade the firmware to the most stable version, or instruct you in how to do that.

I just can not understate the real issue with WiFi is compatibility with 802.11n, and "Stable" software in the router. Apple has exactly one codebase to work on, and they've been refining it and fixing bugs, and I know that I have 5 macs in my family that have zero WiFi issues now, using Netgear and Ubnt.com routers. I have cisco/linksys at work that reboots all the time. I upgraded a ubnt.com router in my office today which had started rebooting to a point release of software that was less than a month old.

Routers are computers, plain and simple. They have software in them, which must be managed and maintained, and perodically, bugs are finally fixed for many of them, and you need to keep watching for those bug fixes and install them.

As someone else pointed out above, Google for your make and model router/modem and see how others are dealing with this problem. Only if you find zero reports of problems on Google and Bing and the apple forums, for your router, would I even start to worry about messing with your computer.

thanks for your help. I contacted Time Warner tech support to find out if my modem is 802.11n compliant and the tech guy changed some settings from his end. I will see how this goes and then if I still have issues, I will use your step by step guide. Thanks so much.

also - my modem was compliant and I don't know which settings he changed, but maybe it will help.

Did you ever get this fixed?

I had the issue while using my own wireless gateway (built into the modem). The specs looked good, everything looked good, so I shouldn't have had the issue....but I did. I called my Internet provider, and had them send me one of THEIR modems with built in wireless gateway router. Ever since I swapped it out, I have not had any drop outs.

My modems were Motorola SBG901 and SBG6580, and I had drop outs on both. I swapped it out for an Arris modem that Comcast sent me (can't remember the model, but it's an all-in-one modem/wireless gateway/VoIP MTA with battery backup).

I've also since upgraded to Mountain Lion, and now Maverick. Still no drop outs. I'm happy.🙂

I am having an issue with my macbook pro purchased in Feb. 2013 and running the latest version of Mavericks (10.9.2) with random repeated dropped Wifi signal. Problem occurs with multiple WiFi routers and locations and other machine/devices in the same area connected to the same signal are unaffected. After two days of chat support (which cost me $19 each time, because I am traveling outside of the US) and lots of testing, including:

reseting SMC

reseting PRAM

clearing out keychain passwords

clearing saved networks

setting priority on network ports

setting inactive on non wifi ports

deleting all files in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

seeing the problem with a new user

seeing the problem in safe mode

seeing the problem in the OS reinstall mode

It was determined that my problem was hardware related and needed to be serviced. Also, because I am traveling and will not be back in the US for several months this will be an out of pocket expense for me. I spoke with Customer Care and complained about the poor quality and the fact that this issue started so quickly after my 1 year warranty expired (less than a month), and while they offered to recover the costs of repair, if I could bring the machine back to the US, they could offer me nothing while I am traveling, even though the repair would be covered world-wide under apple care. I asked if they could apply apple care now, I even offered to buy it, to ensure that I would be covered while I am traveling, in case something else goes wrong (which I am fairly certain is bound to happen).

I am so unimpressed with the quality of apple's mac books as of late that I do not plan on buying apple products again. This is the second macbook pro that I've had in less than two years with hardware problems that I ended up having to pay to repair, both less than 2 years old. Apple had a chance to make things right for me by either offering to cover the machine under apple care, or at the VERY LEAST allowing me to purchase it now, but sadly these are not options and I am left with a very expensive laptop that is prone to hardware failures, and even more expensive to fix. Sorry to say, but after years of cheerleading apple products I think Im ready to start looking elsewhere.