Airport random disconnect

It may be an environment issue in that this latest Airport update broke compatibility with 95% of the routers on the market.

That assertion is just plain wrong.

While some people are having issues, the vast majority are not.

As always, if you are having issues, the only way to get it resolved will be to open a ticket with AppleCare so they can track down which routers may be problematic.

I've had nothing but trouble-free connections since at least 2007-002, so the problem is certainly not universal.

I am not convinced this is a HW issue. I have a 1st Gen MBP for which the wireless LAN was ALWAYS flawless everywhere I went.

I regularly perform the Apple security and other updates and somewhere along the line mine started to do the same thing.

The symptom is that suddenly the wireless single is just GONE. I have to turn the airport off leave it off about 10 seconds and turn it back on. About 75% of the time this will cause it to come back online.

This kind of behavior might be HW if something is overheating but more likely in my mind is something in SW or FW.

Again my MBP never had wireless connection drop issues. Now it does. The unit is babied, I run the fans fast to keep it cool. Never been dropped or abused.

So I'm pointing my finger at some software or firmware update that happened over the last few months.

M

The problem with taking it into Apple is that it doesn't disconnect on a regular basis. It is not like I can count down the time to a disconnect.

I have ruled out router and environment because they both worked perfectly for a very long time. My WAP is an industrial brand with about twice the signal output of a cheap LinkSys. This unit works tri-band. Never had an issue with it on ANY system until now.

I also have an Airport Express. Even the connection with that now drops from time to time.

Simply put I think the person that said:

A recent update has broken compatibility with 95% of the routers out there

may be closer than we think to the source of this issue.

I'm sure there are those with faulty wireless cards. And sure mine could go faulty. But the fact that it is exhibiting the same behavior as others describe here tells me that is likely not the case.

Ditto here. MBP cruising along with airport express network then bam, no internet connection. Turn off the airport card in the computer, then back on, and I have an internet connection again.

Happens randomly, twice in the last 10 minutes just trying to get into this forum to see if others are having an issue.

Seems that there are quite a few people out there with this problem, including myself; mine's exactly as in the previous post. Many posts but no solution, has anyone heard for anything to solve this issue yet? It is getting really annoying having to restart the airport every now and then! Who's with me?!

I had the same problem on my MBP.
The only way I could stay connected was by using the AC adpater.

I would suggest using your software update and getting the latest Airport update.

It did the trick for me.
Good Luck.
Neil

I'm as updated as Apple is ready to make me, and there's no difference between AC adapter or not.

The thing is, I don't remember this being an issue when I first got the machine with 10.4.8 installed on it. I'm betting one of these friggin' security updates is to blame. Only because it's convenient to point in that direction.

Same problem with MBP 2.4 GHz and Airport extreme router (1st generation). Another iBook on same wireless network is fine. Network performance is very slow and the laptop drops its wireless connection as frequently as every 10 minutes.

So what can it be? Faulty Airport Extreme card? Firmware updates, is there anything newer than the 1.9.3 (not sure about the digits)?

this is a repost from another forum just so you guys have the same info. i notice no difference plugged in or battery. but it's messed up for sure

yeah i'm having the same problem. i have 3 homes (don't ask) in one i have a mac extreme n router, in another a netgear n and in the third linksys n, the powerbook drops the connection after about 10 minutes, whether i am running n only or a,b,g,n. If i switch into vista with bootcamp and my connection at all three places is flawless all day, i am writing this post in vista.

i called apple support (i have applecare) they had me try the thing mentioned above. then they had me repair permissions, do the pram thing and the safeboot thing, also reapply the wireless patch none of it helped. interestingly i have a macbook that does exactly the same thing. however my kids g4 ibooks work perfectly. so it is def. an intel mac problem and not a router problem

i have been on the phone with them for about 3 hours total. if anyone has a fix i'm desperate (vista runs very hot, and well, it's vista so i cant use a lot of my stuff).

i am about to spring for macdrive for vista so i can access my media. but it's 79 dollars i dont want to spend because of something apple has done wrong. sorry for the rant

****! Im having the same issue. Got a new MBP Intel middle of July. I have an older Aiport Extreme and it worked fine until a couple weeks ago and I've been ignoring the issue hoping it would be fixed or "go" away. Nope. The internet is unusable, except for maybe 2 minutes then the connection drops and the browser freezes.

My MBP has developed the same problem. Happens at work and at home. Other computers on Wifi work fine. But here's one interesting thing I noticed:

I have an Airport Extreme (UFO) with a server connected to the local ethernet, and I never lose connectivity to it. When the MBP is having one of the episodes, I can still ping the server but I can't ping the base station. It makes no sense to me, since the communication has to go through the Airport to get to the server.

I have a 2.0 ghz G5 PowerPC connected via airport card and it works fine. Always. No drops, no hiccups. Nothing. Like I said the Mac Book Pro was all good till like four weeks ago when it became completely unusable. This blows.

when i ping apple.com and my macbook pro is having an issue i get about 50% lost packets. applecare said this wasn't relevent, but when things are fine i get no lost packets

ps i posted this in osx and got kicked off almost immediately so i had to switch back to vista. it's virtually humiliating to have to use vista.

Message was edited by: Kraftworks Adv Neil Kraft

I've started to have this problem as well. I'm using a Linksys WRT54GL with DDWRT v23 SP2 as the router and I disconnect randomly aswell. I'm around 10 ft from the router through a wall. This has never happened to me in the 8 months I've had my.. only recently has this problem started occuring.

It gets really annoying >.<