Q: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

thanks for the shout out Cloudi.  To clarify -while i am not yet an MBA owner, I do have 25+ years prior Apple product experience. A 2008 Macbook is still going, just pokey. A mac mini,  iPad, iPhone, two different Yamaha AVRs, PS3, Wii, a Vizio  smart t.v.- and yes - a Samsung Chromebook - all working flawlessly on my WiFi network out of the box. That's what I expect from a new MBA and ac router - when i feel confident enough to buy them. Nothing less than working flawlessly out of the box will do.  And I'll keep demanding they indeed troubleshoot the problem, until it's fixed.  

Let me reiterate, so that I'm crystal clear: 

1) there is a known connectivity bug on the original .22 wireless driver that impacts some 2013 MBAs, which might be resolved with a different router, per my testing with multiple models running the latest router firmware (which alludes to my larger point about how some things need to evolve in the wireless networking industry, to get us beyond such issues)

2) per what I myself helped identify, validate, and suggested a resolution to on this very thread:  there is a known latency bug with the .35 wireless driver that came out in the 1.0 Software Update which impacts ALL of the 2013 MBAs -- that is clearly on Apple and Broadcom's engineers to remedy in the next driver release.

So I'm NOT implying that "its not something that Apple needs to address here", or "its always the router's fault"... no more than I'm implying that its "the wireless client's fault".  Rather, my whole point is that it takes two to tango, and BOTH have to be working well with each other.  Common sense.

Heck, its almost like when someone has a frayed cable, and they automatically blame one of the devices.

jeets68 -

Per the suggestions on this thread, you likely are running with the .35 driver now.  If you find your browsing experiences "good enough" (e.g. without serious page loading delays, jerky video streaming) and you don't use latency-sensitive applications like VoIP, then you're fine to stick with that driver. 

If however you want to roll back to the .22 driver until Apple and Broadcom release the next rev, look back over the last few pages for your options to roll back.  Btw, once Apple releases the next driver revision, I intend to load it on a test OS X image I now have for my 2013 MBA, and then test the performance of that updated driver with a bunch of routers I have here -- will post the results.

Hi crashodd !

Normally, I would strongly agree with you.

Normally, a thread should focus on one 'item', be that a software or a hardware issue.  Of course there is normally no point in comparing two devices with such vastly different specifications and 'purpose'.

But this thread is unusual, crashodd, it really is.

With the apparent tacit consent of most of those posting here (and possibly the huge amout that are viewing without adding comments such as your own), this thread is being used by visitors and those posting to achieve two different, but related objectives.

• The first (the traditional one) is a discussion of the minutia of how to improve things in the short term.

• The second objective is to make Apple achknowledge the problem publicly and demonstrate that they will fix it, even if it means replacing a laptop outside the three week return interval.

I have always assumed that Apple would not normally view a detailed technical thread. But, in this particular case, I believe Apple is keeping a close eye, if only to make an assessment of the potential 'damage' to their reputation.

For example, several of us have been contacted directly by Apple. I believe that is unusual and it demonstrates the thread is achieving its second aim.

So.... Than's why I believe comparisons in this thread between the new MBA and other laptops that use other operating systems are a powerful tool in persuit of this second objective.

I'm sorry you disagree.

Hi eppes!

Thanks and Ha Ha!

I received my brand new, sexy MBA yesterday and was well aware of the wifi issue many people are experiencing at the moment.

My configuration: 13inch, i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB and Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (xxxx.35) driver.

I DID NOT experience any signal losses or drops while surfing normally on the web (2hrs facebook, google, nytimes, Apple Forums, etc. all work fine on Chrome and Safari). So standard websurfing is NO indicator for the problem! However, I did ping my router (50x) and the results were really frustrating (1ms to 1299ms, with occasionally timeouts) and I knew my MBA was also effected.

However, I am a noob and I don't give a s**t about the pings as long as everything I need works flawlessly. BUT it doesn't.

I tested Skype which I use on a daily basis, connected my old MacBook Pro with the router of our neighbour (lol) and the MBA with mine and let them video-call each other. The first try was okay (38 minutes). The second and third attempt weren't - both calls crashed after around 10min, but immediately reconnected.

So I decided to read through the last 30 pages of this awesome thread and extract the two methods I thought are the most promising ones:

1) the script from richard_vd on page 75 (but he posted "Hey, just noticed my posting on page 75 (technical details on MBA wifi latency jitter), is gone...!" on page 86, so I don't have any idea what the script is for!)

richard_vd - could you please repost the details, please?

Well, then I don't know why it doesn't work for you. It works for me!

 

But since you already know the IP of your router you may just as well use this simpler syntax:

 

sudo ping -i 0.2 -s 0 192.168.2.1 >/dev/null 

 

(you should replace 192.168.2.1 by your router's IP)

2) The "roll-back to .22 while still enjoying the 1.0 update" solution from team headcase & orchetect on page 86

headcase Raleigh NC

 

Re: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

 

26.08.2013 16:23 (in response to orchetect)

 

Here you orchetect - good luck:

http://www.filedropper.com/io80211familykext

orchetect Vancouver, BC, Canada

 

Re: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

 

27.08.2013 10:59 (in response to zqx321)

 

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 existingIO80211Family.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

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

So I first tried the easy method no.1 and ran the script in terminal. And SURPRISE it did work "somehow". Pings were between 1-3ms with odd 13ms every now and then (stddev around 0.5ms), but overall it seemed to be stable and good. But after a OSX restart the pings are going looney tunes again (2ms-120ms, stddev 40ms) on both routers (mine and my neighbour's). And I guess Skype will crash again.

So, before trying solution no.2 I want to clearify a fundamental question of my (and maybe many other's) situation:

Do I really want to do work-arounds and mess with software-hacks, if there is still the chance that the whole problem is hardware-based? Is it maybe smarter to return the machine?

I don't want to pay 2000USD+ (yeah, I live in Germany and Apple Stuff is way more expensive than in the states) for a machine, which has a fundamental problem. But I could temporarily live with it, if I knew that the issue can be solved on the software side. There were rumors a couple of days ago that the OSX 10.8.5. update is around the corner. Might that update be the solution everyone is waiting for?

Hi Creos,

I've the same problem like you and still waiting for the 10.8.5 update before trying to go to .22.

...also from germany ;-) ... I also opened a ticket by Apple in US, but they couldn't help... only the usual s..t like

rebooting, reconnecting etc.... for the phone assistance it was not possible because of non supported international calls .

So still waiting for the os x update and pray.

Steve

Hi creos !

Nobody can tell you what to do, but of course yiou know that.

So....

My shiny new MBA was fully working, like yours, but with slow and very variable pings after the 1.0 update. I did not try Skype (although I do wonder if the problem you had was Skyping using one router and that Skyping 'in the wild' might work fine).

The sudo ping -i 0.2 -s 0 192.168.2.1 >/dev/null solution and the other one in that post did not work for me at all.  Perhaps whatever this command resets is cancelled when you switch off and back on again.....?

The 'roll back' to 25 did work for me, in other words the pings to my local routers are now fast and much more steady (1 - 3 ms).  You do need a little confidence to follow that hack though.

So, as I type this, I have had a few days of fault-free June 2013 MBA bliss (with short local pings too).  Further, I charged it up 2 days ago and I still have 65%!! (no video, but heavy 'office' use for several hours with WiFi on and some browsing/posting).

Personally, I'm expecting this all to be fixed once the 10.8.5.x update and/or Mavericks (is that foolish?)

So....., since you have at least a couple of weeks before you have to return your MBA, why not try the 'roll-back'.

What's to loose?

Hi jornvandijk !

Any luck with the latest Mavericks beta you were using?

Also, if anybody reading this is running the latest Mavericks beta build on a June 13" MBA, could you post something about whether or not the WiFi issue is fixed for you (so that's drops and slow and variable pings).

Thanks

The File I downloaded: IO80211Family.kext.zip has only 578 kb.. is that the right one? ond drivers on my MBA hast 3-4 MB.. perhaps I've only a part of the package?

thx

I have a one week old MBA that suffers from internet drops as well as as long latency of 200-300ms except when its doing a Time Machine backup to my Time Capsule, the latency time then drops to sub 5ms.

Maybe the backup routine keeps the network card awake?

In any case its academic for me as TNT are collecting ithe MBA on Monday and I will repurchase when these bugs have been sorted.

Terry

Hi SteveKeipi !

Hmmm.... No, 578 kb is too small.

The you are looking for is 1.2 MB (1,233,517 bytes).

I've seen a link on this thread on page 5 https://discussions.apple.com/message/2034833#2034833 where Anthony Romano has posted a link to a page on http://www.chrisnolan.org

Hope that helps.

Totally agree with you. Apple sould take care of this, but you also aren't seeing my point of view,

There is no need to fill this thread of junk as we both are doing argueing, and even worse comparing the MBA with other computer wich uses probably a diferent technology.

My xbox360 conects better to wifi than many MBA that have problems arround here, so what. Can't compare with other technologies that is what I mean.

from now on, lets talk about what really matters and the big problem that many MBA's are haveing...

Oooooops.....

Sorry, my last post was incorrect.

The file size is 3.2MB and the link is abve this post on this page (p90).

Once again, sorry (I dont seem to be able to edit my original erroneous post for some reason....

Agreed