OSX Yosemite Wifi issues

Do all Macs of a specified model (e.g. Macbook Air late 2010) use the same chip? As for "flash to its latest firmware," shouldn't that come up through Apple's software update mechanism automatically? Is it advisable to do something on one's own with the firmware when Apple has not pushed such an update out? How does one check for an update for a given chip and how does one "flash it?"

Actually, firmware flashing was more a line of thought of mine, just thinking aloud. It can be done by some serious geeks, BSD nephews of ours which I cannot speak openly of out here. The gist however is: maybe there is a firmware conflict between some Yosemite software components and firmware for Airport chips such as older Broadcoms or Atheroses. Or the necessary firmware update was for some inexplicable reason not carried out correctly on some of the newest Macs. While this could be plausible for users upgrading from Mavericks (thus having to download Yosemite from the internet and running the risk of data corruption), the question of out-of-the-box Macs having the issue remains the biggest mystery.

Anyhow, flashing to newer firmware is indeed something that normally happens automatically through software updates, and especially system upgrades.

Once in a while something goes amiss, though. E.g. in the transition between 10.6.8 and 10.7.0 there was a huge glitch that prevented a lot of users to turn on their Airport card at all! Wifi won't turn on since upgrade to Lion

At that time, a very interesting temporary workaround some people on page #6 of this link came up with, was this:

a friend uploaded his System Configuration folder to me so that I might replace my folder with his. He is currently running a 2010 Macbook Pro and Lion and having no trouble at all. When I replaced my System Configuration folder with his and rebooted, my WiFi comes back immediately and asks me to select a network and I can connect fine. For now, this seems to be working with no ill effects.

Remarkable, no?

As to your 1st question: I'm not sure if and seriously doubt that all Mac models of the same year and subfamily use the same chip or even brand of chips. As I cannot locate a history of these chips, all I have to go on are System Profiles of Macs I can access, and iFixit teardowns of most first issues.

Lack of info on things like this are exactly what stops us in this topic from any systematic investigations.

Well, keep up the good work and thanx for your interest!

OK John, seems you've been downloading Yosemite images from the appstore, and your Recovered Files Folder that keeps appearing in the trash probably reflects this. Possibly just remnants of installers. Simply empty your thrash.

Furthermore carry on your good work.Testing with 3rd party network hardware and reporting a positive result is invaluable as well.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

You never know if they will read it or not, but you won't be able to say you haven't tried.

Dear all, I've input some feedback to Apple on https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Here's how it reads:

Dear Apple,

I've been following some Yosemite WiFi issues closely prior to some major hardware purchases on my part. Mainly on: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6601963?answerId=27375745022#27375745022

Page # 125 (sic).

After a poll on a Dutch Apple forum, it seems ± 42% of the users are still affected by this WiFi bug which makes Yosemite WiFi

1. Probably slow.

2. Disconnect every 5 minutes or so from the WiFi network.

3. Not (properly) connect to the WiFi network on wakeup.

Due to these flaws, which are unallowable on a corporate network, I am hereby compelled not to foresee any new purchases of Apple hardware. Ever so sorry.

Yours truly,

Hexdiy

Former Apple Fanboy.

All of this is true/ plausible. Duplicate this in your own language/ formulation to the same URL and you may create a minor datastorm just to be heard. Good luck to you all! And yes you can! (no political implications included).

<Link Edited by Host>

Hey guys, I may have found 1 right strand of forgotten twine on a sister thread:No internet connection after installing yosemite

Especially read the post of csukale

Seems to me some of you even after having performed a clean install of Yosemite, but having migrated the rest from an older system may still have mDNSResponder launched concurrently with Discoveryd. They will clash!

Quote csukale/ formatting mine:

Hey could you guys do me a favor and check whether or not there's 2 files in your /System/Library/LaunchDaemons folder named mDSNResponder.plist and mDNSResponder_helper.plist?

If you find said files you you then maybe check your log files and see if you have any error messages regarding mDNSResponder in there? mDNSResponder got replaced by discoveryd and I think it therefor should not be launched anymore. For some reason it was still in my LaunchDaemons folder though. I did a clean install on another Mac and those files were not there. Said Mac didn't have any problems with the internet connection.

If you cannot find those files, start a Terminal session and type:

ps aux | grep -i dns

By this you might detect Discoveryd and mDNS responder running concurrently as well. Do so immediately after a restart, when your internet is still working. Because if one of both have crashed/ stalled/ seized, they will disappear from the list.

If mDNSResponder is still found active in some way on your Yosemite, move said mDSNResponder.plist and mDNSResponder_helper.plist to the desktop and restart. If all is well afterwards, you may thrash both files.

You may also want to post an Etrecheck report, of which we have seen very little in this thread.

And thank you for this forgotten gem, csukale

Sorry, I've hit an edit bug, so once again, with an edit:

Hey guys, I may have found 1 right strand of forgotten twine on a sister thread:No internet connection after installing yosemite

Especially read the post of csukale

Seems to me some of you even after having performed a clean install of Yosemite, but having migrated the rest from an older system may still have mDNSResponder launched concurrently with Discoveryd. They will clash!

Quote csukale/ formatting mine:

Hey could you guys do me a favor and check whether or not there's 2 files in your /System/Library/LaunchDaemons folder named mDSNResponder.plist and mDNSResponder_helper.plist?

If you find said files you you then maybe check your log files and see if you have any error messages regarding mDNSResponder in there? mDNSResponder got replaced by discoveryd and I think it therefor should not be launched anymore. For some reason it was still in my LaunchDaemons folder though. I did a clean install on another Mac and those files were not there. Said Mac didn't have any problems with the internet connection.

If you cannot find those files, start a Terminal session and type:

ps aux | grep -i dns

Alternatively, open Activity Monitor and check Process IDs (PID) for either mDNSResponder and Discoveryd.

By either you might detect Discoveryd and mDNS responder running concurrently as well. Do so immediately after a restart, when your internet is still working. Because if one of both processes have crashed/ stalled/ seized, they will probably disappear from the list. Disappearance will be in effect with the first inability to resolve, I think. "Now you see me, now you don't."

If mDNSResponder is still found active in some way on your Yosemite, move said mDSNResponder.plist and mDNSResponder_helper.plist to the desktop and restart. If all is well afterwards, you may thrash both files.

You may also want to post an Etrecheck report, of which we have seen very little in this thread.

And thank you for this forgotten gem, csukale

lkrupp wrote:

PFJ30 wrote:

I can't be absolutely sure (don't want to risk mental illness checking 132 pages..) but I think you'll find the experienced users of this forum are largely absent from this thread because by and large experienced users do not upgrade until at least 2nd or 3rd version of new OSs.

Wrong. We’re not here because we gave up responding to irrational comments long ago in this thread. I installed every Yosemite update the day they were released and I have had none of the WiFi issues reported here. Do some have these issues? Absolutely but nowhere near the percentage claimed by the commenters. Misery loves company and it feels better to be part of an imaginary multitude of victims. It is long known that Apple is concentrating on certain bugs with each Yosemite update and WiFi is on the list. However, no matter how many updates are released there will ALWAYS be a core group still complaining about the issue. It will never go away for all. And all bugs are like that.

What worries me in this thread is all the voodoo and configuration fiddling being advocated. What happens when the actual ‘fix’ comes out? Will these users even remember what they did beforehand? Probably not and we’ll be hearing from those users with new lamentations about how things are broken. Vicious circle.

Remember this one:

lkrupp Nov 17, 2014 3:11 PM
Re: Yosemite 10.10.1 update did not fix my wifi issue, did it fix yours?? in response to mfd700

Instead of sitting and doing nothing you need to start looking elsewhere for your issue. WiFi is an extremely complicated technology. Interference can come from numerous sources, especially if you are in an urban area with lots of WiFi networks nearby. Just because your Mac is near your router doesn’t mean you won’t have issues. Channels use, 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz nabdwidths, electrical noise, physical impairments (like metal doors, cabinets, walls, etc) can all be the issue, not necessarily Apple’s software.

For the record, I am running Yosemite 10.10.1 with an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station with absolutely no issues. I have 9 wireless clients using the network, including two iPhone 6s, an AppleTV, an iPad 2, A Samsung HDTV, A Samsung Blu-ray player, and a hardwired Yamaha AVR. Rock solid. Everything just works.

LOL

I have had the same problems as everyone else and nothing suggested fixed the problem (including wiping and a clean install). I have just signed up for the Beta programme and installed 10.10.2 Beta 4 and I've been running now for 12 hours without a drop!

https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/redemption

Jus.

Didn´t understand your comment. This Discoveryd ProcessID has something to do with the wifi issue?

Didn´t get it.

The only Yosemite specific WiFi issue is in fact caused by some bug in Discoveryd. What actually seems to happen is: though your Mac seems to be in radio contact with your WiFi router (as shown in the antenna symbol), DNS is no longer resolved. Thence: no internet.

When this happens: check your Activity Monitor. Probably the Discoveryd process will be gobbling up 100% CPU. At that point you can regain internet access

by force quitting Discoveryd. But by doing that you will lose all connection to the rest of your network (iDevices, network printers, other computers...). So it is only a handy workaround if you just need to regain internet access quickly.

Also read this very interesting sister topic: discoveryd process uses 100% CPU - Safari Can't find the server

Hi! mi Macbook Pro 15 mid2010 had the same problem. Try this.iOS y OS X: Ajustes recomendados para routers y puntos de acceso Wi-Fi - Soporte técnico de Apple (spanish) or iOS and OS X: Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points - Apple Support (english)

Hi hexdiy,

Had a look at the suggested sites and found something intriguing in the process (direct link to a post):

Re: New Macbook Air - wifi connectivity problems

Very similar issue (BT killing Wi-Fi downstream) dated May 25th, 2014 with the exact same card (or so it seems based on the HW IDs) on Maverics (now that's bad news for me).

As for the tech details of my early 2014 MBA:

Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x117)

Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (7.15.159.13.12)

I'd been contacted by Apple Wireless support to provide some details (I'm out of town now, but I'll do that next week when I'm back in the office) so they do care about resolving this.

On the other hand judging from the whole lot I believe the Wi-Fi / BT problem might actually be related to the Broadcom chipset itself.

I'll send the reports to Apple and then most probably do a complete re-install of Yosemite to 10.10.1 and then update to 10.10.2.

If that does not help than I'll try to get the Apple Service Centre to replace the Wi-Fi card...

Update:

Strange...just looked at Hardware / Bluetooth under System Information:

Apple Bluetooth Software Version: 4.3.2f6 15235

Hardware, Features, and Settings:

Address: 9C-F3-87-D0-C9-81

Bluetooth Low Energy Supported: Yes

Handoff Supported: Yes

Instant Hotspot Supported: Yes

Manufacturer: Broadcom

Transport: USB

Chipset: Unknown (ffff)

Firmware Version: v99 c8867

Bluetooth Power: Off

Discoverable: Off

Auto Seek Pointing: Off

Remote wake: On

Vendor ID: 0x05AC

Product ID: 0x828F

HCI Version: 0x6

HCI Revision: 0x22A3

LMP Version: 0x6

LMP Subversion: 0x4163

Auto Seek Keyboard: Off

Chipset UNKNOWN?

This is actually a reply to

bcanuelJan 30, 2015 10:54 AM

Re: OSX Yosemite Wifi issues
Re: OSX Yosemite Wifi issuesin response to LadyPac

Ditto from me and very sorry to hear resolution of this issue is still not available. I had actually tried to load Yosemite when it was first available and bricked my late 2009 MBP! (That might have been a user error but I learned later that Yosemite would not work with 3rd-party SSD's (something to do with KEXT signing). That alone means I'll never load Yosemite.) Restored Mavericks and things have run smoothly ever since...as usual. Looks like I'll be on Mavericks for a very long time.

I have 10.10.2 seeds running on non apple SSD Largely (ha!) ok

I've also tried to disconnect iCloud from a system that was setup with iCloud sync, this is where it gets bizarre... I can uncheck pretty much everything, except iCloud Keychain. For some reason, as soon as I uncheck the iCloud Keychain sync, it automatically turns it back on. I've tried to do some more debugging on this but finally gave up. Without iCloud sign-in, WiFi seems to be as solid as a rock.

Makes sense: iCloud sync makes for a huge amount of network chatter. If you want to turn off iCloud Keychain (which would make sense if you do not need it on any Apple device you own), make sure it is killed on all your Macs as well as all your iDevices, including your iPhone(s). If only one of them is still active, the iCloud Keychain will reappear. That is the soul and purpose of a synching service after all. That part seems to have been designed well, after all.

If you turned off iCloud Keychain on all your devices, your iCloud Keychain is removed from the cloud. If you chose to delete the keychain items from your devices when you turned off iCloud Keychain, your iCloud Keychain is also removed from those devices.

Source: Get help using iCloud Keychain - Apple Support

Tough decision, but maybe a good solution for you- and hopefully others. Good luck!

On top of the ongoing wifi issues. Now I have the computer shutting down and restarting on its own. When it restarts it gives the message "Your computer restarted because of a problem" Is anyone else seeing this as well?

It generated a report which was forwarded to Apple. It has now happened three times in the past two days.

This is what I found here but wondering if related to the wifi?

OS X: When your computer spontaneously restarts or displays "Your computer restarted because of a problem." - Apple Supp…

Here's what worked for me:

1. Install the dashboard app Airlock from the app store http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/networking_security/airlock_danielpimle y.html

2. Use Airlock to find what the least congested channels for the 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands are in your particular location.

3. Set the BT HH5 so that the two bands have different SSID and passwords.

4. Set each of the two bands to the least congested channels.

5. Connect your computer to each of the two bands in turn and see which gives the best performance and stability.

6. In wifi preferences, set the best option as the preferred connection.

I have found that, whereas the 5Ghz band may give a slghtly faster speed, it is more influenced by distance and indeterminant factors than the 2.4 Ghz band. That said, throwing chicken bones on the floor and reading the runes seems to be at least as scientific. If you can't establish a stable wifi connection, think about using powerline adapters. BT used to supply these for BT Vision subscribers but they are no longer recommended for this use and, as a result, there are plenty on offer on ebay for around £15 to £20 a pair.

Thank you, praeceptor_cgn. This workaround should indeed solve the issue- for a limited amount of time, alas. Like other workarounds, it renews the discovery process. But for how long? Any change to network settings in Yosemite will set WiFi connectivity in motion again for some time, it seems.

Apple should really fix this Discovery bug. That being said, let al the plaintiffs here run Namebench (http://code.google.com/p/namebench/)as a diagnostic tool to realize that probably their current DNS and most of the alternatives are being hijacked/redirected, in many/most cases by their local ISPs (e.g. to block some content deemed illegal or dangerous). A highly complex and irreproducable situation. It is my firm belief that Yosemite ( maybe in combination with iCloud services) cannot handle DNS redirection, in particular NXDOMAIN ("IP adress not in DNS lookup table") redirection.

Amongst other issues, probably. Some Pandora's box has been opened, try to get the lid back on, Apple...

Yosemite surely seems to have a very short DNS lookup timer in the problematic cases. Or something of the sort. If you do not believe me read this article:

Non-responsive DNS server or invalid DNS configuration can cause long delay before webpages load - Apple Support

Wait until your Wifi gets unresponsive, then search your web page by IP instead of its DNS network name. Apple's own example, quote:

If there's an issue with your DNS configuration (for example by endless redirects because of your ISPs own quirks, or a slow internet connection- [between the brackets is my own addition]), trying to access a website via its DNS name, such as www.apple.com might seem slower than accessing the same site from its numerical IP address, such as http://17.172.224.47.

If your unresponsive WiFi gets through to the Apple website in this way, you may be certain your computer has a DNS resolving problem. No WiFi/network connectivity issue. Under Yosemite probably Discoveryd, or its lookup timers. Or your own ISP...

To be continued, I'm afraid...