New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

I called Apple, after I explained what I did, I was sent to a wifi specialist. I explained what I had already done again, but he didn't seem interested.

I called while it was in the state of being connected, but not communicating. I wanted to see if he wanted to run any tests while in that state, but I didn't get any requests.

I have an appointment for 4:45 PT at the apple store.

Interesting note, I tried pinging my router while it was half connected, you can see the results here.

A few things to note.

1) the skype icon on the top is gray (offline)

2) Wifi icon looks connected

3) In the Network system preferences, wifi looks connected and 'green'

4) When I ping the router, I get 'ping: sendto: host is down'

I had migrated data originally, but since doing a format and CMD-Option-R reinstall this morning, I have not.

BTW, here are my results from my system.log

Jun 17 07:14:52 localhost kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Jun 17 07:19:31 admins-macbook-air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en0. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Jun 17 07:19:31 admins-macbook-air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Jun 17 07:42:06 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en0. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Jun 17 07:42:07 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Jun 17 07:42:08 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en0. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Jun 17 07:44:20 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Jun 17 08:50:04 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en0. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Jun 17 08:50:04 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Jun 17 09:03:19 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en0. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Jun 17 09:03:20 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Jun 17 10:09:10 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en0. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Jun 17 10:09:10 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Jun 17 13:33:08 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en0. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Jun 17 13:33:12 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Jun 17 13:44:51 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en0. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Jun 17 13:44:52 admins-MacBook-Air kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Here is the interesting part 'Link Down' at 13:44:51 was me turning off wifi and then a moment later turning it back on. It has only dropped one time that I am aware of today, and that was before the 13:33:08.

The reason I know that is I took the screen shot in the above pic at 13:28.

I ran wireless diagnostics at 13:32 (while it was down) and saved it to my desktop.

I then turned wifi off and back on, and started running wireless diagnostics again at 13:34 (stil running), hoping to have it be running when the issue occurs.

Ok, so it just happened while diagnostics was running, the results were underwhelming 🙂

Jun 17 13:44:53 admins-MacBook-Air.local configd[17]: 0 : State:/Network/Interface/en0/AirPort

Jun 17 15:22:00 admins-MacBook-Air.local configd[17]: 0 : State:/Network/Interface/en0/AirPort

Jun 17 15:22:00 admins-MacBook-Air.local airportd[4344]: _doAutoJoin: Already associated to “UCONN”. Bailing on auto-join.

Jun 17 15:22:00 admins-MacBook-Air.local airportd[4344]: _doAutoJoin: Already associated to “UCONN”. Bailing on auto-join.

I saved the log files again, this is a bummer...

I pushed my genius bar appt to tomorrow so I could capture some more data in hopes of finding a fix, seems unlikely that it is anything other than firmware/hardware

Looks like the MacBook Air is intentionally leaving the WiFi network i.e. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving) - can you open Safari and play a long video stream from youtube.com or Hulu.com and see with WiFi active if you still get WiFi drops

I have been in the middle of a youtube video and lost connection, so that definitely does happen

To WiFiGuru

The connection did fail again and guess what....the continue buttons don't work. Diagnostics only when you ARE connected or so it seems. Well, let's see what the Genius has to say about it all. Probably an exchange rather than a fix.

gmc74: We are waiting for you! Could you post what happened on appointment as soon as you get back? Thanks 🙂

I'm also experiencing the same problem on a brand new haswell macbook air. Kind of a bummer to wait almost five years to get a new computer, then open the box last night, and not be able to connect to the internet for longer than 2-3 minutes. Also have plenty of other apple devices (macbook pro, ipad, iphone, apple tv connected to my router). At any rate, I'm going to the apple store today at 2pm eastern, so i will be sure to post the results of that genius appointment to this board. i'm guessing this is a hardware issue and they will likely have to replace the computer.

I'm pretty sure I can tell you how it will go.. when you get to the store, they will join their network and it will work great.. that'll prove it isn't a hardware issue which leaves softwear conflict or your home network.. they'll tell you to try doing new install and they'll check out your settings and give you some things to try at home. They'll likely suggest you get home and call apple support to figure out what is causing it on your network because as you can see, it works fine on their network. Like you though, I have purchased recently enough that I can simply return and buy another and hope it was hardware/fluke related and take my chances with the next.... I tried a few more things last eve (changing channels yet again and restarting the network etc) with no luck.. however, I then turned on my iphone hotspot and connected to that and was able to surf with no hangups. So I know it's something on the network, but I don't know what and Apple support wasn't able to solve in my first go around with them.

Good luck later today... let us know how it goes.

I cancelled my appt. I moved it until today, and then ended up cancelling it.

After contacting Apple Support, I received an email from an Apple Engineer that wanted to look at log files, so I sent him a bunch of data.

I have narrowed my issue down to 802.11g networks. My router runs at 11g, and a back up router runs 11g. I have issues with both of them. When I share my connection from my MacBook Pro (11n), I don't seem to have the same issue.

It appears that when it disconnects from 802.11g, it doesn't reconnect. When it disconnects from 802.11n, it reconnects before I even notice. If wifi diagnostics isn't monitoring it, I wouldn't know that it dropped from 802.11n.

I am going to pick up a new airport extreme and see if that resolves it at home. Hopefully they will resolve it soon, seems like a firmware issue to me.

Will you replace one of your routers with that or just have the xtreme join the network as an access point? If you do that, do you give the extreme a different network name and join that with your mba?

I thought of that option and am willing to shell out yet another $200, but I'm not sure how the setup goes and I can't easily replace/reprogram my netgear router.

Could you guys check to see if wifi works when it is not placed on a flat surface?

I saw a review here:

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/06/13-inch-macbook-air-2013-review-well-hello-batt ery-life/

This Is Weird

The Wi-Fi signal seems to struggle a little when the Air’s put down on a desk. It’s not massive, but it can make the difference between having one bar of internet and staring at your failed-to-upload-GIFs in frustration. It’s almost certainly a result of the antenna being in that plastic strip along the bottom of the screen, which is then shielded a little when the Air’s down flat on a desk. Not sure what to do about it other than switch to using my Ethern–oh, wait.

I read that and tried it.. I didn't find any difference. Regardless of position (on desk, in lap) when it hangs, it is still connected to the router and it doesn't go to the blank screen announcing not connected to the internet.. it just hangs there....forever. And again, on my iphone hotspot or on the wifi in the apple store it works flawlessly..

I will replace my router with the Airport Extreme, and hopefully that resolves the issue for me.

yeah, I have the same results as jimlip23, this doesn't seem to be related