Q: Lion WiFi Connection Problem

Hi all,

I'd like to follow-up on this Atheros/Broadcom card observation, which I can indeed confirm here and which so far seems to be the most promising lead that's come up in this 27-page discussion. 

I've just upgraded our home iMac (late 2009, 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) from Snow Leopard to Lion (Mac OS X Lion 10.7 (11A511)), and this right away started causing reccurring wifi interruptions (our wifi net had until then been perfectly stable for over a year, so the cause is clearly the Lion upgrade).  The iMac has an Atheros card (Atheros 9280: 4.0.55.4-P2P) in it.  The interruptions affect other Macs on the net that are running either Snow Leopard or other version of Mac OSX, and to correct the problem, one must somehow restart or fiddle with wifi settings in network config on the iMac/Atheros that's running Lion, but the interruption happens again within hours, sometimes minutes. So there's clearly something about how this iMac, under Lion, regularly communicates with the wifi router that kills it or makes it hang.

Interesting thing is that I also just got a brand new mid-2011 MacBook Air, pre-installed with Lion (11A2063), sporting a Broadcom wifi card (BCM43xx 1.0(5.100.98.75.8)). If I disconnect the iMac/Atheros from our wifi net (turn wifi off), leaving only the MBA/Broadcom/Lion on the net, the net seems ok.

So to be clear, this suggests that the issue is linked to the combination of Lion(11A511)/Atheros (9280: 4.0.55.4-P2P), but doesn't happen with Lion(11A2063)/Broadcom-BCM43xx 1.0(5.100.98.75.8).  Which apparently fits the patterns noted by nbooradley23.

Hope this helps someone at Apple to accelerate the fix...

Good luck to all, and despite the frustrations here, let's not forget to put things in perspective: could be worse, imagine if we were using Vista...  ;-)

Still not one drop out since the router change from bt to old netgear.  The reason im so proud is due to the fact that for me 2 get even 5 mins is great but 48 hours at full speed is amazing, i feel like i have just been introduced to the world of the internet. i mean children are on sky through xbox, im streaming apple tv and my misses is watching eastenders on iplayer, oh and 2 downloads are being done on playstation for games and daughter outside on ipad.  oh what a beautiful peaceful world netgear has brought to myself.

My advice if it means anything, after all i have had trouble with wi fi since i bought my first mac years ago and started using different routers.  spend £15 on a d834 netgear router and live your life in peace.

oh i have one question: does the airport router play up. im not even sure apple do a router, but if they do i bet lion will work perfect with the new all singin dancing apple router. i will be stunned if there own router is playing up. but there again i bet if they make a router it dont like windows.

thanks a very happy andy

Nice detective work Echfam!  Let us indeed hope it helps Apple who clearly cannot resolve this issue single handed.

It's interesting that those who post here fall into one of two broad camps.  There is the majority (which includes me) are surprised and not a little annoyed that the mighty Apple should have released such a sub-standard product before it was really ready.  There must be a growing suspicion that once you invite the devil's (aka Intel) processor onto the scene you start seeing PC type problems creeping in.

And then there are the diehard fans for whom Apple can still apparently do no wrong.  You're one of them perhaps.  "Could be worse" is not exactly a ringing endorsement.  If you buy a BMW that breaks down on day one, you won't be much comforted by someone smiling broadly, slapping you on the back and saying jovially: "Could be worse, think if it had been a Lada!"

I am sure this will get sorted because the Apple reputation is very much on the line - as I am sure the Apple boffins know, whatever they might be prepared to admit to publicly.

Curiouser and curiouser!  You have my model of router and I cannot even get Lion to begin talking to it.  I wonder if the version makes a difference.  Mine is v3, what is yours (says on the side)?

version v4

i also went into my dns and changed to 8.8.8.8

Thanks.  So I wonder if that suggests that either the difference between the versions or the DNS setting is the culprit?  I have my DNS set to obtain automatically from my ISP.  Could my ISP be behind the curve as far as Lion is concerned? 

I am not enough of a techie to know whether any of this has a bearing on why some people are as happy as Larry, like you, or fed up and miserable like me!

Yes great sleuthing EchFam-D though we can't tell apple what is exactly wrong. it does appear to be a chipset issue with certain routers. What is confusing though is I've delt with a few people who have the same issue on (some) broadcom chipsets but I am awaiting to see has their issue been resolved with some of the fixes suggested here such as the java update and others.

Simon,

From what i'm reading the V3 has a TI-AR7 (texas intrument) chipset. the V4 upgraded funny enough to.... wait for it.... broadcom.

furthermore i'm sure there is someone on my facebook page with a issue with that TI-AR7 similar to yours.

Now then, there's interesting! I rebooted the Iphone 4 and restart the hotspot and everythignworks fine - all the time. Apparently itwas an phone thing not a Lion thing!

Spent about 30 min with apple, on the phone, today.  My problem is that I have two MBP's that I bought in June09.  The only difference is that one has higher speed and more RAM than the other.   After Lion install.  The better MBP works great.  The other loses internet connectivity after being awoken from sleep.  BTW we are working of a Airport Extreme.  

So the Apple tech helped we through a bunch of stuff.  We reset the computer, zapped the PRAM, removed some of the preferences,  removed all of the preferences,  removed and reinstalled the wifi in the network preferences.  Nothing worked except restarting the mac or cycling the wifi on and off. And that only worked till it went to sleep again.

The tech felt that the problem was associated with the wake up portion of sleep in that somehow it is sending Leopard info instead of Lion info.

They said that they are working on the issue and that 10.7.1 will be fixing this and other issues.

In the meantime she suggested that I go to genius bar where they could "take apart the machine" and see if they could find out what is going on and fix it.

BTW even though the machines are out of warranty they are treating this like it is a warrant because the Lion software is the issue.  Note also that I got help about 1 min after I sent in an email.....so even though the problem is not fixed.....it was good customer service.

Oh... one other thing that was interesting.  Every time that the browser said that there was no connectivity we went to the network utiltity and pinged a site (google)...packets sent/ packets received.   So the machine can communicate with the sites but it won't let any of the browsers or email work.

i have never heard so much crap sounds like apple speak to me. change this thing in settings and all that. its all crap to me just change router. period

What the **** is going on. We're not employees for Apple. We're just consumers that sustain Apple and Mr Jobs. We need respect. Listen, Apple: We DESERVE RESPECT. We don't have to find solutions for problems caused by Apple. We spend money buying expensive products from Apple, and we WANT products that work and not products for being tested.

Apple, it just works... dosen't it...? ;-)

Bob,

Thanks for the update.  at least it seems apple are aware and are planning a fix.  If only they would announce it rather than you having to.