upgraded to mountain lion and wifi keeps dropping

Troubleshooting Wi-Fi issues in OS X

Tried every one of those fixes/test while I was still running Lion. I can't count how many times I did it after installing ML. This bulletin is almost a year old and has only a 2 star rating. That kind of says it all.

• Last Modified: May 4, 2012
• Article: HT4628
• Rating: **

If it's a fix that came out before 04/20/2013, I've tried it. They might work for a little while but in time it goes right back to dropping wi-fi.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread/4141882?start=0&tstart=0

Tried the new Router and the same thing. I take my Mac with me a lot and it drops wi-fi no matter what router, isp or network it's connected to, while our other Mac always stays connected.

If you look I'm part of that July discussion. I'm guessing that was before I starting working with some of the Apple engineers over the phone.

@mikwest:

I empathize, but "caveat emptor" mi amigo. Not to break the flow of the recent conversation looking at the wifi card driver(s) as a possible issue, but, I did some searching on Google and found something that might shed some light on the problem . . . .

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/382788/just-give-them-store-credit

Hope that helps . . . .

e.e.p.

They didn't offer me a store credit?😀

To be fair they did try to sell me a flower at the airport though.

This is not just a message for you, Stevefromorpington, but for many dissenters and grumblers.

You know, very often, we get caught up in our own jargon and perceptions, and we grind away. I believed I had the same issue as you at one point, but I stepped back, followed the advice of the Mac Support team and calmly, impassionately and faithfully erased and reinstalled and reconnected and rebooted, and everything worked perfectly, and has done ever since. Mylearning was that we can become too caught up with our own dogamatic beliefs and fail to see the light. I suggest you get off you high horse of Software versions and Boot Camps and Fusion 4 with Windows whatever, and just run the basics like the guy on the helpdesk says. Don't fight it, just do it.

If it was that easy there would be no problem. I've done everything Apple Engineers told me to do. I can't even do a completely clean install from a usb drive because with it connects to 6the Internet to confirm or update during the installation it drops wifi and locks up. This can go on for half the day before I can get ML to install. What more basic settings could I have. What cleaner hard drive than one freshly reformatted. No After market software installed, actually no software except ML on the Mac at all.

So don't act mightier than than thow because it worked for you. There are tons of fixes that have worked for some but not others.

And as far as only running basic Apple Software and settings, that my be fine for you. I could use my iphone to just search the web. I have computers to do needed jobs. ML doesn't have a built in app. for each and everyones individual needs. That's why me like others have more than just ML on my Macs.

All of that is useless if I can't even install ML once it has to connect to Apple. Don't tell me to install it with out the internet because that only sidesteps the issue of dropping wi-fi. Once it's installed with out the internet, no other software installed and everything set to Apples settings it still drops wifi.

Me like others want to be believed. When we say been there done that, I for one have. I'm not here because I'm bored or a troll. After 2 years of dropping wifi I'm sick of it.

If you have access to Apples communications to me you'll see they called me multiple times to have me run test for them on this issue on that affected Mac.

I should feel lucky that my other Mac isn't Allergic to addon Apple App's or third party software. I can Actually use that Mac as a computer. I was under the impression all Macs could be used that way!

Again don't discount us just because you no longer have an issue. I for one do resent that.

Alrrrriiiiiight folks.

Believe it or not, I have found a COMPLETE SOLUTION to the infamous Mountain Lion Wifi dropping issue.

I purchased the new late-2012 iMac model (the super-thin one) back in December.

About a month in, I began experiencing the same consistent drop in wifi that has been causing many of you problems and frustration (I think I punched a wall at one point).

That was when my hunt for a solution started.

Thirty minutes of skimming through the web revealed that this was not a problem unique to me, but one that was shared by many.

I also found several 'fixes' that apparently had remedied the issue for some people.

Most of you will be familiar with these.

• Renewing the DHCP lease
• Changing the MTU (e.g. 1500 -> 1453)
• Creating a new network location
• Installing the latest combo update from Apple
• Deleting the SystemConfigurations folder
• Reinstalling Mountain Lion
• Changing the service order
• Deleting third-party applications (Parallels, MacKeeper etc.)

Basically, none of these worked for me. Some of them would temporarily result in a stable-ish connection, but after a few hours or a day, the ol' drop would come back.

Anyways, lets get straight to it.

Unfortunately, whilst faultless, my solution is not free. On the other hand, it's not that expensive either (unless you count £25 ($38) as expensive).

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Holy Grail of all fixes.

I am proud to introduce.... the ETHERNET BRIDGE (also known as the Powerline Adapter).

How it works

1. Most of these come with two adapters. An adapter (in this case) is basically a plug that allows you to connect an ethernet cable with a power socket.
2. Connect the ethernet cable with your router (I have a Virgin Superhub), attach the other end to an adapter and plug it into a nearby wall socket.
3. Get the other adapter, go to where your Mac is, and basically do the same except connect the ethernet cable to your Mac, not a router.
4. Now turn off your Wifi, and connect to the Internet via Ethernet.
5. Voila.

Result: No drops, flawless connection, stable internet, and a highly enjoyable browsing experience.

I bought the TP-Link TL-PA211KIT AV200 Nano 200Mbps Powerline Adapter -Twin Pack from Amazon, and costs only £25 (I am not affiliated with TP-Link in any way, but it is the best one out there in terms of cost, performance and reviews).

Because you're not connecting to the Internet via Wifi, but Ethernet, you shouldn't experience any of the same problems you did with a Wifi connection.

We were all in the same boat, spinning in the same whirpool, but hopefully this should be able to push us out of the dangerous waters into the calm of a still and beautiful sea.

I love you guys,

It'd be great to see you trying this out and letting others know of this solution. Spread the word, spread the love!

<3

-rkdku-

So you obviously have good intentions, but this solution is simply not viable for many people. In my case, the root cause of this problem (which you do not have in your list) is that my bluetooth magic trackpad interferes with WiFi reception on my MacBook Pro Retina (it may be a hardware dependent thing though). I've had a phone call from Apple about my post describing this and they've taken my feedback and are presumably doing something with it. That being said, I've heard that the issue may still not be reliably addressed in the forthcoming 10.8.4 update :-(.

Nice INTERIM solution for Desktops but not very practical for Laptops. My MBP Wifi is still working perfectly with Bluetooth turned off so anyone reading this for the first time with an MBP should save themselves £25 by switching the Bluetooth off before shelling out for other solutions.... unfortunately for Desktops bluetooth switch off is not viable.... so this may be a way round it, but Apple still need to take this one seriously.

Ah, of course, I now realize that I failed to mention that this was pretty much only viable for desktop Macs.

Let's just hope that Apple has taken notice of this avalanche of synonymous issues and has hence addressed them in the 10.8.4 update.

In the meantime though, regardless of whether you use a desktop or laptop Mac, perhaps it could be useful to find out whether your problems are hardware or software based? e.g. is it to do with a faulty wifi card, or a faulty OS?

Try connecting to a different network and see if the problems still persist. It's obviously best if you have access to another network, but if you don't, try setting up a portable wifi hotspot with a smartphone (hopefully you have one) and so connect to the internet via your phone's data connection. If there are no issues there then it is most likely to do with either your ISP or the OS (probably the OS).

Again, let's just cross our fingers and hope that 10.8.4 can solve all our problems.

Troubleshooting Wi-Fi issues in OS X