Lion WiFi Connection Problem

Davrich 1984,

I have had Apple products for about four years or a bit more, and until something goes out of Apple Care, I call them or visit a Genius in the store whenever I cannot figure something out myself.

Regarding this issue, I hope your WiFi continues to work with the changed channels. In my case, it did not.

And, I not only talked to a friend who does IT work, but l also talked to people at Apple Care, several times, and we changed channels, etc. The guys were extremely knowledgeable, and they really tried to help. It is clear that they are very good at what they do and very concerned about fixing whatever problem they are presented. Had the WiFi disconnects been something that could be fixed without work by the Engineers, they would have known what to do and their suggestions, including changing channels, would have worked for me and all others who called.

I very much appreciate the fact that, unlike what happened when I called my ISP provider, each person I spoke with at Apple regarding the WiFi worked with me for a great length of time before asking me to test it a while to see if what we did made a difference; and, each told me to call back if I needed more help.

Unfortunately, the fixes did not work, which makes it clear that this is an OS problem the Engineers need to work on, and I suspect they are doing so. Major OS problems cannot usually be fixed at home; they require an update. Let us hope Apple seeds the next update to Lion quickly and that it solves this problem.

I only encountered something this bad twice before. One was a MobileMe problem that the Apple Care people turned over to the Engineers to resolve, and they did so. The only other time Apple Care people could not talk me through an issue had to do with the 10.6.4 update, and that problem, which caused abject misery for anyone doing graphics, involved the relationship of the OS (10.6.4) with NVIDIA which Apple had been using till this year. Apple seeded the update rather quickly and that resolved the problem.

In any case, at this point my WiFi problem is not fixed. I have changed channels several times and it is incrementally better, but only incrementally. I am waiting for Apple to fix whatever is causing this.

Regarding the number of channels: There are only a few channels (1 through 11) for the 2.4 gHz, and a number more for the 5. The problem is not that the other channels that Apple products can use don't work, but that they tend to arch over and therefore overlap and interfere with one another so it is best to use channels that are not too close together. The other two that are good for the 2.4 gHz are channels 1 and 3.

What SaraSM described was EXACTLY same with my iMac 2011 27 model.

After I got the HDD replaced (Apple HDD replacement program) the wifi frequently drops.

It's quite noticeable when the machine goes 'Sleep' and it wakes up.

I've tried many ways including what Apple support suggested but didn't get help.

I'd like to know the solution as it's pretty annoying.

WiFi will not turn on MBP (sometimes) after installing Lion. Spent well over an hour on the phone with Apple and they state that I have a hardware problem on my MBP. So I partition my hard drive and reinstalled Snow Leopard and wow WiFi works great. Restart with Lion and no Wifi. Restart with Snow Leopard Wifi Works. Apple still insists it’s a hardware problem.

Yes. Apple's response to Lion issues has been irresponsibly slow. I guess they're too busy rolling around in all that cash they have. This is by far one of the most vexing issues. It takes several minutes to find a wi-fi network if it finds one at all. I have to reboot frequently and when it finally finds them, it never remembers which one is mine.

Cupertino is in denial. They are well on their way to becoming the first Trillion Dollar Company in America. They do not believe there is a wifi issue (i was on the phone with them, again). They say that if any individual customer has a problem they should call tech support and they will tell you how to resolve it. If the person you speak to does not offer a solution, ask for their supervisor, and if they don't solve your wifi issue, ask for their supervisor, and on and on and on and on. Lion may very well be the Vista of apple os's, but Cupertino claims that their tech support apple care has solutions for all of your wifi issue in Lion. They may be so removed from their customers they actually think their apple care can help you fix issues they say do not and cannot exist.

That said, good luck with all of your problems that DO exist, that apple says does not and could not exist, and if they did, their apple care will help you fix them all.

I don't know one person who had Lion and no wifi connection problems. I've get everything Apple and now nothing is usable. Lion is a flop. No doubt they are aware of it now but the question is how could they not know this before it was released.

Everything I have is apple. Since switching to Lion everything has connection issues. This *****.

Dustpile wrote:

I don't know one person who had Lion and no wifi connection problems. I've get everything Apple and now nothing is usable. Lion is a flop. No doubt they are aware of it now but the question is how could they not know this before it was released.

If you are unwilling to note my experience and that of the majority who have no Wi-Fi issues, drop by your friendly Apple Store and note that all of their portables are running Lion and are connected via Wi-Fi.

I don't discount you're having issues, as are others, but it is by no means universal.

I have just had a session with support. We established a test account, tweaked the software and waited. When the test account failed I rang back and we tweaked some more.

I am now waiting to see if the connection, on my original account, is stable.

Most but not all, of the tweaks I had tried following suggestions on this thread. I have not given details because it seems sensible to contact Apple if you are having problems. Waiting time was less than 3 minutes for each of my calls and I received a follow up email with a reference number (which they had already given me) saying that apple wanted the problem solved. The service wast most impressive and will be even more impressive if it works.

The techie I talked to denied that there was a big problem. I assume they keep track of the reason for calls so if you have a problem and you haven't called I strongly suggest that you do.

I am puzzled that there has been no mention of a problem in the wider Apple community. I have mailed TUAW to suggest they look at post on the topic. Maybe there is only a relativley small number of us having problems and maybe tech support will sort the problem. I'm hoping.

Incidentally, even if you machine is not entitled to free support Lion will be.

Lion and Airport 7.5.2 Firmware - Do not upgrade.

I have now upgraded my third airport express, and Time Capsule. Now all 3 have connection issues. I left one with older firmware as a backup and now that I've updgraded it, it too now screwes up connections.

Absolutely no problems with Lion and AirPort Firmware 7.5.2, and hundreds of Apple Stores across the USA have no problems with their demo machines running Lion and the in-store base stations running 7.5.2.

The root cause lies elsewhere, it's not due to an interaction between these two.

My problem only occurs when I have a cd or DVD in the MBP, or a hard drive attached. Its a perfectly repeatably event. If the MBP is connected to one of these the internet does not work (except for cycling wifi off/ on). Disconnect the CD/DVD or drive....and it works fine. Usually those demo MBP's in the Apple stores do not have any connected devices like that ....right?

That's wonderful I like to play with all the demo units in the store. Unfortunately me and many others don't live and work there.

Anything that received a software update has failed.

You name it, I have it. Everything apple. I'm a heavy user with lots of experience. There is a connection because after updating devices to 7.5.2 and or Lion it shows up. I've kept one at version 6.3 and its fine. No connection issues. Same airport express, same settings just the firmware change. Its a backup so I can swap out equipment if it fails.

I'm sure apple knows about it and some update will follow. Just have to let them know. Enough people talk about it, the media end up reporting on it and that sometimes give them the kick they need to acknowledge and fix it. If I was Apple I would not want to admit an issue either.

Also countless computer hanging when started from sleep not being able to connect to wifi. Have to turn wifi off and back on again SOMETIMES helps. This is a LION issue. It should not hang and freeze.

The connection issue is another. New system, new bugs. Most business wait until second and third updates before upgrading but some of us trust Apple too much and just jump on it the second it comes out. Fine for the average user, not fine for business. Now with 10% or more using Apple for business, its time to pay attention.

So far we have people who have apparently solved their problems by some abstruse fix, others who cannot fix them whatever they do. We have people who have a problem with a particular pairing (such as Lion and AirPort Fiirmware) and others for whom that same pairing works fine. There has been talk of using channel 11 on the router. That works for some but not for me.

All we can say for sure is that there seems to be no One Size Fits All solution and no clear idientification even of the area where the problem may lie. We are approaching 500 posts in this one thread alone and nearly 37,000 viewings. We must assume that a significant number of those 37,000 have also had problems which they have either solved or who cannot be bothered to post about it.

Of course we each of us have different hardware and software setups and that kind of a thing is a real nightmare for the likes of Apple. But isn't it part of their job description to take that into account, in much the same way as a car designer has to accommodate all likely surfaces their cars might travel on? Am I being too demanding?

My Lion wi-fi problem is very similar and the same on all three machines. Internet connectivity stops unexpectedly. Usually 3-4 times in a day.

The (temporary) cure is to open Network Preferences and then "assist me"

After that I click diagnostics.

In the Network Status bar on the left the patter is always the same. Wi-fi through Network settings is a green light, but ISP and Internet are red.

Then, the machine does its process and magically the internet connectivity is restored, but never permanently.

Apple, please fix this. I never had this problem with prior OS X versions. Clearly a glitch that needs to be fixed in an update.