Q: Lion WiFi Connection Problem

2008 air have the same problem, Lion turn off my wifi frequently. then can not open if, have to reboot.

Since the update 10.7.1 it has improved my wifi connection, but it has not totally fixed it, I am finding that using Safari I am more likely to get Page not found errors when either refreshing a page or leaving it on a page, coming back 10mins late then doing refresh or moving to a major search engine (Yahoo etc).

Under Firefox this doesn't have and I never get that error, it seems more stable, I know most people would say 'then use firefox' - which is an acceptable work around, but point is, why is my safari doing this and its never done it before.

The other problem I have which is related to Lion, is my problem with Outlook 2011 on Lion. When quitting outlook after use, 90% of the time it quits fine, the other 10% error reporting kicks in and reports an thread error or crash.

I have raise this ticket in the correct forums on Microsoft 2011 site, the suggestions to rebuild my profile, export all my mail, new profile and reimport it, have not solved the problem. - I realise this is the apple forum and thread for the Lion and wi-fi, but the issue stems from the fact that Lion is causing this problem and there have been no updates for either Microsoft or Apple about these issues. I agree it would be great if they said 'We admit there is a problem and are working on it'.

I wonder what the percentage is of people experiencing wifi problems out of all Mac users?

So far seem works.

1/ enter router setting, stop DHCP

2/ enter mac internet setting, change TCP/IP from DHCP to manual. 

I have had this sakes issue with connecting to the Internet since installing Lion. It seems to be more of an issue on my MacBook Pro and IMac which are 2-2.5 years old. The iPad and iPhone 4 seem to be ok. My sons newer MacBook Pro is better but not perfect. I have called cox and they see the connection and the speed of the connection to the house is ok. I reset the Time Machine router and the Airport Express's (3) and all the computers and still there is a problem. My finial conclusion is the new upgrade to Lion is the problem. Apple, so far doesn't seem to recognize this issue.  My frustration level is continuing to build each day there isn't a reasonable solution. If anyone has any additional information it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Lemdog.

I've had this problem as well, on my 27 iMac with lion preinstalled.  Was on the phone yesterday with apple care (3 different calls) for about two hours, we did the whole gambit of trouble shooting solutions, PRAM reset, deleted System configs, changed DNS, cycle router and modem all with no effect.  So, I think were going to have to wait for a software update.  I've resorted to using the ethernet port hardline with no problems for the last 24 hours or so.

I have not had problems at home with my netgear router there with a 2008/2009 MBP.  My wifes original MBA had problems that seemed to be fixed by the update.  However, when I went to visit my parents, my MBP would not connect to their netgear router, WNR854T.  I have the latest firmware on both.  I rebooted the MBP and then it connected.  So, it seems to me that there is a bug related to switching between wireless networks, and in particular, I was not getting prompted for a password at my parents house when I deleted the network and then tried to connect to it again.  So, it's almost as if the credential management is hosed and that is keeping the right password negociations from happening.

This post is directed to all those people saying Lion ***** and those who think Lion being full of bugs is related to... something mentioned earlier in posts which are now deleted. It's directed to those people saying Snow Leopard was stable and Lion is buggy, because of that aforementioned reason.

You're calling Lion a buggy operating system because of the wifi dropping, but is this really a problem of Lion? No, it's a problem of Mac OS X in general. Maybe you never experienced these problems in Snow Leopard, but search the internet and this forum for "snow leopard airport dropping" of something like that. Snow Leopard had the same problem. When people did an upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard they had the same problems. I've had the same problem with Snow Leopard and I've tried to resolve this problem for about 20 months!

I've tried different settings in my access point and on my MacBook and with every release of Mac OS X 10.6.x I hoped Apple would have resolved this problem. Now, after 20 months it finally looks like it's been resolved. The day Mac OS X 10.6.8 came out I did the following:

Software Update said Mac OS X 10.6.8 was ready to install, so I clicked on "Install update". When the update was downloaded, it asked me if I wanted to restart. I didn't immediately click on "Restart", but I first disconnected from my wireless network.

I went into System Preferences and deleted al network preferences (all networks I've ever connected to, etc). I also removed all devices (Airport, Ethernet and Firewire) by clicking on the minus symbol.

I opened Key Chain and deleted all wireless passwords. I opened Finder and deleted al plist files related to Airport in my library.

I've got a seperate modem, router and access point and they are plugged into a power strip with a power button. I switched the power button, so all three devices lost their power.

Then I went back to my MacBook and clicked on "Restart" and it started installing the update.

After the update was installed and the MacBook was restarted, I switched the power on the power strip back on and waited for all devices to come back online.

Then I went into System Preferences on my MacBook and added Airport again by clicking on the plus symbol and selecting Airport. I didn't add the others, because I don't use them, so Airport is the device showing up in the list of available network devices.

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

I have been having the whole mess of wifi issues on my 27" iMac with Lion.  This includes wifi dropouts, no wifi on wake from sleep, etc.  Last weekend I did a clean install and left the computer at 10.7.0, which really seemed to help.  All week things behaved pretty normally, although sometimes it took 10-15 seconds after sleep to recognize my wireless network (original Time Capsule, BTW).

However, this morning things got crazy.  The iMac couldn't hold a connection for more than about a few minutes--extremely annoying and made the computer darn near unusable.  I tried installing 10.7.1, but that made things worse--the dropouts were basically once a minute!

I finally got fed up and called Apple support; the "party line" is that Lion is more sensitive to wireless interference, and I must have too many other wifi networks in the vicinity sharing the same channel (there are a handful). The rep's suggestion was to try different channels until the dropouts stop.  He may be right, and as I type this my network has been stable for about the last 15 minutes, which indicates some sort of interference, but the fact remains that with Snow Leopard I never had a single issue with wifi.

I work for a test and measurement company; I may drag home a spectrum analyzer and see for myself what the interference may look like...

Looks like changing channels or waiting for a driver update from Apple are the only possible solutions to this issue.

I've found that this problem appears for me on a brand new iMac that had Lion installed when I purchased it (which I'm presuming was installed over Snow Leopard), and which I then updated to 10.7.1.  (Tried resetting smc, pram, the lot.  No "alternative" networks for me to delete.)  But the problem does NOT occur AT ALL (using the same network and everything) on a MacBook Pro which had a clean install of Lion (erase and repartition) and which was then updated to 10.7.1.  So the clean install seems to have made a difference, at least for me.

I agree with jamiana (above) - a clean install of Lion removes this problem, though I suspect that a subsequent "upgrade" to 10.7.1 may mess things up again.

I think Lion is super-sensitive to WiFi interference, and the 10.7.1 "update" just didn't work - made things worse for many.

Until Apple own up and/or work out how to fix it, the best solution I find for now is to continually stream some iTunes music station, or for less bandwidth, use Terminal to continually ping some place, like

ping yahoo.com

Same problem here - my old macbook is running 10.5.8 & has no problems with my wi-fi but my brand new imac with 10.7.1 can't stay connected for more than a few minutes.

I have actually connected the modem/router with an ethernet cable & have run a massive long line through the house to do this. It's just not good enough really.

I am hoping that the more ppl post the more likely it is that Apple will hear us & FIX THIS problem.

We shouldn't have to jump through hoops/ resetting PRAM/security settings etc ... I actually can't call Apple Care as I work & by the time I get home they have been closed for an hour due to time difference - and no weekend support. am I supposed to take a day off from work to talk to Apple?

Not good enough Apple.

by "clear cache" do you mean "empty cache" in the Safari menu?

Like the maddening flourescent lights of office buildings, the wifi connection flickers on and off quite a bit. Less annoying than the freezes, crashes, delays, conflicts and hang time within apps, Firefox, Safari, Word, Excel, Text Edit, iTunes, Mail ad infinitum.

Also having the same problem with a brand new mid 2011 iMac 21.5" updated to 10.7.1. Tried all the "suggested solutions" but still no dice. The wifi dropping is easily rectified by switching the Airport off and back on but it is an annoying thing to do every few minutes.

New try,

stop use wifi password

creat a new administrator account  on mac

stop use dhcp

manual set tcp/ip , dns

looks can do some help

update to 10.7.2 problem still there

after above setting, wifi drops not such frequently

The just decided that those who didn't have a broken WiFi needed the new experience.

My 2009 i5 iMac rarely can find WiFi after sleep, when it does find it it keeps the connection for less than twenty seconds and I have to cycle the WiFi Off/On to correct it