Wifi turns off at home, works great at work

Question

Level 1

9 points

Wifi turns off at home, works great at work

When I start up my Macbook Pro at home, it does not find the wifi network, and the wifi actually turns off and I cannot turn it back on. Occasionally, my laptop tells me I don't have any wifi hardware installed! However, I have tried the Macbook at other locations, where it works fine. Other devices at home also work fine. Why would one wifi location cause problems only on my machine, but other locations work perfectly? This just started happening a week ago, but I didn't change anything on my laptop or my wifi set-up. Ethernet works at home.

I've read about deleting preference files, plist files, etc., but don't want to delete all of them when the problem is only on one network.

I have reset the SMC and the NVRAM. I also went into Network Preferences, Advanced, and deleted the name of this network, then restarted. It worked for about 30 minutes, then the wifi turned off again.

I have a 15 inch, mid-2010 Macbook Pro, running El Capitan 10.11.3.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 10, 2016 10:23 PM

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Answer 1

jeffd55

Community Specialist

Feb 12, 2016 8:31 AM in response to Eric R

Hello Eric,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

I see that you are having issues with your computer connecting to your home Wi-Fi network. I would recommend taking a look at the following article to get started troubleshooting the issue:

OS X El Capitan: Solve problems connecting to the Internet

Best regards.

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Answer 2

Eric R Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 13, 2016 1:08 PM in response to jeffd55

Hi

I can't run Network Diagnostics on my WiFi at home, because the WiFi on my MacBook won't turn on! However, it works when I'm at other locations! Also, if I use an Ethernet cable at home, I have no problems, and other devices (including an iPhone and iPad) have no problem with my WiFi at home. So, I know the wireless router and my Internet connection are fine--it just seems to be the particular combination of my MacBook and my home Wifi.

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Answer 3

K Shaffer

Level 7

34,960 points

Feb 13, 2016 1:39 PM in response to Eric R

Have you tried to set up another Location, for your MacBook wireless, to use at home?

A specific location can be created to test. Any settings usually would be system-wide,

so something is amiss in how the internet is set up in your Mac. In some instances a

second user account (you'd log into) could be helpful to resolve other kinds of issues

however with the wi-fi, your locations and some other details are shared in most cases.

• How to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity in OS X Lion or earlier / and later - Apple Support

The above ^ is a lengthy article & has other links within it. And that will take time to test this.

A short list run-down or general things to check, can be glossed over in these useful article:

http://osxdaily.com/2009/12/22/mac-wireless-problems-guide-to-troubleshooting-ai rport-wireless-problems-on-your-mac/

http://www.macworld.com/article/2027960/configuring-your-macs-network-settings.h tml

Wireless encryption and settings may be weaker for a public or other location, how is your

own wireless base station setting for this at home? Do you have a double firewall in Mac?

• Mac Basics: Connecting your Mac to the Internet - Apple Support

• Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points - Apple Support

You could try and use a manual IP address, (perhaps in a new saved Location) to test the

access of your home wi-fi. Something as simple as 'trusted networks' can mess you up.

(I would not have a portable set to trust or automatically connect to outside sources.)

Did you try to see if a test using iPhone as personal hot-spot could work for the MacBook?

Anyway, hopefully you can try and troubleshoot the issues of the settings, and be able to

use some of the utilities in the computer to help solve this issue.

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

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Answer 4

Feb 13, 2016 1:57 PM in response to Eric R

Hi Eric R,

Make sure that your laptop is not using a Static IP Address. If you can connect to the internet at work no problem but not at home, then this is indicative of you having a static IP address. Typically, if your home network is different than your work network, operating on separate LAN Subnets, AND your machine has a static IP Address on your work subnet, then this would be different than your home network, which would prevent you from connecting to the Internet because your home router is only communicating with devices that are part of "Its" subnet class. For example, your home network may be operating on a subnet that's 192.168.1.X while your work network is 10.1.10.X. Therefore, if a static IP Address is set on your laptop and is configured for your work subnet 10.1.10.X then it would be impossible for you to join your home network that's operating on 192.168.1.X.

There are a few dependencies and components that needs to be in place in order for your machine to connect to the internet. First, you need a modem that's provided to you by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and is provided it's own Private Public IP Address. Secondly, you need a router that can distribute all devices on a Local Area Network (LAN) or (WLAN) an IP Address that's configured for it's local subnet (typically 192.168.1.X). This is called Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. This is needed so your router knows how to route the Internet traffic TO your laptop FROM the Internet AND vice versa.

I've seen many instances where issues like these are caused from a static IP Address.

Here is what you can do to attempt correcting the issue or checking to make sure you DO NOT have a static IP Address:

1. Goto Preferences > Network

2. Select your Wireless Network Interface > Ensure that you are "Using DHCP" in the "Configure IPv4" section.

Also, to do some further testing, try inserting an Ethernet cable from your Router to your laptop. See if you can get Internet connectivity if you are hard-wired into the network. If you are unable to get Internet by using an Ethernet cable, then there may be bigger issues occurring.

Without logs, it would be impossible to determine what's causing the issue. But try these methods that I've outlined for you and see if any of them provide a resolution. Post back with your results.

Thanks,

Mark

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Answer 5

Eric R Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 18, 2016 8:33 PM in response to Eric R

Update:

Still no luck. In fact, the problem is happening more often.

Here’s what I have tried:

1. creating new locations

2. get rid of wi-fi from a location and adding back in (sometimes cannot do this because my hardware isn't always recognized)

3. reset NVRAM and SMC

4. made sure that I do have a dynamic IP

5. tried everything on the list at http://osxdaily.com/2009/12/22/mac-wireless-problems-guide-to-troubleshooting-ai rport-wireless-problems-on-your-mac/

(BTW, internet works fine with ethernet cable plugged n.)

Here’s what I find when I do “About This Mac.” (However, there are times my computer says I have no wifi hardware installed, and that “en1” card is no longer on the list below.

Software Versions:

CoreWLAN: 11.0 (1101.20)

CoreWLANKit: 11.0 (1101.20)

Menu Extra: 11.0 (1110.33)

System Information: 11.0 (1100.1)

IO80211 Family: 11.1 (1110.26)

Diagnostics: 5.1 (510.88)

AirPort Utility: 6.3.6 (636.5)

Interfaces:

en1:

Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x93)

Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.106.98.100.24)

MAC Address: 90:27:e4:e9:39:27

Locale: FCC

Country Code: US

Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44,

48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 100, 104, 108, 112, 116, 120, 124, 128,

132, 136, 140, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165

Wake On Wireless: Supported

AirDrop: Supported

Status: Off

I am not able to turn the wifi on, once it is off. Occasionally, restarting the laptop gets it to work (at least for a while).

I didn’t think this would be a hardware issue, because, at first, it only happened on my home network. Now that it’s happening sometimes on other networks, I’m beginning to wonder. Is there a way to test the airport card?

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