As much as I love my MacBook Air, it's had one issue in particular recently that has been pretty annoying: it drops wireless network connections seemingly at random intervals and for no particular reason. Not all wireless connections, though, just some and again, with no discernible pattern of access point or type of connection. For example, it works on my home Airport network flawlessly, but with some public Wi-Fi networks, it has a problem. Case in point: I was at a local coffee shop near my house recently that provides free WiFi. Given that the WiFi was free and only had a WEP password, it should have been a simple matter to connect and enjoy the benefits of free Internet access. After being told the WEP password, I was able to enter it, click "Save this password to the Keychain," sign on to the wireless network and was off and surfing. Unfortunately, my wireless connection was short-lived as after only a few minutes, the connection dropped, leaving me with nothing.
Not knowing the exact nature of the problem, I connected again by selecting the network SSID in my list of available networks which show up in the Airport menu on the top right of the screen. When I selected the network, I was again prompted for the password I had just entered a few minutes ago and had, as I remembered distinctly, clicked that I wanted the Keychain to remember.
After having to do that, I used the network again and after a few more minutes, the connection dropped. Being the stubborn and somewhat tech-savvy person I am, I decided to test this out a few more times to see if I could figure out the exact nature of the problem and, more to the point, find a fix for it. After connecting and being dropped several more times, it finally dawned on me that I was being asked for the password to the wireless network every time I had to sign on, even though I had checked the box to remember the password in the Keychain.
Obviously, something wasn't right and, given this new development, that something just might be the Keychain. This led me next to the "Keychain Access" utility located in the Utilities Folder on my MBA. Once I had launched the "Keychain Access" utility I took a look at the list of stored passwords and found the one associated with the SSID of the wireless network I had been trying to connect to.
Having had problems with the Keychain before over the years, I decided to try something as simple as running "Keychain First Aid" to see if that would remedy the situation. Selecting it from the "Keychain Access" menu I ran it to see if it could identify any problems and fix them. Unfortunately, it found nothing. This result was a bit discouraging and made me start to wonder if I was on the right track.
However, I wasn't quite ready to abandon my theory just yet. So, right-clicking on the Keychain entry for the wireless network SSID that was giving me problems and selecting "Get Info" I decided to take a look at the "Access Control" settings for this particular Keychain item to see if something there might be the culprit.
Once the window had opened I saw that the Keychain item was set to "Confirm before allowing access." Normally, at least in my experience, once you decide to remember a password, this setting is changed and instead "Allow all Applications to Access this Item" is selected. So, following that logic, I selected the "Allow all Applications" check box, confirmed by entering my admin password, closed the "Keychain Access" utility and tried connecting to the wireless connection again.
I'm happy to report that I was able to join the wireless network and the connection remained stable for almost 45 minutes before I had to disconnect and leave. So, at least for me, I would call this particular "fix" a success. I'm not sure if the Access Control Keychain setting was somehow changed by the 10.5.2 update to Leopard, but this wireless issue did seem to coincide with that update -- at least in my case. Or, it may just be an issue particular to the MBA and one that Apple will address in a future software update.
It might also have been some other recent "Security Update" that caused the change its settings. There's no way to be sure as I usually don't spend much time poking through my list of stored Keychain passwords. Although, given this new development, perhaps I should.
Of course, not all Macs, network configurations, routers and situations are exactly same, but if you happen to be experiencing a similar issue, this is something you can easily try and see if it fixes it for you. Who knows, this simple fix could save you a lot of headaches. It did for me. If you do try it, hit us back in the comments and let us know if it works for you.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
2-25-2008 @ 8:09AM
Rob said...
It is not just the MacBook Air. Many Macs have had wireless connection problems. (ie strong connections dropped at random). This has been happening way before 10.5.2 so I think it is too early to blame 10.5.2.
Make sure you file a bug report with Apple. www.apple.com/feedback
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2-25-2008 @ 5:42PM
PSM said...
My MBP has been having all kinds of different wireless issues, at least since Leopard, maybe even one of the later Tiger updates. Some of them seem to have gotten better with recent updates, but just today I had to restart my router when I woke my computer from sleep. So I came to TUAW because I saw the post about fixing Airport disconnect problems. Unfortunately there's no password for this router, so that can't be it.
2-25-2008 @ 8:24AM
Phil said...
Hi all.
Well this problem isn't quiet new and I think it appeared with Leopard first release. I've had roughly the same problem on an iBook G4 everytime I put it to sleep and back on after reseting the PMU. The fix so far was to delete the entry in Keychain access.
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2-25-2008 @ 8:45AM
Gregg said...
I think this is an Apple WiFi issued across the board. I'm having a server not found issue on my iphone once a month, with WiFi only. If I switch to edge it works fine.
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2-25-2008 @ 8:50AM
Nick L said...
As said, this isn't just macbook air. My ibook 12 G4 does this. Bizarrely, my ibook 14 G4 is as stable as anything...
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2-25-2008 @ 8:55AM
Mo said...
Interestingly, I appear to have two different Keychain entries for my office network: one in the System keychain, and one in the login keychain (the former presumably allows the Mac to connect to the network before I log in).
Rather than being empty, my “Always allow access by these applications:” list contains “SystemUIServer” (in /System/Library/CoreServices) and “airport” (in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/).
Meanwhile, the same entry in my login keychain allows access to System Preferences, “airportd”, and “AirPort”. I don't know what the latter is, but airportd lives in /usr/libexec.
I've only had occasional problems under 10.5.2 (though significantly more than previous Mac OS X versions), and it's probably significant that I upgraded from Tiger—as my Keychain entries would have been migrated over.
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2-25-2008 @ 9:01AM
phi said...
all my macs were wreaking havoc on my crappy DSL modem/Router (Westell 327w) and even my neighbor's wireless router. I finally gave up and went out and bought a Linksys router and hooked that up to my crappy old wired DSL modem. I blame this both on Apple and Verizon. Apple's 10.5.2 update has been a mess in terms of their wifi "upgrade." And Verizon's crappy firmware updates can't help the fact that their Wireless Router/DSL Modems stink. I wish one of them would give me a refund for not just the new router I had to buy but all the wasted time and effort I put in, troubleshooting my own problem (seeing how spending hours on customer support provided very little help)
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2-25-2008 @ 9:03AM
Robert said...
I'm not sure how big (if any) a security hole that leaves, but I think you are covering up for a different issue.
I checked my keychain as you described at it was set to "Prompt.." as yours was initially.
However...and this is a big however...there were two programs listed as exceptions to always have access to the keychain.
Those two programs were:
AirPort
SystemUIServer
My guess is that you could add those two programs manually and then leave your keychain set to "Prompt..."
Now the question is, why weren't those two programs listed as exceptions to begin with.
Please note that I did NOT test this on a MBA, so if all MBAs are having this issue then it is less an issue of 10.5.2 and more a matter of something specific to the device.
Hope this helps....
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2-25-2008 @ 9:40AM
Jono said...
I've had this problem for as long as I've had a Mac with AirPort.
I'll give this a try & see how it goes.
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2-25-2008 @ 10:41AM
kurt.tappe said...
You shouldn't have had this problem at all. I've been using Macs for 20 years and AirPorts for 8 (since the release of the original graphite model) and I have *never* had this problem. Do not put up with it--fix it. :-)
2-25-2008 @ 9:46AM
yo said...
I've been having a similar (?) problem with POP-ing into my Yahoo! account in Mail.app. This problem is well documented all over the apple support forums but there's no fix to my knowledge.
Every once in a while, for no reason I can discern, Mail prompts me for the password for my Yahoo! account. I type it in, tell it to store it in the keychain, and go from there. But then it'll ask me again. Seemingly random, definitely only intermittent.
Anyway, I'm trying this for the yahoo mail password - let's see what happens...
Thanks!
-yo
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2-25-2008 @ 11:14AM
Mo said...
Mail.app has a problem whereby it can treat any kind of failure during the authentication phase as a failure to authenticate, thus causing the re-prompt (i.e., it doesn't check WHAT went wrong, it just cares about WHEN).
2-25-2008 @ 9:48AM
Chris Nixon said...
OOOOH! That might just fix the problem I've been having. Thanks for your efforts!
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2-25-2008 @ 10:02AM
Big John said...
Chris,
Do you sync keychains to .Mac? I've had huge problems with this since I got my Air and wondering if this is related in any way.
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2-25-2008 @ 2:00PM
Charlie said...
My Air has just the same problem.....
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2-25-2008 @ 3:36PM
TC said...
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Chris!
You did it! You fixed my computer!
I had exactly the same problem with my MacBook on my University's 802.1x network. I could connect to any other network I wanted, but my campus access was gone after the update to 10.5.2. This fixed it.
This is great, but now I have no excuse for not doing my research...
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2-28-2008 @ 7:44PM
BV said...
Thanks for this, but it didn't fix the problem. There IS a problem it fixed, that the version of the OS on the MBA means something different by "remember" when talking about a network. But, the MBA still looses it's WiFi connection frequently, although this does allow it to log back in without asking you.
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3-02-2008 @ 12:03PM
John Martin said...
I had the same problem with a MacBook Air dropping wireless sporadically to my Netgear wireless router (WGT 624v2).
After reading some other blog entries, the solution for me was to open a terminal window and issue a ping command to the router, which I left running (ping -i 5 10.0.0.1). This has been working for 24hours now with no problems.
Not a fix but what seems like a reasonable workaround at least.
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3-07-2008 @ 1:12PM
jsu said...
Macs are known (at least by me) to drop idle WEP connections.
If you change your WiFI security to WPA or WPA2, you won't have these sorts of issues anymore.
3-07-2008 @ 9:14PM
Toby said...
My new Macbook is depressing. I cant get Wi-Fi signals like my old 6 year G4 Powerbook. I travel a lot and sometimes I need wireless without permission. I have done this for years now, but I bought a Macbook less than a week ago and here I am writing on my G4 while my white Macbook stares at me. My Macbook even has trouble with reception at my home. I am not a tech man, so I feel a little lost right now with this problem. Mac support couldnt even help me and the Genius Bar person couldnt help either. Got any suggestions other than lowering myself to a PC?
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