MBP 2010 can't connect to wifi 5 Ghz

Thanks for the advice. Same happened for me when migrating from Macbook 11in Intel --> 2011 MBP 13in.

* Turn off wifi,

* delete /Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist and

* turn WiFi back on was enough.

No need to remove passwords from keychain.

Thanks again, you saved my day.

Tx.

I tried exactly this still our MBPmid2010 (model: A1286) still it does NOT want to connect to my TP-Link RE650 (setup as non-DHCP slaving Access Point)?!...

To me the 2.4 and 5.0Ghz WiFi implementation in this old MBP, even on the most recent OSX10.13.2, seems to be more around not being able to handle the current encryption implementations of modern WiFi routers (e.g. TP-Link RE650).

My findings:

- The moment I set the 2.4Ghz radio of TP-Link back to AUTO or TKiP, this MBP connects to 2.4Ghz fine (via TKiP!). But TKIP is much less secure;

- If I set the 5.0Ghz radio of TP-Link to TKiP, this MBP2010 stops logon attempt after a few seconds and returns to logon dialog pop-up stating 'incorrect password' (which is the correct password);

- If I set the 5.0Ghz radio of TP-Link to AUTO, this MBP2010 endlessly continuous logon attempts until I manually stop it;

- The moment I set 5.0Ghz radio of TP-Link to NO security, this MBP connects to 5.0 fine. But who wants NO security?!

- Our other MBP2015 & MBP2017 generations connect fine on any of these WiFi radio's via any set encryption ...

Bad luck for us? Did I overlook something a/o try anything else?

Has AES implementation changed over the years?

Please advise. Thank you!

Sorry guys, I fixed my MBP2010 connectivity issue with 5.0Ghz radio under WPA2-AES by upgrading the TP-Link Router/Access-Point to the latest firmware!

It turned out that more Apple OS devices were experiencing 'WiFi connectivity issues' with this router.

Anyway all is fixed, secure and fast again even on this old MBP! 🙂

Will it see the 5GHz network and just not allow you to connect or will it not even see it?

What do you mean by timeout error. Will it connect and ask you for the password for it and then actually issue you an IP, etc? Or does it not even allow you to connect to it to ask for the password?

What kind of router and what are the settings? I had a problem with a sort-of-dual-band modem/router when set to 5GHz, but I just used it as a bridge and setup my AirPort Extreme (true dual-band) to do the routing. I just couldn't get any of my printers, Kindle, etc., to even see the 5GHz band...

Clinton

You have your mode set to "n" only - that's the only change that I see that I would make... still shouldn't stop a relatively new MBP from using the router, though...

Clinton

And the AirPort card in the 2010 model is 802.11a/b/g/n, so that shouldn't be a problem. About the only thing that I can suggest is playing around with different channels - maybe 149?

Sorry I'm not much help - I'm really at the 'begineer' stage when it comes to wifi troubleshooting. I would, however, download the free version of NetSpot just so that you can get an idea about signal strength, etc.

Clinton

Hunh... I've no idea what's going on... what did NetSpot show running it under OS X?

Clinton