Q: Lion WiFi Connection Problem

For what it's worth, I was having all sorts of dropout problems, even after I moved my Airport router into the same room as my iMac.  However, last weekend I installed a firmware update to the router (I think it was released last Friday) and since then I have not had a single network drop.  It's only been a week, but previously I had been getting about one per day.  I will continue watching and post again if I noticed a connection problem.

Tim Power wrote:

 

The one singular workstation we upgraded to Lion as a test is the only one with any problems, and the problems are similar to thousands of others I have seen here on this Discussion page, so ... dare I say? Lion is the culprit.

Then what of the literally millions of people all over the world - including myself - running Lion on multiple machines with absolutely zero network issues, wired or wireless?

As I've often said in this thread, this neither indicts nor exonerates Lion, but rather there are other factors here that need to be discovered.

That's why I've also said the most important thing to do if you're experiencing issues is to contact AppleCare so that Apple can analyze patterns, if any.

Note Apple will very likely not post here and say "there are issues"; Apple usually only posts about issues when they have a fix.

I second William's notions...

Folks, if you are having a WI-FI problem with Lion, simply CALL APPLE SUPPORT. This discussion forum is NOT APPLE SUPPORT, it is a place where people get to discuss and share their experiences, but coming here to find "the fix" to your wi-fi problem will likely drive you mad.

Sure there are a bunch of people here having the wi-fi problem, BUT that number is a very, very, very small percentage compared to the number of Lion installs that are working perfectly (millions upon millions) - Being one of the people that experienced this issue (speaking from experience here) I can attest to Apple's support being world class and the experience I had with Apple Support rivals that of ANY company I have dealt with throughout my life.

My WI-FI issues were among the very first documented by Apple, mainly because "I" took the time to call them to resolve my issue. At that point they literally had ZERO knowledge of the problem, but I insisted that the problem happened immediately after installing Lion, so they went to work to try and help me. After an onslaught of "standard" wi-fi and network related troubleshooting (which lasted over a total of three hours on the phone) by a very friendly, and knowledgeable, team of support agents, I was directed to my local Apple store with an appointment with a Genius.

Long story short... At the time, there were no other known cases of this issue (I was among the first "consumer" installers of Lion) so no immediate remedy was available, however, that did not stop the tech from doing everything he could to resolve my issue. Quite frankly, they were willing to do whatever it took to get my computer working 100% - All this support on a computer over 1 year old, that was shipped with Snow Leopard, NOT LION, oh, and all at ZERO COST to me.

In the end, my issue has been definitively resolved, and I now have Lion working using WI-FI at connection speeds faster than I ever had with Snow Leopard. So, what did they do to resolve "my" problem?... Well, if you ask me, they did just about everything you could possibly imagine, so the "actual" fix, I am unsure, all I know is that what "I" did to resolve my issue was to call and get my case/issue documented, and took the time I would have normally wasted trying all the "fixes" here and had Apple do it instead.

To all of you that have had this problem for weeks/months, spending countless hours trying the "new fix of the day"... My BEST advice... Call Apple, get an appointment to bring your computer in to get your issue resolved... They now KNOW this is a problem that affects a small percentage of owners, and they have the hardware, and software to actually "fix" your problem. Yes, they even have replacement wireless cards with different chipsets as well.

Now, it is worth noting that EVEN THEN you may be one of the "very few" to still have "less than perfect" WI-FI connectivity AFTER the hardware or software fixes.. In which case, I can assure you that the problem will "definitively" be found in "your" wireless hardware. While Apple resolved my WI-FI problem with simply hardware replacement... A friend of mine had a two step process...

For him, the first step was getting a new wireless card installed "in" the computer... That let him, once again, connect to his home network, HOWEVER, he was still getting frequent dropouts and learned that his ten year old wireless router was not playing nice with Lion. He simply bought a new Netgear wireless router (the newer version of the Netgear Rangemax unit I have) - And he is ALSO now connecting at "faster than ever" speeds on his machine under Lion.

In either case, BOTH of our issues were resolved either wholly, or in part to the friendly efforts of Apple Support and the Genius' at the Apple store. They are there to help, and they WILL work relentlessly till they resolve your issue, I can attest to that!

In the end, you will accomplish two very important things; One, (most important) you will get your computer working 100% once again! Two, you will have "documented" your issue with Apple, which will help build their database, which in turn, will help future WI-FI troubleshooting efforts as the more information that can gather, the more detailed information they have in regard to which models, hardware versions, and manufacture dates, are affected... This will help Apple develop a better support method in the long run.

Continue to be part of the problem, or take advantage of being part of the solution... In THIS case, it really is up to you.

Sent using my iMac 27" I7 over WI-FI, using Lion 10.7.2 - Working FLAWLESSLY since the fix.

Thanks Apple for the pleasant tech support experience!

Just because you experienced perfect help and a good support that doesn`t mean others had a completely different experience!

Go through my replies in this post carefully and then once again tell me about perfect or helpful support...

It is absolutely arrogant and some kind of reality distortion to ignore and deny the experiences of others in the way you did with your reply...

I'm not sure what part of my message strikes you as arrogant? In fact, it was written to be enlightening and informative for those looking here for answers, but only finding others with similar issues but no real fix. If my suggestions and summary of my experience come across as arrogant to you, then I might suggest you are the one with the issue, not me.

Please explain how outlining "my" experiences is a reality distortion? Oh, and while you are at it, please point out where I "ignore and deny the experiences of others" when the WHOLE POINT of my post was to HELP OTHERS that have been agonizing over this issue trying every posted "fix of the day" on the advice from others on this forum, to no avail.

I'm not suggesting that Apple Support can fix, EVERY SINGLE case... I am sure that there are many situations and circumstances that are simply out of the realm of their ability (network issues, attached hardware conflicts...) - Nor am I suggesting that every single Apple Tech will be as capable as the folks I dealt with, but I can tell you this... Attitude goes a long way when dealing with ANY tech support, as does comprehension, so if there is ANY part of my posts that you take offense to, let it be the following...

Perhaps your experience with Apple and your ongoing issue lies within yourself. Have you taken the position that this is "Apple's issue" and let that reflect in your voice and willingness to work the issue out? Have you use the words "arrogant" "ignore" "deny" with them as well? Might I be so bold as to suggest that your "experience" and issues may be exceptional and that your personality and point of view is preventing your resolve?

Keep something in mind here... I posted for the benefit of others, not to take pot-shots at anyone... Somehow you have taken personal offense to my post, as if I were posting directly to you, which I was not. So it appears YOU are the one exhibiting a certain arrogance and negative candor in your post directed toward me, not the other way around.

My apologies to everyone else on this thread.

I too am pleased with Apple Care support. They try very hard to solve the problems, and when the first level tech support person cannot do so, they generally send it to a higher level support person and ultimately to the engineers. Sometimes, they also recommend seeing the genius in the store.

I have been having far fewer problems since the last update, so the engineers have greatly improved my connectivity. And, even though this is incremental, I have every confidence that Apple will continue to work on the problem until it is fully corrected. In any case, it certainly helps to let Apple know that we are still having problems.

I think Scottig is acting and speaking appropriately! Just as some use this thread to gripe, others talk about good treatment. Both are appropriate. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

This is a "self-help" forum that is not, on any thread, limited strictly to IT advice.

I bought a new MacBook Air in October and have had this issue as well. I took my Macbook to a Genius at the apple store. The device was having trouble connecting on the Apple Network. The wanted to take the device and said I would most likely lose all my data. They ended up giving me a brand new one. I didn't have time to stay and test there. I took the new one home and experienced the exact same problem.

I changed my router from the Belkin I had to my old Linksys and upgraded the firmware to dd-wrt. It seems to have helped. The device is constantly looking for new networks even though it's connected to my home network.

The store called me and they said they were not familiar with any issues related to wifi for these devices. I told them that I've read numerous issues that other customers were experiencing. They suggested I call Apple Care. I am going to call tomorrow. I'm really surprised that this many people are having issues and Apple seems to be in denial about the issue. I feel like apple should be looking at these forums and looking into issues that appear to be related to the product. I will make the call hoping to assist with a fix to a very big issue. If it doesn't get fully resolved, I am going to return my Macbook Air

On Friday, I downloaded Lion to my MacBook Pro.  The installation seemed successful until I tried Safari and I got the translucent veil sweep down the screen with the multilanguage message telling me to effectively restart the computer.

Yesterday, I contacted Apple's online support.  The technician ascertained the download was corrupted and guided me to reinstalling Lion.  The computer worked fine until I tried to connect to the internet and it was back to the translucent veil sweeping down the screen with the multilanguage message telling me to effectively restart the computer.

So now I have a bizarre situation where my MacBook Pro works fine, as long as I don't click on anything that needs to connect to the internet... Safari... iTunes... or anythng else!  I can use Exel... I can use Word... and everything else seems to work brilliantly with the Lion features.  It just seems to stuff up when trying to get internet access.

I'll be onto the Apple technician tomorrow to fix this problem.  He gave me a case number so that any problems, I can call to resolve.  I'll report back if this problem gets resolved.

Meanwhile, for now, I dare not upgrade my iMac.

I checked for updates again, my computer found new updates, then I updated my computer (with it plugged in) and now my internet connection is flawless again.  It was sooooo frustrating!

Today, I have spent much time over the phone with Apple's online support.  The issues have finally been resolved.  It seems certain applications were affecting the system.  Anyway, Lion has been reinstalled, documents have been recovered from my Time Machine but most of my applications will have to be reinstalled.  The good thing is I'm back on line, Safari and iTunes work... so I'm happy.  I need to really thank the brilliance of the Apple employee who worked his magic to get this issue resolved for me.

All this is utter nonsense,

I have been a PC user from day one, I was always told by the Apple crowd that PC's where C*** and the Mac was the future.

Well about three weeks ago I bit the bullet and got a MacBook Air, I Have spent my evenings fiddling round trying to get the ting to connect to the router, I replaced my old "g" Belkin with a nice new Netgear  "n" and did it solve the problem …. No ! Did my old PC laptop connect to both modems yes!

As previous posts have said this is a forum to "share the experience" well I thought I would do exactly that

Fortunately in the UK we have a piece of legislation called the "Sale Of Goods Act" buried in it is a section entitled "Fit For Purpose" which sadly the MacBook Air is not, I will give the Apple Care line a ring and give it an hour of my time after that the thing will be returned to the retailer for a refund.

This is not user error; this is just a waste of my time, in whole a terrible experience

eve from santa monica wrote:

 

I'm very reluctant to buy a new base station - my gut tells me its Lion not Airport. Thanks for the feedback.

1) Take your Mac to your local Apple Store (the store on the 3rd Street Promenade should work nicely for you.)

2) Try your Mac on the store's Wi-Fi network

3) See if you have problems there

I've been using Lion since day one without a single Wi-Fi drop.  That doesn't mean your issues aren't due to Lion, but it does mean that working configurations do exist and, I would even guess, are the norm.

Guys, try changing your router settings to Channel 11. Mine was in Automatic at channel 6. Since I changed it, I do not have issues. Hope it helps!

Cheers!

I give up. I went out and spent $40 on a 50 foot cat6 cable for my macbook pro. I won't be able to buy grocheries now, but at least I can keep my job and stop the connection drops on wifi.

I'm sure a similar solution is buried somewhere in the 1,300+ replies to this tread, so I'm sorry if this repeats an old solution.

After trying *everything* in my troubleshooting bag of tricks (including three trips to the Genius Bar), I finally broke down and did a clean install (not a reinstall). I created at lion recovery "disk" on a USB flash drive. Restarted from that and completely wiped my internal SSD drive using Disk Utility.

I then installed Lion to the erased internal SSD.

I used my Time Machine backup to restore my user account and applications ... and nothing else.

After 24-hours, I have not seen the problem crop up.