Wifi hangs and crashes Airport
Grateful for any help with this!
I'm using a 2011 Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.8.
Over the last week or so, my wifi has developed a strange habit. I haven't managed to find anyone else's experience which quite matches it.
Two or three times a day, when I'm working on a wifi network (either at home or elsewhere), the connection will stop working. The wifi icon in the menu bar will still show that I'm connected (four bars of strength), but when I click on the icon to view the menu, it will list networks (including the one I was using) but not show that I'm connected to any. If I try using the menu to reconnect to the network I was on, it will act as if it's forgotten the password; if I enter the password, it will give me endless 'connection timeout' messages and never reconnect. So far, so not so strange, and usually at this stage I'd just toggle the Airport off and on again. When I do this (selecting 'Turn Airport Off') from the menu, the wifi turns off (icon turns to empty quadrant); BUT when I select 'Turn Airport On') afterwards, nothing happens. The icon stays empty, the menu doesn't change. Using Network Preferences to try and turn the wifi on makes no difference. At this point, the only way I can get it to work is to restart the computer.
Obviously it's irritating to have to restart the computer several times a day just to use the internet. I've tried doing the Control-Option-P-R reboot which has certainly speeded up my computer a bit (web pages load quicker!) but hasn't solved the original problem. I'd appreciate any ideas of what I might try next.
Thanks
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)