Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

to clear some confusions:

- it does not matter which kind of encrytion your wifi has

- it does not matter whether wifi or ethernet

- it does not matter which dns your router uses

+ it does matter whether you specifically entered a dns (ie. opendns.com) on your mac in the network preferences

Please help us to help you.

There are a lot of WiFi centric people on this discussion board that can help.

Just posting a "me too" into this thread does little good. There posts by myself and wifiguru asking for more detailed information. If you can take the time to try what we suggested and post logging, that will help a lot.

Same problem here with a Mid-2010 Mac Mini. Using an old Linsys 54G router (WRT54G). Don't want to be another "me too" post but I have 2 points to add:

1. I ran DP4 on a seperate partition before upgrading to Lion and I did not have any issues. Although to be fair, I would only run DP4 for an hour here or there, unlike my main install which is up 24/7.

2. When my wifi goes out, it seems to take out the connection from my iPhone and a coworkers iPhone. (4 and 3GS).

I'm following the process written up by Darryl Mylrea on page 2. Will report if I have issues later on.

Daniel,

In your case, it would be interesting if you could get a tcpdump when you see your connection is down. That will help determine whether it is a stack or driver issue. Here is what I would do:

1. Open a terminal

2. do sudo chmod 666 /dev/bpf* then sudo tcpdump -i en0 -s0 -vv -w ~/Desktop/capture.pcap (use en0 for wired and en1 for wireless if you are using a portable, other than an Air. If you are using an Air, just use en0 for wireless)

3. leave that window open and running and go about your browsing (trying to replicate the problem).

4. Once your Mac is in the troubled stated, try to hit a few websites or even better ping the website

5. Go back to the tcpdump window and hit ctl-c. You will now have a packet capture on your desktop. Download a copy of wireshark. After wireshark downloads and you install it, double click on the capture.pcap file. If you tried to ping, just type icmp in the filter field and hit return. See if you can see any of the pings to the addresses you tried.

When my wifi drops (or Lion thinks it has dropped) i can't access internet with Safari or Mail, but with Camino i can.

RMalay,

when this happens the next time, can you get the output of this command: ( Run this in Terminal)

arp -an

Paste the output here.

Thanks, that worked!

This is exactly what is happening with my imac. It doesn't have anything to do with the router - there is clearly a problem with os x lion as multiple types of hardware appear to be affected, which were fine with snow leopard.

Definitely a driver issue since it occurs when using the Recovery partition.

Similar problems with my Macbook Pro 15" Mid 2010 - Even if I boot to the new Lion recovery partition I cannot access my wifi network. I have done the SMC reset, PRAM reset and the only thing that I've found that'll allow me to reconnect is to either turn off wifi for a few minutes or shutdown for a few minutes. Once its back up and connected the connection is painfully slow.

Have also rebooted my Airport Express and Time Machine and changed the channel settings on each.

Thanks andrewfromwycombe, your solution works for me as well. Brilliant!

I believe DNS has nothing to do with it as I was using google public DNS all along.

Cheers

No dice for me, andrewfromwycombe. Constantly pinging e.g. my default gateway keeps the link alive, but nothing else.

Hi wifiguru,

I have disabled power savings, no luck. The only way to keep the link opened seems to be constantly sending traffic (for instance by pinging my default gateway). Otherwise, my WiFi link does not stay up for more than ~ 10 seconds.

That's a bit short to be an ARP refresh problem, so it really looks like it is deeper down in the stack (802.11n).

I typed the command you asked for. Here is when I think I am losing my link:

Thu Jul 21 21:20:16.755 <kernel> vap-0: ieee80211_vap_iter_beacon_miss: Beacon miss, do internal reset!!

Thu Jul 21 21:20:16.755

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.83 <kernel> vap-0: ieee80211_vap_iter_beacon_miss: HW iv_bmiss_count=1 reset=2 max=3 arg=00000000 swbmiss=1

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.83

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.86 <kernel> vap-0: clear beacon miss. frm type=00, subtype=80

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.86

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.803 <kernel> vap-0: mlme_sta_swbmiss_timer_handler: SW Beacon miss!!

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.803

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.803 <kernel> vap-0: ieee80211_vap_iter_beacon_miss: SW iv_bmiss_count=0 reset=2 max=3 arg=0xffffff8014ef0004 swbmiss=1

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.803

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.803 <kernel> vap-0: 8499.895 | ieee80211_vap_iter_beacon_miss: count=0 probe=1 beacon:18446743523953738445ms directed:18446743523953738375ms data:18446743523953738376ms ap_frame:18446743523953738375ms traffic_ind:18446743523953740553ms

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.803

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.803 <kernel> vap-0: ieee80211_vap_iter_beacon_miss: Beacon miss, do internal reset!!

Thu Jul 21 21:20:17.803

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.130 <kernel> vap-0: ieee80211_vap_iter_beacon_miss: HW iv_bmiss_count=1 reset=2 max=3 arg=00000000 swbmiss=1

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.130

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.133 <kernel> vap-0: clear beacon miss. frm type=00, subtype=80

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.133

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.849 <kernel> vap-0: mlme_sta_swbmiss_timer_handler: SW Beacon miss!!

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.849

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.849 <kernel> vap-0: ieee80211_vap_iter_beacon_miss: SW iv_bmiss_count=0 reset=2 max=3 arg=0xffffff8014ef0004 swbmiss=1

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.849

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.849 <kernel> vap-0: 8500.941 | ieee80211_vap_iter_beacon_miss: count=0 probe=1 beacon:18446743523953738444ms directed:18446743523953738172ms data:18446743523953738173ms ap_frame:18446743523953738172ms traffic_ind:18446743523953738430ms

Thu Jul 21 21:20:18.849

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.16 <configd[15]> _bsd_80211_event_callback: LINK_QUALITY (en1)

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.16 <configd[15]> __AirPortOpportunisticRoamTriggerRSSI: <en1> Opportunistic Roam : Current RSSI <-64>, Last Opp Roam RSSI <-70>

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.16 <configd[15]> __AirPortOpportunisticRoamTriggerRSSI: <en1> Opportunistic Roam : Destination BSSID <FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF>

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.16 <configd[15]> __AirPortOpportunisticRoamTriggerRSSI: <en1> Opportunistic Roam : Next Attempt for this BSSID <-64>

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17 <kernel> vap-0: connection_sm_roam_check_timer_handler: roam check cur rssi 33 rssi thresh 23 policy 3 last_scan_rssi 0 rssi_change_thresh 7

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17 <kernel> vap-0: HSM: connection :current state CONNECTED event BGSCAN_START[6]

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17 <kernel> vap-0: HSM: connection: transition CONNECTED => BGSCAN

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17 <kernel> vap-0: HSM: connection :current state BGSCAN event ROAM_CHECK[11]

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17 <kernel> vap-0: HSM: connection : event 11 not handled in state BGSCAN

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17 <kernel> vap-0: ieee80211_state_event: VAP state event 2

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17 <kernel> vap-0: ieee80211_connection_sm_scan_evhandler event 0 reason 0

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17 <kernel> vap-0: HSM: connection :current state BGSCAN event SCAN_START[9]

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.17

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.27 <kernel> vap-0: mlme_sta_swbmiss_timer_disable: swbmiss disabled by SCANNER curmask 0x1

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.27

Thu Jul 21 21:20:19.27 <kernel> vap-0: ieee80211_connection_sm_scan_evhandler event 6 reason 0

I realize that my RSSI is not that great, but I really had no problem prior to my upgrade to Lion (iMac Core i7, 8 GB RAM).

Similar to others, after upgrading my iMac (27in Late 2009) from SL to Lion, I immediately began to experience frequent and consistent internet access loss. Turning off Wi-Fi radio and back on would reconnect for a few mins / secs before losing access. In this state, network status would show connected and the WiFi diagnostics would show good signal at all times but Safari and Firefox would timeout to the internet. Ping would timeout to both internet IP addresses (e.g. Google 8.8.8.8) and my own local network (192.168.1.*). However, I have two other MacBooks running SL, two WinXPs, two iPads, two iPhones and two printers plus TV, game console all connected wirelessly with no issues on this same wireless router (WRT400N firmware 1.0.01B19). I also have two NAS devices hardwired into the router also with no problems. Hopelessly addicted to technology ;-)

I attempted rebuilding the Network Preferences for WiFi and for the SSID / WPA2 passphrase for my network. I switched from DHCP assigned IPs to static IP and hardcoded DNS IPs. Per suggestions from other posts, I ensured that no antivirus or firewalls were running. With no change in symptoms.

My problem was resolved by upgrading the Linksys WRT400N router firmware to the most current 1.0.02B11. I was not methodical enought to try recycling the power on the router before the FW upgrade to see if that alone would fix it. Once I saw that I had not upgraded the router FW from its out-of-the-box state, I knew I should get it current.

At any rate, I hope this discourse helps someone else.

Best regards to the community and thanks for the suggestions that kept me going.

Thanks! That worked and has been stable for the last 2 hours. I also made the change on my MacBook after the first incident and it has also been fine.

My router is a Cisco/Linksys WRT160Nv2 running v2.0.02. My Lion is migrated from SL.

The problem happens both in (WRT160Nv2 side) mixed mode and b only.

I tried the "last resort" of removing the plist files, it did not help.

I am running WPA2-personnal that usually works fine.

This is not a DNS problem, as pinging my default gateway by IP address breaks.