Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

Hi There,

i'm really p.i.s.s.e.d. because i have the Wi-Fi problems too.

Nothing helps! I hoped 10.7.2 would help...but same again :-(

It's a shame to Apple that they are don't able to fix this!!!

Greets,

Ralf

Add me to the list. Just upgraded my 27" iMac and wifi constantly drops. I thought it was my router and was about to exchange it at Fry's when I did a quick search and realized everyone is having this issue.

capitnymalau,

When you wake from sleep, if you refresh your DHCP, do you get connectivity back ? Also have you checked if ping's to your router or google.com work on wake from sleep ?

eg: Launch Terminal and paste:

ping www.google.com

What's your router make and model ? Have you verified that you see the AP at a good signal strength ? Option click the WiFi Menu Extra when connected and make sure the RSSI value is between -35 and -70.

What wifi problems are you seeing ? You need to add more information here. It could be anything from a interop. issue with your router to incorrect settings/interference issues in your environment. What have you tried to fix it so far ?

Paste the following command in Terminal and paste the output here if you need help:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -I -s

Not sure how many people are still left with this issue but a post on page 2 of this novel suggests to set DNS to 8.8.8.8 (Google).  I was having my network drop constantly while downloading torrents, browsing or connecting to my macbook (mid-2009 15") using splashtop on my iphone.  After changing the DNS I haven't run into any dropped connections doing any of the previously stated.  Hopefully some users get help out of this. Below is the original post.

andrewfromwycombe

 

Level 1 (0 points)

I am connecting wirelessly through "Apple" Time Machine and my LAN is not experiencing any connectivity issues, since upgrading to OS X Lion my connection to the Internet drops repeatedly without any consideration for time of day or activity, to such a degree that productivity is non-existent due the necessity to troubleshoot this issue.

I am MCSE with an extensive background in IT (no claim to fame) and have sufficient skills to troubleshoot this issue, beginning with Comcast Internet Service Provider (Zyzel cable modem) for obvious reasons. Comcast claimes  there are no drops in service noted on the cable modem test cycles or evidence of trouble or service interruption and recommended I look to my wireless router and other network devices to determine the source of the problem.

My network configuration includes WPA2-Personal security, with the following hard wired devices:

• LG 3-D Internet TV
• HP Color LaserJet 2320nf MFP
• XBox 360
• Belkin mini hub

My wireless devices include:

• iMac (2009)
• MacBook Pro 2010
• Dell Inspiron 1721
• LG Blue Ray
• iPhone

I have traced every cable in my network to ensure reliability and reconfigured my wireless network to eliminate the likelihood of pre-existing corruption (prior to OS X Lion upgrade).

I have eliminated all in-house devices and the only remaining components are comcast and OS X Lion...given the extent of comments in this thread, I am inclined to thing there is an issue with the OS, all I want is a resolution.

I hope this helps!

Hi wifiguru,

i'm really tired in telling the problem...if you see haow many people have this it should be an Apple problem!

Here is the terminal result:

[rallebook:~] ralle% /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -I -s

     agrCtlRSSI: -78

     agrExtRSSI: 0

    agrCtlNoise: -91

    agrExtNoise: 0

          state: running

        op mode: station

     lastTxRate: 54

        maxRate: 54

lastAssocStatus: 0

    802.11 auth: open

      link auth: wpa2-psk

          BSSID: bc:5:43:51:d4:da

           SSID: Rallehome

            MCS: -1

        channel: 1

                            SSID BSSID             RSSI CHANNEL HT CC SECURITY (auth/unicast/group)

                  jenny-Wireless 00:26:f2:3c:b1:c8 -90  11      N  DE WEP

                       Rallehome bc:05:43:51:d4:da -72  1       N  -- WPA(PSK/TKIP/TKIP) WPA2(PSK/AES/TKIP)

I just tryed anything you can do! All router settings, P-Ram reset, Bluetooth on/off, TCP sttings, DNS settings...

Nothing worked :-(

Greets,

Ralf

Do note that the -78 RSSI indicates that your Wi-Fi signal is fairly weak - not no connection weak but rather if there's anything you could do to improve that, it would likely help performance.

...should be but i also can sit nearby the router it nothing changes!

Please keep us updated andrewfromwycombe and dorenefromnaples

My experiences were that an apparent solution would work for a period of time, even as long as ten days before the return of this Wi If plague.

Eventually Wi Fi was ‘drop free’ and on that particular HDD still is 6 weeks on.

However I did notice several undesirable occurrences, too many Spinning Beach Balls and other pregnant pauses being most prominent.

For the heck of it I did a fresh installation, absolutely from scratch, on a spare HDD.

That particular animal goes faster than any Leopard and roars as Lions should do.

So it is sleek, fast, rock solid and the best Mac Wi Fi experience I have ever had.

None of the connections or hardware were changed in any way, even the Router settings were left intact initially and only changed later ‘for the **** of it’.

There is nothing wrong with Lion when it is installed on a clean HDD.

Updating the Mac OS and the necessary attendant Application/s update/s have opportunity to cause coruption.

Corruption does not have to be a spanner in the works of e.g., a fine watch mechanism it can be the a microscopic particle just big enough to disrupt normal service. Properly cleaned the mechanism is fine.

That analogy can be applied to your computer.

The level of corruption will probably vary from system to system, you may not need to take such drastic action.

I worked my way through everything I could find because like you I was driven to distraction.

The solutions suggested by the tirelessly hard working band of knowledgeable members have helped many in trouble. I am grateful for the help given so freely and using a combination of advice achieved the objective.

The scenario described by dorenefromnaples replicates the action I took to create a system that did not disconnect every few minutes but unfortunately was for other reasons simply not up to the standard I expected.

Apple, IMO foolishly, have remained silent on this issue but that is par for the course.

There may be thousands suffering this  Wi Fi malaise but there are Millions of unaffected Lion users.

If there was a problem with Lion Apple would have resolved the issue/s.

It may be a bitter pill to swallow but the problem lies in you particular Mac box.

That is not to say more extensive testing would not have revealed the root cause and a solution found to avoid this whole sorry tale.

I have religiously followed the direction for upgrades and have done nothing to create issues,but things went wrong that where out of my control.

dorenefromnaples wrote:

 

I am MCSE with an extensive background in IT (no claim to fame) and have sufficient skills to troubleshoot this issue

Dorene,

On that, fire up Wireshark and look for DUP ACK in the stream near the disassociation of the station (TC logfile).

If there any, the reason may be the sensibility of the wireless firmware for 2nd BSSID and the Lion is switching the radio band.

• Enter the manual setup of the TC
• Disable "Guest Network" if not needed. (Guest Network periodically switch the radio band from 5GHz to 2.4GHz for "user convenience" and this causing trouble)
• Give the 5GHz on the TC a dedicated name (SSID)
• Change radio mode according to the possibility's of the other wireless participants. e.g. to "802.11n only (5GHz) - 802.11n only (2.4 GHz)" or "802.11n only (5GHz) - 802.11b/g" (holding option key -alt- while clicking the drop down)
• Eventually force the Mac(s) to use 5GHz only by deleting the 2.4GHz name (SSID) from the list of known networks in the system setup.

Additionally check that all participants use the same local domain (workgroup) and eventually change the Mac's to use "workgroup" instead of default "local" or vice versa.

Opposite to Windows (LLMNR) the Mac use mDNS for local name resolution. That can cause trouble in heterogeneous local networks if there are different "link local" groups.

Lupunus

I'm also having the wi-fi dropping problem since upgrading to Lion on my 2011 Macbook Air.  It doesn't log on to the wi-fi network properly when I boot up and it then drops as well.

Get that patch upgrade out there Apple.

Pardon me for jumping in here. lupunus keeps proposing steps that most of us are ill-equipped to try, so I'll tell you that I referred this issue to Apple Care about a month ago now. and it supposedly is being activily worked on by the "engineers" according to the Sr. Tech I worked with.  We went through dozens of fix atttempts including uninstalling/installing Lion. I ran Data Capture files, Log Files, etc., and sent them to her for the engineers. Nothing has fixed this.  If you have the technical ability to check it out, I believe the problem lies withing the Atheros firmware update (for the Airport Extreme modem) that came with Lion.  I have a Quad core i5 2.66GHz, 8G, 1TB 27" iMac connecting via Airport Extreme and never had a problem until downloading Lion.  I also have

• iPhone4
• iPad
• iPad2
• iMac (older)
• PowerBook G4
• iPhone 3G
• Apple TV

all running on this WiFi network and no other device has this problem. One solution that seemed to work was to downgrade the Atheros Firmware from 4.0. to 3.2, the previous version.  Meanwhile, I'm hopeful that Apple will come up with a solution to the most annoying problem.

Sandpuppy wrote:

 

Pardon me for jumping in here.

dorenefromnaples uses a Apple device (Time Capsule) and for that the advice is correct regardeless of Atheros or Broadcom in the Mac.

Lupunus