Q: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

Hi,

I'm Italian and I have buyed last week in Usa a MBA 13', i5, 128 gb.

I tryed Mba in Usa whit a Netgear router with a WPA protection and MBA worked fine. Four days ago I go back to my home in Italy and I have problem with my router (wifi crash) only with wpa protection. If I disable WPA or WEP protection on my router the MBA work fine.

Maybe I think that is a Apple software problem specially with old router (my router have 4 or 5 years and work only with 802.11 g).

Ps: sorry for my English

Maiky82 wrote:

 

Ps: sorry for my English

Nessun problema

For the power users out here, you can open a terminal session and type “sudo tcpdump -e -I -i en0" (the I is a capital i) and watch the packets going to and fro the machine as it dialogs with the access point. This can maybe be useful.

I'm a new user of Mac! I try to launch the command "sudo tcpdump -e -I -i en0" on the terminal but I see more number and more words and the terminal continuos to go away with new dates.

How can I made? I post here the dates?

Maiky82 wrote:

 

 

 

I'm a new user of Mac! I try to launch the command "sudo tcpdump -e -I -i en0" on the terminal but I see more number and more words and the terminal continuos to go away with new dates.

 

How can I made? I post here the dates?

That’s the WiFi packets you see. Of course, there can be many many depending on the current traffic. You stop the flow by typing CTRL + C.

Instead of seeing the packets on the terminal, if you type ’tcpdump -e -I -i en0 -w <filename>’ it will save the output in filename (choose the filename you want). You stop the recording by pressing CTRL + C and can then examine the file by typing ’tcpdump -r <filename> | less’ (| is the vertical bar) or send it by mail, for example.

interesting, most people on here with Apple routers/hardware aren't seeing the issue.  It is definitely intermittent, that is for sure.

I'm finding the easiest way to resolve it, at least temporarily, is to turn off wifi and then turn it back on.

I have been having wi-fi issues while using the Airport Extreme. So has my girlfriend on her 2013 MBA.

I've been an Apple customer since 1988. While this issue is frustrating and disappointing, there is a firmware upgrade in the works and and engineering  team is working to resolve.  Yes, it would seem like Apple could have better field tested the new ac WifI standard.  That said, let's be honest - being an early adopter of brand new technology carries a degree of voluntarily beta-testing.

I've been patiently waiting about 9 months to upgrade from a 2008, 13", 2.4 Ghz Intel Core Duo 2 Macbook, 250 GB HDD, 2 GB RAM.  It's still working, but shows  appropriate degree of wear and obsolescense.   Looks like I will wait a bit longer.

I was considering the 2013,  13" MPBr, but  put that on hold when a fan issue got as much noteriety and blog attention as the current ac WiFi issue is getting. It took about 2 weeks for Apple to release a firmware fix for 15" MBPr, but to my knowledge, still no firmware update for 13" MBPr exhibiting the fan problem.

It would appear Apple will have a fix for the new ac Wifi technology within the next week or so.  I'm thinking by the end of July, I'll order a custom build 13" MBA,  waiting another few weeks is not the end of the world. 

For those of you still in your return period - if you are that upset - return your MBA, and wait another few weeks until the issue is resolved.

I do agree with you. I normally wait for for 3-4 months before I buy an apple product. So far I did not have problem with Apple products. This is my first bad apple. I am hearing conflicting statements which make me feel that it may be an HW issue ( Well this is a speculation). So if majority of macbook air works and some dont. Then to me it may be a manufacturing fault. That can not be resolved by firmware fix.

So far so good. I was one of the first people to have this problem, but being neither technical nor rich in available time I have not been able to do much. I finally installed the wifie fix that I was invited to, and it works. Let's hope it sticks.

Hugs to Apple for being on this. Let's not forget any other laptop manufacturer would have given us a runaround "it's the hardware, it's Win7, it's the router..." etc blah yada.

This is my first Mac experience, and I understand that shipping bugs are an inevitable part of the process, but I'm not willing to do another trade off.  If I can't get this resolved I'm returning this thing and won't be looking back at an Apple computer.  I paid a premium for a laptop like this, and I expect the product to be a high quality product.  There are times that connectivity (on both the replacement and the original) has been so bad that I can't get through a 10 minute GTalk conversation with a friend without toggling the wifi once or twice.

<Edited By Host>

So guys as i told you yesterday i will test my new MacBook air today at the office (Yesterday I ve tested on 3 different Wifis and everythign was fine). Here we have 2 Wifis (one 2.4ghz g and onother with 2.4ghz n). Both are working fine with my MacBook Air (i7,8gb). So what I dont understand, all the MacBook Airs should have the same software installed. So how can it be that some MacBooks have these problems and some not? Dont sounds like a software problem to me.

Clemensf said ----“So how can it be that some MacBooks have these problems and some not? “

Because there are nearly INFINITE wifi protocol configurations and routers out there.

On top of THAT, infinite variables in SNR (signal to noise), and location, and antenna gains

On top of ALL THAT is 802ac on the AIR is “next generation” Star Trek (sic) level wifi.

Also, much of waveforming, electromagnetic propagation, and RF is still THEORY.  Having most books on Ham Radio science, youll find that any book on Antennas / frequency / has "THEORY" in the title, for good reason. (this is why networking diagnosticians all look stressed out)

Taking 802ac out into the public is like ...(forgive the analogy) ...someone from the future going back in time ,….. “beam me up Scotty, theres no modern wifi or standards here” lol.

University and public wifi is stone age (most), ….your new Macbook Air is TOMORROWS technology.

As such, folks should give Apple a break,  fix is coming.  

i hope so. I just purchased 2013 air and it is arrivng today. I will expect wifi problems.

My question belongs to my written text before. I have tested my new MacBook now with 8 different WLANs, 6 of them are public (2 different university WLANs, 2 WLANs at my work (here are 20 routers next to me), WLAN of a coffeeshop and another public WLAN). Besides i played with different settings on my router at home, an old dlink 2,4ghz g one. I changed from tkip to aes, i switched the channels, the security options but i had never drop outs or something like that. I also changed settings on the 2 routers at my office. I can say that tested now a lot and i never had problems. So do I have a different software installed or what makes the difference?