LEAP network connection failure

Over on the MacInTouch website there's a thread where people are talking about this problem. Some folks have been able to get their systems on the network by running tcpdump (which puts the monitored interface into promiscuous mode) as a background process.

I just tried here at work but no luck. 😟

Today I had to support 3 MacBook Pro users - all of them were unable to connect to our LEAP protected wireless LAN.

After reading this thread and several other user reports in the web I also informed macfixit.com:

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060323082753828

PB G4/1.67 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I've called Apple tech-support 3x regarding this issue (1st time the "specialist" hung up on me when I told her I expected the same or better performance as my G4) -- and on my most recent call I was told that though these message boards are accessed through Apple, they are not operated by Apple (even though they require an Apple ID/account??) and therefore not reviewed by Apple tech folks. Thus the issue of wi-fi connection failure has not been officially recognized by the Apple tech-team -- and WILL NOT BE ADDRESSED UNTIL THEY GET ENOUGH PHONE CALLS TO ALERT THEM TO THE SEVERITY OF THE PROBLEM! If that be true...I’d say we all stop posting to this board -- and start calling Apple Tech -- repeatedly...

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.5)

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.5)

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I'm a busy guy. I have actual work that needs to get done, requiring collaboration with my colleagues. I've called Apple support once on this and killed a whole morning sitting on the phone. It'd be better if I had a way to report this as an issue in their bug tracking system. But even as a developer I don't seem to have that access.

I spent an hour on the phone getting bumped up to someone who told me the problem was "under investigation". I have my LAN guy emailing him all the details on the router firmware and software and the next step is doing some testing with Apple support on the line.

The first rep I talked to was in denial: "you need to upgrade your firmware, Apple doesn't support third party routers". I huffed and I puffed and was transfered.

G5 Dual + G4 Dual + Intel iMac + MBP Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Supporting a fairly large installed user base, I have the first MBP and of course no LEAP, I have tried all the work-arounds with no luck. I will call Apple today and get it logged, this is crazy, I would rather have the DVR not work than connectivity!! Once again, Apple shows flashes of stupidity, we are the ones that get their gear in our offices and colleges and churches, they **** us off, then who knows what could happen. Well my 2cents

Supporting a fairly large installed user base, I have the first MBP and of course no LEAP, I have tried all the work-arounds with no luck. I will call Apple today and get it logged, this is crazy, I would rather have the DVR not work than connectivity!! Once again, Apple shows flashes of stupidity, we are the ones that get their gear in our offices and colleges and churches, if Apple decides to ** us off, then who knows what could happen. Well my 2cents

I have the same problem connecting to my work network with LEAP, get the error message saying there was an error connecting.

I have a 17" Intel iMac which has no problem connecting, but then it's using a Broadcom chip.

In the MacIntouch forums, there was a reader that said the new Intel minis had no problems connecting with LEAP, even though they also use the Atheros chip.

That person mentioned that the version of IO80211Family.kext was newer on the mini then the MacBook Pro, and within that kext in the plugins directory, the Atheros driver was version 1.0.1 on the mini, whereas it is version 1.0 on the MacBook Pro.

I updated my MacBook Pro to 10.4.5 with all the updates, and the version of the Atheros driver is still 1.0, seems the disk pre-load on the minis is a little different.

Seems all Apple needs to do is provide the IO80211Family.kext with associated drivers from the mini for the MacBook Pro, and it might solve this problem.

Speculation on my part, but it sounds feasible.

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.5) iBook G4

I am wondering if getting the IO80211family.kext and installing it on the MacBook would fix the issue. Does anyone have a Mini who can try this and post their progress?

"Disabling VoIP on the switch" doesn't even make sense. VoIP isn't a feature that you can turn on or off on a switch. It's just a protocol (well, several, actually) running over the switch. It's no different from any other data being passed around, in that respect. If you're using your individual switches to do any sort of filtering, you could have them block the UDP and TCP ports used by the various VoIP protocols, but that still wouldn't make any sense and it'd be a huge configuration mess. If the network is using VoIP, the switches probably (hopefully) have QoS set up to prioritize the voice traffic, they could be referring to that still won't have anything to do directly with the fact that the MBP is failing to connect after authenticating (even though it thinks it's connected). It seems pretty clear that the problem is entirely internal to the Mac.

Unless there is evidence that it's only not working on a certain manufacturer's networking hardware, but works fine on everybody else', then the problem is pretty clearly with Apple's implementation. But from what I've been able to tell, the problem seems to be a pretty universal one for MBP users who need to use PEAP or LEAP.

My brother purchased an Intel mini 1.6 CoreDuo, and he is supposed to be receiving it on friday.

If no one can try this sooner, then I'll give it a try after he gets his mini.

That would be awesome. If it works, we'd just need someplace from which to download the updated driver. Definitely let us know!

My LAN guy at headquarters (where I experienced the problem) has received both a MBP and an Intel Mini and will bring them into the office tomorrow to get more information on the problem. I will post his results and also send updates to the Apple tech I spoke to last week. Stay tuned.

My LAN guy at headquarters ran the trace test this morning that the Apple tech suggested and sent the following back along with the trace information:

Phil,
Attached is the capture data file from the tests we ran this morning. I brought a new intel Mac Mini (1.66 core duo) which works fine. I noticed that the firmeware versions of the airport cards are different - the mini is using 0.1.16 and the MBP is using 0.1.12.
I look forward to any help you can offer.
thnx

G5 Dual + G4 Dual + Intel iMac + MBP 2.0 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.5)

So this begs the question. Will this come in the fashion of an Airport update that will update the firmware and drivers for all of us MBP users? Are new MBPs being shipped with the new firmware/drivers or are they still being shipped with what the rest of us have?

MacBook Pro 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.4.5)