Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

togume,

Yes, you defined the problem exactly perfect. The wi-fi stays connected but all the internet activity halts. At the previous page, I've confirmed that after I deleted SystemConfiguration folder and gave a restart, it worked for me. More than hours of working, everything is the same again, it's a shame.

When the computer goes to sleep and wakes up, this time the wi-fi connection drops and tries to connect the wireless network again, differently from above.

These are the key problems which 95% of the people are suffering I suppose. I agree with Fred, a computer without internet connectivity is like a car without wheels. It's really annoying now, we paid 29,99 dollars and can't connect to the internet. Come on dudes, it's year 2011, not the stone age!

SOLUTION FOR WIFI CONNECTION ON LION

This looks like the answer to poor wifi on Lion - I have just installed the 10.6.4 kernel extensions for airport as per these instructions and my wifi connection is SOLID. Back to 8011 n only and transmit rates at 300 (max) rather than 8011 n (b/g compatible and transmit rates of 120-130). Also network connect is solid after sleep and shut down, so matfromchicago and earlier posts/threads get the kudos for solving this massive Lion issue.

Follow the instructions here or at  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2644274, and here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2644274?start=465&tstart=0 (look close to bottom of page) with another post from matfromchicago and more details on the problematic kernel extension.

This MAY NOT solve your particular problem, but it seems to be working for everyone who replaces the Lion wifi kernel extension with the one from SL!!

I have managed to recreate the error (I have been error free for nearly a week) and the go back to normal operations again.

What I did was:

Error mode: set Channel to AUTO

Working mode: set Channel fixed to 5.

pls try it and verify yourself, but make sure you have a cable to connect your Mac to your APE, because when you can't get a wifi connection you can't change the channel either.

EJW Tas wrote:

 

SOLUTION FOR WIFI CONNECTION ON LION

 

This looks like the answer to poor wifi on Lion - I have just installed the 10.6.4 kernel extensions for airport as per these instructions and my wifi connection is SOLID. Back to 8011 n only and transmit rates at 300 (max) rather than 8011 n (b/g compatible and transmit rates of 120-130). Also network connect is solid after sleep and shut down, so matfromchicago and earlier posts/threads get the kudos for solving this massive Lion issue.

Note that this is a hugely dangerous thing to do.

If it works, you're just lucky - the underlying interfaces often change, especially between OS releases, and performing this operationmay cause future Lion updates not to apply properly.

In short, by doing this you are creating a completely unsupported, very possibly unstable system for yourself.

Use at your own substantial risk.

SO SICK OF RESTARTING ROUTER!!!

My laptop running Leopard has no issues, Iphone no issues, Wife's Mac book no issues.  My lovely 27 IMAC crashes the wifi.  This only seems to happen whilst video is playing (utube etc..).

Router restart works fine for between 1-10 mins then its gone.....

APPLE SORT THIS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone suggesting running a continous ping.  I copied their code into terminal yesterday afternoon, and I haven't lost my connection since.  That line of code was

ping `route get default | awk '(/gateway/){print $2}'`

The ping solution, the very last thing I tried, was the thing that worked for me.  The other Mac that was running wirelessly also has maintained its connection, but I did something different on it. I've tried so many different things, I don't even remember what I did to the other one.

I would have tried installing the 10.6.4 kernel extensions next, but since I'm maintaining a connection now I'm going to leave well enough alone.

Come on guys, this is just a bug, fix it already Having the same problem as everyone,

MacBook Pro (17-inch 2.4GHz)

When can we expect to download the 10.7.1 update that will solve these WIFI problems???????!!!!!!!!!

Apple is not able to provide official information about this issue?

Apple is working on a solution, (as you can see from multiple posts above) but any changes need to be tested to make sure they won't cause problems with systems that don't have the issue. (Personal opinion/experience) I'd rather wait longer and have it fixed correctly rather than have a fix rushed out that causes more problems. 

I just spoke to Apple support who said I have 90 days free support since upgrading to lion.

I told him I had done a new location, changed the wireless channel, done a ping which eventually dropped out, tried nearly all the fixes/workarounds mentioned on these forums.

He told me to do the following:

1.  Unplug all cables from the iMac, including the power, for 10seconds, and then plug them back in.

2.  He then made me locate the Cmd, Alt, R and P keys and told me that I shoudl turn on the iMac and immediately hold down these keys and keep them held down until the iMac had made the 'power-on' chiming sound three (3) times in a row.

3.  Then release the keys and let the iMac start up as per normal.

I did this.

The first difference is that I am able to turn off the wireless, then turn it on, and it will reconnect to the router.  My iMac has NEVER done this before.  It would never be able to even find, let alone reconnect to the router once I turned the wifi off and back on.  So this was an exciting development.  I tried it a few times - wifi off, on, off, on - and each time it reconnected to the router without any problem.

Then I put the iMac to sleep and woke it up.  It reconnected to the router fine.  Now the test is to leave the iMac alone for an hour or two and see if it is still connected when I come back to it - THIS WILL BE THE REAL TEST AS PREVIOUSLY IT ALWAYS DISCONNECTS WHEN I LEAVE IT ALONE FOR A WHILE AND THE ONLY WAY I CAN RECONNECT TO THE ROUTER IS TO REBOOT.

I will keep you posted but I am quite excited at the moment as I have had this problem for the last three years (and it got a lot worse since I upgraded to lion).

Cheers

Using the ping for over a week now and it's been ok. One drop of wifi during the week required power cycling the router. Otherwise, ping seems to work to keep the link alive.

Apple support contacted me (unsolicited) to see if I'd be willing to help them work through this. Just letting you all know - Apple clearly knows there is an issue and they are trying to solve it.

Hopefully something will be indentified soon as the root cause so it can be addressed. In the interim, the ping workaround seems to be ok so I'll just leave it running. Funny thing is, everything seems to be working faster than before - can't help but wonder if there has been an underlying network problem for awhile

the Cmd, Alt, R and P keys solution suggested by charles260 worked for me also.

Many thanks

I called into apple care and the rep offered a solution the problem which worked perfectly. 

He mentioned that 7.1 would fix the issue for new users going forward.

Steps to Fix

1. Open Network Preferences

2. Click Advanced

3. Remove ALL of the Preferred Networks (should be completely empty when completed)

4. Ensure that Remember Networks is checked

5. Click OK

6. Select your network in the Network Name dropdown menu

7. Ensure that Ask to join networks is checked

8. click Apply

9. Restart your computer

at this point you should be good to go!

My version of the problem has taken an unusual turn. Sometimes in Lion my wifi will abruptly drop (we have three other Macs, all running Snow Leopard, and they never have this problem). However, if I am working offline and ignore the problem, wifi sometimes abruptly reconnects with no action on my part (can't say how long it takes). Odd.

This worked for mi late 2009 iMac!! What a relief.