Lion WiFi Connection Problem

My problem is a bit different. My Macbook (late 2008) takes much longer time to connect to Wifi after installing Lion. It takes about 10-15s with WPA/WPA2 networks, and about 20-30s with WPA/WPA2 Enterprise, even when those networks are known already. The same network can be connected immediately with my iPhone, iPad, and another MBP running Snow Leopard.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, I also had duplicate entries in my Keychain for my wireless network. Strange indeed. I have tried numerous remedies described in this thread, and this is the only one that has worked. I've had a stable connection for days now - even after my computer wakes from sleep, which was the primary culprit beforehand.

27-inch, Late 2009 iMac

1. Open Applications -> Utilities -> Keychain Access

2. With the 'All Items' category selected, search by your wireless network name (SSID).

3. There should be only one 'login' and one 'System' entry for your wireless network. If you have more than these two entries, deleted them, turn off and then on WiFi and re-enter your wireless credentials.

Good luck!

How do you identify the login and system entries? I have a number of addresses starting 192.168. All these are described as Network passwords apart from one that has (admin) after it and is denoted as an Internet password. Then I have a Netgear entry with an orange A symbol next to it that is denoted as an Airport network password. These are the only things that look like they could be relevant. I daren't touch them - a little knowledge being a dangerous thing!

Yep, me too. But I am thinking of it as a blessing in disguise since so many people who do manage to connect find that the new connection mucks things up for other kit that uses the network. So I'm waiting until Apple come up with a fix before doing anything more. They don't seem to be in much of a hurry to do that which could suggest that it is pretty intractable. I think it's a Watch This Space thing!

In my case it goes even one step further. Lion not only drops WiFi connection, but kills the Router (Fritz!Box).

I have several devices in the network:

- iMac i3 2010 (Lion)

- MacBook Pro 2010 (Snow Leopard)

- iPad

- iPhone

- Apple TV

- Android Mobile

As long as I keep Lion on the line (ethernet) every works fine. After connecting the Lion Mac using WiFi it takes the network around 10 minutes to die. After this, none of the mentioned devices can connect. Restarting the router and the story repeats.

I am gonna throw this out there for what is worth. For those of you having wifi issues how many of you have Brighthouse as your provider? I say that because in my area I know of at least 3 people having issues including myself. I am just wondering if Brighthouse is to blame and not Lion? Now dont jump down my throat but it sure makes sense in my issue. Makes ya wonder

Hello to Everyone,

I guess I solve my wi-fi dropping problem. This morning I reset my router and changed routers "channel searching mode" manuel to automatic. I use my imac about 6 hours I restart it or put it sleep and my wifi is still working. I hope yours is solve to. (sorry for my english)

From Turkey

Gökhan

Hi Yvonne,

I don't think it has anything to do with your provider Brighthouse. I have optimum cable in NY that has worked perfectly and only when I installed Lion did my connection problem happen. It seems everyone connections are timimg out it screams a bug in Lion that has to be addressed by Apple. Really disappointed in Apple's slow move to fix this!

Oddly enough I had the same problem. Talked to Apple technician and he advised changing the router password from using WEP to using WPA Personal. I did not believe it, but problem mostly solved.

Wifi does not see my network, but I can sign on using 'other network' and entering network name and password.

Interested in whether this helps.

My iMac now works perfectly and does not drop the router.

Well my keychain password confusion idea finally bit the dust. I'm back to having the same problem....I can load about 1 web page and then I have to turn wifi off and back on because I seem to lose my connection. Rats. I thought it was a reasonable idea....

I thought I was crazy and there was chance it was the router so I used two other ones I have from Apple and the same thing. Ipad, Iphone, xbox... everything had problems connecting with Lion running.

IT IS L I O N

Switching to WPA/WPA2 Personal helped.

Lion makes a nice wifi jammer if you want to take out a network. ;-)

I agree! I have Verizon and am still being dropped from the Net. Since contributers to this thread not only come from different areas but even different nations, it is not and cannot be an ISP problem. The two things we all have in common is a WiFi problem and Lion, and some have had freezes and crashes as well! The problem is Lion!

I had the same problem with my new MacBook Air 13". It was driving me crazy. It seems like there really is a problem with Lion and the new MBA WiFi chipset.

I finally solved it by replacing the 802.11 kext with an older version as detailed in the other discussion. (Yippy!!! 🙂 ).

BTW, I also have a Broadcom.

I posted a recap of the whole experience (and solution instructions) here: http://thoughts.maayank.com/2011/08/wireless-problems-with-macbook-air-and.html

Hope you find it helpful!

I also reset Safari, but first I emptied the Cache. I then reset the PRAM and NVRAM, and for the first time since I installed Lion, I have gone almost a full day without losing my WiFi connection. I hope it holds!

EJW Tas wrote:

YEP - IT WORKS === SOLUTION FOR WIFI CONNECTION ON LION

This looks like the answer to poor wifi on Lion - I have just installed the 10.6.4 kernel extensions for airport as per these instructions and my wifi connection is SOLID. Back to 8011 n only and transmit rates at 300 (max) rather than 8011 n (b/g compatible and transmit rates of 120-130). Also network connect is solid after sleep and shut down, so matfromchicago and earlier posts/threads get the kudos for solving this massive Lion issue.

Note there are few things more dangerous than installing back-revision kernel modules like this.

Not only do you possibly reintroduce security holes, but the internal routines the kernel module relies upon have very likely changed between versions, especially between Snow Leopard and Lion.

In short, it may happen to work with your router, but unpredictable behavior is certainly likely and worse yet, future updates to Lion may not install properly.

Or, you've just made your system into a completely unstable, unpredictable entity.

If that's OK with you, that's fine, just a friendly warning.