New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

See I'm running the 2013 MBA alongside the 2013 AirPort Extreme, so it's been a dream for me. Maxed out the download speeds from my ISP 🙂

I am not buying a laptop if it only works with Apple routers. So please people, share your experience with non apple routers as well so we understand if the patch actually fixed anything. Thanks

eppes wrote:

I am not buying a laptop if it only works with Apple routers. So please people, share your experience with non apple routers as well so we understand if the patch actually fixed anything. Thanks

not quite - does not work with an Apple 3 year old airport extreme n - had to buy a new airport ac

Prior to fix, wifi cut out every 5-10 minutes sometimes worse at certain times in the day. Outage would be 20-30 seconds and would drop all connections to streaming services, ssl vpns, etc.

Post-fix, performance is better, but the connection will still drop every 5-10 minutes but it appears the connection isn't a full drop and services do maintain state. Recovery time is seemingly faster.

I'm using a Verizon Fios Actiontec router, firmware version 20.19.8, 802.11 b/g/n compatibility mode, WPA2. I've tried to cycle multiple channels, but channel 1 seems to be the most stable.No problems whatsoever using connection using my iPhone hotspot capability.

I'm considering buying a Airport Extreme if this will fix my connectivity issues. Previously had a 2007 MB that I recently upgraded. Never had a problem. Love the machine, but this is very frustrating.

I'm another customer holding to purchase 13" MBA. I do a lot of streaming content, wobbly WiFi would make me very unhappy. 1.0 fix seems to work great for many, but some still 'sort of' resolved. It's much more resolved if you have an Apple Router, and I am planning to purchase the new Apple a/c router, so it seems high chance of working out of the box. Being mobile and using it while traveling need more feedback please.

It nags me if WiFi still not fully debugged. All the end user work arounds like router settings, dongles, iphone hotspot seem to point at basic 3rd party handshaking issues. We don't know how many router manufacturers have or are now pushing firmware updates to meet new needs. It seems maybe all legacy routers were not 100% ready to cope with something about new ac spec, or vice versa. Engineers should know the answer to this by now. My feeling is maybe it's the oldest routers that are more problematic. This should also be something the engineers can tease out with diagnostics and collecting data to cross-check.

Always have to remember most people who post here are the ones with the unresolved issue. We don't hear from a lot of people when everything works great.

Please keep posting folks.

I didn't notice drop out issues before the update... now I do... ugh.

Returned my today within the 14 days. I won't be buying one.

Buying a new Apple router might be a fix for you on your home network but once you bring your MBA outside what will you do.

Return your faulty MBA until Apple provides a real solution, dont reward them for this failure by buying more Apple stuff.

Besides, it seems the the recent update does not adress the low speed problem.

This to me looks more and more like a hw compatibility issue that they tried to solve with a software hack. It looks like i'll wait some more time before buying it...

My replacement new 13" MBA appears to be working perfectly with Wifi, both before and after installing the 1.0 update, but I'd like to see if it's actually disconnecting and reconnecting while using Wifi, as some have experienced after installing the update.

Some posts have implied that you can monitor the disconnects in Wireless Diagnostics. How do you do that?

Since installing the fix, I haven't had any drops from WiFi. My router is Netgear......sorry I am not sure about the type, model, etc. This is my second "new" MBA since the first one was taken back and this one was configured to my original order and shipped back to me. When I got it out of the box, WiFi dropped every 5-10 minutes and it was simply impossible. The Apple tech I worked with had me upgrade the firmware on the router and change to the WPA2 channel. After that I was able to stay connected with only dropping out 1-2 times a day, but the speed was still slow. Since installing the fix I have had no drops in WiFi connection and the speed is fantastic! I have no Apple routers and use a Lacie to back Time Machine up with. Things are working like a dream with my configured to order MBA in my home. I have not had time to take it out and see what happens when I am using WiFi in the wild. After changing to WPA2 before I installed the fix, it would drop out every 2-5 minutes when I took it to 2 different coffee shops and was useless. I plan on trying to get out to a coffee shop with the Air today and see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

Again, I have no Apple routers or modems and my MBA is now working at lightning speed, the battery life is amazing and I have not had a single drop from WiFi since installing the patch.

Hope this helps

Before i installed the fix via system update I hadn't had any wifi problem with my MBA 2013. After the fix installation my MBA has got the wifi connection problem. Can I uninstall the fix as in MS Windows?

You need 10.8.4 to install the update. It says somewhere on there that this won't run on Mavericks.

How are you noticing the drop and waht router are you using ? If you re-install from a Recovery disk, do you still see the issue ? Try that and it maight help you isolate the issue. Have you tried rebooting your router once ? I have noticed that works if things start going bad once in a while.

Not saying it only works with Apple routers, it just makes sense though to get a 802.11ac laptop and pair it with a 802.11ac router. It's like driving a Ferrari through a school zone, give me that Airport Extreme so this baby can fly!!!