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Lion WiFi Connection Problem

Since installing Lion on both my IMac and MacBook Pro, the WiFi cycles (wifi icon on the menu bar) - looking for network - network on - looking for network. iMac with OS 10.6 doesn't have this problem so it's not the AirPort and there was no problem prior to installing Lion. The AirPort Utility log shows lots of connection activity but I don't know if that means anything. The network troubleshooter says theres no problem but it's causing big problems with connection speed and applications that need a constant connection are giving me network errors constantly. Please give me some advise....

Posted on Jul 20, 2011 5:19 PM

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Posted on Jul 20, 2011 7:07 PM

Welcome to my nightmare...Been going on for a year now. Nice to see the didn't bother addressing this issue with the new OS.

2,673 replies

Jul 30, 2011 7:16 PM in response to lrogersinlv

I have this Wi-Fi connectivity issue too on a brand new 2011 Mac Mini with Lion. Wireless drops out regularly - multiple times a day. Turning Wi-Fi on and off doesn't always fix the problem. Some things I've tried that appear to work are:

  • Doing the 'Assist me...' routine in network prefs
  • Deleting the Wi-Fi network password from Keychain Access


On multiple occasions a full reboot does nothing to restore Wi-Fi.


My previous Mini on SL never had this issue.


Bummed.

Jul 31, 2011 11:40 PM in response to lrogersinlv

Although I wanted to wait for some time until trying Lion again I just formated MacintoshHD yesterday and did a clean installation (fucxxxx inpatience 😉).


After the installation I connected to my wi-fi-network and wanted to do a java-update as recommended in some of the replies here. When I started the java-settings via spotlight I was asked if the installed java-version should be updated and of course permitted that.


Then I got pictures, movies, music and documents back via TimeMachine (but no user-setting or -preferences etc. !!!).


Then I installed:


  • Mozilla Firefox (via download)
  • Google Chrome (via download)
  • Adobe Flash Player (via download)
  • iWork 09 (from dvd + software-update)
  • iLife 11 (fromd dvd + software-update)
  • Sophos Antivirus (via download)
  • CleanMyMac (via download)
  • iStatMenus (via download)
  • LittleSnitch (via download)
  • Skype (via download)


I didn`t change anything about the configuration of the router and have the same (actual) firmware as before...


And guess what: Since then - which is for almost 24 hours now - I have an absolutely stable wi-fi-connection without any drop-outs (including several reboots of the system and several times the machine went to sleep-mode).


Software which was installed before but hasn`t been installed again so far (because there is no official Lion-support yet):


  • Adobe Photoshop Elements 9
  • Hear


I still think it`s a bug in Lion but now I am quite sure that it must come from messed up settings/preferences resulting from going to Lion via upgrade instead of a realy clean installation (which of course is a mess as the upgrade is the default provided by Apple...).

Aug 11, 2011 5:42 AM in response to lrogersinlv

Hi all I have your same problem...

I have tried these solution:


  • reset Safari
  • disabled all safari plugins
  • change Wifi channel
  • IPv6 "Only local link"
  • Reset SMC controller
  • deleted preferences.plist
  • deleted SystemConfiguration folder


Today my connection seems to be stable even if a couple of times (in 1-2 hours) It falls asleep for 20-30s/1min...

I don't know what thinking about...I'm waiting for an answer from Apple.

Sorry my poor english i hope to be clear.

Aug 17, 2011 10:23 PM in response to Rephello

Hi! For me the answer was - and remains, as I've just tried again without it and the connection dropped immediately - something I found on the OSXDaily site (http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/22/wifi-dropping-in-os-x-lion-fixes/). This is a simple and, I've found, extremely effective workaround until the problem is fixed, which it wasn't in the 10.7.1 upgrade. Give it a try!


peeyar


Another Idea: Maintaining Data Transfer

Another theory is that when data transfer stops, the wireless connection inappropriately drops. You can avoid that by simply launching the Terminal and pinging a random address, this causes a miniscule amount of data transfer to occur and that can be enough to maintain an active network connection.

  • Launch Terminal (accessed at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal or by using Spotlight)
  • Type “ping yahoo.com” at the command line and you will see something like this
  • ping yahoo.com
    64 bytes from 98.137.149.56: icmp_seq=91 ttl=52 time=27.806 ms
    64 bytes from 98.137.149.56: icmp_seq=92 ttl=52 time=27.763 ms
    64 bytes from 98.137.149.56: icmp_seq=91 ttl=52 time=27.806 ms
    64 bytes from 98.137.149.56: icmp_seq=92 ttl=52 time=27.763 ms
  • Just let that run in the background, it isn’t resource intensive

Aug 20, 2011 8:06 AM in response to ginsters

Maybe a more detailed explanation from Apple:


Resetting PRAM and NVRAM

  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
  3. Turn on the computer.
  4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
  5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
  6. Release the keys.

Aug 28, 2011 4:33 PM in response to robbertvdd

robbertvdd wrote:


Then I connected to my network again and after about a month it still looks like the problem is resolved.


I've passed your post to a friend immediately after I read it on Aug. 27. He had already installed LION to his MBAir and was going mad with his wireless for about 3 weeks.


In addition to your post I recomended him to repair the permissions before setting up the new networks.


He went thru your advise and


  • power of the router
  • delete all known networks
  • delete the AirPort (en1)
  • delete all wireless passwords from keychain
  • delete on /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration the files
    com.apple.airport.preferences.plist and com.apple.network.identification.plist
  • delete on /User/<name>/Library/Preferences the files
    com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist and com.apple.internetconfig.plist
  • reboot the MBA (still no power on the network)
  • repair permissions on MacIntosh HD
  • reboot MBA again
  • power on the network
  • go to system preferences, add AirPort and do the needed settings
  • activate AirPort on the MBA and connect (DHCP), give the passphrase for the network


Since then wireless network on his MBA runs without any disturbance.


Hope your tips work for others well too.



regards - Lupunus

Aug 29, 2011 11:59 PM in response to PJRives

I have tried the clean install (Lion)...

The problem is still here...

I repeat i have tried:

  • deleting SystemConfiguration
  • deleting duplicate keys in Keychain (Airport)
  • PRAM reset
  • changed all wifi channels
  • changed many DNS
  • manual IP address
  • IPv6 -> only local link
  • clean Lion install

7 weeks from Lion and i can't use my mac.... I'm really disappointed

Sep 1, 2011 2:03 AM in response to Nogueira

Nogueira,


Apple had sold 1.000.000 (one Million) licenses of LION on launch day and I guess some millions more since that.


Even if a greater visible amount of people here and elsewhere arguing about problems with wireless, printing, overheating or other problems, the are statistically a minority.


And as I could learn on a couple of colleagues and friends with Lion problems, in most cases, Lion is not always the root of the trouble.


The same storys and problems boiled up every time there is a new OS release from Apple. Remember the roll out of OS X 10, 10.5 and also 10.6


So, each time there is a new OS released, the rumor starts over again, and people blame the messenger for the bad news.


I'm a computer pro since 1993 and have heard those arguments always all times someone released a new OS, regardless if it was Microsoft, Apple, Linux or someone else.


I've learnd in this years:


  • Never update a OS if a big step is released. ALWAYS make a clean install instead.
  • Never adopt a new OS if you're not a techi or experienced, advanced, user being able to fix some issues without help.


And I ask myself allways: "Why people doesent want to wait a liitle time until the big bugs are fixed by new releases and/or updates?"


Even as I'm a pro and experienced user, I myself always wait until the big bugs where fixed before updating a important system in my environment. Early adopting is only a option for on non-relevant machines, where it is no problem when they fail, stuck or have to reinstalled, rolled back or something like that.


I've learned too: In most cases computer problems are a PEBKAC



Cheers - Lupunus

Sep 6, 2011 2:27 PM in response to angelbuns

Since Mac's are able to use wireless LAN, there are the same discussions about dropping, bad performance a.s.o, especially when major changes in OS X occur.


Go back into history with google, bing or right here, and you will see, that the same discussions pop up at every major change. Tiger - Leopard - Snow Leopard and now Lion.


And the root to the problems are NOT (or extreme rare) the new operating systems.


Wireless getting faster with each step .. from b to g to draft n to n with mimo right now.

The faster a radio transmitted network gets, the higher is the risk that radio obstacles, interferences, or mismatching network settings and configurations cause problems.


The problem mostly is based inside the network and / or in the configurations.


Remember, that Wireless networking is not as "simple" as wired networking.


There is a lot more "tech" inside and radio tricky tracky to provide a reliable network performance and stability.

Up too, there are a lot of obstacles (e.g. walls, reflections, microwaves, cordless phones) in your home or office that disturbs the radio signal or interference with it, what could cause additional traffic in your wireless network while signal strength (bandwidth) is decreased.

This again, could cause bad packets (e.g. DUP ACK) in your network, what could make a client drop the network.

Or it will cause collisions in your network, leads to decreased network capacity again and so on, until the network drops.


On the relatively small bandwidth of, for example a 811.g, wireless network is a lot of traffic all the time only to keep the network alive.

Thereby the bandwidth for user data is limited. On a 150 MB 811.n network are -if perfectly tuned- 80% of the throughput left for user data. On a standard "set all to default and the base station behind the oak trunk" network, the user data throughput will reach 50% to 60% of the nominal 150 MB speed.


Imagine, that your wifi network-highway is full packed with user data like Internet, Airplay, messenger, Skype video chat and a running youtube video on every computer in the network.


All of them hooked on the same radio stream with limited bandwith.


You may see now, that small disturbances or interferences may cause trouble on the highway.


On this, unfortunately, there is no single "Aspirin" solution to fix all network dropouts one can have.


It needs a lot of work and time, to find the bottleneck in a individual wireless network or the reasons of bad packets.


But there are some steps you can go to eventually fix your specific network problem luckily.


Best you can do to stabilize your network is optimizing your network with all effort you can give including the radio beaming, e.g. by changing the transmitters place.


So what more can you do?


  • Check if other wireless Accesspoints are in your neighborhood and (important) what channel they use.
  • Check if wireless phone stations are near your wireless router or the affected device, cause most cordless phones use the 2.4 GHz band.
  • Eventually switch to a different channel (manual settings) at your router or phone station.
  • Recommended: If your router provides such a configuration (Greenfield-Mode) and there are no 811.g systems in your house, try to set the router to 811.n only. This will reduce interferences from the "g" channels in your own network (when the n to g compatibility is disabled) and the networks surrounding you.
  • If the 811.n does not mach to your setup, home or office, downgrading all connections to 811.g can also be an option to stabilize the connections.


This will reduce interferences, results in better stability of the connection and increase speed. It also helps to prevent bad network packets if a system accidentallyswitch the band.



Conclusion:

The better your wireless connection runs, the less will be disturbance, bad packets, collisions a.s.o in your network.


Good connection, no dropouts.



Cheers - Lupunus


Message was edited by: lupunus

Sep 7, 2011 6:37 AM in response to pheenix93

pheenix93 wrote:


Only my new MacBook Air (13", i7, 256GB SSD) have many problems with Wi-Fi Connection. Sometimes i can't establish a connection or the Connection drop every 10-30 minutes. 😟



Your new MBAir have a Broadcom chipset for WLAN and two antennas for actual 811.n services.


No alien chipset or exotic hardware so far.


The wifi hardware is the same as on the 2011 MBPro I use (except the third antenna on the MBRro) and, if the same (most likely) drivers are used with 10.6.8 and 10.7.1 the same problems should come up.


Surprise surprise, exactly the connection bull**** were talking about here, rise up with my new MBPro and I had a lot of trouble with WLAN the first days with the MBPro.


Connection and login problems to the router (a 811.g model), Internet was lousy, airplay or video streaming drops out minimum twice an hour, the MBPro could not reconnect to wireless after sleep and some more.


And, all other devices in my network works like before.


Never had such a mess with the MacBook, SmartPhone, WDTV or the WinXP machine before, except the iTunes stream drop out once or twice a day which, I thought at that time, may came from the old 811.b/g router.


So I drop the old router and bought a Airport Extreme 5th Gen., hoping a Apple only network will provide a quick fix for the problems.


Wrong horse. Some problems seems to be fixed, like the "reconnect after sleep" one but the other annoying bugs where still present.


After the common first aid do's and don't's did not solve the problems I was lucky having a couple of days off giving me the time to investigate the problems.


I put out my years of experience in troubleshooting IT-Systems for others and start a complete standard troubleshoot on the issues.


  • Check involved hardware (incl. cables) of all systems hooked to the network for problems.
  • Check settings and the available network options on router and all other network clients. (Expresses, WinXP PC, WDTV and SmartPhone)
  • Check that ALL network clients can provide and have fixed to the best matching settings for the wanted network design.
  • Check AntiVir and firewall settings on all systems using either of them. (AntiVir can cause dropout in streams like Airplay, Scrambled Firewall settings can prevent essential network packets to reach there destination)
  • Check network behaviour when only one system at the time is connected to it.
  • Check radio conditions and place of the base station, Mac's and Expresses.
  • Swap around the Expresses and testing them with only one at the time plugged in.
  • Monitor the whole network traffic during the time of Airplay dropouts or network cutoff.
  • Monitor the radio of wireless network with a wifi hacking tool to catch eventually a relation in radio conditions, interferences, frequency, used channel or other surrounding wireless networks to dropouts
  • Read (grep) all related logfiles for the time problem occurs from ALL systems.


Luckily, OS X have Terminal and a bash to compare files, sort out the 20 lines you need or help find 20 matching entries inside millions of lines in a 24 hour wire shark log.


After that, there was a bit of Sherlock Holmes work.


Analyzing the collected data, reading and comparing a lot of logfiles. Check manuals and google stuff to find -hopefully-, the troublemaker and a solution to fix my wireless problems.


So I followed Holmes: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"


And, not surprisingly,

  • NONE of the problems came from WLAN chipset driver or chipset hardware
  • ONE problem only was related to OS X (Scrambled Keychains and network *.plist's)
  • ALL other problems could get routed inside the wireless network, its infrastructure and radio conditions.


After all, I found solutions for any of my wireless network issues.


Now I have the fastest possible 811.n network for the given radio conditions in my home, with displayed 450 MB/s for the MBPro and between 270 MB/s and 300 MB/s for the other units.


  • No more Airtunes drop outs
  • No more video stream drop outs
  • No more network cut off
  • No more fading connections or bandwidth
  • No more bad packets in the network
  • No more disappearing units in the AirPort Utility


By the way, a friend of mine have recently get a brand new MBAir w. Lion and faced some wifi issues after unboxing the MBAir. He's a experienced tech too and did his troubleshooting homework. Neither he nor me have any wifi issue when visiting each other and let the MBPro or Air join to any of the networks.


I'm sure, that Apple can not present, and for that will never do so, a more or less simple update, firmware or bugfix solution for the problems we talk about today.


Maybe, instead of moaning doing your homework proper does the trick for most of us.


If your not a tech or experienced user, ask brother, sister, neighbor, job mate, friend, according to the knowledge the have.

If none of them are available or all have not enough skills, at least you can sit down, google, read and learn to help yourself or rent a professional.


All is better than arguing with Lion, Intel Chips the last X-Mas snow or poking with a branch in the fog like a blind in the woods trying to find a specific tree.



Cheers - Lupunus

Sep 7, 2011 10:56 AM in response to pheenix93

ok,


also ne O2-Box als DSL-Modem und Router mit 2,4 GHz WLAN 811.g und dahinter nochmal einen WR1043ND Router mit 2,4 GHz 811.b/g/n und mimo bei n.


Wäre es mein Netzwerk würde ich:



  • Das WLAN an der O2-Box abschalten falls möglich.
  • Das "g" Netz am WR deaktivieren falls möglich. (Warum? Siehe weiter unten)


Falls eines oder beides nicht möglich (weil benötigt) dem O2 "g" Netz einen anderen Namen (SSID) und ein anderes Passwort geben sowie mindestens 5 Kanäle Abstand zwischen den "g" Netzen der O2-Box und der WR lassen.

Dabei nicht vergessen, möglichst noch 5 Kanäle "Platz" zum stärksten "Nachbarnetz" zu halten.

Hierzu sollte auf "Automatisch" bei Kanalwahl verzichtet werden, weil: Kann klappen, muß aber nicht jedesmal funktionieren.

Dann, wenn möglich, dafür sorgen, das dieses Netz dem Mac nicht mehr "bekannt" ist. Anleitung dazu weiter unten.


  • Die O2-Box ggf. nur als DSL-Modem weiterlaufen lassen und
  • Den WR zur Zentralstation machen
  • Alle Teilnehmer auf das gleiche Netzwerk zwingen falls möglich. Das kann im ungünstigsten Fall "downgrade" der "n"-fähigen auf "g" bedeuten.


Wird das "g" Netz der Zentrale benötigt, weil zB ältere Systeme im Netz sind oder gelegentliche Gäste, dafür sorgen, das der Mac das Netz nicht mehr "kennt"


Das vermeidet:

  • 2 konkurierende und sich gegeseitig beeinflussende (interferenzen) 2,4 GHz "g" Netze in der Wohnung. All die anderen "g" Netze in der Umgebung reichen als potentieller Störfaktor völlig aus.
  • Einen ständig zwischen "n" und "g" modus hüpfenden Mac, da die Airport Extreme Karte im Mac ja beides kann und sich im Zweifel immer für das gerade attraktivere Netz entscheidet, wenn beide Netze "bekannt" sind.


Beisp. Rennt einer mit nem Blechtablett voll Dosenbier durch die Funkstrecke, sacht sich der Mac ... oh, "n" ist gerade schwächer als "g" ok, lass uns wechseln.

Steht da gerade ein wichtiges Paket vor der Tür im "n" Netz (zB CCMP Group Key, Handshake oder ARP) geht der Ärger los.


Der sog. compatibility mode zwischen auf dem gleichen Router zeitgleich laufenden "g" und "n" Netzen soll zwar den Parallelbetrieb von g und n (gleiche SSID / Key) und damit eine gemeinsame Nutzung der vorhandenen Funknetze durch unterschiedliche Clients ermöglichen, hat aber in der Praxis durchaus so seine Marotten.


Daher sowohl der Rat, entweder das "g" Netz zu canceln oder es dem Mac auszutreiben.


Da das Löschen unerwünschter Netze aus der Systemsteuerung beim Mac nicht immer 100% funktioniert, ist es sinnvoll nach dem Löschen des Netzes aus der Systemsteurung (Airport -> Optionen) noch händisch zu checken ob die Passwörter für die gelöschten Netze auch aus der Schlüsselbund Verwaltung (Dienstprogramme) entfernt wurden. Ggf. händisch löschen.


Ach ja, vor der Löschaktion AirPort deaktivieren. Erst nach Abschluss wieder einschalten.


Nicht vergessen, die Positionierung des AP's hinsichtlich der störungsarmen Ausbreitung der Funkwellen. Da hilft nur Messen oder Rumprobieren.


Und als "Aspirin" --> Dienstprogramme --> Festplatten Dienstprogramm --> Zugriffsrechte reaprieren.

Kann nie schaden :-)


Bei Lion kann auch ein Blick die AirPort Diganostik lohnen. alt + Linksklick auf das Airport Symbol oben, dann Wi-Fi Diagnose (letzter Eintrag) wählen.



Viel Erfolg

Lupunus

Sep 12, 2011 12:13 AM in response to leduch

leduch wrote:


I don't like to be rude usually but this lupunus guy makes me want to be.


Right now i'm at mac donalds and i have to use my iPhone as a modem beacause i can not use their free hotspot. There are 5 others free hotspots in my Wi-Fi list (i'm in the center of Paris) and NONE of them work with my mac. Do you understand that? NONE!


Are you stupid enough to think that all those major companies have "infrastructure issues" on their hotspots and that's it's still not a Lion issue?


G'morning to Paris!


i belief you that the fact to sit in the office, at home or even at McBurger and can not get a WiFi connection is very annoying. No doubt about that.


And I clearly see that the affected people are upset and disappointed about that.


But, as said from me and frequent others with trillions of more points here than me, it's "mostly" not a Lion or hardware problem. I'm a Tech, not a kitchen advisor and I've experienced thousands of "Since XY-System my WiFi ..." and "Yesterday as I was on former YX-System all worked" story's since 1993. Guess what? For about 95% of the trouble the new XY system was not the reason.


But, I tend to handle the problems from a cold proffesional tech view not from the concerned side. The companies assigning me, pay quite well for that and expect solutions not emotions.


So just to give it a try ...


  • Take another coffee and open System Settings.
  • Go to WiFi (Airport)
  • Set up a new location with nothing in
  • Check "Remember networks this computer has joined" on the advanced window
  • Uncheck "Ask to join new networks"
  • Reboot


Try to join the McDonalds WiFi again over the WiFi symbol in the menu bar.


Lupunus

Sep 12, 2011 3:26 PM in response to mauryr

mauryr wrote:


But how can that be? Lupunus guaranteed us that it's just a configuration problem and that NO update is coming from Apple. *cough*


Maybe "Radiation Mac's" post grounds on hear say?


OK, back to facts.


What does Apple say about "Mac goes to sleep" for portable Mac's?


  • The Ethernet port turns off, if applicable
  • Expansion card slots turn off
  • A built-in modem, if present, turns off
  • An AirPort card, if present, turns off
  • The USB connection only responds to the power key on an external keyboard
  • The optical media drive spins down
  • Audio input and output turns off
  • Keyboard illumination, if a feature of your portable computer, turns off


So far, it seems that Lion work as designed.


Technically, after wake up, the WiFi have to reestablish the connection from scratch, cause while the system sleeps, a lot of things on the network may happen.

Group keys for the encryption of the wireless transmission got changed. IP lease time could have expired and the IP is given to another client, the system is moved to another location and much more.


To prevent the lag between wake up from sleep and rejoining a former used wireless network, the WiFi must kept running AND connected when the system go to sleep.

The high power consumption of Wi-Fi makes battery life in mobile devices a concern, especially when wireless should kept on during sleep state.


Away from the battery, a lot of other serious questions rise up, if you want the wireless alive while system sleeps.


On that, what kind of "Fix" you think, Apple will roll out?



Lupunus



PS ... I'm off from this discussion until serious troubleshoot and solution finding starts again on this thread.

Sep 13, 2011 1:07 AM in response to wackerow

wackerow wrote:


All I know for sure is that I installed Lion and now have wifi problems and am not about to spend my days working on a fix for a problem Apple is responsible for, and you sir have not helped me in the slightest.



First to say is that this is not a user forum. This is a tech support forum.


You, Sir, for sure, have trouble with your machine. And what is clear too: Apple is not responsible for the wireless problems you have since Lion install.


You Sir, instead of asking questions, giving all information you think it would be useful and start a serious attempt to fix your problems, decide to join the "Lion is evil" choir.

You have made only 3 contributions to the whole community so far, starting with a "me too" post, followed only by rant and rave.


If you seriously want help on your issue:

  1. Ask first instead of rant later.
  2. Ask your own questions instead of responding with "me too" on what you think is a similar problem, but is most likely completely different to your problems.
  3. Actively seek to correct problems instead of rant and hoping that some future Apple "fix" will magically do it.


The problem with your wireless since updated to Lion, you described in only one sentence, is definitely not a Lion issue. Even as it first come up after you installed Lion.


Your one sentence description leads at first to the fact, that you made no attempt to clean up your system before or after updating. It leads also to the conclusion, that you may have unwanted traffic in your network on witch your system or the router cut off the connection. Taking a look on the logfiles will confirm that for sure. This may come from router or other network participants, but most likely your machine produce this on mismatching, crumbled or timed out response to incoming traffic.


I'm pretty sure, that your wireless will run, even at school, as never before, if you perform the common steps after doing major upgrades since Panther came out.


  • Cut off all network connections
  • Close all running applications
  • Clear all caches
  • Clear former (and now mixed up) wireless network settings in your system settings by deleting the networks that may not run properly (if on the way, delete also all obsolete ones).
  • Eventually remove the corresponding entry's in keychain, if not automatically removed.
  • Perform a permissions repair on your system disk
  • Reboot (power off and restart) your system.


If you not want to perform the steps manually, you may use a 3rd party tool like Onyx for that.


And at last. Don't became rude here, even if you are really upset from your network trouble.



Lupunus

Sep 13, 2011 11:19 PM in response to lupunus

It's a drama, unlike any drama seen before. In my opinion Apple is responsible, since software and hardware are from the same vendor. 54 pages and 82500+ views of this tread illustrate that there is a problem.


Anyway, I too am in WiFi-limbo. My laptop is a 15" 2010 MacBook Pro, 2.66 Ghz Core i7. I'm on Lion 10.7.1 and did a clean Install on a freshly formatted disk. The WiFI signal-strength says 100%, but packets frequently get lost / delayed. This happens on my home-network (Airport Extreme) as well as on my mobile setup (Huawai E5). When connected by ethernet (eth0 - wire) everything works fine. A ping to my default gateway illustrates the problem:


64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=16 ttl=64 time=6.516 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=17 ttl=64 time=1.200 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=18 ttl=64 time=1.820 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=19 ttl=64 time=1.476 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=20 ttl=64 time=1.230 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 21

Request timeout for icmp_seq 22

Request timeout for icmp_seq 23

Request timeout for icmp_seq 24

Request timeout for icmp_seq 25

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=21 ttl=64 time=5179.828 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 27

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=22 ttl=64 time=6163.453 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 29

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=23 ttl=64 time=7058.523 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=24 ttl=64 time=6179.983 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=25 ttl=64 time=5202.363 ms


and...


64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=134 ttl=64 time=19130.931 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 157

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=138 ttl=64 time=20913.822 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 159

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=139 ttl=64 time=21230.165 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=140 ttl=64 time=20362.524 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=141 ttl=64 time=21223.690 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=142 ttl=64 time=21281.860 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 164

^[[ARequest timeout for icmp_seq 165

Request timeout for icmp_seq 166

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=144 ttl=64 time=23457.397 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 168

Request timeout for icmp_seq 169

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=145 ttl=64 time=25353.232 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=146 ttl=64 time=25363.258 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=147 ttl=64 time=25928.365 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 173

Request timeout for icmp_seq 174

Request timeout for icmp_seq 175

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=149 ttl=64 time=27458.006 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=150 ttl=64 time=27059.424 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=151 ttl=64 time=26869.670 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 179

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=152 ttl=64 time=28218.510 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=153 ttl=64 time=28085.888 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=154 ttl=64 time=27543.842 ms


I've performed the following steps sofar:


  1. Reset PRam and NVRam
  2. Removed all network-configurations
  3. Removed all files under /Library/Caches and /System/Library/Caches
  4. Removed all network and browser related entries from KeyChain
  5. Clicked "Repair Disk Permissions" in DiskUtility (not much happened, saw Progressbar for maybe 1/10 of a second, that's it)
  6. Reboot
  7. Set up the network-configuration again


Nothing works. I also tried a fixed DNS-Server (like Google's 8.8.8.8) and kept up the traffic by having a ping in the background. All to no result.


Any more suggestions?

Lion WiFi Connection Problem

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