Filed under: OS, Software, Internet Tools, Troubleshooting
Apple issues support doc for wonky AirPort performance on Intel Macs
Sketchy AirPort performance has been bugging me for weeks, probably over a month now, and I've been going through all forms of troubleshooting with my AirPort Express trying to squash the issue, but to no avail. My MacBook and iMac drop their Wi-Fi connection seemingly at random, sometimes right in the middle of Unreal online, and never regain it unless I manually re-select the network. I've been following the typical methods of changing channels on the APE, reducing range and using Interference Robustness - but it's all been for naught.Now, Apple has released a support document that might provide a solution for those like me who are experiencing less-than-stellar AirPort reliability and connectivity with their Intel Macs. The document specifies that these issues are related to the use of WPA2 and upgrading to 10.4.8, and I can't offer any feedback just yet as to whether my problem has been solved, but this doc is at least a step in a troubleshooting direction other than 'pull out more hair.' Feel free to share your experiences and any solutions in the comments.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Maf54 said 10:12AM on 10-03-2006
You'll probably want to edit "Skethy", and it should be "all been for nought".
Sorry to be a pedant, I was going to let the first one go, but two makes me twitch !!
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Patrick McCarron said 10:31AM on 10-03-2006
This was the exact problem I was having! It sure was darn annoying, but I thought it was my router. I'll try this once I get home.
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Alex said 10:57AM on 10-03-2006
I have have drops like you describe with a powerbook G4 1.25 and two different (different models) DLink access points. Very randomly the connection drops. I may go for weeks without this happening. I can reset the AP and it will reconnect or I can reset the airport card by disabling and enabling it and it will reconnect. Sounds somewhat similar to the problem you describe. This problem has existed for me previous to 10.4.8.
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mungler said 10:53AM on 10-03-2006
It should be 'naught'.
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Jon said 11:06AM on 10-03-2006
I remember that at times, my PowerBook wouldn't see the network or would time out, and if I fired up my Windows laptop I could connect with no problems. I think Airport's needed an update for a while.
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Steve said 11:11AM on 10-03-2006
I have these problems under 10.4.8, and without WPA2. Dropped out about 5 times already today. The connection just goes away.
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bfp said 12:20PM on 10-03-2006
this article seems to be WPA2 and possible 10.4.6 specific - I've had this as a long running problem on 2 MacBooks since day 1 (there are numerous unanswered threads in the apple discussion forums that mostly relate to wireless voodoo-type solutions).
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vonjos said 11:29AM on 10-03-2006
This is mostly due to the WPA and other WIFI encryption schemes that apple has implemented as the norms were published.
The best I found for no drop at all is the following :
- uncheck "SSID broadcasting" : so no one will know your network name
- don't encrypt anything (no wep, no wpa)
- allow only the MAC address of your computer to connect to this network : it's the airport ID of your network card (something like ab:cd:ef:xx:00:00)
- if your router allows it, it's better to assign a static permanent IP address to your MAC so your mac won't ask every 10s "who am I ?"
So wanabe pirates will have first to find your wifi network name, but then will be blocked because only your allowed computers can connect. Since there are so many open wifi networks out there they'll just go to the next one without bothering with yours.
I guarantee no drops at all !!
If not I'll send you 10 billion $ in cash :-)
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Dave Zaffrann said 11:28AM on 10-03-2006
Sweet jesus I hope this works. My problem has been different though - my iMac (1/06 mint) doesn't drop my APE network, it just spins its wheels. I try to load pages and the status wheel keeps spinning, and the pages often load but very, very slowly.
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Iiro Jppinen said 11:38AM on 10-03-2006
I think I fixed my issues by first Removing the all the servers in the Airport settings list, and after that removing all wireless server passwords from Keychain.
After that I restarted and re-entered my password. Haven't had a disconnection since (50 minutes)!
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Tony said 11:52AM on 10-03-2006
I haven't experienced drops or unreliability with my Intel iMac, but I do have a different issue: If I ever reboot, OS X says it can't find any of my preferred networks, and connects to nothing. However, the networks are listed in the Airport menu item, and all I have to do is select one and I'm all set. For some reason, though, it won't connect automatically on reboot...no matter what I try.
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Ben said 11:54AM on 10-03-2006
This is such great news! I thought I was alone in this issue. But now I'm just glad to know that others are in the same boat as me.
BTW, the problem isn't limited to Intel Macs. I have PowerMac G5 and this has been happening for the last three months.
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Tony said 9:38PM on 10-03-2006
Nevermind my previous comment. That's exactly what the support dock (which I just read) is about. (But not what most previous comments seem to be about...) I really should finish my coffee before posting...
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TreoTime said 12:18PM on 10-03-2006
I was having all sorts of wifi issues with my airport express and intel imac. The connection would just crap out and sometimes multiple reboots would not even solve the issue. After days of messing with stuff, I enabled "Interference Robustness" on both my iMac and in the base station options... and lo and behold problem solved.
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John P. said 12:42PM on 10-03-2006
I was having trouble with an Intel mini, and it was related to IPX - it seems the Netgear router - specifically MR814v2 - has trouble accepting Airport connections (ie, it won't) when a Windows box is connected via a cable and IPX is enabled.
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Hajis said 1:00PM on 10-03-2006
to #8. Slight flaw in your plan there.
"allow only the MAC address of your computer to connect to this network : it's the airport ID of your network card (something like ab:cd:ef:xx:00:00)"
Hacker simply sniffs for mac addresses flying past of allowed machines, and soft configures his machine to be one of those addresses.
I'm not saying this works for you, but it sure works for me. ;-)
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Aron T said 1:16PM on 10-03-2006
to #16, Hajis: Slight flaw in your plan too...
Two nodes cannot occupy the same MAC on a network. The only way it works is if the node's MAC you are spoofing also disconnects from the network.
That means a wardriver is going to have to sit and wait to sniff out a MAC and then wait for that MAC to sign off just to get access!
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William said 1:14PM on 10-03-2006
I have a similar problem here. Each time I reboot my MacBook Pro I also have to reboot my wi-fi router, if I don't do that, after a few minutes the MPB will drop the connection.
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Patrick said 1:20PM on 10-03-2006
Funny ... but the move to 10.4.8 seemed to rectify the problem for me. MBP15, and I was having much flakiness under 10.4.7, and everything's been quite peachy since I upgraded to 10.4.8. Maybe there's just weirdness out there ...
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Mark D. said 1:46PM on 10-03-2006
Well I tried this anyways, even though I use WEP. I normally can go several hours in OS X on my MBP without disconnecting (XP is fine) but when it does disconnect it's always at the worst times so I figure it is well worth the shot.
A an aside, I had noticed these wireless issues always seem encyption-related, as using my old college wifi network never yielded a singal drop. It could also be my router, as my old laptop used to disconnect on occasion, though it'd reconnect automatically instead of doing nothing.
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