Q: OSX Yosemite Wifi issues

Tom AdS wrote:

 

Well, this one solves ALL of my networking problems - finally.

 

No more Wifi-Issues, no more Ethernet Issues, no more Bonjour- or DNS-Issues.

Only thing that won`t work is Airdrop between iOS 8 and Yosemite. No problem thanks to DropCopy, Instashare and others.

 

BTW: No problems after updating or reinstalling 10.10.2 combo ... mDNSResponder stays active.

 

Try it.

 

THX

@ TomAdS:

Well, this one solves ALL of my networking problems - finally.

If you mean to say you've effectively replaced Yosemite's Discoveryd with Maverick's mDNS responder, your testimony is very instructive indeed, and the 1st reported affirmation of its kind in this monster thread. This once more asserts that Bonjour discovery over AWLD, Airdrop, Handoff, Continuity and such (maybe even iCloud) are not working properly under some hardware setups (Mac- WiFi Router combinations). The reason why is still a mystery. But it explains the partial success of Mario Ciabarra's WifriedX, or turning off Handoff and Airdrop. Or getting new WiFi hardware. All of which have been described here.

Possibly some WiFi routers may be overloaded due to constant discovery attempts caused by Bonjour. Or maybe just too many possible iDevice / clients are within range of that WiFi router.

Or possibly some WiFi routers cannot handle "jumbo frames", thence the workaround of setting the Maximum Transmission Unit lower than the default 1500.

Anyhow: if replacing Yosemite's Discoveryd with Maverick's mDNS responder has actually worked for you, this means that Yosemite OSX is not entirely broken (in some cases/ under some hardware combinations), only the DNS resolving capabilities of Dyscoveryd within your hardware setup . Meaning only the novelties of Yosemite. Which most Yosemite users, especially those with severe issues will gladly do without. In return for basic WiFi functionality.

Also meaning users with these issues do not necessarily need to retrograde to Mavericks, which seems very difficult if Mavericks is not residing amongst previous purchases. Especially for users with a newly purchased Mac, with Yosemite preinstalled.

From: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/01/why-dns-in-os-x-10-10-is-broken-and-what-yo u-can-do-to-fix-it/

To effectively replace Yosemite's Discoveryd with Maverick's mDNS responder

here is the relevant part:

Restoring mDNSResponder, if you dare

First a word of warning: if something goes wrong, your Mac may not be able to boot. This can be fixed by booting in single user mode and re-enabling discoveryd (see below). Be sure you have a recent backup just in case, and only follow the steps below if you are prepared to boot into single user mode if needed.

The first thing you need to do is find copies of 10.9 mDNSResponder, mDNSResponderHelper, and their plist files. On a 10.9 system, they're found in /usr/sbin/ and /System/Library/LaunchDaemons, respectively. These Terminal commands will copy them to the desktop for easy copying to the 10.10 system on which you want to install them:

 

Another way to get the mDNSResponder and its helper is from a Time Machine backup. Connect your Time Machine drive or click on the backup image on your (Time Capsule) network drive. Next, navigate to a backup from before October 16, when you were still running OS X 10.9, along these lines:

 

With these preparations in place, you can copy the mDNSResponder and helper to the OS X 10.10 machine:

 

Then, deactivate discoveryd and activate mDNSResponder. Remember, sudo makes a command execute with root or system administrator privileges, so it asks for a system administrator password. Don’t worry if you get "Could not find specified service."

 

Now reboot.

Reverting is easy. Just read the rest of the article in the link.

Well, good luck with it. Sure seems a **** of a lot easier than retrograding to Mavericks or doing a reinstall of Yosemite (which will bring you no good of course).

BTW, there  may be a quicker way of checking if your router ( or its firmware) may be too old: disable Bonjour/ Multicast altogether. This is an older, non-Yosemite specific trick, and will disable Handoff functionality as well, but ****, without WiFi, who cares?

http://www.farces.com/and-the-yosemite-problems-just-keep-rolling-in/

If this sounds too technical for some, I am genuinely sorry. But to the technically minded, I surely hope this might finally bring some relief. There is no use in waiting for Apple, with some other (GPU) issues, we had to wait for another 3000000 more forum views as we have and probably some class action suits until relief came. By then, your Mac will be obsolete.

Hex,

You're driving a hard bargain for me here. You're making me want to roll up my sleeves and take this out for spin my next days off! As you know, I could care less or a thing in this world about Yosemite's tinkle bells and whistles that the kid's with their iPhones want. I want a functional OS X upgrade, I'm a grown Man! Dag Nab It!!!   

Hi John, I've been driving a hard bargain for myself also here: I have only 1 very clean Yo1010 capable Mac running Mavericks now here which I don't want to pollute, all the rest are Snow Leopard antiquities, and them invalids too. My trusted workhorses. All of them CoreDuos and Core2Duos. As I've posted before, I have a journalistic interest in this thread. And yes, it has bitten me hard. Although indeed as you eloquently put it I couldn't care less about Yosemite's tinkle bells and whistles that the kid's with their iPhones want. I just need to know.

All I've had to go on in this discussion is text and research. The upside is I've learnt a great deal by reading up some!

Wel, maybe I'll download Yosemite and install it onto an external disk to get the feel of it. Seems about time. But what if I cannot replicate the issue? My Broadcom chipset will probably be too old (not Handoff2 capable)...

There you have it. If nobody ever believes me on this thread anymore, I won't blame them.

But hey, all the Yosemite WiFi issues are centering around the discovery core...

I like this theory (for those of us who are having complete 'perceived' no-connectivity issues.)

If I was building a public WiFi network, I would ensure that any devices which are making network noise (like too many or crappy DNS requests) are shut down.

That's probably why changing MAC addresses or renewing DHCP leases has variable success.

.. and probably why replacing the 'culprit', which probably was revised in 10.10.2 again, is a potential solution.

Bricking Mac's is not cool.

Matthew

Bricking Macs is not cool.

No, it isn't, Matthew. A horror.

If I was building a public WiFi network, I would ensure that any devices which are making network noise (like too many or crappy DNS requests) are shut down.

Seems not possible in the world of today. Too many iDevices and Android phones around. Sheer network heck (sorry for the spelling).

And the worse seems to be on the recipient (Yosemite) end in some cases.

I like this theory (for those of us who are having complete 'perceived' no-connectivity issues.)

So if you apparently have nothing to lose, why not turn uncouth for the moment and try and replace Yosemite's Discoveryd by Maverick's mDNS responder?

After a TM backup or a CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper bootable clone of your present system, for sure. At least you will (re)gain basic Internet capabilities, I'm sure!

If you're still afraid: the above link explains how settings are easily regained.

Succes and cheers

That's probably why changing MAC addresses or renewing DHCP leases has variable success.

Right, those are only temporary solutions, till Dicoveryd(aemon) kicks in for real again.

Here, here Brother! I, like you did not really have "bricking" issues running Y-10.10.1 on my Mini. Wi-Fi was, for the most part, good. Discoveryd, on the other hand, poses some interesting issues in Software Mapping and DNS Resolution. So, it has come, I will, (sigh) once again, place this 10.10.1 on my External USB HD. Update as far as updates will go. Then with the cold swift hand of death, wipe out Discoveryd and replace it with Mavericks mDNSresponder. Maybe there is a glimpse of hope that this will put Yosemite in a Mavericks networking and DNS state that is both functional and reliable and (gasp) stable. I'm off on FRI. and SAT. I'll give it a whirl on the old Wurlitzer HD (old saying). Let you know how my findings go on a 2012 Mac Mini (glorified MBP in a sardine can, just add accessories). Look how many good beer cans lost their life for this machine! Depressing. Cheers! Will give it a go! More testing of this, maybe more will believe. We're just asking for a reliable OS X, we're not asking too much from Apple.

HI hediy.

My problem with Yosemites networking occured while using a ethernet-connection with my MacPro late 2013, wifi off and bluetooth on (with or without devices paired). When my Mac woke up from sleep, especially after connecting/waking with screensharing (vnc), all of the bonjour-services of my Mac have been 'gone'. This seems to be a well known problem with Yosemite until 10.10.2.. I' ve tried any of the tipps here and in other forums, but there was only one solution, that helps: turning bluetooth off. Ah ok, one more: using ethernet with wifi on and bluetooth on also mostly works, but not always (seems, as if wifi heals the ethernet).

Both ' workarounds'  are not suitable to me, so i decided to replace discoveryd with mdnsresponder as described at arstechnica. Since then, Bonjour works rock solid in any situation (same as with Mavericks).

It's not so hard, to enable the mdnsresponder or reenable discoveryd, especially before upgrading the system, so anyone who 'dares' should give it a try. I'm quite sure, that this will sort out any WiFi-problems with Yosemite.

Anyway, Apple should fix this as quick as possible.

Tom

Just purchased my first apple computer. A retina macbook pro. Was shocked to find this issue when I noticed my wifi connection dropping every 5 minutes. The only reason why I purchased an apple was the hardware build quality and the premise that "everything works on a mac". But this is a huge issue. I tried various fixes but no cigar. I thought I had fixed the issue when I created a new location and a new wifi service as described. Initially it seemed to have resolved the issue (or at least I didn't notice any wifi issues) for a couple of days. Then last night while on irc I noticed that my computer kept disconnecting and reconnecting on the server every 5 minutes or so. I also noticed that my dropbox icon went gray (not connected) until I switched wifi on and off again. Then it would work again but only for a while.

Apple needs to fix this asap. I expected such issues on Linux (my previous laptop) but at least in Linux you know you are dealing with unsupported hardware. On a mac this issue is unacceptable!!!

Take it to a local Apple Store genius bar.  That resolved all my post Yosemite upgrade wifi issues on my macbook pro for me.  One joy of owning an Apple device is the strong customer support.

bearwife

This issue goes way beyond a visit to the genius bar.

I've stopped several times at the Apple Store and asked the "Geniuses" what's the deal with WiFi problems and Yosemite - they always look at me with puzzlement and say "first I've heard of any" ................

I was sorry I hadn't taken my mac in sooner, rather than spending hours trying the many, many other solutions on this thread.  When I suggest visiting the genius bar, I mean bring your troubled wifi-less device.  Whether or not the techs there know about the length of this thread, they do know their macs.

bearwife

They did not know my iMac. Their suggestion was to buy a new router. After many hours on the phone and in my computer Apple techs know this is a very large/critical issue. I'm glad for you your issues have been resolved.

I live in Cyprus so I don't have the option to take it to an apple store. Best I can do is take it to an apple reseller but I have no trust in their abilities. Best they can do is have it shipped to Apple UK. And even so I'm not certain the problem will be fixed since is not something that I can replicate on demand. Wifi just comes and goes on random intervals. It can work fine for a couple of days or keep dropping the connection every 5 minutes. Kind of hard to explain this and have it fixed.