OSX Yosemite Wifi issues

Jeff* wrote:

@ikrupp - thats an excellent question

it could well be a difference in network settings

so it would be interested to compare our Network Pref panel settings....

My ISP is at&t u-verse DSL (not the video service, just DSL). My network is configured as follows: at&t supplied Motorola NVG510 modem with WiFi radio turned OFF, Apple AirPort Extreme base station in bridged mode with WiFi ON. My rated speed is 18mbps and I usually get upwards of 85% of that speed which is normal for DSL (since distance from the DSLAM affects speed). My Network preference settings are default with no modifications. IPv6 is active and functioning (I can reach IPv6 websites). Bluetooth is ON. My iMac is connected by both Ethernet and WiFi to the network (you need to have WiFi on for location services to work). Speed tests show no differences between Ethernet and WiFi. There are numerous devices connected to the network via WiFi or Ethernet including an HDTV, Blu-ray player, Yamaha AVR, Apple TV3, 2 iPhone 6s, iPad 2, and more smartphones when family is visiting. All function normally.

The key point is that I have not jiggered network settings in any way. It is all default and things connect and function without issues. Nothing drops. The one thing that may be different is that I live in a relatively small town and there are very few neighboring WiFi networks near my location. I ran the WiFi utility included with Yosemite and it found no competing channel interference and did not recommend changing any channel numbers.

as I previously noted, ATT swapped out my modem for a NVG589, they ran a new line into my house, etc, etc

no changes were made to the factory default settings on the new modem except changing the channel

i am still dropping connections, getting slow speeds, etc

so I am stumped....

Try deleting your networks and making a general reset of them, that usually works.

NOPE

I spoke too early. 10.10.4 on 13”rMBP ’12.

I had no problem until I installed 10.10.3. Then my connection started to flake out, no packets flowing although the WiFi stayed up. Wired Ethernet has no problems.

With 10.10.4, it worked again. Happy times!

And since yesterday, the same symptoms again. It’s not deterministic, bluetooth is off, combo 10.10.4 installed twice in a row with repair permissions in between and after. To no avail.

It only happens at the office where we’re plastered in brand new cisco 3700s. At the same time, a windows box sees no packet loss, so it’s something with my Mac. Also no problem at home, so it’s something with my Mac and the office environment. But what?

I’ll do one more SMC Reset and the other usual voodoo dance, I’ll keep you posted.

Don't know if this was posted already but I was having issues earlier today with my wifi, and it has been laggy after upgrading a week ago. I followed this tutorial and it is back to normal now. http://osxdaily.com/2014/10/25/fix-wi-fi-problems-os-x-yosemite/

I did the first two steps and it worked, I reset the SMC 2 days ago. I don't know if the last step helps as the first two solved my problems.

Well this is how i fixed it.

I had a Wireless N 300mbps Tp-link router, 2.4ghz which most of the times, the connection was from 115 to 130 mbps on my rMBP mid 2014.

3-4 months in, the laptop started having wifi issues, so i started troubleshooting the whole thing. Since i didn't heard about the dread wifi issue with yosemite, i decided to buy a new router.

I bought a tplink Archer c20i, Wireless AC, believing that it would solve the problem. Well it did, for like 3-4 days, where it started, not dropping the connection, but there was no connectivity to internet. I tried EVERYTHING, including deleting network preferences, wifi's, even made a new partition to install a clean yosemite build. Nothing made it work. I tried messing around with the router, trying from no security, to wep, to wpa to wpa enterprise. Nothing nothing nothing.

After like 3-4 days of troubleshooting the whole thing, what i did was this.

I disabled the 5ghz network, left only the 2.4ghz, where i made it transmit into G mode ( i disabled the AC/N ) and now it actually works.

I mean i know i don't get speeds etc, but it actually works, before that i couldn't even type or download a 100mb file.

The other devices worked fine, the iPhone, my apple tv, my other stuff etc etc. Lets hope apple will fix this bug, because its so annoying, it makes me wanna go back to the genius bar and beat someone.

Anyhow, just my 2 cents.

I want to clarify some things with respect to my contribution to this discussion. I think some issues are mixed up here in this discussion. With Yosemite 10.10.4 discoveryd was replaced by the older mDNSResponder. This should have fixed the Wifi issues (according to Apple). However, it hasn't really as one can see from the entries to this forum. In my view we are now also talking of a software problem that only exists for some hardware, rather than a global problem. Since I have checked with several colleagues using the same Wifi as I do. They don't have a problem connecting to it, but they have different hardware. To me the problem also seems to be only connected to the 5 GHz band in the 802.11 network, since connecting to 2.4 GHz is fine. Some posts say it is even only the lower channel numbers, but I can't test this, since I can't force my mac to only choose a higher channel.

I'm by no means a techie and when it comes to my Mac, I'm mostly clueless so this is not a post with lots of techie wording haha. I did actually manage to replace the hard drive cable myself, after it took a dump on me as soon as that one year was up-but that's the extent of my abilities. The wifi has been horrid since installing Yosemite, and I hate having to go plug in with Ethernet, just to make sure I don't drop connection while taking a test. We have 3 iPad minis, and 2 iPhones that always run fine-but my Macbook Pro Mid 2012 has been nothing but an overpriced paperweight since last year when I installed Yosemite.

I was really just waiting it out and hoping one of the updates would fix it and had high hopes for 10.10.4, but no luck there either. I was recently down in NC visiting my parents and since I had assignments due while I was there and my parents didn't have wifi set up, I went and purchased a new router to use while I was there. I bought the Netgear N600 Dual Band, and when I set it up to use there-I was just using the 2.4 GHz connection. Since my parents have no wireless devices and we have umpteen, I brought the Netgear router back with me to NY, and am giving them our 7 year old Linksys N. Anyways, longer story short....hooked it up here at home and remembered reading something in this thread about the 5GHz stuff. I set my MBP to connect to the 5GHz connection and it is the ONLY device allowed to use that one. Everything else goes to 2.4. My MBP is working like a dream again and I haven't had a dropped connection, or slow loading pages since.

"I want to clarify some things with respect to my contribution to this discussion. I think some issues are mixed up here in this discussion. With Yosemite 10.10.4 discoveryd was replaced by the older mDNSResponder. This should have fixed the Wifi issues (according to Apple). However, it hasn't really as one can see from the entries to this forum. In my view we are now also talking of a software problem that only exists for some hardware, rather than a global problem. Since I have checked with several colleagues using the same Wifi as I do. They don't have a problem connecting to it, but they have different hardware. To me the problem also seems to be only connected to the 5 GHz band in the 802.11 network, since connecting to 2.4 GHz is fine. Some posts say it is even only the lower channel numbers, but I can't test this, since I can't force my mac to only choose a higher channel."

Hi fusionmaster,

I would say that you're partially right, we are talking about software problem, that only exists in certain hardware. What comes to discoveryd and mDNSResponders, they're more system services than core-level software drivers. IEEE 802.11 is a set of different specifications, how to setup WLAN communication in different frequency bands. To get most out of your wireless network, you should be running 802.11ac, as new macbooks are capable of that. 802.11ac specifies high-speed wireless communications only on 5Ghz band. Now what comes to Yosemite problems and throughput, in my tests they only exists on newer hardware with Yosemite 10.10.x. Older hardware, running on same WiFi net with 802.11n gets full speed. Talking about MAC hardware here.

Now whats really interesting, newer hardware running latest public beta from Apple gets full speed in 802.11ac net. So there was an low-level driver issue in Yosemite, that has been fixed.

Most people does not really see difference, since they don't use or need 802.11ac speeds or try to replace 1G home ethernet with that and use local NAS as storage and they might think that my ISP lags that makes my 20Mbps ADSL working like 2Mbps.

I put my router on 5 GHz and it's still dropping. It was on 2.4, and that was dropping like crazy. Seems a little better, but still dropping a lot on 5 Ghz.

Dear mcwifi,

Thanks for your informed reply. My MacBook Pro 15" Retina (mid 2012) (MB1) can only do

Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g/n

Hence, the problem at least I have ins not related to the newer 802.11ac standard. The workplace access points are also only capable of 802.11n at 5 and 2.4 GHz. The 2.4 GHz works OK for me.

The MacBooks of my colleagues where an older white MacBook 13" (mid 2010) (MB2) also only capable of 802.11 a/b/g/n and the newest MacBook Pro 13" Retina (MB3). Both were running Yosemite 10.10.4, working absolutely fine. The differences in the system report for the wifi was the actual Airport Extreme hardware all had AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, ...), but the 2nd number was different (MB1: 0xEF, MB2: 0x93 and MB3: 0x133) and the Locale. Mine was bought in the US and had FCC and the others had ETSI. Als the older MB2 had an older firmware. I'm not so sure about your assessment of the newest public beta release. To exclude a hardware problem I will also test a downgrade to Mavericks booting from USB. I'm sure it worked with this before I upgraded to Yosemite. It may even have worked with the early Yosemite versions. I kept ignoring it as a nuisance.

However, since some packets are getting through and the system actually gets a proper IP and TCP/IP set-up. I believe it is a driver fault. In some cases it seems to work for a short time, though negotiation still takes long, but then starts dropping as if some "optimisation" is going on, that ultimately fails. Using ping to the router sometimes this all the packets are lost, but sometimes 10-15 don't make it and 2-3 get through. With a hardware fault I would expect it to not succeed at all. Unfortunately I don't have a 5 GHz router at home I could do more testing on.

I tried to connect my 2014 rmbp only to the 5ghz network, and all the others onto 2.4ghz. It didn't fix anything.

I am fed up with this whole thing, so i went back to mavericks, clean install and everything. The problem STILL persists.

Do i have a faulty unit ?

Note that when i mean a clean install, i mean another partition, i don't know if the recovery partition keeps drivers or whatever.

Should i take it back and ask for a replacement or what ? I Have pretty much tried everything.

SeddE, I would take it in and have it looked at. I'm not aware of this being an issue in Mavericks.

Paul

I cn confirm that making a totally clean install of mavericks, will not solve my problem.

I don't get dropped from the wifi, and i can stream a movie via beamer onto my apple tv.

I am connected to the internet at all times, i just can't download big files ( over 100mb ), because it hangs and stops downloading the file.

While the file download is stopped i can still browse on websites and so.

This is really frustrating, what should i do ?