Wifi connection constantly dropping on mid-2010 MB Air?

Question

Wifi connection constantly dropping on mid-2010 MB Air?

My wife's MBA is constantly stalling trying to load internet pages. Her connection to our home network seems fine at times and then, in the same location, with all 4 bars of signal strength, just seems to stop working. When she looks under the Wifi menu drop down, she will see our Airport network, but often can't even see the Verizon router network. Turning Wifi off and back on seems both reconnect the network and allow her to load pages and allows her to see the Verizon network. We have a mid-2010 MBA and late-2013 MBPr that are connected to the same home network using an Airport Extreme with Wifi ac (the same problem was present when we were using our previous Airport Extreme with Wifi n). Our primary (listed first in Network > Advanced) network is the Airport Extreme which is a separate (not extended) network in addition to the Verizon Fios n router which is our backup/secondary. Both computers are on 10.9.5 and the router has most up to date software. I have tried upgrading her hard drive from 256 to 512 (she was running out of space and computer seemed slower in general) which did nothing. I have rebuilt the desktop w/ Disk Warrior repeatedly, repaired permission and repaired disk. I'm wondering if there are pref files or other software related things to try or there are known issues with MBA wifi connectivity. Seems this problem did not occur for the first year or two of owning the computer and it has gotten progressively worse over time, making the computer almost unusable at times. My MBPr is blazing fast and does not have this issue, only occasionally having problems connecting to Wifi when waking from sleep, which I think is a known issue and not that big a deal. Can anyone offer any suggestions on next steps for software fixes and/or thoughts on how to determine if there is a hardware problem? Thanks.

Posted on Sep 29, 2014 1:36 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 29, 2014 1:39 PM in response to Joshua Morganstein

Hi Josehua ..

MIght be corrupted network preferences ..

Open the Finder. From the Finder menu bar click Go > Go to Folder

Type or copy paste the following:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

Click Go then move all the files in the SystemConfiguration folder to the Trash.

Restart the Mac.

See if that makes a difference.

Your Mac will generate a new SystemConfiguration folder for you.

If that doesn’t help, try here > Wi-Fi: How to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity

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Answer 2

Sep 30, 2014 8:04 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Carolyn, thanks very much. I did what you suggested and we'll see if that solves this intermittent problem more permanently. I may reinstall the OS as well in case that catches any other bad files. I know that's more of a buckshot approach but when I read all the myriad permutations of what can be causing the issue, it's a bit dizzying. I'll try to report back on the end result but, again, thanks for the initial assistance.

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Answer 3

Oct 5, 2014 9:24 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Unfortunately, the problem appears to have persisted. I just reinstalled the OS from the recovery partition and will see if that less refined approach has any impact at all. Frustrating.

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