Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

Hi Guys,

I had WIFI / Internet problems at home and work after upgrading to OS-X Lion.  The only way I could get WIFI to work is to turn it off and on... but it would only work for a short duration of time.

I finally got it working fast and 100% of the time by doing the following:

1. First I made a backup of the folder /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration (by backup I mean I just selected that final SystemConfiguration folder and copy + pasted it so there was a "SystemConfiguration Copy" duplicate... I didn't end up needing it but was just being safe.

2. I then deleted the original folder "SystemConfiguration"

3. I then restarted the computer: Apple Icon -> Restart

When the computer restarted I launched the browser and it worked (took a second to re-establish the WIFI connection but it works perfectly now!).

Cheers!

Adrian

Hi Guys,

Add me to the list too. iMac 21,5" newly bought a week ago. Running fine on snow leopard, then upgraded to Lion and the wifi problems started to come up. "None of your preferred networks are available". It then shows the list including my wifi networks.It does this eventhough it shows it is connected. Usually this happens when it wakes up from sleep. Need to turn off the airport then turn it on again and it works. Quite annoying though...

Cheers,

Rem

@cadman1  i changed mine from wep to wpa2 and it's been a few hours now with no drop outs.  i also ceased pinging to make sure this was fixed.  so far so good. 

thanks

i changed mine from wep to wpa2

Just a comment here: you should never even consider anything less than WPA2 or you're exposing your machine(s) and network to possible intrusions.

Same problem here...mac mini late 2009.  MacBook Pro work fine in same house, same wireless, same router, trading physical position.  Have tried multiple "fixes" here

1.  Ping

2.  System Pref/Network changes -many

3.  Energy saver and passive ftp changes

4.  Experimented with multiple browsers, ping to my router successful...DNS not problem as I've tried IP addressof Internet sites

5.  Have changed wireless channel and position of macmini as well as router (signal is fine)

all without success.

This needs a software fix

Assuming 10.7.1 is the fix we need, those of us who are reliant upon wireless will have a difficult time getting the upgrade if Internet connections drop with the same frequency as mine has <30seconds.  I guess I will be pulling cat5 through the house to support the upgrade, an ugly hack indeed.

I have the same problem. Chasing the topic for 10 days long, I've tried everything but no solution. After SL to Lion the wifi drops constantly, more than 20 times a day. Pinging to router, turning off and on the wifi, changing the primary connection type, no way.

Today something happened very interesting. I began listening to an internet radio, i won't give the adress and also it doesn't matter, but no drops for 5 hours, like a miracle! I think continuous stream changed something in a positve way. Vice versa, when i download files by JDownloader, it was again dropping, so the continuous data transfer is not the main point i think. I don't know what did the internet radio stream change but it's OK now.

By the way that, it's a shame for Apple, I can't believe how unsensible they are about this problem for nearly 20 days. I am a newbie of Mac. I was making such silly solutions with Windows at the past. I am really disappointed.

at the moment I hate my apple imac. I have the old one from summer 2010. My wireless internet connection drops every 1 minute.

I hope apple will publishe a fix very fast! Now I'm waiting more than 3 weeks. I had the problem since the first day as Lion was available.

Don't hate your Mac. 

So far, two temporary fixes appear more often than any others:

1) The 'ping'/Terminal fix.

2) The channel change on the router fix

And this new one from 'hdca' above sounds easy and intriguing.

I've also heard someone suggest, once the connection is back up, simply opening a stream from an online radio website (you can also do this inside of iTunes) and the activity alone seems enough to keep the connection open.

Try that. Try the other fixes mentioned above. They're sprinkled liberally throughout the forum.

Those that have used these report an end to the dropouts.

Good enough until a real fix comes along.

matfromchicago... see if you can unplug and replug the router (not easy in an office where many might be using it).

JTF

As a long time sufferer of wifi dropouts on my 2008 Intel iMac, I have been trawling these forums from time to time and am now taking a greater interest as the dropouts have increased since I upgraded to Lion.  I see the practical point you are making by suggesting that people use the workarounds for the time being, but you must agree that the whole issue makes Apple look like a bit of a joke!

Anyway, in the spirit of self-help which you are promoting, I started the ping in terminal last night and for a couple of hours it kept pinging without any timeouts and I could browse the web from time to time without issue.  I left my computer running overnight, and when I looked at it this morning, the ping had all of a sudden timed out during the night and never started working again - no web browsing possible.  I rebooted (but did not run the ping again) and web browsing worked again for a few minutes (several tabs open), then I went to make a coffee and came back and the wifi had died again.

I have tried the channel changes, the wake from sleep setting, the WPA2, WEP, IPv6 changes and nothing fixes the problem for good.

I do agree that doing a continuous ping or something else (i.e. using a citrix terminal connection to my work server, or watching a movie stored on my imac through my AppleTV) which keeps a constant stream of data packets going back and forth over the wifi connection does keep the wifi connection open for longer, but, in my case at least, it is not even a temporary fix, as eventually the wifi drops out (the citrix terminal will stop responding, and the movie will stop playing over the AppleTV).  I have seen this happen repeatedly with my iMac over the last few years and it has now got worse with Lion.

I guess it must be an issue with the wifi card driver, and I cannot understand why it is taking Apple so **** long to fix it or even acknowledge it is a problem!!

Sorry to hear the ping thing didn't hold for you. Wish I knew more about the technical aspects to suggest an alternative.

As for the general view, certainly, it makes Apple look like they've dropped a ball. But I'd balk at saying it makes the whole organization look like a joke. That's a bit like saying Michael Jordan doesn't know how to play basketball when all he did was miss a foul shot. 

And on the fix, Apple's been quicker before with post-OS-release fixes, it's true. This one must be trickier to pin down than the others. I've noticed, though, several in these forums saying they were contacted out of the blue by Apple... specifically to try to figure out the problem. So they're aware of it and certainly working on a patch, as you read these words.

I have recently bought an Airport Extreme Base station, to replace the Airport Express unit I was using before and, particularly if i select a 5GHz band I find that the WiFi Dropping issue i have had since upgrading to Lion on my early 2011 27inch iMac has gone away. On the 2.5GHz band, if i set it up that way it still seems to drop out sometimes but not as often as with teh Airport Express.

I still think the issue is with Lion.

However, it is interesting to see that, ast least for me, the brand new Airport Extreme on teh 5GHz band seems the most tolerant tor even imune to Lion's obvious WiFi connection issues.

On the phone with Apple Support today... He says they are aware that there is  a problem, and that I should try rebooting my wireless router. 

I didn't expect him to have a fix, as I've been through most of the suggestions presented here which have provided slightly more stability(although still not working as it should). 

I mainly called to make sure that a ticket was open on the issue.

As a longtime software developer for some large software companies, I would urge anyone with the problem to make sure they have opened a ticket with Apple so that they are aware of how many people are having an issue.  It will certainly let them see how many users are experiencing pain with this, and helps the prioritize where their efforts should be placed.

Thanks for all your suggestions, it's all a bandaid that may or may not help until Apple can address the problem.

Regards

I agree, thanks for all the suggestions, the community is great. I contacted to Apps Support by mail, explained the issue and claimed a refund for Lion. After 10 minutes I got a reply, no questions or whining. They said that in 7 days they will send the money back to my debit card account. It was so kind and customer friendly, and I am so tenderhearted that I disclaimed my refund and decided to wait for the patch, till that time I will keep on listening to online radio

This is the information for refund claimers. Apple seems treating fair about refund claims. (I am a foreigner, so maybe this attitude is due to the customer rights in USA)