Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

I've done nearly all of the things (including PRAM zapping) suggested on this thread, and my wireless is quite reliable now EXCEPT when I awaken my iMac from sleep and Time Machine starts a backup with Time Capsule. I nearly always lose contact then. I am avoiding this by manually controlling my Time Machine backups (instead of automatic hourly). There is a connection to this problem with Time Machine/Time Capsule which Apple still needs to address.

I have been on the phone with APPLE CARE this morning and they were very helpful and enabled me to fix my wifi issues.

Before speaking with APPLE CARE I tried so many of the unusual little tricks on this board (and others) which seemed to be working uniquely for certain people. It turns out the problem in my case isn't LION as such, or my WiFi rather it's to do with the SECURITY on my ROUTER.

I had an old MacBook at home which was very useful as I was easily able to make the adjusments on my Router through this to then later allow my new iMac (LION) to log on etc.

I'm using a NETGEAR router, but the procedure will be much the same for other routers etc.

What I did was sign in to my router (on my older MacBook in my case):

http://192.168.0.1

Put it my USERNAME and PASSWORD (which, by the way, is usually:

USERNAME: admin

PASSWORD: password

Then selected WIRELESS SETTINGS.

Within WIRELESS SETTINGS there is a subheading entitled WIRELESS SECURITY.

Within WIRELESS SECURITY there are four options:

1) Disable

2) WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

3) WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key)

4) WPA-802.1x

I had

2) WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)

!! THIS WAS THE PROBLEM !!

According to APPLE:

WEP is being used less frequently as it appears to be not as SECURE as it's contemporaries (namely WPA etc). As a result LION struggles to communicate with the router using this security. BUT the good news is it CAN be easily changed!

For a home setup Option 3:

3) WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key)

Seems to be the best option. Option 4 is a for a bigger setup (I wasn't listening too much, but apparently it's more suited to businesses using their own servers/networks etc?!).

Next things we did was:

SELECT OPTION 3:

3) WPA-PSK (Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key)

After selecting it asked me to enter a new password, so I did.

Then I selected APPLY (or SAVE depending on your router). It took a minute to load...

Then I went on to my new iMac (LION) clicked on

SYSTEM PREF > NETWORK > ADVANCED and REMOVED (pressing the negative / '-' symbol) the network I've been struggling to get on for the last two days.

Then ADDED (pressing the positive / '+' symbol) a 'new' network giving it the same title obviously as the one I had just deleted. It'll ask what SECURITY you want of the options, but just leave it as 'None' (as your WiFi will work it out itself). After this press ADD, then OK in the next window. Lastly press 'APPLY'.

After this -  go up to your WiFi putton on your top bar, click it, then select the new network you've just created (which will of course have the same name as your old one) then when asked for a password put in your NEW ONE as you created on your ROUTER...

...Alas IT SHOULD WORK!

It did for me, and the chap on the phone was so very useful and said this will be in the info they'll be putting on the discussion boards ASAP. I'm sorry if ym explanation has been a ittle convoluted as I'm not a techy person, but wanted to share this after sharing the struggle with so many.

Good luck!

Thanks for the detailed info from LucciLucciLucci, but I think this is another case of an AppleCare person "winging it" until a proper fix is prescribed for Lion. My MacBook (Lion) doesn't have this problem, nor do any of my three Apple TV's, nor my two iPhones nor my iPad. All are served by a Time Capsule which has reliably and strongly supported all of my stuff for years.

As I said above, I seem to only have the problem on my iMac (Lion) associated with a Time Machine backup to my Time Capsule. There clearly is a Lion problem here. Here's hoping your complicated fix works for you LucciLucciLucci. However, I can't recall Apple ever having to resort to such complicated gymnastics before. They've always just fixed the obvious problem with the Operating System.

Thanks again for giving us your experience in such detail

Hey, nice from Apple Care to help you there, only thing is I´ve been running a WPA2 network for over a year, and i still got the problem (and the only fix i found was changing the channels on my router from auto to 3), the solution given is NOT a proper solution, once again you have access to a network that you can modify in order to stay connected, but what if you grab your laptop and go to a starbucks or a library or anywhere else for that matter that is not up to the specs that lion "needs" in order to connect?

I am still quite upset, us getting to find out work arounds to fix the wi-fi connectivity issue is just NOT right! This stuff is suppoused to "just work". And it is NOT!.

Instead of reading through 484 posts in this thread, let me just ask: 

Has a general solution been found? (As opposed to idiosynchratic solutions that work for idiosynchratic situations.)

I have a closed network on a Time Capsule router, and wi-fi has been seriously lagging ever since I upgraded to Lion (upgrading to 10.7.1 hasn't helped).

moskovit, have you tried unhiding your network ? Closed Network really does not provide any real security.

wifiguru, thanks for your reply.  Why do you say that a closed network does not provide any real security?  Doesn't it require that a user know the SSID to even know it exists, let alone log on, providing one more layer of security?

Because anyone with a sniffer can easily find out your network name. It is really pointless to hide it. Infact sometimes since other client's won't show this in their scan list (based on wireless driver behavior), you might end up being bad neighbor. Leave it unhidden and use WPA2-PSK as your security to actually secure the network.

wifiguru wrote:

 

Because anyone with a sniffer can easily find out your network name. It is really pointless to hide it. Infact sometimes since other client's won't show this in their scan list (based on wireless driver behavior), you might end up being bad neighbor. Leave it unhidden and use WPA2-PSK as your security to actually secure the network.

A lot of people say this, but it's like saying because a professional would either pick your lock or just smash a window, there's no point in locking your doors.

The idea is to make your network less visible to others and preferably for others not to even know it's there so that casual baddies move on to a different, more obvious network; it's not to dissuade the more talented/well equipped folks who would have sniffers and such.

Yup, I'm just "me too-ing" this post. Wi-Fi connection drops are rampant on my brand new 27" iMac Core i7, I've had WPA set-up for years, and I'm all Apple from this side of the cable modem.  It's definitely a Lion thing, and 10.7.1 didn't fix it.

my statement of 'wifi dropping' isnt that accurate, what is happening with mine is that my iMac is staying connected to the router but any programs using the net (mail, safari, skype etc) fail to connect online.  My only solution (and I've tried all the various suggestions on here) is too turn the wifi off then back on.

Is this the same issue as everyone else or are you losing the router connection?

My situation is exactly the same, Shaunmull. The 7.1 upgrade has helped a little, but I still have to turn wifi off and on at least once during the day. I'm not interested in trying any of the various workarounds, though I admire the ingenuity they represent. This is an Apple bug and they should fix it, and I believe they will.

@shaunmull, my issue was the same as you're reporting. 10.7.1 fixed the issue for me (so far).

mine was dropping multiple times a day, as infrequent as every 5 hours, and as often as every 10 minutes.

until they come out with 10.7.2 to fix additional issues that are still present, i'd go thru the various recommendations on this board and see if they help.

I everbody. Done everything posted in this forum. After "upgrading" to Lion my WiFi is simply gone. Completely unable to join any network. Dead, dead, dead...

I have been trying to recover my WiFi for too many days already. My girlfriends SL macbook works wonderfuly. My iPad and iPhone as well. All on the same router.

I'm going to backup everything again and "upgrade to Snow Leopard"

MacBook Alum.

Cheers!

Could someone please list what has been suggested thus far on this list?  I'm afraid I don't have time to read through 493 messages, and would appreciate some help.