Q: Late 2013 Macbook Pro Retina 13'' Wifi Issues

As you can read in a few earlier posts it isn't just a "cosmetic" problem. The wifi is very slow, sometimes pages aren't loading or loading takes 10-15 seconds. Sorry, but I don't think that so many people just complaining about pings getting dropped, without any side effects.

My intention was to check how much the ping latency is related to the WLAN problems in this thread. I would then split this into two issues. The ping latency (not drop) is a general issue across all 2013 Macs. This could be a bug or a feature. The Wlan drops and slow speed seems to be a different problem not directly related to the ping latency. Proof is my iMac which has as I mentioned has ping latency (which goes off with an older driver) and sleep problem, but not the others.

[wifi n/g/ac, ping latency, wifi sleep]

Had the same pervasive problem (inexplicable dropped internet connection at random times requiring restart) with a brand new flagship stock model 15.4 inch late 2013 Retina Macbook Pro with Graphics card purchased in December 2013 from local Apple store (Intel chip = Crystalwell version). Ongoing problem started about 2 weeks after initial purchase, and would happen with both Wifi **and** (I discovered yesterday) Ethernet connections. We have the latest Apple Extreme and multiple Expresses running 802.11n at home with 75/25 Verizon Fios internet speed.

Apple Care phone tech support over past 10 days of little help. Scoured these message boards for a solution - none found.

So, I took to local Apple store 1/12/14. Thankfully, problem cropped up in-store. As such, "Genius" turned off Kaspersky virus protection.  Problem remedied itself **instantaneously** and has not happened since.  No restart was needed.

Theory: appears 3rd party software (in my case, Kaspersky) in some way is interfering with new Crystalwell/Haswell chips.

Regardless, so far, so good. Hours of continuous internet...and counting.

Will post an update if this happens again.

Good luck.

For me, ping latency and dropped packages during ping go hand in hand with slow wifi on Safari and other (Apple) apps, whereas I don't have issues with losing the connection or reconnecting after sleep. What I did notice is that sometimes the wifi remains greyed out after waking up, while the rMBP actually did get reconnected - but that doesn't bother me too much.

[wifi g/n; ping latency & dropped packages; slow wifi]

(Repost from another Apple message board)

Had the same pervasive problem (inexplicable dropped internet connection at random times requiring restart) with a brand new flagship stock model 15.4 inch late 2013 Retina Macbook Pro with Graphics card purchased in December 2013 from local Apple store (Intel chip = Crystalwell version). Ongoing problem started about 2 weeks after initial purchase, and would happen with both Wifi **and** (I discovered yesterday) Ethernet connections. We have the latest Apple Extreme and multiple Expresses running 802.11n at home with 75/25 Verizon Fios internet speed.

Apple Care phone tech support over past 10 days of little help. Scoured these message boards for a solution - none found.

So, I took to local Apple store 1/12/14. Thankfully, problem cropped up in-store. As such, "Genius" turned off Kaspersky virus protection.  Problem remedied itself **instantaneously** and has not happened since.  No restart was needed.

Theory: appears 3rd party software (in my case, Kaspersky) in some way is interfering with new Crystalwell/Haswell chips.

Regardless, so far, so good. Hours of continuous internet...and counting.

Will post an update if this happens again.

Good luck.

Interestingly, it's the Apple apps that seem to be more problematic on my network. I don't have any 3rd party software running (continously) in the backgroud - checked my Activity Monitor just to be sure.

[wifi g/n; ping latency & dropped packages; slow wifi]

Just to follow up:  at present, I have not experienced any related problems with any Apple apps....yet. In retrospect, I installed Kaspersky about the same time the "dropped connections" issue started - but didn't realize the association until today.

I actually never really suffered any performance issues.  It was always top notch.  And even the smallest type of traffic would reduce the pings immediately.  No drops.  Sometimes after sleep it would wig out, but not frequently.  In fact, i went many weeks without even noticing it. 

I noticed the latency issue when trying to do my work.  I'm a network engineer and was noticing high times to my network devices over VPN.  Making a long story short, I eventually found that it was something to do with this Mac.  Wasn't an issue, but I need consistent performance results.  As such I did return the macBook until it's totally resolved. 

I will certainly get another one when it's confirmed to be fixed.  I rely way too much on my Mac to have a ping latency issue.  Again, networking is my professional life so it's got to be great.  Went back to my 2011 MBP until it's resolved.  If I wouldn't be so heavily involed in network management I'd probably not have noticed this at all.  It really does need to be addressed though.  It's one of the most typical troubleshooting techniques to use.  I can imagine a horror that a typical consumer would face when troubelshooting something with an ISP...("oh you have long pings to your own network...the problem is in your house...") 

They'll fix it I'm sure of it.  So I'll just wait.

I tried the driver rollback here on a MBP Retina 13" late 2013 with no success, much more unstable > unuseable!

- even more disconnects

- lot of packetloss

- with bluetooth turned on it's unusable with this driver:

I went back to the original 10.9.1 driver which is:

How is you wifi scannig bevhaiour? If I click the Airport icon it takes sometimes very long to find networks, and even after the first results lot of seconds later their appear more networks > especially in envoirements with lots of wifi networks...

Update on latency /ping problem

1. Commenting on some recent posts here - as I have already written before - the problem is not related to maverics. It is either hardware or hardware firmware - at least in my case (two new rMPBs with identical problems). During tests with applecase senior advisor we have verified ping in recovery mode (before OS is loaded) and the problem is the same.
2. Some said it is not a problem, but the feature of power saving. Personally I do not have wifi interrupts, "just" ping latency problem. I do agree that in most cases the latency dissapears under network load (eg while in time machine backup or file transferring ping is perfect), but unfortunately this is not just theoretical problem. I have noticed it because my wife were complaining her favourite Internet radio station is interrupting a lot on her new rMBP - while her old MBA works perfectly. I tested both side-by-side and latency problem impacted new machine. So there are concrete negaticve outcome of this issue. In my case - while streaming from Internet (and buffering is not very good) it impacts listening (or watching - I tested ping while watching youtube and lost packet/latency are present as well) experience
3. I planned to visit genius with my machines, but after some tests I made is store (all tested new macs, with the exception of classing macbook pro, had the same problem) I decided to wait. I have applecare so have some time. Don't want to replace machine, just to receive new with the same problem
4. POSITIVE - apple senior adviser from engineering has contacted me this Saturday via email asking for contact details. He would like to discuss the issue. It looks apple finally recognized the issue and is working on. Looking forward.

my config:

- new 2013 rMBP (13" & 15") + new Time Capsule + wifi ac (5GHz)

Have you or anyone else been looking at the re-authentification as a problem in secured networks? iI dont have that much high ping times, but I have dropouts and I recently came over this discussion that pretty much describes my problems. As far as i understand; I´ts about how some networks, like wpa2-eap-peap, re-authenticate the connection. Mac os x may have some problems regarding delivering and/or trusting certificates for the re-auth.

http://community.arubanetworks.com/t5/Education/MacBooks-wpa2-eap-peap-reauth-de lays/gpm-p/90950

I have 7 days left before I can return my brand new 15" MacBook Pro. Ping seems long and WIFI needs to be turned off and on again many times a day. Sometimes even a few times per hour.

It's bad news that Apple hasn't yet responded.

Apple has responded to a couple of people in this thread (including me) last saturday. I think they are aware of the issue. I specifically asked when this problem will be fixed. I will order a new MacBook only if I know it has been addressed (maybe in 10.9.2).

Also i have heard that Sony Vaio Pro users are complaining about similar problems. Part of it might be due to the Haswell chipset and drivers. On the other hand, two colleagues of mine have wifi disconnects on their Ivy Bridge retina MBPs (but apparently no performance problems).

Edit: One of them actually has performance issues, while his ipad behaves normally on he same wifi.

Message was edited by: johnniecache

Francescox wrote:

 

all day on windows, I've done a lot of testing, Retina 15 basic absolutely perfect. 20 minutes by OSX, 115 ms, 89 ms, 68 ms. the problems are in Mavericks....

I Agree. I have tried VMware and Windows 7. using a wifi-dongle I still have problems in mavericks, but if I give the USB-device directly to WMvare(running windows 7) the connection seems flawless. I have a slightly different problem where I keep loosing connection for 10-15 seconds at random intervals, but my conclusion is the same; this issue is caused by software, not hardware.

I will try sharing the VMware connection to mac os x. Seems to be the only way to get a proper connection is to run windows after all :/

Interestingly the ping latency problem had popped up with 2011 MBP and Apple seems to have fixed it later.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1111925&highlight=ping

The topic was not widely discussed that time around I guess. This time due to wifi drop issue, the ping latency is noticed by more people.  Just guesses...