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

8 MB/s is not ok for 802.11ac. I know that the Retina MBP can do at least 45 MB/s, because i actually get this on mine when i use Windows, see my earlier posts. Its very constant as well, not just some peak value.

With the current Mac OS driver i am getting a 15 MB/s average, which is very similar to what other people have posted in this thread.

I've got an old AE. So it's wireless N.

Looks like the 10.9.2 update + updating router (Netgear R7000) firmware + updating FreeNAS really gave me a boost. I did a very unscientific test of moving a 4.7GB mkv movie file from my NAS to my Mac.

On the 2.4Ghz band I was able to get anywhere from 12-18 MB/s as reported in the Activity Monitor.

On the 5Ghz band I was getting a whopping 55-75 MB/s.

Previously, I had always used the 2.4 Ghz band because it was actually stable/usable. I usually got 7-10 MB/s before the update. The 5ghz band would drop within a minute of starting a file transfer and during that minute speeds were slow and very erratic with long pauses where it was unclear if it was even transferring. Now it's solid and very quick. It actually exceeds the speeds of my desktop which has an Asus PCE-AC68 AC1900 adapter which only manages about 30 MB/s transferring the same file despite the fact that it has an external antenna base with 3x antennas.

Three things have been updated since I last posted here about poor performance:

1) Mac has been updated to 10.9.2

2) FreeNAS has been updated to 9.2.1.2 (Improved Samba/CIFS performance)

3) Netgear R7000 firmware has been updated to 1.0.3.24_1.1.20 (Improved 2.4G/5G performance and stability)

Everything together has resulted in great performance. Keep in mind the 10.9.2 update alone didn't do a whole lot for me other than fix erratic ping times and make things a bit more stable. Performance seemed similar and I still didn't use the 5ghz band. Only just now I thought hmm I've updated my router and NAS since then let me give it another try and BAM the 5ghz speeds are the fastest I've seen yet.

Would recommend that those having problems update everything on the network and try both bands if you have a dual band router. Also keep in mind speeds will vary based on the slowest component. Try using an ethernet cable to make sure something other than the Mac's wireless isn't the bottleneck.

Just tested current 10.9.2 in my vacation place with a 802.11g Router (Speedport 720V). Still the same problems. Doesnt find a connection after sleep. Ipad Air and Win PC have no problems on the same WiFi.

Go fix this finally apple, its about time now!

There's a solution I posted for this problem here

https://discussions.apple.com/message/25175868?ac_cid=tw123456#25175868?ac_cid=t w123456

I've been dealing with this problem across two different Late 2013 MacBook Pros 13" (both i7, one 128GB, one 256GB) for the last few months. I went through AppleCare for both. The first MBP went in for repair and came back with a new Airport card which did not fix the problem. The second one still had this issue up until yesterday.

Since this was happening on both MBP's, I tried buying a new router (same model as the old one: Asus RT-N66) and it still happened. I tried moving my routers to a different network connection and it still happened. However, I learned that one of my local coffee shops had the same router and my laptops worked on that wifi.

At first I attributed it to me not being logged on long enough for a problem to occur, but the other variable was the password length. My home router had an 8 character long WPA2 password while the coffee shop had 15 characters. Yesterday I changed my home password to a new 15-character password and I haven't had a wifi problem at all yet. My pings (which used to be extremely variable and unstable) are solid and consistent.

Bottom line: try changing your wifi password to something 15 or more characters long.

yellowbkp, this has helped me too. Thank you soooooooooo much!

And shame on Apple! This problem has killed 20 000 of my neurons!

I recently set up AE to manually configure IP address to my MBP through mac address and have not had any issues with MBP finding my wifi. Don't know if it's a fix or not but it's working fine since I did this.

So I have:

Bluetooth off

Wake on Wifi off

AE DHCP reservation set up

Here is the solution (below).  Worked for me.  I did the modifications in sequence up to and through turning off bluetooth.  The author of the solution notes that this works for many people, and it worked for me.  My fondest hope is that it works for many others.  This Wi-Fi issue with Mavericks has been an incredible waste of countless users' time.  The perfectionism and demand for excellence that Steve Jobs embodied is sorely missed.

http://howtoapple.com/mavericks-wifi-issues-fix/

@howtoapple fix: Nothing personal here, but isn't deactivating Bluetooth a bit like curing a nosebleed by head amputation?

I take it back: the fix was only temporary.

Christ, I'm having this disconnections again and it really ****** me off. I can't even read this thread without waiting for connection to reappear every 3-5 minutes.

****!

I got my MBP "repaired" through Apple. They returned it with a new network card. I turned on my macbook and after about five seconds of browsing, the same recurring problem returned. I am one extremely unsatisfied customer.

What do you get when you hold down the Option key and clcik on the WiFi Icon in the menuBar?

Mine looks like this:

.

Mode, Channel, RSSI and Transmit Rate can be very telling.

How many networks do you see beside your own?

You have a good signal strength.

The THREE standard Clear channels for 802.11g in the 2.4GHz band are 1, 6, and 11. Each one laps over two channels up and two channels down, i.e., 6 takes up 4,5,6,7,and 8.

With seven other networks visible, you are encountering massive interference. Your Router has responded by trying to use a channel "on the edge" of a real data channel.

-- diagram courtesy wikipedia

I believe Apple has responded to the huge outcry at about WiFI problems by tightening their standards -- if the connection will be marginal, they do not connect.

The solution is to get out of the crowded 2.4GHz band and ADD or replace your Router with a Dual-Band Router. The additional 5GHz band will give you 8 to 12 additional clear channels, and your connection will be faster and more reliable.