Wifi problem since 10.11.2

I think we can all agree on the following data:

- Problem is network dropouts for a long period (90 secs). WiFi stays up, but IP connectivity lost to router.

- IP DHCP Renew or turning WiFi On/Off instantly fixes

- Problem started with El Capitan. Does not occur on Yosemite.

- Problem is definitely software, not hardware. Happens with many (but not all) WiFi router models.

- Apparently only happens on 2.4Ghz wireless. 5Ghz is immune.

- Problem only happens with Apple embedded radio.

- Using an external USB adapter (e.g. TN-Link) on 2.4Ghz has no problems.

But the way, I've been using 10.11.5 for a few hours now. I have to say I haven't had the drop out since, but I'm not holding my breath.

-Larry

This is what Duane's network looks like (graphic from WiFi explorer):

(click to enlarge)

Duane is an Engineer, and he steered his Router to squeeze his data in between two standard channels. It works for him.

If you were one of his neighbors, trying to talk through that crowed mess, your Wi-Fi might sometimes disconnect.

Rubbish. No amount of WiFi interference should cause the link to plain go down for 90 secs. This is a El Capitan driver bug.

Makes no difference if it's 2.4 or 5ghz, I'm on 5ghz (Channel 149) and still get dropouts, just takes longer for it to happen in terms of uptime.

If I reboot the mac each day, then I don't see the problem, but if I sleep it each day, it normally starts getting bad on about day 5-7.

And I have really good signal strength

That info is good. I see the noise varies quite a bit. I wonder how the noise compares to someone who has Yosemite (with no issues) just to see what difference there might be. Here is what mine shows:

Maybe this can help.

From what we know:

it doesn't just happen with Mac Book Pros

Some people (like me) have resolved the issue by resetting the router (after an ASUS update) to factory settings and then putting my info back in.

For some users It happens after several days of uptime (of off and on going to sleep)

For others it just happens all the time.

Running into the same problem in 10.11.5. So back to my TN-Link Nano 150 adapter for reliable WiFi until Apple can release a working driver for their own radio. I'm thinking they're writing off fixing this, and we'll have to cross our fingers that a totally new/working driver will come in MacOS 10.12.

larrycooke1207

You have a good strong signal, but your Router appears to have backed off from the maximum data rate posable on that channel (36). This makes me suspicious that you AND a neighbor both have your Routers manually on channel 36.

Be sure your Router channel selection is set to "automatic" so that when it powers up, your Router will choose the least-busy channel.

My early 2015 13" Retina MBP keeps dropping the WiFi signal on 10.11.5 both on 2,4GHZ and 5GHz networks. Both at home and at the office. It's a complete pain in the ***…

Mon May 23 17:55:00.475 Unexpected payload found for message 9, dataLen 0
Mon May 23 17:55:03.202 Unexpected payload found for message 9, dataLen 0
Mon May 23 17:55:03.273 Setting BTCoex Config: enable_2G:1, profile_2g:0, enable_5G:1, profile_5G:0
Mon May 23 18:00:22.692 AirPort_Brcm43xx::syncPowerState: WWEN[disabled]
Mon May 23 18:00:22.718 _handleLinkEvent: Got an error trying to query WiFi for power. Resetting state variables.
Mon May 23 18:00:24.321 Setting BTCoex Config: enable_2G:1, profile_2g:0, enable_5G:1, profile_5G:0
Mon May 23 18:00:24.787 Unexpected payload found for message 9, dataLen 0

My networks are named "Numenor" and "Numenor5GHz".

Let's hope for a fix in OSX.12.

I see you are using a TP Link router. I had nothing but issues with this brand for home wifi -- though it works great for our wired network 48 port switch. Does your computer have issues with the ASUS wireless? We have several Macs (Windows 7 has distance issues, 2010 iMac, 2012 27" iMac, 2 Airs and 2 Pros) running wireless on our ASUS routers (ASUS has firmware updates regularly) and have have issues with being disconnected with 10.11. But I did have wireless problems with Mavericks with the TPLink and that's when I bought the ASUS routers. Perhaps there are updates for the TP Link?

The issue I had a while back with El Capitan and wireless was awful speeds, but that was resolved with resetting the router after an update.

To clarify, I used a TN-Link 150 Nano USB client adapter to fix the problem, not a TN-Link router. I'm using a Motorola SBG6580 802.11n Cable Router.

I also did some error message research, and there is some suspicion that this problem may be do with an 802.11d World Mode incompatibility. However Mac OS 10.11 has no settings to alter 802.11d world mode, and neither does my router. So can't do much on that front.

Maybe this will give others a lead on some ideas though.

Enable the 802.11d feature/option if you are operating in one of these "additional regulatory domains". These are anything other than Americas or FCC, Europe or ETSI, Japan, China, Israel, Singapore, Taiwan.^[1]

As of January 1, 2015, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission banned the use of 802.11d within the U.S.^[2]

from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11d-2001

.

El Capitan - OS X 11.6ß : wifi 802.11n still doesn't work.

larrycooke1207 wrote:

To clarify, I used a TN-Link 150 Nano USB client adapter to fix the problem, not a TN-Link router. I'm using a Motorola SBG6580 802.11n Cable Router.

I also did some error message research, and there is some suspicion that this problem may be do with an 802.11d World Mode incompatibility. However Mac OS 10.11 has no settings to alter 802.11d world mode, and neither does my router. So can't do much on that front.

Maybe this will give others a lead on some ideas though.

Hi, I have been watching the issues for some time now (months) and my wifi was not working until I found that changing the radio mode to 802.11g solved the problem. I always had the console open and 802.11d was popping up and I never understood why, after the larrycooke1207 I started to investigate and Boom! I set my Airport Express to my country code and 2 days pass by and no driver crash with 802.11n enabled. So after months I think I solved my wifi problem.

Just to add some info, I was getting package error, maybe the wifi after sometime was using a frequency that was not supposed to, so the need to reset everything. Other days I was seeing country code as 'X0' when the wifi was turning on again after a crash.

If anything happens here, I will send updates.

Used El Capitan since the first beta. Kept using it even with the wifi problem. Tried all the suggestions. Two weeks ago a clean install. After a few days the wifi problem was back.

I have a MacBook Retina late 2013. Airport Extreme router. Wifi problem on 2.4 and 5Ghz.

Yesterday did a 'downgrade' to Yosemite.

I will keep following this thread to see if Apple solved this software issue and I dare to 'upgrade' again to 10.11.