Filed under: Wireless, Bad Apple
Another potential fix for Intel Mac + Airport station problems
If you're using an Intel Mac with any of Apple's AirPort base stations, you might have noticed some 'less than stellar' performance after updating to 10.4.8, as well as wonky connection problems that Apple tried issuing a support doc for. As an owner of both a MacBook and an Intel Core 2 Duo iMac, I can personally vouch that Apple's doc has a ways to go before it solves this most frustrating of wireless problems.While troubleshooting this issue over the weekend, I came across a few new threads at Apple's discussion forums for AirPort and, more specific to my setup, the AirPort Express. In particular, this AirPort Express-related thread contains some theories and potential solutions from other users in a similar boat. Being that it is now Wednesday, I'm happy to say one of them seems to be working well for me so far, though your mileage may obviously vary. Here's a rundown of my personal setup and the remedy that's bringing some sanity back to my wireless world: typically, I roll with WPA2 Personal security, and since these sketchy connection issues began I've been playing with settings like Interference Robustness and adjusting my APE's (AirPort Express) channel, etc., but to no avail.
As it turns out, users in these forums are beginning to suspect wireless security (at least WPA, not sure about WEP, which seems to be making the ill-advised list these days anyway) as part of the problem, so I simply reset my station with no security. For the past three days, this setup has been working like a charm, though it's understandable if no security simply isn't an option for some users. To help keep our network to ourselves, I turned on 'Create a closed network' in the AirPort tab of the AirPort Admin Utility (that's Apple-speak for "hide SSID"), which simply meant I had to type in my network's name manually from the AirPort menubar item - but you should only have to do this once.
Again, YMMV, but there are a few potential solutions in Apple's discussion forums for these increasingly frustrating AirPort connectivity issues. Let's hope we don't have to keep jury-rigging our base stations for long, and Apple can issue a fix so the "it just works" reputation can actually apply to these things again.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
John from Buffalo said 8:54AM on 11-08-2006
MacBook Core 2 Duo models annouced. It's on the opening page.
Reply
nggalai said 9:11AM on 11-08-2006
I found WPA and WPA2 flaky on my MBP when using my Zyxel WLAN Router. Sometimes, it would work for hours on end, other times, it would disconnect every five minutes or so. Changing encryption to WEP solved all problems for me, but is a bad fix. WEP is so easily broken it's not even funny. But still, it's a TAD better than running with NO encryption at all. You'll gain at least two minutes on hackers that way ...
But then, who would hack a private WLAN with no corporate data on it?
Reply
barks said 10:21AM on 11-08-2006
I too noticed slower response times after updating to 10.4.8. What finally solved the problem for me was hard coding my ISP's DNS addresses into my network connection. Things are back to normal now.
Reply
Turk said 11:50AM on 11-08-2006
Hiding the SSID is not really a security feature. There are still various tools out there that will get the SSID from your AirPort. The wireless network even still shows up with scanning tools.
Reply
Mike Piontek said 12:41PM on 11-08-2006
I had quite a few wireless problems with my Intel Mac after upgrading to 10.4.8. I switched from WPA to WEP and it has been working perfectly since. Hopefully the WPA problems will be fixed soon.
Reply
Mark D. said 1:18PM on 11-08-2006
I've been using WEP and having connection issues, similar to nggalai's experiences. On other open networks though I'd never experience it. I may try disabling WEP is see if it's the Netgear router or if it's using encryption.
Another thing you could do, if you want to restrict access but use an open network, would be to restrict access to only certain MAC addresses. Though I'm sure somebody could spoof their way past this, it would prevent the common wifi leecher from hopping on if they happened to see your network.
Reply
loren said 1:49PM on 11-08-2006
Note this isn't just an airport problem. Check out the networking forums in the MBP support forums and you'll see a lot of people having this or similar issues with all kinds of routers. I had to go out and buy a new router to get a reliable secure connection with my new MBP C2D.. but it's still sort of flakey and pops in and out. See this thread for lot more info:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3473263�
Reply
Floodo1 said 5:56PM on 11-08-2006
you do realize that without security anyone can sniff ALL of your packets. You're effectively broadcasting all of your internet traffic to the world.
I hope you at LEAST have MAC (address) security going on so you dont have a wide open access point for people to pirate your internet.
Reply
kdmaster said 2:01AM on 11-09-2006
my macbook pro 17inch shows a little internet sharing icon(arrow on top of the airport radar) and my internet is cut off even though i dont share anything.and the only way to fix it is to restart
Reply
Mark Patenaude said 7:47PM on 11-09-2006
I have a new MBP C2D. I share my DSL internet hooked into the Ethernet over the MBP's airport using internet sharing with my other macs in the house. All computers can use internet, but file sharing is more difficult. The older macs with older airport cards (PB G3, iBook G3, PM G4) list all computers on the network in the finder window's network volume. The iMac 24 C2D only sees the MBP and the MBP does not see any of the others. I can connect to the others and share files if I use the Finder's Go menu to connect to server and type in the others IP address. But this is not reliable. If I use the PB G3 as the router, internet and file sharing works perfectly on all macs. I have been working with an Applecare hardware specialist on this for a week and have yet to resolve the issue. I think there are some hardware or firmware issues, but Apple does not agree.
Reply
Matt Harlum said 3:31AM on 11-13-2006
My Wireless at home uses WPA2 Enterprise with EAP username/password challenge and i have had no issue with connectivity on my macbook.
some machines ship with the Atheros (a/b/g) while others ship with the broadcom that seems to have draft-n support.
I have the atheros and no issues.
Reply
rudi van Drunen said 4:23PM on 12-31-2006
I see the followin gproblem: I can easily connect to a WPA personal
AP with my old powerbook, while the new mbpro C2D I got keeps
telling that the password I use is the wrong one.
VERY strange indeed, I expected apple to have these things solved
before putting a new piece of hardware (ie. wireless card) in their
machines.
Quite annoying !
Rudi
Reply
Scott Francis said 1:16PM on 1-21-2007
Hi,
I'm just now reading this article and have been having the same problems with my March 2006 Intel Mini (1.66 GHz).
I looked around the site to see if you'd posted a follow up to this post. I couldn't find one so I'm hoping you can answer this question: Now that you've had some more time to try it, has disabling WPA2 continued to work for you?
I've looked everywhere for insight on this issue and your two posts about it are the most reliable info I've found. Much thanks.
Reply