Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

Doesnt matters Why is the problem, leave this to apple, the fix is downgrade the kext wifi to snow leopard version.

And anywaty, "you cant make a car if the actual fuel will not work well... "

I reposted a comprehensive subject about how I solved my problem here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4233962

I also sent a feedback directly to Apple. Hope they can fix it universally.

After having issues for weeks losing my connection sometimes several times an hour I CAN CONFIRM that after upgrading to 10.8.1 I've not had the issue even once in almost 24 hours.

Don

iMac Mid-2011

Had an old Linksys router, had the same problem, then it went away after I updated with a Mac Wifi update or something, I forgot, but last week I got a new Cisco EA4500 router which is meant to be pretty advanced, but I've found that the wifi has started to drop randomly every minute or so.

How can I fix this?

I'm not saying this about you but to the posters that are telling every one to go out and buy the newest and best router.  I've been replying back to them to stop telling people to go out and replace their Routers because they think it's an Apple conspiracy forcing us to upgrade.  That's not the fix so don't waste your money on an fix that doesn't work.

I'm happy you posted that it didn't work so people will see.  I'm not happy that you're still dropping wifi.

I don't know why you replaced your router and it doesn't matter.  Just thanks for posting new routers aren't the answer.

I can confirm that I went from dropping wifi every 24-48 hours to 6 hours after I upgraded to 10.8.1.  I've passed that onto Apple.

Is this fix (Snow Leopard) still working for everyone that tried it?  Does any one know exactly what changes it is making?  What's different from ML? 

gsspike wrote:

 

I'm not saying this about you but to the posters that are telling every one to go out and buy the newest and best router.  I've been replying back to them to stop telling people to go out and replace their Routers because they think it's an Apple conspiracy forcing us to upgrade.  That's not the fix so don't waste your money on an fix that doesn't work.

 

I'm happy you posted that it didn't work so people will see.  I'm not happy that you're still dropping wifi.

I don't know why you replaced your router and it doesn't matter.  Just thanks for posting new routers aren't the answer.

What people are saying, is that new routers sometimes solve the problem.  Most likely that happens because something changes in how they are using WiFi.  The security mode, the channel, or even the location, relative to some other form of interferring signal.

What is really going on, is that people without the technical background to understand how all the pieces work, are trying one piece here or there, and not finding a solution.  Instead, they should be working on understanding which part of the complex stack of technologies is failing, so that they can then be able to pin point how to solve the problem.

Getting people to talk openly in the formums is a rarity.  The other night, I did successfully walk through helping "MacsSa" walk through steps to figure out that his ISP had a problem with DNS processing, or DHCP wasn't working to completely populate the needed information to make his network work.

That tedium is sometimes what is necessary.  Not everyone is having the same problem, but it appears that some of the problems might, by accident, have a common solution.

If you want to really solve the problem, then you need to work on the problem resolution steps first.  If you don't find the real problem, then a solution is going to be hard to find, without PURE luck.

changing ISP has worked several hours for me and I had not problems up to now. As "gphonei" said, there was a good discussion betwen them some days ago. . I think a guy named Augend ( or something like that, as I couldn't find those discussions here) said he had changed his ISP and had not any problem for several months and "gphonei" guided "MacsSa" in this case which led to his solution. We have 2 phone lines ( one general and another for my daughter's bed room) . yesterday I made a new contraction from another ISP on the line on my daughter's bed room and put the router on that. It is about 8 hours that they installed the new line and I had not even one disconnection . I have crossed my fingers and continually tapping wood !

Nice to hear that !

But you have done a risk to your wallet !.  Although this worked for me and you ,I dont advise others to do that unless they have tested the new ISP before changing it . First go to a friend's home with a different ISP and test the connection, then do that if you want.

Just dropped wifi again since 10.8.1 update.

Do you have access to VPN or Proxifier ? If so, check if the connection drops with them ? those days that I had this problem and before I get rid of the problem , I could connect to internet by VPN without any issues . ( I know it is not a complete solution, but can make some sense ; at least better than nothing or can help others to find the source of the problem. ) . try OpenVPN or something with free trial version. they give you a 100MB trial which is enough for testing. ( I am not suggesting to use VPN permanently, Just please report the test result )

Well I had a nice long reply all typed in and I hit send and everything locked and wifi dropped.  I'm saying pretty much the same thing, we need to post our finding and problems not trash apple or insist you have the only fix.  

People have convinced unknowing others to buy a new router, change lines of code, remove any trace of certain programs.

I've spent hours on the phone with apple engineers trying different fixes and running test, so I know a little of what's going on.  Apple also said that the wifi issue is affecting different programs on different machines.  So when people are insisting it's certain program causing the issue Apple say's they're right and wrong.   It's the wifi issue causing those programs to act up on that/those machines.  It's an affect not the cause and that affect is to make that program drop wifi and sometimes lock the system.  Yes deleting that program might fix some of those machines but it was the wifi issue that caused that program to lock up that machine and drop wifi.  If that makes any sense, It certainly does to me.

I have MB late 2008 and try all solution to make my wifi work after update to 10.8....change MTU, delete wifi config and create new, rem. all wifi access data from keychain, downgrade to SL kext but nothing work for me on 10.8.1 (SL kext not support AirDrop)...Only way to stay connected is to ping some public IP. To do this open Terminal and type "ping 8.8.8.8" (without quote), minimize terminal and your WiFi should work now !

Excuse my ignorance. what do you mean by Terminal?

thanks for clarifying this and bringing some light :-)