Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

@valtex: I just went back to Snow Leopard for just these reasons. However, iOS 5 on my phone is working fine for me.

On the computer, however, I was having persistent wi-fi problems at work—the home connection seemed to be fine—and I just can't afford to be fiddling around with that sort of thing.

The fact that there are 50+ pages here shows a) there is a problem, and b) users can't solve it. So I advise you to go back to Snow Leopard and wait for a few more updates before going back to Leopard.

To revert, I a) did a full backup on Time Machine, b) made a few additional copies onto a USB flash drive of files that I know have changed since I installed Lion, c) restarted with the Option key held down, d) chose the 'Restore HD' start-up disk, and e) followed directions to restore from a Time Machine backup. The process wipes your entire hard drive clean, so make sure you have backups before going ahead with it.

Since then, everything's fine except that something's wonky with my Outlook (which I need, unfortunately, for email at work), so I have to use web mail for work until the tech guys can straighten it out for me.

Good luck!

Eric

Thank you for taking the time tell the community about your success Eric, but I am sorry to disagree with your comment:

Eric T. Macknight wrote:

 

................. b) users can't solve it. So I advise you to go back to Snow Leopard and wait for a few more updates before going back to Leopard.

 

........

Eric

Further, if I understand you correctly, you offer a solution which seems to contradict the statement mentioned above:

Eric T. Macknight wrote:

 

.........

 

To revert, I a) did a full backup on Time Machine, b) made a few additional copies onto a USB flash drive of files that I know have changed since I installed Lion, c) restarted with the Option key held down, d) chose the 'Restore HD' start-up disk, and e) followed directions to restore from a Time Machine backup. The process wipes your entire hard drive clean, so make sure you have backups before going ahead with it.

 

........

Eric

I am, sincerely, very happy to learn:

Eric T. Macknight wrote:

 

........

 

Since then, everything's fine except that something's wonky with my Outlook (which I need, unfortunately, for email at work), so I have to use web mail for work until the tech guys can straighten it out for me.

 

.........

Eric

Many others contributing here have found solutions and reported their successes.

A few knowledgeable members are working tirelessly to help those with the Wi Fi problems being raised, if they did not see some positive results from their efforts it is likely that work would have ceased by now.

Your solution needs slight clarification to improve its' usefulness.

Can it be assumed that your Time Machine has been backing up on a regular basis, or was it deployed with the specific intention of capturing your OS prior to the Restore?

My MO is to work with a 'Cloned' OS and Data is stored on separate HDDs and Time Machine.

Your response to the questions above will be very much appreciated.

Hi Froggy,

My conclusion that 'users can't fix it' was based on skimming through the 50+ pages and seeing several times that a proposed solution worked for some people, or worked temporarily, or didn't work for others, etc. If there were one simple solution, I'm guessing this thread would be a lot shorter.

I think you misunderstood: my 'solution' was to go back to using Snow Leopard. I included the details about how to do that just in case it might be useful.

Everything is 'fine' now in the sense that I'm back to Snow Leopard, and when I was running Snow Leopard before I had no wi-fi problems. My Outlook desktop client is not connecting with the server, but I will get that sorted out at work tomorrow.

As for Time Machine: yes, I back up my entire hard drive almost daily to an external 1 TB drive. I did a backup just before installing Lion, and that's the one I restored when I decided to retreat and wait for a couple more Lion updates.

I will also be checking this thread and others to see whether future updates solve the wi-fi issues.

Hope that's clearer.

Cheers,

Eric

I'm sorry if this sounds ridiculous, but do you think installing Windows could fix the problem? I tried every suggestion and I'm really running out of options here.

Thanks for the reply Eric.

The words to the effect 'everything is fine....' led me to wrongly conclude that you had resolved the issue of Lion.

In reality it could not be further from the truth, it is REALLY unsatisfactory to be 'encouraged' to take such retrograde steps.

Thank goodness the Recovery HD and Time Machine were fully functional.

I came close to taking similar steps, except I often run Snow Leopard and fully maintain it because it has facilities that Lion does not support.

The latter situation gave me the opportunity to take a long hard look and dig deep, in a non technical manner, into the Lion Wi Fi issue.

The result was that I found a solution to the Wi Fi issue and for several weeks now the connection has been free from the frequent 'dropping' issue.

IMO there is a tendency for Apple not handle this sort of scenario well, perhaps hoping that remaining silent will perpetuate the 'Apple WILL fix it' myth?

From reports here it seems clear that the Tech Support Staff are having a hard time, but we probably to not hear from users if they finally get a positive outcome?

You clearly have a need to return to 'normal service' and Snow Leopard is a good 'animal' to fall back on.

Unfortunately needs and 'old friends' will not make positive progress with the issue at hand, and the call to be part of the solution is not practical for everyone.

Happy computing.

Hello,

I am also having wifi connection issues though mine are less severe. Overall my system is working well, but whenever I restart my imac or take my imac out of sleep mode I am having problems. The imac will come back from sleep/power on and I will be connected to a wifi network different from the wifi network I was connected to before putting my computer in sleep mode/ turning off my computer. It's not much of a problem, but it is annoying.

I haven't checked through all of the pages on the thread but is anyone else having this problem or does anyone know of a solution to this problem?

Thanks

Eric,

   I can not go 'back' to Snow Leopard as I never had it and am having issues enough learning Mac and Lion all at once. Bought 27' iMac, Macbook Pro, and iPad all at one, and expect iPhone 4s any day now.   I could I guess roll back to 10.7.1 if I knew for sure how, I left Windows PC for having so many issues and now am surrounded again as this is not the only problem so far, some of which are purely due to the fact that I live in an area which has no "real" broadband access and must make do with the mi-fi over 4G. It never ceases to amaze me how much people who have an always on broadband connection take it for granted and assume that everyone else has this.  Not only is it not even and option for me, I am paying by the megabyte for it..every reloaded page, redownload attempt, updated app, all cost me dearly going and coming. Have tried Satellite before and it is no better. Anyway, aside from whining, complaining and blaming, no one has answered my question---not to be rude but all this banter is unproductive. I believe Apple Must be aware of these issues and can only accept their response or lack of it.  I will call for support, but just wondered what I could try myself beforehand. Please, can we all just get along, allow others their opinions and stay on the road to dealing with this?  I will appreciate any help offered.  I will not go back to Microsoft. For better or worse, despite that little colorwheel that looks like my mother's old Christmas light for our ugly fake aluminum tree --what is that anyway ?--- I am now a Mac and plan to stay that way, to believe in the good of the people who work for the corporation of Apple and that of others to do the right thing and above all in geeks to help me along the bytten road !!!

In our house we praise our luck: Having a windows pc - it races happily and fast on the Airport Extreme that appears to be invisible for a MacBook Pro.

We are beginning play with the thought of rolling back to windows xp - LOL!!!

But then again, our ipad and iPhones can join the Airport network as well - not really fast, but at least they join.

capitinymalau wrote:

 

In our house we praise our luck: Having a windows pc - it races happily and fast on the Airport Extreme that appears to be invisible for a MacBook Pro.

 

What does Wi-Fi Diagnostics have to say about your problem?

Count me in as well. Mid 2010 iMac. Wifi icon indicates connection but you cannot bring up a web page after startup or after going to sleep unless you disable and reinable the airport card..

@William: Wifi Diagnostics state everything to be just fine. They don't discover the disconnectivies after every sleep.

I am quitting now, too tired of trying 55 ways to alternate my modem setup and router setup - most of them creating no connection at all.

Tired of going through Diagnostics over and over again.

Tired of downgrading fra 10.7.2 til 10.7.2 with no difference.

Tired of wasting hours and hours and hours I could have spent making money instead.

The saddest thing: Did I learn anything from all the threads i've been through and all the alterations i've done?

Not the slightest bit.

But I am beginning to think different about windows. It does not suck all that much, after all. In the real world, that is!

Hi valtex

Your predicament is appreciated, but please focus on Wi Fi issues in this thread and start new ones if necessary for other problems.

The intermittent Broadband Service you are receiving will impact the Wi Fi issue but it may not be related to most of the issues being posted here.

Please tell us about the situation regarding your iMac.

From your post is seems that you may have bought a new iMac with Lion already loaded.

This will give you access to customer support under warranty, make use of the opportunity by talking to Apple about getting a resolution for your issue/s.

If you do not have recourse to using Apple's services free of charge and you need help please post specification details of your machine.

Try to explain fully what issues you are experiencing and what effect they have on your system.

The more information you can provide the more likely you are to receive responses from knowledgeable members.

Willing, unpaid members time is precious and best spent on answering fully supported queries rather than having to ask for information which should be provided up front.

May I suggest you review:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3190651?start=585&tstart=0

Note the link near the bottom to give feedback to Apple, please buck the trend and don't leave it for somebody else to do.

I must add that this wifi-gate is quite disappointing: This thread has been going for three months now, 55 pages, and the Lion still sleeps.

And this thread ain't the only one.

To all switchers experiencing this and just wanting to switch back as sooon as possible: Please accept my heartfelt excuses.

Hi Klausius

I wish my puny grey matter would allow me to keep track of all the posts in just this thread, if it did I would be pleased to serve up a ready made solution for you.

You really do need to inform us what your iMac specification is and the version and species of your Mac OS 'Animal'.

More information about the Wi Fi network you get 'accidentally' connected to may be useful, e.g., is it anything to do with you or does it belong to a third party and where is it located relative to the iMac?

Where is your Mac located compared with your Router and what obstructions are there in between?

There are mentions of your type of issue in this thread but there is a large amount of reading necessary to reach it.

Only if you are comfortable with the processes needed and in the knowledge that you bear sole responsibility for your actions you may consider the following:

Reading between the lines and taking a stab at a solution, in your situation I would remove everything connected with the present Wi Fi software set up including the items held in the Keychain and System Preferences. Then reset the Router to Factory settings before setting up a new Wi Fi network.

If you need more detailed information which is recorded above it presents the 'reading hurdle' once again, a Google Search may make this a tad easier despite widening the search area the information should still be relevant?

You may like to review this:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3190651?start=585&tstart=0

Be aware that there is a tread running that is covering Wi Fi dropping on waking from sleep mode, whereas here it should be mainly about 'Wi Fi Constantly Dropping in Lion'.

Again there will be much reading involved without any guarantee of a result.

Happy hunting.

Hi capitinymalau

There is no denying this thread is in a mess, Apple supply the Forum facility and unfortunately that is where their participation finishes.

The lack of moderation means that much of the space is taken up with 'me too' responses, unqualified questions and off topic discussions like the one we are having at present.

May I assume you visited this thread because you have a Wi Fi issue?

I started visiting this thread at around page 35 and after much reading I was informed enough to widen my research, enabled enough to combine various sources information and apply that to obtain a satisfactory solution to my Wi Fi issue i.e. 'Wi Fi Constantly Dropping in Lion'.

Without any indication of your problem and  equipment involved it is difficult for anyone to offer you assistance. Your post seems to be an attempt to elicit a response from Apple?

Both of the messages, above and below your own post, contain a link. You may consider following that link and if you wish to provide Feedback to Apple you will find information on that subject near the bottom of the message.