MacBook Air slow to connect to Wifi

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Level 1

28 points

MacBook Air slow to connect to Wifi

Hi,

I have a 13" MacBook Air with MacOS Sierra. Whenever it comes up from suspend it takes 10-20 sec to connect to Wifi. I have other devices and computers such as iPhones, iPads, and laptops, they all connect to the same Wifi in 2-3 sec. I just did the test of switching Wifi off and back on at optimal reception: iPhone 2sec, MacBook Air 15sec.

The macbook also loses wifi connection at random times, and takes the same long time to reconnect.

I have a Netgear N600 dual-band router that exposes both bands in separate networks, and a TP-Link range extender for the 300Mbps band. I also have Xfinity wifi. The network preferences are shared among devices in Keychain. There are usually 5-10 Wifi networks visible (Neighbors, etc) at my home. All other devices seem to work fine with this setup.

I tried the "Assist Me" in Network Preferences, but it just reports that the network is fine since it eventually joins.

Do you know what could cause this? I'm about to buy newer Wifi routers because of this, but I hesitate since all other devices have no problem except for the most expensive Wifi-device in the house, the macbook.

Are there any low-level diagnostics that could tell me what the Mac is trying to do in these 10-20sec?

Thanks,

Alex

MacBook Air, macOS Sierra (10.12.2), 13" 8GB

Posted on Jan 14, 2017 9:33 AM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

158,202 points

Jan 14, 2017 11:05 AM in response to yougoyugo2

What isn't clear in your post is the total number of Wi-Fi networks (wireless networks with different SSIDs) that your home network is providing? I already understand that there are numerous others provided by your neighbors.

To initially connect to a wireless network, your MacBook Air will review settings in System Preferences > Network > Location AND the Preferred Network Order. Based on what it finds, it will attempt to connect to that network first. That might be what could be "going on" during those 10-20 seconds.

By default, there is a single network location, called: Automatic. It is comprised of all available network connection types (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Firewire, etc.) to the MacBook Air. You can create new "Locations" that only include the connection type(s) you actually need at that location. For example at your home, you may only need the Wi-Fi connection. Regardless, when there are more than one connection entry, the Mac will attempt to connect starting with the top-most entry in the list.

As far as Preferred Network Order, you can find what that currently is by doing the following:

With "Automatic" selected for Location, select the Wi-Fi connection in the Network Preferences sidebar.
Click on "Advanced."
Select the Wi-Fi tab.
A list of networks that your Mac has connected to in the past should now appear.
You now have a few choices:
- Select and drag to the top your preferred Wi-Fi network that you want your Mac to connect to, if it is not there already, and
- Delete any / all other networks that you seldom / never use.

Are there any low-level diagnostics that could tell me what the Mac is trying to do in these 10-20sec?

Not exactly sure what you mean by "low-level," but if you mean that you would like to "see" what your Mac is doing over the network when communicating to a wireless network, then something like Wireshark can be used to capture the data traffic. Otherwise, OS X or macOS does log numerous events that can be reviewed.

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