Q: OSX Yosemite Wifi issues

Again to no one in particular, but would you please, for testing purposes, switch off App Nap? Thank you!

http://www.tekrevue.com/tip/disable-app-nap-os-x-mavericks/

I'm tired of running a script to check if I have internet connection, if I don't it takes the wifi interface down and then up again. I wish Apple could solve this issue. I've tried every solution in this thread, and some seem non-sense, non-related to the issue, and none of them works.

About this Mac>System Report>Sync Services reflects precisely what you are saying. Not to mention System Report gives all my Wi-Fi and Ethernet connection info. I need to include the settings that I have configured in System Prefs>Networks Ethernet and Wi-Fi. I also Set Service Order as I previously indicated in earlier post. I am fortunate to have GB Motorola SB6141 ARRIS and Linksys EA3500. Note that my Router's NAT is Enabled, Local Management Access is Enabled, UPNP is Enabled. My router's Time Zone is set for my time zone. My routers Mac Filtering is disabled to keep my WPS push button Enabled.

2.4 GHz Network Mode: Mixed

Security Mode: WPA2/WPA Mixed Personal

Channel Width: Auto

Channel: Auto

Broadcast SSID: Enabled

5 Ghz "Same as Above"

Cisco out-of-Box has the SSID and Password identical by default. User must configure these as separate connections.

Local Network: Host Name: <give a name> (This name I use in Sharing>Edit in Yosemite)

Connection Type: Auto - DHCP

MTU: Auto

For all who is reading, this is my router config for my HOMEGROUP computer. My Mini does not roam like a MBP or MBA. Do your MBP's and MBA's act like a fool with McDonalds and Burger King Wi-Fi and Workplace Wi-Fi as well?

I will try and take screen shots and send this info to Apple from a User with no reported issues of this thread. I ask fellow Macintoshians with known good Yosemite results to join in and send our System Snapshots to Apple. I've nothing totally to hide except my Network name, and Wi-Fi Networks passwords. This just may be the "snow shoes" to help Apple trudge through the Arctic Tundra of Yosemite OS X 10.10.1 Build problems.

Thanks for link hexdiy!

With regard to channels I noted that Country Code from my Belkin Wifi Router Modem is changing by itself. i.e. sometimes NL US or XI. As I am In Australia and Belkin was purchased here Country code should be AU but Yosemite is confused and the channels I suspect are not going to be correct.

I'm beyond frustrated.  I created a username and made my first post just because its been since October and its annoying me soooooo much to have to connect and disconnect the wifi every 5 minutes.  Come on Apple.  This is ridiculous.  Over 2 months of nonsense.  Fix this.

cstewart61 12 step fix seems to have worked for me. I haven't had a dropout in 2 days though Safari is still somewhat balky. I know Safari is acting up because even though I close it, I never quit it. Yet at some point it loses the little dot below it in the dock indicating it has quit. Maybe there's a core file. I haven't looked. And when that happens it is slow to start up paging in from disk. Firefox is still snappy. I've tried other things that worked for 2 days, so I'm still keeping my fingers crossed.

Well, unfortunately I've spent countless hours on this and I'm not getting anywhere. None of the plausible workarounds work.

On top of this specific Yosemite wifi issue, I've been having related issues with my iPhones and iPad (also network/wifi related). As you can imagine I'm not a happy camper to say the least. It doesn't help that I've spent trying to figure out these issues and whenever I contact Apple for any issues, I never get really far. The people on the line are always polite and understanding, but can't really help. Not to sound elitist, but as a Software Engineer, it's frustrating to be talking to people whose solution are invariably to reboot/re-install your phone/exchange/buy a new device. Heck, I'd be happy with a simple "Yeah we're aware of this issue, we have no idea what it is but we're looking into it"

From my investigation here is what I've noticed:

• As far as I can tell, this wifi issue must be very common. I have issues on 2 MBA (2010 11" and 2014 13", 2 iPhones and 2 iPads)
• This leads me to believe that while it's unlikely the Yosemite and iOS issues are exactly the same, they are probably related
• It seems that you're more likely to see the wifi issue in Yosemite in lower signal areas. It doesn't have to be a bad signal, but something like medium signal will be more likely to trigger this. I can't reproduce on full signal when sitting next to the AP, but can easily reproduce it in my room upstairs which has "fair signal. I am able to get speeds of around 135mbps when things work, which I think is decent considering there is a wall in between.
• I have a hunch this issue is much more likely to happen on the 5Ghz band, although I can't reliably test the 2.4Ghz band around my house.
• When doing speed tests, the speeds vary wildly. Some of it can expected due to network activity, but I have some evidence that the devices have trouble maintaining a stable connection. This is particularly visible in iOS devices where the signal bar will keep changing between 1 and 3 bars. This didn't use to happen previously.
• Does not seem to be router related. I had a nice Asus router which I upgraded to a Airport Extreme assuming that Apple would at least test it with their devices. Same issue.
• The issue gets progressively worse until rebooted. At first it's only when the MBA comes back from sleep, I'll notice it trying to connect to the AP and fail with an exclamation mark on the signal strength menu bar widget. It then progressed from that to appear to reconnect fine but being disconnected to outright disconnections in the middle of doing using it.
• iOS devices are much better behaved since iOS 8.1. There are still some visible issues (signal strength indicator fluctuating wildly) and short stalls, but at least they are usable since they recover on their own. I have a condition on all my phones where network data (both cellular and wifi) stop working, but I haven't been able to find evidence it's related to this.
• Console logs appear to indicate a loss of AP

I don't have WiFi issues at the moment.

All iOS devices are connected to 2.4GHz, channel 6.

All Macs are connected to 5Ghz, channel 44.

Using a 802.11ac Time Capsule with country code "Switzerland".

Yosemite 10.10.1 running strong. The free App "Burn" works as advertised. Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 works as well. No connection issues. I am running my Mac Mini on Ethernet and connected to Wi-Fi 5 GHz channel 44. My wife's iPhone is on 5 GHz, too. 802.11n WPA2 Personal. Country code: US. RSSI: -32 dBm and Noise: -89 dBm. Tx Rate: 243 Mbps (currently). Mac Mini and iPhone are in High Priority in Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Preferred Devices settings. Streaming is smooth. Wireless printer and other devices connected to 2.4 GHz.

Side note: My ISP's  DNS Server address and Search Domains name is reporting in the Network>Wi-Fi>Advanced DNS Tab. My Coaxial Cable is a straight shot to my Cable Modem at the least possible length. NO SPLITTER.

Note to self: 50% digital signal is there, but, prone to interference drop outs. Less than 50% is NIL.

I have observed the same instability with Yosemite (on a 2013 Mac Mini) and iOS devices.

1) Fluctuations of throughput during internet operations with the Mac Mini when on the office Wi-Fi (strong signal). No fluctuations at all with wired internet connection. However, there are very frequent problems with picking up or initiating phone calls on the Mac Mini even when the iPhone (5S with 8.1.2) is in very close proximity and both devices are on the same Wi-Fi connection (office Wi-Fi) in strong signal conditions (3 arcs on the Mini, up to 3 arcs on the iPhone (see point 2 below). No problems have been observed so far with SMS messages, however.

2) iPhone 5S on 8.1.2 also exhibits wild signal fluctuations of the displayed Wi-Fi strength (office Wi-Fi router), from 3 bars (arcs) to 1.

2) We have two iPhone 6 and two iPhone 5S and one iPhone 4S all running iOS 8.1.2 and when connected to the Wi-Fi server at home (an AP)  in the house they all exhibit the same Wi-Fi instability, i.e. wild signal strength fluctuations from 3 to 1 bar (arc) in medium to weak signal conditions. Fluctuations are infrequent in very-strong signal conditions, i.e. within ~10 feet of the AP.

3) We also have an old iPod touch on iOS 6.1.6 and an iPhone 4 on 7.1.2, all of which exhibit NO fluctuations in the Wi-Fi strength (same home AP as point 2 above).

3) No Wi-Fi problem of any sort with a mid 2009 17-inch MBP running Mavericks, either at the office or at home.

4) Although iOS devices show signal strength fluctuations, operationally they seem to be much less affected than the Mac Mini. There are occasional hung-ups during internet operations, but they recover within seconds. When the Mac Mini freezes, it stay frozen for a long time and often until a wired connection is used to replace the Wi-Fi one.

Taken all together, these facts suggest that:

1) the Wi-Fi routers is unlikely the cause of the Wi-Fi problem that so many of us experience;

2) the problem is NOT hardware related. The likelihood that 1 Mac Mini, 2 iPhone 6, 2 iPhone 5S and 1 iPhone 4S (which was running beautifully on iOS 7) have Wi-Fi related hardware problems at the same time must be, for all practical purposes, zero.

3) the problem is present in devices under both OS X Yosemite and iOS 8. Devices on iOS, however, are operationally less affected, i.e. self-correct themselves much more efficiently than devices on OS X.

Hope this helps Apple and other to troubleshoot the issue (in a reasonable amount of time).

Happy new year!

wombat2k wrote:

 

... and whenever I contact Apple for any issues, I never get really far. The people on the line are always polite and understanding, but can't really help ...

 

From my investigation here is what I've noticed:

• As far as I can tell, this wifi issue must be very common. I have issues on 2 MBA (2010 11" and 2014 13", 2 iPhones and 2 iPads)

 

The problem is that actually, it is not that common. While ~ dozens (or even hundreds) of reports have been made in these Discussions, and while it certainly (to me) looks significantly worse than WiFi issues reported under Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion etc., in fact there are millions of Yosemite users. And thousands where I work, plus thousands of iPhones running iOS 8 there as well, but I have heard no such complaints at work, none. Most of us use laptops and roam around on WiFi all day. WiFi there is served by non-Apple routers, although about 50% of our thousands of computers and phones are Apple devices.

I think some controlled tests are needed to try to isolate what factor(s) is/are in common with the environments where there are problems. The fact that multiple Macs, iPhones, iPads under one roof have WiFi problems may be indicative of some sort of common setup issue at play with those devices (people tend to install common software and link up their iPhones/Macs with common systems). But in fact, across the broad spectrum of Yosemite and iOS 8.1 users, these problems are not common. Could someone take one or two of these problematic devices over to the Apple Store and see if the problems persist there with their network? (and while you'r ether, ask the Genius Bar to troubleshoot it.) How about at a Starbucks or other open WiFi? Or at a friend's or neighbor's house?  Do these devices fail to work with ANY WiFi?

I was thinking that the Apple Airport might be the common factor, but if that were true, why does the WiFI work so well at the Apple Store? All their numerous Macs on display there are running Yosemite and connecting to Airports.

In any case, until this gets sorted out, I'm holding off on upgrading three Macs (one on Lion, one on Mountain Lion, and one on Mavericks -- all three very stable and doing fine).

The problem with going the Genius bar route is that they are simply not technical enough for this kind of issue. Believe me, I tried. Not really their fault, it's just a complicated issue and they're not being given any guidance from the mothership so at best you'll get offered an exchange which would really not be of much use to me considering all my devices are doing this. The best they could offer for my issues with my 5s is to buy another one since it's been out of warranty for two months...

I also suspect that going to an Apple Store where the signal is likely to be strong is probably not going to show the problem in a visible way. I have however seen similar issues at my place of work where the wifi signal is fair. Have stopped using wifi there a while ago, but I suspect I could easily reproduce it.

I've tried a new workaround of preventing sleep when connected to the power adapter and the connection has been a lot more stable since then. I suspect I will still see issues but not to the extent of before. I'm no longer able to hit anywhere near 135mbps, but I'm getting 90mbps fairly consistently. Not ideal, but the best I can do for now.

Same problem here. I have a router with 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz connection and I experience the same problem on my mac mini 2011. However on my macbook pro 2012 everything is fine. When are you fixing this problem Apple? It's so annoying to have to reconnect the wifi every 2 minutes and to wake up my computer and see that it's disconnected!

in my response to AndreasSt

Yosemite 10.10.1 running strong. The free App "Burn" works as advertised. Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 works as well. No connection issues. I am running my Mac Mini on Ethernet and connected to Wi-Fi 5 GHz channel 44. My wife's iPhone is on 5 GHz, too. 802.11n WPA2 Personal. Country code: US. RSSI: -32 dBm and Noise: -89 dBm. Tx Rate: 243 Mbps (currently). Mac Mini and iPhone are in High Priority in Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Preferred Devices settings. Streaming is smooth. Wireless printer and other devices connected to 2.4 GHz.

Side note: My ISP's  DNS Server address and Search Domains name is reporting in the Network>Wi-Fi>Advanced DNS Tab. My Coaxial Cable is a straight shot to my Cable Modem at the least possible length. NO SPLITTER.

Note to self: 50% digital signal is there, but, prone to interference drop outs. Less than 50% is NIL.

Keeping you posted on the positive results I'm having. My Yosemite Networks Settings I provided in previous correspondence is still holding true. Sleep and awake. Random Network.local renaming is a thing of the past with me not making any changes. I did not uncheck the box you suggested. I now find myself only providing positive results. I left my BOOTCAMP partition untouched as I performed my Yosemite clean install. That is fully functional as well. I am using Firefox as my speedy secondary browser. Did not import from Safari during its setup and used it to install Adobe Flash which works for Safari as well. Safari holding as my default browser. Hp wireless printer cruising along. I wish I had more of an epiphany to provide more help here. There's a common underlying issue here....what is it? I'm puzzled with this Software Map being dumped in trash. Another one this evening - no software or settings change. As i said, if that's all, I can live with it. Archiving them.Then dump the trash can. Thanks.

steve626 wrote:

The problem is that actually, it is not that common.

...

But in fact, across the broad spectrum of Yosemite and iOS 8.1 users, these problems are not common.

I do not agree. I suspect the problems are quite common. But they probably won't be noticed because they occur infrequently.

My iPad 4 and iPad Air didn't work well on 5GHz (with DFS enabled at this time) with iOS 8 prior to 8.1.2. That's the reason why they're now on 2.4GHz.

Also my Apple TV 3rd generation (A1427) with software 7.0.2 still doesn't work on 5GHz. It randomly crashes the whole 5GHz WiFi affecting also other devices associated to it.

I guess the WiFi issues will get really serious if multiple devices are involved. At my place most of the time only one or two devices are associated to the same SSID.

Of course it's very difficult to track down the problems. It might be hard to reproduce them in the lab. But that's certainly no excuse for the inadequately behavior of Apple. Such issues must be resolved before they reach the customer.