Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

Hi,

I worked through all the tips. Finally rebooting the Airport Extreme solved the issue. This was the last thing I thought about bcause all other devices just worked fine. Anyhow the issue with dropping WiFi is solved for me now. I think the issue is related to Lion and WPA2 handshaking. But I won't put more effort into it now.

I followed someone post in this thread, and finally able to resolve the WIFI issues on my Lion, I was on the brink of re-cloning my HD back to my iMac. To share what I did.

I installed Lion on both my iMac 21.5" (2009) and MBP 13" (late 2010). I did a clean instal on my MBP but simply upgrading on my iMac. I did not paid too much attention to it at first.

My MBP was running ok, but iMac was terrible, so frustrated that I almost gave up, since then I did a clean instal on my iMac eventually, and still did not resolve the problem. And read someone post in this particular thread about change the DNS, I did just that and voila! everything is now fine!

I have to say that I did not do anything on my MBP, did not change the DNS, and anything, same config as it was at the beginning an seems to work ok, but for the iMac I jst changed the DNS to my ISP DNS, that seems to work wonder.

Just in case though, I am still keeping my HD clone copy of my SL, but so far a week using it no problem.

I recently upgraded a 2010 MacBook Pro 15" to Lion and initially I have no problems whatsoever. After about a month, however, my computer started randomly crashing with either a BSOD or a "Please Restart" grey screen.

In the past week, the problems have gotten worse and now my WiFi card dies too. Usually the internet works fine for about 2-3 hours, but then all the sudden the connection goes dead. The issue I am having is that initially it looks like the AirPort is picking up my home network (an AirPort Express router) and nothing appears to have changed from the previous 10 seconds when it was working. Upon further inspection, when I go to Network Preferences, it automatically turns off my WiFi and I cannot turn it back on. This forces me to restart my computer, where I face yet another issue.

If I choose the Restart option, the computer will get to the grey Apple loading screen, but the lined-wheel will not appear underneath the logo. I then have to do a hard shut down to get it to load back into the OS again. If I choose Shut Down initially, my computer will properly restart itself.

I'm not really quite sure what to about this. The computer is running very warm most of the time and with the frequent OS crashes and WiFi card malfunctions, I'm running out of options. I upgraded the router to the most recent firmware patch, I reset the password on it, physically unplugged and replugged it back in and nothing works.

Is anyone else experiencing this exact issue or is this really just my computer going down to its slow inevitable death?

Thanks.

I'm going to jump in here too. Just purchased a brand new 27" Mac pre-installed with Osx Lion. This is my 1st Mac and I thought all the praise over the years for Mac's was that things were always tested prior to launch and flawless. This issue has been driving me nuts!

Please put me on a list to be notified when a fix is found!

Just to add a digit to the ever-growing number. Upgraded to Lion my trouble-free year-old iMac--now I can rarely stay connected to the Internet more than 30 minutes. I go to System Preferences, Network, Assist Me and it's an easy-enough fix ("Your computer appears to be connected") but my-oh-my, it's frustrating.  Surely the geniuses are working on an easy (permanate) fix.

Hi there,

I tried a simple suggestion that has worked for me, so you might give it a shot.

For you wireless/office users having this issue, you might try:

- Shutting down your Mac, modem, router, and switch. Reboot each, one by one. Lion seems to have a handshake issue as far as I can tell.

I did this and it's smooth sailing for me...so far.

Glad this worked for you. I had to reconfigure my router and since then it works. (switching off 802.11n). However, I am surprised how long it takes Apple to solve this major issue. We can not reconfigure all network devices on this planet!

It can take a while to work out the bugs, for sure.

Thanks, Paul--I did what you suggested, now I'll see what happens.

Pretty much having the same issue.  It drops WiFi, sometimes it will come back up on it's own.  Most times I have to reboot because it won't even let me try to turn it back on, like I'm locked out. 

Also having the same problem with wifi dropping. Iphone and Ipad working fine. Snow leopard was ROCK SOLID. Cant believe that Apple are still letting this go on and no fix yet. The latest update still didnt correct the issue.

Dear Apple.  Please fix the skittish wi-fi issues in Lion.

kthxbai.

Today my new macmini (late 2011) got a firmware update and a driver update, but the wifi problem is still there.

Adding another to the list having this issue. Brand new (2 days old) 27" iMac and my issue is like this:

Upon waking from sleep, iMac shows full WiFi signal strength, but isn't really connected. No internet, no access to router. To fix I have to turn the airport off and then on again. After this my wifi is back, but still this is incredibly annoying.

After reading through this thread I have tried two of the fixes and hopefully it will do until Apple gives us a software update for this.

1) I disabled WMM on my router. (Under Wireless > Advanced Settings for those running a DD-WRT router)

2) Network Prefs > Advanced > TCP/IP, changed "Configure IPv4" to "Using DHCP with manual address" and then manually typed in the IP address it said I had previously.

I only did this a few minutes ago so I'm not sure if this is a fix or not. We'll see.

I also have to add my experience to this wifi dropping situation ever since I moved over to Lion.  This only happens to me at my work. I have a McBook Pro; I have taken it all around the entire company floor, connecting to all the WAPs. Everyone of them has the dropping problem.  I have tried every suggestion put forth by mankind. Last week I even took myy MB to the local Apple Store and had the airport card replaced as a last resort. I wasn't expecting it to fix the problem, but the MB was under Apple Care warranty, so I did it.  The last Lion update 10.7.1 didn't fix it.  I have only two options: roll back to Snow Leopard or sit and wait and hope that Apple fixes this.  Luckily, I don't have  this problem at home or even at the Apple Store when I go for my One-to-One sessions. No one at the Genius Bar knows anything about this. Can you believe that!  Apple hasn't informed them at all.  This is my first real negative experience of the Apple brand. I hope it doesn't last much longer.  We'll see.