Intermittent Wireless Disconnects

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Level 1

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Intermittent Wireless Disconnects

My Macbook Pro repeatedly disconnects from my wireless router while I am using it, and I cannot figure out why. I will be surfing around, actively using the connection, when all of a sudden the signal is gone. (During the course of typing this, it has dropped twice). (I'm not a slow typer, either). My wife's PC notebook does not have this trouble. It's not about signal strength either, as this will happen whether I am 25 feet or 25 inches from the router...

I have tried unplugging the 2.4GhZ cordless phone base near the router without a change in the situation. I have poked around in both the Internet Connect and Networking options pages, but don't see any check boxes for "Drop Signal every 45 seconds". The problem persists even after rebooting the entire chain of equipment.

Any suggestions would be useful.

My setup:

Macbook Pro with 10.4.8 (just updated; the problem was there before)
Linksys WRT54G

David

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Oct 4, 2006 9:27 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 4, 2006 9:31 AM in response to T-Square

Here is another discussion about the same problems, there is some good info overe there.

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3237685

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Answer 2

T-Square Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 4, 2006 9:49 AM in response to UserUsingEndUserUseless

I appreciate the link, but it seems like the entries in that thread only confirm my problem--not solve it.

The gist of that thread:
* It does not seem to be the router (since different people are using different routers with the same problem, and multiple users report [like me] that the router works fine for other machines on their networks);
* It's not likely to be the cordless phones (note the writer who boots his MBP into Windows XP and has no problems, the user who reports trouble despite using a 5.8GhZ phone, and the user who mentions iStumble to change his channels to avoid traffic);
* It's not the Robustness setting (which users report had little or no effect, a result that I have noted as well);
* It's not the hardware itself (multiple users report success with other wireless networks, and there's that dual-boot chap again)

In my mind, the most likely culprit is the software--either the Internet Connect applet, or something buried in the OS.

So, apparently, this is just one of the Big Mysteries in Life right now. I honestly hope someone figures it out...

David
(3 re-connects during the course of this reply)

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Answer 3

Oct 4, 2006 9:57 AM in response to T-Square

One of many big mysteries in the world of MacBook Pro and OSX 10.4
I think every one is hoping for a nice quick fix, but is Apple working on current problems or on the new Leopard OS. Sorry could not be more help

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Answer 4

Oct 4, 2006 11:21 AM in response to UserUsingEndUserUseless

I had the same problem. The Airport icon would grey out and I would lose internet. Stopping and restarting Airport would get me back on for a few hours.

Then I disabled IPv6 in the Airport portion of the Networking panel in System Preferences. It will still happen but rarely now.

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Answer 5

Oct 11, 2006 4:44 AM in response to T-Square

The only workaround right now is to prevent the airport chipset from going to sleep. Any activity on that link will work. Before 10.4.8, coconutWiFi was a useful way to do that but it's causing network problems in 10.4.8.

Something as simple as a ping to the "gateway" every few seconds should solve the problem. Amazingly, I can find a bunch of apps that claim to do just this but they all cost money. Personally, I can't see why it needs more than a dozen lines of shell script to achieve this and I hardly think that's worth spending money on.

If I can't find a free app to do the pinging thing, I'll create a StartupItem to do it. In case you're wondering, I'm not interested in an app that pings some random site because that involves sending packets outside my network.

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Answer 6

Adrift

Level 1

110 points

Oct 11, 2006 7:35 AM in response to T-Square

Same problem as others... new out of the box with 10.4.7 installed my airport worked great with strong (full bars) signal, something I was not used to seeing on my old TI PB....

Updated to 10.4.8 and now it drops to zero bars and flickers up and down. I lose the signal entirely when sitting directly below the airport base station (upstairs), a place where the signal used to be the strongest. I didn't have this problem before the update. Also, streaming iTunes to the Airport Express base station on my Stereo now causes drop outs in the music. It barely works. Don't know what the reason could be besides a OS problem....

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Answer 7

cstick

Level 1

0 points

Oct 11, 2006 8:22 AM in response to Adrift

Strangest thing.

At the office, I connect wirelessly and get random drops throughout the day. It drives me crazy.

At home, I get ZERO. I tend to lean towards the router itself being the culprit. I have NEVER had to reset my Airport while at home.

I'm the same distance away from both boxes at both locations.

I'd love to figure out why it drops at work and not at home.

MBP 17" Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 8

AldousH.

Level 2

190 points

Oct 11, 2006 8:28 AM in response to Lincoln Ramsay

hello!

i might ask a stupid question - but i'll ask it anyway:

i have that airport express thing installed at home but i still just use it for streaming music via itunes (will get cable in a few weeks).
so far and even after the 10.4.8 update i have no problems streaming music. not once the signal bars dropped to zero. ok, this is streaming music... ...but does that eventually mean that it will be the same with internet? that my airport and mbp work proper as they should?

thanks,

j.

p.s. sorry, t-square for hijacking your thread (a bit) =)

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Answer 9

Oct 11, 2006 11:46 AM in response to cstick

I'd love to think that's the reason... but I have 3-5 different routers and they all work differently.

In the end they all drop eventually.

As it is right now, my Airport Extreme Base Station drops the wireless the most frequently, followed by its airport express access point, and least being my Belkin router.

But it all varies, some days with my Apple router are great, some are not. I think it's all a problem with our computers, and i'm hoping for a fix soon.

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Answer 10

Oct 11, 2006 12:47 PM in response to homertime33

I have a MBP that was losing it's connection to the net. All indicators were that the airport was working, my router was working, but my cable was down. We have 3-5 computers on the same router, and all of the others would still be connected. I upgraded from a Netgear router to a new Belkin Pre-N router and it still did it. It also put a lot of static in the 2.4Ghz phone in the house, so i moved that and the situation improved, only dropping when i was nearer the phone. Then i disconnected the phone completely and haven't lost internet yet (knock on wood).
A lot of the post's on this problem have discussed multiple routers and gear running on their networks. I'm wondering if too many signals is confusing the software in the Macs, or something. Removing the phone has surely helped me, but i think we're all experiencing multiple problems that all have the same result, lost connections. And this shouldn't be happening with Macs.

15" MacBook Pro 2Ghz, 1GB ram Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 11

Oct 11, 2006 4:39 PM in response to cstick

I read something on these forums (can't remember which one now, something about the 10.4.5 to 10.4.6 update I think) and tried it out. So far, it appears to be working. The description of the problem even sounds plausible (corrupted password cache).

See Testing out a wifi fix for a possible fix.

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Answer 12

Oct 12, 2006 5:08 AM in response to Lincoln Ramsay

Nope. If it's something to do with a corrupted password cache, then it's getting corrupted again because after working fine yesterday, my wireless is dropping out again today.

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Answer 13

SunSparc

Level 1

45 points

Oct 31, 2006 7:54 PM in response to Jef Murphy

I wanted to post to this discussion simply to report that I am experiencing the same thing. It really only seemed to be consistent with advent of 10.4.8 on my MBP.

Since reading this thread I have disabled my IPv6 to see if that does anything.

Also, since reading above about constant traffic helping the situation I have noticed that I have not had a drop yet this evening and I am streaming music to my machine from the network.

Thanks for the information. Here is hoping that those amazing Apple Developers will quickly find us a fix.

Jonathan

MacBook Pro 15" Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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Answer 14

Tekjnke

Level 2

186 points

Nov 1, 2006 8:53 AM in response to T-Square

I am responding to this post to state that I have similar issues with my wireless dropping, or simply not connecting.

I have MBP 15" 2GHz Core Duo (not the new one) with 2GB of RAM.

This is my work computer and since our work is in the field I find I constantly have to restart my laptop at every job in order to get it to connect to the wireless.

The only offer I can get from Apple is to take my laptop for 4-weeks to repair it, but that will put me out of work. So I am stuck.

Will be interested if someone finds a fix, as Apple won't I am sure.

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Answer 15

Nov 5, 2006 6:20 PM in response to T-Square

Don't know if this will help but it improved my wifi:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304482

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