Lion disconnects Wifi after Inactivity

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Lion disconnects Wifi after Inactivity

I've used the App Store to upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion, when I was on Snow Leopard I was able to SSH into my iMac basically whenever it was on - I blank the screen when it's not in use (not in sleep mode). Now with Lion, whenever I blank the screen (using hot corners) I only have a limited period of time before the wifi on the iMac disconnects and I think it goes to sleep.

I've made sure that I've set "Computer Sleep" to never, this should ensure the iMac does not go to sleep, I've looked through the system preferences for Network and Energy Saver looking for an option that would prevent Lion from turning the wifi off. So I think the problem maybe that either Lion is ignoring my setting for not going to sleep, or it's just turning the wifi off when it thinks its not being used.

Does anyone know how to stop Lion from doing this?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Jul 25, 2011 5:32 AM

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Answer 1

Jul 25, 2011 7:28 AM in response to Mayura

Even I have a similar issue with the Airport. After I shutdown my system (iMac 3.2 GHz, i3, 4GB, Lion), with the option "Reopen my windows when I log back in" checked, when I start my machine, the Airport is automatically disabled:

I had to restart the system again with uncheking the option to "reopen my windows". Does anyone have an idea how to resolve this issue? I am having this problem since I upgraded to Lion.

-Hari

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Answer 2

Mayura Author

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Jul 25, 2011 4:36 PM in response to HariSamala

I've heard removing your preferred networks and readding them might help, otherwise try restarting without the "Reopen my windows when I log back in" checked.

In my case Airport always works until Lion decides to either go to sleep or just turn it off, even when restarting (with the "Reopen my win..." checked) Lion always connects to my wifi network, it works just like it did in snow leopard.

I use hot corners to put the display to Sleep - not the computer, the only different behaviour I noticed was that when I resume from my blank screen state, I can see the Airport icon trying to find my network again, this isn't a big deal (as it only takes a second or two), but in snow leopard it was always connected when I went to blank screen.

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Answer 3

Mayura Author

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Jul 25, 2011 7:24 PM in response to Mayura

Just a quick update: I've kept sliding the Computer Sleep slider in Energy Preferences to Never and its finally recognised it. It now does not go to sleep, not sure why it wasn't working before.

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Answer 4

Jul 26, 2011 4:33 PM in response to Mayura

My WiFi disconnects after about 20 seconds of inactivity, but this only happens when I am more than 30 feet from my Airport Base Station. Additionally, it only happens on my 5ghz band. I have tried the following and also resetting my router, but none of these seem to work. Hopefully, this will be fixed when Apple pushes 10.7.1 in a few days?

(1) Deleting a system preferences file called com.apple.aif.plist, then restarting the machine to rebuild it. This is inside Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences, which is now harder to find in Lion’s Finder because Apple has hidden your hard drive by default in the Sidebar’s list of Devices. You can use Finder’s Preferences to add Hard Drives back to the Sidebar, but based on our experiences, deleting this file doesn’t work to fix the problem.

(2) Reset your Mac’s PRAM and NVAM. This was suggested by an Apple Discussions user, and is explained in this Apple Knowledgebase document. Most reports do not suggest that this works.

(3) Reset your Mac’s System Management Controller Another suggestion from an Apple Discussions user, explained here. Again, most reports do not suggest that this works.

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Answer 5

Jul 27, 2011 7:13 PM in response to funkysphere

Thank you funkysphere.

After deleting the file (com.apple.alf.plist) and restarting the machine, Lion rebuilt the file. My problem is solved. Everytime I restart my machine with the option "Reopen my windows when logged back in" checked, I connect to my Wi-Fi w/o any problems.

Here's the OLD and NEW plist.

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Answer 6

Nov 30, 2011 7:42 AM in response to HariSamala

... this resolved the issue for me -- thanks!!!

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