Deleted WiFi interface

Question

ShayW00 Author

Level 1

18 points

Deleted WiFi interface

macOS Sierra 10.12.3

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010)

2,4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

I'm not good with laptops, but this is my last resort. I have found nothing online that has helped with my situation.

My laptop showed "Turn WiFi on" on my toolbar. Went into System Preferences and couldn't turn it on with the "connect" button. I decided to restart the computer, and when I did I also selected yes to updating my software. When I got back into my computer, the WiFi on my toolbar read "No hardware installed".

Read a post that said I needed to make WiFi inactive, then restart the computer. I did this several times to no avail. Then I read a post that said I needed to delete the Wifi from Network in System Preferences then restart the computer.

I did this and now when I go to add something in the Network, it doesn't show Wifi as an Interface. Only Bluetooth PAN, FireWire, Ethernet, VPN, PPPoE and 6to4.

I have also repaired my hard disk through Recovery Mode (there was a corrupted file), shut down several times, reset PRAM/NVRAM and SMC, restarted Mac and held N. What else can I try at this point?

Mac Pro

Posted on Mar 27, 2017 4:09 AM

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Answer 1

Tesserax

Level 10

157,854 points

Mar 27, 2017 8:25 AM in response to ShayW00

Please try the following:

Open a Terminal session. The Terminal application is located in /Applications/Utilities.
At the Terminal command prompt, enter: ifconfig -a
Locate the network interface that is giving you trouble. (Note: en1 = AirPort)
Look to see if Terminal indicates the problematic interface is not enabled. (Note: Enabled = flags: UP, status: active)
If not enabled, enter: sudo ifconfig en1 inet up
At the command prompt, enter: ifconfig -a
Verify that the problematic interface is now active and various network interface related data should now be listed.

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Answer 2

ShayW00 Author

Level 1

18 points

Mar 27, 2017 5:46 AM in response to anonyme4321

That's the problem I have; I no longer have WiFi as an interface to even add.

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Answer 3

ShayW00 Author

Level 1

18 points

Mar 27, 2017 7:42 AM in response to anonyme4321

I have tried that as well - in the downtime that I was waiting for a reply. I went into my Library and deleted 5 items - com.apple.airport.preferences.plist

- com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration.plist

- com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist

- NetworkInterfaces.plist

- preferences.plist

Then I restarted my computer and still - the same issue. I can't add WiFi as an interface.

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