Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

Hi Lupunus,

thanks again for all your time and help. I will try your suggestions and advices.

Greeting from Parma.

Mauro

What Worked for me.

I had been having the same connection issues as the rest of you. My initial belief was that my airport extreme was on it's way out so I ordered the latest model.  This improved nothing.  Then I ordered a new cable modem.  While this was shipping to my appartment, I did a search on the forums and found that this was more likely a problem with Lion.  More frustratingly, my appletv, iphone, ipad, and my roommate's hp laptop had strong connections without any of the connection hiccups I was experiencing, pointing me again towards lion.

My troubleshooting with lion when as follows (borrowing from laechleviel)

• The connection-problems started when I updated to OS X Lion. Not immediately but after the Mac`s first reboot...
• Delete all preference-files and reboot the Mac / reset the PRAM / reset the NVRAM
• The following suggestions from this post did not help as well: delete the preferred network in the network-configuration and delete all the wi-fi-keychains in the Mac`s key-management > then configure it for a new / put wi-fi on the first place in the network-surroundings / deactivate „remember all the networks the computer was connected to“ / deactivate „give a hint on new networks“ /  the „ping-thing“ described in several replies makes things better but even then I still lost the connection several times... > anyway this can`t really be it in my opinion...
• Then I did a clean installation of Lion from an external HD and found that I still had the same problems so I restored from my time machine back-up, starting from square one

I had pretty much given into the idea that this could only be fixed with 10.7.2 and I was just going to have to live with it for the time being.

THEN, my new cable modem arrived.   I was replacing my old Cisco-Linksys WRT54GL, which DOES create a separate wireless network, with a Motorola SB6121 SURFboard.  Called my ISP (charter 10Mb) to give them the  MAC ID and boom!  Blazing fast.  No connection problems since.  Not sure why it is working now.

I should mention, unlike what some others have been saying, nothing I have ever tried made "it [work] for about 5 hours and then [have] the same problems."

Furthmore, my connection problems were both wifi and when my imac was physically connected to the airport router.

My current set-up:

Charter 10Mb connection

Motorola SB6121 SURFboard

Airport Extreme 802.11N (5TH GEN)

Late 2009 iMac 2.8Gz i7

OS 10.7.1

Let me know if there is any other information I can add that would be useful.

gauspad wrote:

 

my airport extreme

Cisco-Linksys WRT54GL, which DOES create a separate wireless network

 

Motorola SB6121 SURFboard.

Aaaaaand the winner on the tonight's fight of the year "OS X Lion vs. Networkconfiguration", here at fully booked Apple Arena  iiiiiiiiiiisss .......

Networkconfiguration by knock out.

The Linksys WRT54GL (which DOES create a separate wireless) was the trap.

To be honest, the WRT54GL as such is not the source of the problem. The configuration and the seperate wireless is it, though.

If you look around the forum's here, you will find hundred's of "Netgear WRTxx.YY and wireless drop out" contributions including working solutions.

Cheers - Lupunus

Hi guys, I was having just the same issue after upgrading to OSX Lion (10.7.1). The WiFi was disconnecting in average once per hour.

My confing: iMac i7 mid 2009 with Atheros WiFi card.

Today, I have attempted to fix it by simply downgrading the Driver (IO80211Family.kext) to the last SL version.

So far (after 12 hours) not one drop out.

The kext is located in /System/Library/Extensions/ folder.

Driver versions (cat /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext/Contents/version.plist) are:

• OSX Lion CFBundleVersion=400.40
• Last SL CFBundleVersion=314.1.1

I think the version 4 is not well and could require some bug fixes.

My other system, MBP with Broadcom card, has no issue with drop outs on OSX Lion 10.7.1.

Cheers,

N.

FYI, I was also advised to zap the PRAM, but this did not fix the issue.

just is case someone from apple is looking in, I'm experiencing the same problem ever since installing Lion 10.7.1. I'm on a macbook late 2007. just adding in here. watiing for a definitive fix before I go spending  more money...

gkillmaster wrote:

 

just is case someone from apple is looking in,

They don't. This is a plain user to user community

gkillmaster wrote:

 

watiing for a definitive fix before I go spending  more money...

I guess you will wait for that until H*** freezes over.

nonix1 wrote:

 

My confing: iMac i7 mid 2009 with Atheros WiFi card.

Hello,

thanks for the Atheros post in the other thread and the link to iLounge. Have commented it over there.

Lupunus

After a phone call to apple I had made some test.

First of all the problem persist even with the cable ehternet, so is not a wifi problem.

I reinstalled from zero osx lion to a new usb disk and there the problem is not present.

So is something that went wrong in updating Leopard.

The french site MacGeneration just published this:

D'après nos premiers tests, OS X 10.7.2 règle tout ou partie des problèmes WiFi de Lion, sur Mac portables (testé sur un MacBook Air et un MacBook 2010) et de bureau (testé sur un Mac mini 2011). Les premières builds de la 10.7.2 ne réglaient rien, mais la dernière version, à laquelle les développeurs ont accès, a fait d'énormes progrès.
Bref, cette 10.7.2 devrait régler les problèmes de WiFi de Lion. Et ce n'est pas trop tôt, ces problèmes étant récurrents à chaque mise à jour majeure d'OS X depuis Tiger.

Translation:

Based on our initial tests, OS X 10.7.2 fix all or most of the WiFi problems Lion on Mac laptops (tested on a MacBook Air and MacBook 2010) and desktop (tested on a Mac mini 2011). The first builds of 10.7.2 did not solve anything, but the latest version, to which developers have access, has made a tremendous progress.

In short, this version should solve the problems 10.7.2 WiFi Lion. And it's about time as these problems are recurring with every major release of OS X since Tiger.

Heres what i've noticed when the connection drops, right click on the wifi icon in the menu bar with the Option key pressed. You'll  notice additional info. What's odd is that at the times when i keep dropping the connection, i see PHY Mode set to 802.11n. When it works, it shows 802.11g.

Now I know my old wireless router doesn't support 802.11n. At the same time when I am having issues on the iMac, my LBP works fine. both running 10.7.1. I did see similar issues on the LBP prior to the 10.7.1 update.

Bottom line, does anyone know how to force the WIFI to 802.11g? I believe this would fix the issue in the interim until 10.7.2 is available.

mdb983 wrote:

 

Heres what i've noticed when the connection drops, right click on the wifi icon in the menu bar with the Option key pressed. You'll  notice additional info. What's odd is that at the times when i keep dropping the connection, i see PHY Mode set to 802.11n. When it works, it shows 802.11g.

 

Now I know my old wireless router doesn't support 802.11n.

As the info shows 802.11n you are obviously connected to a 802.11n. Eventually your Router provides a 2.4GHz 802.11n?

It's also possible, that your Mac connects to a unsecured 802.11n in the neighborhood.

To force your Mac to the network you want to see it....

Eventually on firsthand do the following

• Switch off the wireless on the Mac
• Delete all unwanted or obsolete Networks from the "known networks" list
• Eventually create a new location. On there uncheck §Remember networks this computer has joined"
• Uncheck "Ask to join new networks"
• Reboot the Mac
• Join the preferred wireless network again.

Cheers - Lupunus

I suppose to have FINALLY found what was the problem in my system.

I share because maybe some of you have the same problem and to let apple know it.

In my system there was a configuration file called "sysctl.conf" under /private/etc.

It contains the followings:

net.inet.tcp.always_keepalive=1

net.inet.tcp.keepidle=1000

net.inet.tcp.keepintvl=100

I don't know where it comes form, but this file is NOT present on a new 10.7 installation that work nice and fine, so it must be a 10.6/other old app thing.

I have trashed the file and restarted the mac, the problem seems to be disappered or, at least, il much less frequent.

Let's have a check on yours systems!

Bye

thesock72 wrote:

 

I suppose to have FINALLY found what was the problem in my system.

I share because maybe some of you have the same problem and to let apple know it.

In my system there was a configuration file called "sysctl.conf" under /private/etc.

 

It contains the followings:

net.inet.tcp.always_keepalive=1

net.inet.tcp.keepidle=1000

net.inet.tcp.keepintvl=100

This file is not present neither on my 10.6.8 or 10.7.1 installation.

ysctl.conf is a simple file containing sysctl values to be read in and set by sysctl.

Translation: Under normal circumstances this file control kernel state via a set of variables.

On OS X it's normally used when the system goes into multiuser mode to set default settings for the kernel.

Perhaps you had once set up a Internet connection sharing on that machine? Maybe for a smartphone?

Cheers - Lupunus

PS ... one can use this file to force the system to reboot instead going to debug mode on kernel panic.

The parameter (variable) to set for this is: kern.coredump=0

In the past I've tried to connect osx 10.6 to the network of a windows mobile via bluetooth, not wifi. But long ago!

I confirm that my problem is resolved. Till now no droppings or glitches.

The date of the file was 7 august, so I don't really know how it's appeared. I have deleted osx 10.6 time machine backup, so i cannot see anymore the past.

laechleviel wrote:

And it's about time as these problems are recurring with every major release of OS X since Tiger.

... and will recurring for sure with the next major released animal as experienced since OS X 10.0. Cheetah.

To be clear, the 10.7.2 may fix some issues with wireless, related to faulty or left over configuration scripts and settings. Eventually (not checked yet) but unlikely it will bring out new firmware releases for the WiFi chipset's.

It will NOT clear homebrew wireless problems based on interferences, infrastructure or the "different local domains in the same network segment" problem.

Such points everyone have to clear on his or her own wireless.

On that we will see the same "WiFi constantly dropping" posts after 10.7.2 continuing here.

Lupunus