Q: Wifi Constantly Dropping in Lion

I tried replacing the driver and it didn't work. This:

Although I had no idea what I was doing and perhaps did it wrong.

I will now try the osxdaily trick

Tried the OSX daily trick. No joy.

This is like the duplicates in addressbook problem or the time capsule problem. You spend hours parcing entries on help sites and get nowhere.

John Zuill1 wrote:

 

I tried replacing the driver and it didn't work. This:

Have you tried the Snow Leopard driver?   http://rys.pixeltards.com/2011/09/04/osx-lion-wifi.html

Although I had no idea what I was doing and perhaps did it wrong.

 

 

I will now try the osxdaily trick

For the Snow Leopard driver from the above site, it's pretty straightforward to do (Instructions copied from another thread):

The download contains the 3.2 kext (IO80211Family.kext) and the kext utility. Drag the kext onto the utility and it performs the install.

if you check the /System/Library/Extensions folder after you install the 3.2 kext you'll see an IO80211Family.kext.bak folder. This is your 4.0 kext.

To revert back to 4.0, copy the folder elsewhere, rename it to IO80211Family.kext and use the kext utility to install it, just as you did with the 3.2  ... now you're back at 4.0 and all the issues.

This will only work if you have an Atheros Wi-Fi Chipset though. Did you run System Information Profiler? What machine are you using?

Yes I did all that. Thanks for bothering. I am going off this problem. I will simply hope an upgrade fixes it. Ive got phemonia and right now I could care less. Id much rather watch "justified" than give up my life chasing apple problems. Thanks for helping. You help make the discussions area of the apple help site the best part.

All Hail Cupertino, God Bless Steve Jobs.

God Night.

This problem is a disgrace. TWO THOUSAND POUNDS for a computer that fails to stay online once it wakes up from sleep. I am just so disappointed in Apple and all the glitches I've had over the past three months with this new machine. Personally I'm not interested in having to change endless settings because quite frankly I don't understand them, just like I expect my car to start in the morning because thats what i bought it for, and I don't feel like I need to understand the workings of the internal combustion engine. I should have bought 3 cheap crap windows laptops.

Yes, Its true. This is very frustrating. But other machines are frustrating too. A cheap laptop comes with trouble as well. If you do have a very buggy machine, you may just have a lemon. I had one once and it was an apple. But I have been a mac user since 84 and its been good. Talk to windows people. That will cheer you up.

My internet connection is getting worse. Dropping more often and very slow, like old pay as you go. It's painful to the point where I'm considering having a new line to the house straight to the office so I can connect direct to the Mac, also thinking about a new router. Can anyone in this discussion suggest a decent router that definitly works with Lion?

Thanks

Look, I have a linksys. Its rock steady. IF this is your problem, the router is not the issue. Its Lion. Changing the router won't fix it.

How can you compare a Mac with a cheap laptop? What about comparing it to a let`s say Lenovo-laptop for 1.500 Pounds with Windows 7 on it? You ever tried Windows 7?

Most of the trouble in the Windows-world comes from loveless cheap hardware or loveless cheap programms/drivers (Vista of course was an exception)...

I`m no Windows-fan at all but I prefer not to be an Apple-nerd either...

Any by the way: Most of the actual wi-fi-problems with OS Lion are about software and not about hardware!!!

Just read through this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3191630?tstart=0

Add another extremely frustrated user. Brand new MacBook Pro i7, $3,500 worth of laptop that will absolutely not stay online for more than 2 minutes at a time, at which point I have to turn off/on the airport connection.

Disgraceful.

ubermick, this might be a stupid question but what do you mean by "not stay online".  Do you mean that the MacBook doesn't stay associated to the Wi-Fi network, or that Safari stops connecting to web sites?  When this happens, does the Wi-Fi indicator at the top of the screen display black bars?

" the MacBook doesn't stay associated to the Wi-Fi network, or that Safari stops connecting to web sites? "

Both those things are what happens with my Mac and Lion.

Mail also regualarly crashes while typing.

Have you tried turning off all wireless security? 

I had the same problems with my brand new iMac (purchased November 2011), but when I turned off security, the problems went away. 

My uneducated guess here is that with certain wifi chipsets on Apple's various hardware, Lion causes them to not get along with certain wireless security protocols. 

I discovered this when my new iMac had all sorts of problems, but a new MacBook Air and my mid-2010 MacBook Pro 15"  (all on Lion), didn't have issues. 

Snoop, it remains connected to the network, and the signal is at full strength. I also have an older 17" Macbook Pro running 10.6.8 that gives me zero connectivity problems, plus my wife's iMac in her craft room has no problems connecting either. Or our two iphones. It's just this one Macbook. This one, brand new, $3,500 Macbook...

And like other folks, if I just turn off the airport in the menu bar, and immediately turn it back on, everything goes back to working fine. For a minute, maybe two, sometimes three, then it craps out again. Everything in my house is Apple branded, including the Airport Base Station that's running the network.

I'd turn off security on the network, but the little p***k next door was using our internet connection to download torrents like crazy, causing our bandwidth to get throttled. (I suppose since I told him what I'd do to him if he ever did it again, he might behave himself, but..)

Hugely frustrating.