Q: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

Excitement for just a minute....thought this link from APPLE

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4611?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

had the solution....to then have a message saying "This software is not supported on your system"

What is that means? My MBA was purchased OCT 2012 and has the most recent software update. Furthermore, my friends new generation or latest model of MBA purchased 2 months ago, has the same issue.

I spoke with person in charge of the house, and told me other people here have no problem. They are all using PC except my friend and myself.

I need it for work and finding the other users have the same issue with their MBA and not seeing a solid solution, it is very disappointing

Hello JamesJo,

This thread is discussing a wifi problem with the new Macbook Air released in mid 2013.

If your Macbook Air is a 2012 model then it does not have this problem, it is a different problem.

I had a problem with my December 2010 Macbook Air with the wifi cutting out. It only happened when I used Safari. I loaded Firefox and stopped using Safai and removed all Google programs from my computer and the problems went away.

Hope this helps

Hello Russets

Thanks for the suggestion. I would like to continue using SAFARI for many reasons.

I am hoping for a solution where problem can be fixed with a setting changing. I am OK doing that.

My co-workes are using Wi-Fi no problem on their PC. I want to believe I can do the same with my MBA.

The issue it is with MBA or APPLE or OX or something APPLE should step in and offer a solution. If this post has +140000 means something needs to be fixed ASAP

Hope APPLE tech support will step-in here with a solution to this issue..

Again Russets, thanks for your reply!

James

@andyman2

Each ping test and speed test I run seem to check out okay.  I've used the Air for 3 days now and haven't experienced a single drop or significant slowdown on at least 3 different wifi connections now.  I can't help but be paranoid from this thread, but the performance is quite good.  The slow downs I was experiencing really seems to be no different then what I normally get with my other equipment from time to time.  Maybe I have a good model, I don't know. I hope so.. but if this is as bad as it gets for me, I can deal with it until Apple releases a definite fix.

Hello JamesJo

The wifi only dropped out with Safari and I thought there might be some compatibility issue. I noticed that whenever I turned the computer on it was continually trying to connect with Google Analytics that is why I removed the google programs.

At the time a number of people were complaining of wifi drop out issues but its limitation to Safari suggests it was very different from this new Macbook Air problem.

I want to upgrade my current MBA to a new one but I have to have working wifi so, like many on this thread, I am holding off.

My pings at work and home were epic fast, but all 3 of my machines drop and lag terribly, pretty much to the point of being useless. I have been up and down the support ladder (genius bar,3 replacements,engineering support and diagnostics and no answer) to no avail. I am now pretty much abandoned, despite being polite and respectful. Now I am just going to be an *** to them..I understand that the person on the phone did not cause the issue and would help if they could, but my $$ that bought this machine pays their check and I want it fixed....don`t really care at this point if they like me.

This is what I am trying to find out, is the problem with the latest MBA or an older one that maybe some people are still purchasing? The new one on the Apple site is the one I need to know about. It has nice specs with the i7 Haswell and PCIe flash storage and 802.11ac wifi, but if the wifi is not reliable that's a huge problem.

Its the new, mid 2013 release with all the bells and whistles(Haswell,12 hour battery life,etc.). I waited for the newest release before I purchased....should have waited a bit longer, but had no idea.

I have two mid-2013 MBA at home... A standard/base  (I5/4GB/128GB) and a BTO  (I7/8GB/256GB).

If I launch a ping to my wifi router (no ISP involved), the standard MBA gets consistent 1-3ms ping responses while the BTO gets responses all over 1-100ms.

I checked the Wi-Fi section on the System Info and noticed a difference in the Firmware Version (22 vs 35).

Working MBA: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.74.22)

Falty MBA: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.74.35)

Can anyone else post their Firmware version so we can compare?

I'm on a B2O 8gb Macbook Air:

Firmware Version:          Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.74.35)

Here's my ping to my router:

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=90.703 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2.127 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=29.093 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.428 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=74.803 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=2.105 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=17.937 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=32.829 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=63.715 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=1.904 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=10 ttl=64 time=2.118 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=11 ttl=64 time=2.457 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=12 ttl=64 time=41.687 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=13 ttl=64 time=78.090 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=14 ttl=64 time=98.035 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=15 ttl=64 time=18.339 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=16 ttl=64 time=1.937 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=17 ttl=64 time=63.980 ms

ç64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=18 ttl=64 time=86.786 ms

All over the place...

Leo_404 wrote:

 

I have two mid-2013 MBA at home... A standard/base  (I5/4GB/128GB) and a BTO  (I7/8GB/256GB).

 

If I launch a ping to my wifi router (no ISP involved), the standard MBA gets consistent 1-3ms ping responses while the BTO gets responses all over 1-100ms.

 

I checked the Wi-Fi section on the System Info and noticed a difference in the Firmware Version (22 vs 35).

 

Working MBA: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.74.22)

Falty MBA: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.74.35)

 

Can anyone else post their Firmware version so we can compare?

LOL

My buggy Air has the Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.74.35), too.

Another .35 one here, and its also a broken one.  Excellent find Leo_404.  Has anyone got a MBA2013 that is also perfoming well and can confirm their firmware version?

Full version for me - Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (6.30.223.74.35)

Well yes - I've got that perfectly performing MBA, since June, and it has the .35 firmware.  So that may not be alot of help.

you able to post your ping test results to your router?  do you get consistently the same result?

There seems to be strong evidence there are still MBAs in the wild with WiFi problem. More troubling is some of those are recent custom builds. As a 25 year Apple customer waiting til this is fixed to drop another $2000+ on laptop, AC router, external DVD drive, Apple Care - this is disappointing. It seems defective units are still rolling off the assembly line? 

This does not jibe with previous reports that geniuses are to "capture" MBAs with WiFi issue. If they were capturing, by now there be collated serial #s with wifi radio supplier. It seems Apple is unable to literally source the problem. And everything soldered to the motherboard, radio so close to the bluetooth assembly, looks like a fundamental design flaw that can't be fixed with a patch.  Or it's one bad supplier. How much longer should it take to figure that out?