I'm about sick of the wireless issues in El Capitan

Question

I'm about sick of the wireless issues in El Capitan

Now before I type this I had the EXACT same issues with my 11" Macbook Air and now they are occurring on my 15" Macbook Pro Retina, so it's not the hardware it is an OS issue because wireless worked fine on Snow Leopard and then started occurring on Mavericks and continued on El Capitan.

The wireless cuts out on my Macbook Pro constantly...it shows as connected, but then you will lose the ability to connect to websites, email, etc..and the only way to bring it back is to turn wireless off and back on. If it gets too bad then I have to do the old SMC controller reset (turn off laptop, then shift+ctrl+option+power for five seconds, then power back up) which fixes the issues for a day or two and then it happens all over again. My other devices (iPhone, iPad) don't have this issue and are always connected to wireless without an issue.

As I said I had the same issues on my Macbook Air and thought maybe the Macbook Pro would be different but obviously it hasn't been remedied in Mavericks or El Capitan. I certainly hope that Sierra fixes this once and for all because I know there are a lot of other people in the same boat as I am. I love my Mac and you'd have to saw my arm off to get me to get a Windows laptop.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), null

Posted on Aug 16, 2016 1:30 PM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

85,366 points

Aug 16, 2016 4:19 PM in response to Locutus of Apple

You may just have a faulty wireless router, or be in a place where wireless waves overlap and cancel each other out.

Also note, with each new operating system, the specs may change on wireless technology, forcing the wireless router company to issue a firmware update to keep up to date. Even Apple's own Airport Base Stations get firmware updates from time to time.

I would look at my FAQ* closely to see if one of these issues that has been common since Tiger may be affecting you:

http://www.macmaps.com/WIFI1048.html

I have a new machine with 10.11.2, an old machine with 10.10.4, and several other Macs with a variety of operating systems running on my Actiontek Verizon FiOS router without issue. So clearly the right firmware and router settings can make a difference.

* Links to my pages may give me compensation.

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Answer 2

Aug 16, 2016 5:20 PM in response to a brody

Good advice, but the wireless router is fine it's an Airport Extreme. If I have a faulty router then I wouldn't be able to connect using my iPhone or iPad and neither of them has issues with the wireless. Also the router is up to date with the latest firmware (I'm an IT guy I covered all the bases before posting here).

The network is running on 802.11ac as well operating on 5GHz band. If the Macbook pro is dropping wireless and I'm sitting with the iPad and iPhone using wireless just fine in the same spot it's not the wireless.

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