Q: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

Here you orchetect - good luck:

http://www.filedropper.com/io80211familykext

headcase - Many thanks my friend.  I will give this a shot tonight.

After installing the WiFi 1.0 update then manually rolling back just the WiFi driver to .22 firmware, the pings are definitely more consistent, in the range of 1-3ms with the odd one 30ms+ but rarely.  Fortunately being on the AirPort AC, I never had connectivity dropouts with the original .22 driver and my MBA rarely leaves the house, so I think I'll stick with this driver.

The upshot of doing it this way (as opposed to the restore OS X method) is that you retain the audio and graphics flickering fixes that were also bundled in the 1.0 update.

Good to hear you were able to manually roll back just the wireless driver.  Based on previous reports of issues that can crop up by rolling back a driver with this method, I'd suggest giving it a few days before declaring total success.  But yeah, the ping times you're reporting are in line with what you'd expect with a solid wireless connection.

As for the audio bug that was also patched in the 1.0 Software Update, you can also remedy that by installing the Boom app from the Mac App Store, which also has the added benefit of increasing the volume capability of anything played on the MacBook.  Works great -- highly recommended.

thanks for the driver and thanks to everyone for figuring out that it was a firmware issue, i just reverted to the old version and see if my packet loss at home will go away now

Richard_vd,

For my Macbook Air 2013, i5, 8 RAM, 256SSD, it works.

With my machine, i have never experience dropped wifi but limited speed.

The average of ping statistics for my router was between 60-120 ms.

Now, it's between 1-2 ms.

Thanks.

I'm really interested in your try Headcase.

As I said, my air works fine, no drops and good ping (bad ping with 1.0 patch) so I want to know what happens with mavericks. If my ping gets sick with mavericks then I think I'm going to return my macbook. Thanks you for that test.

@MariamNers15

Thank you! Works like a charm on one of my family-members new mid-2013 MacBook Air.

Here is the link:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1672

P.S: Don't be afraid to post apple-support-links, there is a language chooser!

Just did another ping after fighting with this **** computer for days

PING www.google.com (74.125.131.106): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=0 ttl=48 time=33.149 ms

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=1 ttl=48 time=131.905 ms

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=2 ttl=48 time=33.062 ms

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=3 ttl=48 time=74.811 ms

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=4 ttl=48 time=97.779 ms

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=5 ttl=48 time=122.148 ms

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=6 ttl=48 time=41.246 ms

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=7 ttl=48 time=63.761 ms

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=8 ttl=48 time=86.400 ms

64 bytes from 74.125.131.106: icmp_seq=9 ttl=48 time=109.237 ms

--- www.google.com ping statistics ---

10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 33.062/79.350/131.905/34.451 ms

*****...

orchetecht, it looks like headcase posted the entire version .22 IO80211Family folder. Did you replace the entire foilder, or just the AirPortBrcm4360.kext folder? Or did you just pull one file out of the folder and install that?

Also, can you post the chmod/chown terminal commands to issue after replacing the kext folder or file?

Thanks!

zqx321 -

I did a hash check on both IO80211Family.kext packages (.22 and .35) and it turns out the only change is the internal AirPortBrcm4360.kext component (which is the 802.11ac driver specifically). So it's safe to replace the entire IO80211 package.

Here is exactly what I did to roll back:

1. Get the .22 version of IO80211Family.kext ( here )
2. Open /System/Library/Extensions in Finder and move the existing IO80211Family.kext to the trash
3. Copy the new IO80211Family.kext into /System/Library/Extensions
4. Quit all applications and save your data, as the next step will reboot your machine.
5. Run Terminal and execute these commands in this order:

   1. sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

   2. sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

   3. sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions/

   4. sudo reboot

Hi orchetect

Thanks ++++ for your hard work and for taking the time to set out how to 'roll-back' to the "22" Broadcom firmware.

I followed your instructions and now have entirely satisfactory 'pings' to my 'router'. I have also retianed the blistering performance to internet sites that I've had 'out of the box' for my June 2013 MBA 13" i7 8GB 256 GB machine (never needed to replace it). With the advice here, I have the 1.0 update with the roll back to "22" modification.

So, to summarise, I really do think this MBA is in perfect condition now.

In other words, I have blistering WiFi performance (speed and range), no WiFI drops AND suitably short 'pings' to both ISPs and to my own routers.

Tomorrow, I'll have a chance to double check I can get a good connection without drops to about three different routers in an office and in a couple of coffee shops (what a life!).

Thanks again.

Oh, forgot to add the obvious, namely I'll report back following my adventures to coffee shops tomorrow!

APPLE,

PLEASE,

PLEASE,

FIX THIS PROBLEM!

Hey, just noticed my posting on page 75 (technical details on MBA wifi latency jitter), is gone...!