Q: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

Its pretty simple, Sabled -- the .35 wireless driver from Apple's network engineers that was rolled into the 1.0 Software Update for 2013 MBAs is buggy and can be resolved by booting from the Recovery Partition and following steps online to restore to new, which will bring back the oroginal .22 wireless driver.  As long as your Mac has no issues with dropped wireless connections with that older driver, you should be all set until Apple releases yet another updated driver.

MIne was bad with the pre-patch driver and exactly the same with the patch. I had 2 really good days where it acted like a "normal" computer but today its barely usable....took me 5 minutes to sign in here with the drop and lag...tired of this

Using Skype is not a definitive means to prove that a Mac has networking latency issues due to the .35 wireless driver.  Rather, the ping test that he ran is the most definitive way to show that the 1.0 Software Update is negatively impacting his Mac.  Having 1-3ms ping times to your wireless router or access point is ideal.

Btw, for those of you who were experiencing any fluctuating audio issues and might be reluctant to roll back your MBA to "new" given that was addressed in the 1.0 Software Update, there is a 3rd party work-around that I was using which I actually preferred, given it also boosted the somewhat soft audio capacity of my MBA: 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/boom/id415312377?mt=12

Dogschool - what do you mean "mine was bad"?  Can you be more specific on what you are experiencing?

As i said, i have 0 drops in my new macbook air 2013. My ping is about 0,5ms but with 1.0 patch ping is about 40-80 so patch is the problem.

Raducan, i have tried video streaming (twitch tv) without issues in my mac. I have downloaded some films without issues too.

Downloading Skype right now to try it.

Thank you. You are in the same situation as I am: no wifi drops, everything works great, except ping values. And to be honest, I really don't care about ping values as long as everything works.

Anyway ping values are only bad with 1.0 patch

I have reinstalled OS and now i have 0 issues (never got it) and good ping values. I'm waiting for a friend to use skype for 1 hour and i'll tell you how is it.

Hi, When you say you reinstalled OS, does it mean you download the entire montain lion OS from the net?

headcase-it drops wi-fi and cannot reconnect. I usually have to reboot, or close the webpage I am on and start safari again. Sometimes it will reconnect after a minute or longer by itself and load the webpage. This is my 3rd replacement and I did the "patch"as per Apple phone support. I had contact with an Apple engineer who might be stopping by to see what is happening in its home enviornment.

Yes, comand r when reboot and then reinstall OSx (download + install) directly in my mac. You don't lose any data if u do that, at least in my case.

Ok.Thank you. I have not yet got my air. It will be arriving next week. I had thought that if you reinstalled the OS it would download with the latest patch installed (the 1.0 software update) but I guess that doesn't seem to be the case. Anyways hope I don't face the wifi problem or else I too will be forced to apply the 1.0 software update. Cheers.

raducan - as long as everything is working for you with the .35 wireless driver, great.  Based on my testing while troubleshooting the .35 wireless driver, I found that much of this will be dependent on what model router or access point you are connected to.

For example, in my testing, the .35 driver was very problematic with the current best-in-class wireless AC router, the ASUS RT-AC66U, with ping times that averaged 200-1800ms and occassional dropped packets and subsequently effected real-world usage for even things like web browsing (to the point of being unusable), let alone trying to use latency-senstive apps like Skype.  I witnessed this with some other routers too.

However, when I would use the .35 driver to connect to a Linksys EA6500 router, I experienced much better and more stable ping times that averaged 30-40ms, which resulted in "decent" real-world usage of the apps on my MBA.  Same thing when I tested a 5th gen Airport Extreme and the current Airport Extreme.

So the bottom line is that YMMV, based on what you're connected to. 

Myeslf being in the industry (Cisco), its unfortunately one of the ongoing challenges with wireless LAN technology... a bit of a voodoo science to start with, and then you toss in the added complexity of ongoing interoperability amongst different wireless vendors running countless firmwares on numerous models... and don't even mention the issues that RF interference can cause (neighbors, wall materials, etc.).

And now ya know why most networking engineers tend to stick with an Ethernet cable when they can.   ;-)

dogschool -

Much along the lines of my last post, the connectivity issues or latency issues can be caused by a multitude of factors.  So with that said, my suggestion of the usual "process of elmination", is to first try some different routers.  Based on my testing, I'd suggest first rolling back to the .22 wireless driver by restoring your MBA from the Recovery Partition, and use your Mac with a solid router like the current top-dog ASUS RT-AC66U or one of the others near the top of the performance charts, such as the Linksys EA6500 or D-LINK DIR-868L.  Or even try one of the more recent N-class routers if ya want.  The strong signal from one of these will also help minimize any potential complications due to signal interference from other devices, just in case.

Most retailers have a 15-30 day return policy, as technology isn't fullproof. Using the .22 wireless driver on my 2013 MBA, I'm experiencing rock-solid connectivity (no drops), and no latency, with the following routers running their latest current firmware:

- ASUS RT-AC66U

- Linksys EA6500

- Airport Extreme (5th Gen N-class)

- Airport Extreme (current gen AC-class)

- D-Link DIR-868L

- Linksys E4500

- Linksys E4200 v1 and v2

Or, you can wait till an Apple network engineer gets his hands on your MBA... but that process might take longer than you're willing to wait.

Thanks, headcase, I will try it. I am about 1 hour west of you in Asheboro. Router here is a Westell 5458. Engineer is flying in this Wed.

jury had been out, but definitive now: if your MBA's WIfI is working fine, DO NOT install the patch.

For those with WiFi issues,  1.0 'patch' helps some, not others, but seems to be dinging  ping times for everyone.  What seems not  empirical yet is if  dinged ping times on otherwise functioning WiFi handshake = measurable lag & negative user impact for Skype / Netflix / gaming/  streaming intensive apps vs. undinged ping times.

faster AC WifI = MBA's headliner feature. As a 25 year customer  in this thread  awhile so disappointing. 

I'm waiting since Nov, 2012  to upgrade  a workhorse 2008 Macbook that has been dropped, banged around  airport x-ray machines in plastic bings, e-key is failing, battery won't hold a charge, bu the darn thing is a tank.  Stil running. Which is good because I still can't reliably or confidently by a new MBA with a/c.  I am  fortunate to have a good friend offer a precious Friends & Family discount, and I  don't to be that guy who turns a favor into a headache mess.  I am starting to wonder if I'll be able to make this purchase before calendar runs out - and I didn't use my 'slot.' 

To tide me over my bitterness, I mentioned previously I picked up discounted $200 Samsung chromebook including 100 GB of free cloud storage for 2 years.  As an experiment. And for a working e key in writing tasks.  While not a 100% Win/Mac laptop replacement it's 2 more weeks playing with Chromebook. Sure seems like Apple needs to pick up a Chromebook or two and take note.   Samsung's Android smartphones are outselling iOS. Is that what we want to happen to laptops?

Chrome OS is not as polished like OSX or Win 8, yet   But the show stopper for me so far was  doing a chromebook hard reset. Not having to back up first.   there are no backups.  Everything is always  backed up, in the cloud.   When I booted back up,  Chromebook reloaded everything, profile data, what they call 'extensions' and all my  Apps downloaded from Chrome store.  Only a few bytes of those apps actually stored locally (Chromebook has 16GB SSD) but it was all synced perfectly.  Also, you get that nifty 100GB cloud storage, for two years, free included.    Stealthily helping me learn the 100% cloud ecosystem disruptive technology is  ramping up with great potential.

A hard reset and restore on a Macbook?  hours.

On Chromebook  less than 5 minutes.

Mr. Cook, are you listening?