Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

Same problem here.  Wifi was perfect with snow leopard and now drops constantly with lion.  So with everyone having the same problem this is obviously an iOS problem.  Does anyone have a solution??  This is no small issue!  This needs to be fixed today.

Mikejfix wrote:

 

Same problem here.  Wifi was perfect with snow leopard and now drops constantly with lion.  So with everyone having the same problem this is obviously an iOS problem.  Does anyone have a solution??  This is no small issue!  This needs to be fixed today.

This conclusion simply isn't valid; coincidence does not indicate causality.

I've stated several times in several posts how this can happen and not be iOS/Mac OS X's fault.

Have you tried the obvious number one debugging step and made sure your router's firmware is the most up-to-date available from its manufacturer?

I've posted it at least twice before but IF you have a late 2009 iMac (you can see this from About This Mac->More Info...) then the problem is in the upgraded Lion driver for your Atheros wi-fi card.  It seems Apple updated this driver to add the Air Drop capability but the side effect is that it causes the wi-fi dropping,  Simply revert to the Snow Leopard version of the driver (easy, see link below) and all is well except your AirDrop will go away - a small price to pay IMO for a working wi-fi.  I have certified this multiple times.  Go here for the only solution that really works: http://rys.sommefeldt.com/2011/09/04/osx-lion-wifi.html.

There may be more than one problem reported on this discussion for sure, and some may be not Apple's fault, but this one 100% for sure is.  But if you have a Late 2009 iMac with the Atheros wi-fi chip set and everything went south once Lion was installed, this should work for you.

Sorry I don't buy it...  this is an OS issue.   When I reboot into Snow Leopard it simply works.  NO PROBLEM! 

Same computer, same wi-fi, same everything except Snow Leopard instead of Lion!   I cannot accept it is not Lion. 

Here is hoping Mountain Lion is a winner.

I solved my problem by hard wiring up the house with CAT-5.  Got tired of waiting.  Connection speeds are simply amazing. 

Mike

250,000 posts and counting....

Well, installing the kext.app seems to have done the trick with my MacBook but my iMac still refuses to connect. I've had the wifi dropping issue ever since I upgraded to lion but at least with the MacBook i've been able to successfully use my wifi after a safe boot followed by another reboot. The iMac however responds to nothing, any ideas?

I can't believe this issue has still not been resolved!! I gave up trying to fix it months ago and content myself with turning wi-fi off and on every time I start/wake up my imac. It's an inconvenience but clearly Apple are clueless as to the cause else they'd have fixed it long ago.

What gets me is that Apple pretends everything just fine in the land of proprietary operating systems.

Bill

I've had a similar problem in a way in that running Lion 10.7.4 on a mid-2011 Mac Mini I could access WiFi OK, albeit with a weakish signal (RSSI -73), but any connection via ethernet was impossible although all the values in the Network pane appeared fine. I could not even access the Netgear modem/router itself with the usual 192.168.0.1.

I finally came upon a suggestion on OSXDaily <http://osxdaily.com/2011/11/06/lion-wi-fi-problems-solution-mac/> and, that was it, both ethernet and Wifi connecting normally. Swapping back and forth between the two - fine! And so simple, create a new location with the same values as the Auto location, refresh DHCP, and that was it.

Not to be able to access via ethernet but via WiFi seemed crazy. YMMV but for me it was the answer!

July 2, 2012

I have bought a new iPad and new Macbook Air within the last three months. Both drop the wifi (and misspell my correctly spelled words for me such as wifi, 'not wife' thank you)  at the same time and pick it up again. My Acer cheapo computer does just fine thank you. I've tried all the fixes that have been posted here and elsewhere and even bought a new modem/router and changed channels, etc etc. etc. Nothing has changed.  Guess how many of my patients a day (i have 25) I tell not to buy Apple proucts. I will never ever buy another Apple product.

Troubleshooting Wi-Fi issues in OS X Lion

dpmptpac wrote:

 

July 2, 2012

I have bought a new iPad and new Macbook Air within the last three months. Both drop the wifi (and misspell my correctly spelled words for me such as wifi, 'not wife' thank you)  at the same time and pick it up again. My Acer cheapo computer does just fine thank you. I've tried all the fixes that have been posted here and elsewhere and even bought a new modem/router and changed channels, etc etc. etc. Nothing has changed.  Guess how many of my patients a day (i have 25) I tell not to buy Apple proucts. I will never ever buy another Apple product.

Make sure you are using Apple's proper support channels.  You need to be calling the 1-800 number and using AppleCare to make sure you document an problems you have.  Apple will try and support things that they understand to be issues.  This particular problem has gone on for a while, primarily because there was not enough noise made for Apple to take note, on their usual support paths.  They don't use this forum for support, they let the users support each other on these forums.

In the PC world, people are used to Microsoft providing no support, and think that forums are the place to go, because the problem is almost always a driver problem, or something where another vendor is supporting the hardware in question.

Microsoft relies on the hardware vendors to tell them about big issues that need addressing, and there is a much more formalized channel between the vendors and MS, than between users and MS.

Apple depends on Apple Care and the Genius bar to bring the user problems to the attention of the developers.  I understand that a recent call for support by a couple of universities has got the attention of Apple, based on reports in the forums.  Hopefully a fix is comming directly.

This does not help. I've seen man many others report this to Apple. It does not help. A couple thousand bucks out the window. Back to my $300 Acer! Slow, but at least that works all the time. Back to talking to my patients and save them money too.

dpmptpac wrote:

 

This does not help. I've seen man many others report this to Apple. It does not help. A couple thousand bucks out the window. Back to my $300 Acer! Slow, but at least that works all the time. Back to talking to my patients and save them money too.

It does work, but only when everyone having the problem doesn't give up.  I've read of many people giving up here and saying it doesn't work, and that they stopped talking to Apple about it.  You can't do that.  You have to just keep going.  Does it take time, yes.  Did you ask to speak to someone higher up?  Did you talk to people at an Apple Store, or did you call Apple Care?  Without real tracking and counts of problems, there's really no way for Apple to discover how big the problem is.

It is directly related to how the driver reports and recovers from "noisy" WiFi environments, based on what can be gleaned from the reports here.  If Apple is missing testing in an environment that specifically demonstrates the problem, they can see it, or know to fix it.  RF is very complicated and RF signals interact in sometimes very odd ways (3rd order intermodulation for example, as well as multipath creating multiple copies of the same signal).

In the end, I know this is painful and no fun at all.  But, doing the same thing, and expecting different results is exactly the definition of idiocy, and I don't think you are actually an idiot, but laziness or lack of action can create the same problems.

From the read of it all,  Apple knows quite well what is what already. What motivates them to fix the problem is beyond me. I've spent dozens and dozens of hours on this: returning to the stores,  talking to "support help", visiting official Mac repair shops, spending more gas, time and money to buy yet another excellent expensive router and varying the settings with that one too, calling Comcast (and their wait times and transfers) , getting off work to see their rep out here twice trying to figure this out, cable changes, electrical connections, replace parts, talking with other Applse users and try their suggestions  and of course, the hours on-line, attempting the changes suggested, etc and now this with you is not at all worth the price anymore.  Chatting with yet another  support specialist will not give me any new insight. Thank you for your suggestions and civility. Go in peace.

My Acer  and my Android phone can do the trick and be more consistent with wifi and for under 400 hundred dollars. They seemed to have figured out all this RF and wifi stuff already.  Call Acer up and ask them how it works. Just a suggestion. Good day.