New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

OK, finally here's my findings:

I've had 2 MacBook Airs in the past 4 days. Both of them exhibit IDENTICAL behavior regarding WiFi:

• Routers that caused dropouts on MBA #1 also caused dropouts on MBA #2.
• Conversely, routers that were stable with MBA #1 were stable with MBA #2.

The three routers I have tested both MBAs with (all with latest firmware):

• D-Link DIR-655 / 802.11n / 2.4GHz / WPA2 = dropouts
• AirPort Extreme 4th-gen / 802.11n / 2.4GHz / WPA2 = dropouts
• AirPort Extreme 5th-gen / 802.11n / 5GHz / WPA2 = stable

This is all fine, but it begs the important question these (dropping) macbook Airs are “house cats”,…they work fine (can be made to be) at home with new-tech routers and base stations.

But, the alpha and omega premise of the AIR’s design is “pack it anywhere, everywhere”.

The large majority of Air lovers (myself) need these Airs to be AS compatable AS previous generation Airs when it comes to hooking up to public wifi in Backwater, USA or a coffee shop at the base of Mount Everest etc.

If it (these problem Airs) are only good as pampered house cat computers, this is contrary to the entire premise of the go-anywhere macbook Air.

Send experience here!

I tried 2 more wireless:

iPhone hot-spot - OK

At wotk Wi-Fi (don`t know router) - OK

At home i changed to WPA2-PSK - OK, but after starting download torrents (in uTorrent) - connection dissapear 😟

+got the problem with photoshop(((

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7bdy2qr4lm9py11/IMG_2355.MOV

OMG Apple! It`s my 5th MBA for last 5 years and so many problems with this model!!!! 😠

MBA from HK

I`m in Moscow

UPDATE! I have had three MBA's in this apartment over the past three days, using my brand new one now, and have only encountered problems with the first and second one, which belonged to my girlfriend. the problem with the first one was very typical of what has been going on. The second one messed up until we hooked it up the the new 802.11ac AirPort Extreme router and did the updates. I waited to hook the third MBA up to the internet until after the installation/updates on the AirPort extreme (which uses the same 802.11ac wifi specs) and have not encountered any problems since the update for the Airport Extreme on the MBA#2 AND MBA#3.

Hopefully this helps answer some questions. Also, Airport Extreme was well worth the 200 dollars.

I've also encountered several hick-ups over the last few days and went and bought AirPort Extreme today hoping it will solve the problems. Was thinking of getting that anyways, so no big harm done.

My current ADSL box is by Netgear (can't remember the exact model) and the wifi has been dodgy lately also on other devices, so I'm hoping to solve those problems as well.

Yeah, add my voice to the list of people who are just fundamentally disappointed. Bought a MBA at the Apple store in Berlin, and had all these problems. I exchanged it, but it was the same problem. All these techno solutions sound daunting, I really just need the thing to work, it's for my son. I'm an artist, that doesn't mean I don't understand computers, but it does count me to the people to whom network stuff is just a bridge too far. I simply want the thing to work out of the box. I've posted here before, but between my wife, myself, and my three sons we have five MacBooks, seven iPads, and various iPhones, all working well on the home network for years... just not the MacBook Air. Even another MacBook Air I bought six weeks ago (pre-Haswell, I guess) is flawless. Bummer. Family vacation starts on Wednesday, which is still inside the two week return policy. If there isn't a solution by Monday night (to give me time to ensure it works) I will have to return it.

Yoram from Berlin

I don’t know know if Apple Inc. in Germany is any different, but I have 3 Apple reps tell me outright that “IF the Air has fundamental issues, wifi probs. It CAN be returned within ONE MONTH” and not the stated 2 week return.

These are THEIR words, not mine, one even was a senior rep,…I made sure I asked him several times “are you SURE one has ONE month return if its still faulty?”….he confirmed several times “yes”, and gave me his personal extension as proof towards same.

My guess is that there will be a firmware/software fix before ANYONE reaches the ONE MONTH post-purchase mark. 😀

So, from 3 diff. Apple Inc. reps. Ive been ASSURED “you’ve got ONE MONTH (in this special circumstance)”, …not 2 weeks.

Nobody attack me for this statement, its from Apple Inc. themselves, if they state that in writing somewhere I don’t know, but I have full assurance of same from 3 diff reps about it.

I also spoke to an Apple Engineer, everyone has been verry helpful, friendly, and eager to solve the problem. We will be traveling for six weeks, no point in having this thing sit around my studio during that time, but I don't want to shlepp it with me around the globe like a fragile brick either. Sooner or later the problem will be identified and Apple will sell working Airs, at which point I will get my son one immediately. I have no beef with Apple, but I need to make the appropriate decisions.

Again, I have changed my router security settings from WPA to WPA2 (AES) and thus far the connection seems stable without a single dropout. Will continually be using my MBA and will report back. Obviously, this is just a temporary solution.

I found this link:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/68642/wi-fi-connection-randomly-disconn ects-on-2012-macbook-air

It looks like even older versions of Mac Air (with different wifi inside) had very similar issues with wifi connection.

Any ideas what it was about and if Apple found a solution to that issue?

If not, and apple has not been able to find solution to this yet, I think to expect fast reaction from Apple seems to be unreal. But if even the old Mac Air version with different wifi had these issues, than it really looks more likely SW issue. Otherwise even the older wifis should be broken. I think it is unlikely truth. But who knows 🙂 ...

I have the same issues with my new MBA 13. It connects for a brief while and the disconnects from the router. Other computers in the same room doesnt. Its very dissapointing to say the least. I am returning it.

EXACTLY, this isn't a new issue.

It's been there for ages and they have always ignored it because it is not easy to replicate and the sample was low. Now that they use AC instead of N chips it became more of an issue and hopefully something will be done about it. Just to let you know Apple, two 2011 MBA's both drop signal under OSX in the same fashion in the same location. Both work fine in other locations. What's more those locations which are an issue under OSX work beautifully under bootcamp (win7).

As a free of charge hint, those issues arise in places with high noise levels, e.g. many access points (like appartment blocks). Your magical software struggles to separate signal from noise and drops connection.

This is soooo annoying!!! The new air randomly keeps disconnecting. I even swapped to a different brand router and the same thing happens. If I don't see a fix soon, I'm going to return this thing.

Like I posted before, I have used three different MBA's in the past few days, MBA1+2 both belong to my girlfriend and MBA3 is mine. MBA1 used a standard run of the mill router, had problems. Took it back, swapped for MBA2 and bought MBA3 and a Airport Extreme. Haven't had a problem since we got the Airport. So if you got the cash, I'd say it's a good investment. Capable of up to 50 different wifi connected devices.