Airport dropping wireless connection under Leopard

H

Hippo Man

Hippo Man
I'm running Leopard on my MacBook Pro. For around a year, I've been accessing the internet wirelessly via AirPort. This is a WPA2 connection. In general, this works fine, but lately I've been noticing that once or twice a day, the wireless connection goes down, and I have to manually tell it to reconnect, sometimes several times in a row, before I can reestablish the connection.

I know that the problem is not related to my wireless router (a WRT54G), because I have other devices (a Linux box and a handheld) which use this same router and never lose the wireless connection, even during the times when my Mac's connection has been dropped.

I'm not 100-percent certain, but it looks like the AirPort connection might be dropping when other wireless networks in the vicinty start broadcasting and are first noticed by my machine.

My system is completely up to date with Apple updates.

I'm hoping that this might be some sort of known problem with a known fix.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
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Well, apparently, this is a known problem under most releases of Leopard, except the original 10.5 (I forgot to mention that mine is 10.5.5). After much searching on the net, it looks like the fix that works the best for the most people is to downgrade back to 10.5.

That's not an option for me, and so I tried a number of other suggestions. This resource is an excellent (!!!) place for finding these suggestions and getting general information about this issue:

http://installingcats.com/2008/06/06/airport-wireless-connection-drops-on-leopard-10-5-2/

They originally talk about 10.5.2, but over time, they work their way up to 10.5.5.

In my case, I changed the channel from 6 to 11, and so far, so good. However, I haven't run for long enough to really be sure, as this problem seems to come up only once or twice a day.

Well, time will tell.

By the way, the general consensus on line seems to be that the Apple Support people are next to useless concerning this problem. Person after person has described being told that these WiFi problems are unheard-of under Leopard (not true), or they are given simple-minded, technically unsophisticated suggestions which don't fix the problem. And worst of all, lots of people are told by the Apple Support people that they (the Apple techs) don't read the online forums concerning issues like these!

Anyway, I guess this means that we're mostly on our own when it comes to solving these kinds of WiFi problems under Leopard.

Oh well ... (sigh)
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Update: well, it turns out that this fix didn't work. My MacBook Pro lost its WiFi connection yesterday in the same way that this has occurred previously. It took me several reconnect attempts before Leopard's Airport software could successfully re-establish the connection.

At the same time, my Linux box and my handheld never lost their WiFi connections to the same router.

This is really getting to be a PITA.
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Well have you trouble shot the connection? Does the Mac see any other networks or just the one you trying to connect to? Did you reset the Airport software in OS X by some of these steps? :

1. Go to the folder /YourHardDrive/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and put the file com.apple.airport.preferences.plist . Then immediately reboot then rebuild your wireless connection.

2. Go to the folder /YourHardDrive/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/ and delete the files com.apple.internetconfig.plist , com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist & com.apple.internetconnect.plist. Reboot.

3. reset your Pram

Good luck because Linksys IMHO hates OS X machines.
 
Thanks for your reply and your suggestions. :)
Satcomer said:
Well have you trouble shot the connection? Does the Mac see any other networks or just the one you trying to connect to? Did you reset the Airport software in OS X by some of these steps? :
Click to expand...

The Mac indeed sees a number of other WiFi networks in the vicinity. As for trouble-shooting, I have done almost everything I could think of and that I found described on the net. Read on ...

Satcomer said:
1. Go to the folder /YourHardDrive/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ and put the file com.apple.airport.preferences.plist . Then immediately reboot then rebuild your wireless connection.
Click to expand...
Yes, I have already done that ... actually, I've done it two or three times already.

Satcomer said:
2. Go to the folder /YourHardDrive/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/ and delete the files com.apple.internetconfig.plist , com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist & com.apple.internetconnect.plist. Reboot.

3. reset your Pram
Click to expand...
These two I haven't done yet. I'll try that a little later and then come back after a couple days to report my results (this problem only shows up once or twice a day, so I can't be confident about this problem really being fixed until I give it a few days).

Satcomer said:
Good luck because Linksys IMHO hates OS X machines.
Click to expand...
Well, I would word that the other way: that OS X hates Linksys. I say this because my Linksys router works fine with Linux, with Windows (both XP and Vista), with my Nokia handheld, and with two different Blackberry handhelds. This implies that OS X has one or more anomalies that cause it to deviate from the norm w/r/t WiFi.

Thanks again. I'll be back.
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I have the same problem. I have a Belkin wireless router with two MacBook Pros, an iMac, a Playstation, a wireless music system and an iPhone all connected to the network. Everything works fine except the iMac which is forever dropping the internet connection and/or the network connection. Sometimes it will not reconnect even when the computer is restarted. This problem only ever occurs on the iMac. All are running OSX 10.5.5. I have tried different routers but the problem persists. If I connect via cable there is no problem, other than a very long length of cable around the house to trip over.

There are other wireless networks nearby, but they do not affect anything else.

I have tried the solutions here and I agree, Apple seem to have no idea what the problem is ...... or are not saying. I will not buy a new router unless there is a guarantee that it will work.

If anyone knows the solution please pass it on, because there is a serious chance of nice new iMac going out the window.

As always, thanks to everyone who posts here, it has helped me many times.
 
One last hint. A long time ago I noticed that in System Preferences->Network the location was set to 'Automatic' on my Airport card connection. I switched it to a custom location (I called it 'Home') and all my connection issues went away. This might help someone if they try the same thing.
 
Some people report that disabling IPv6 in the Network pane of the System Preferences helps, as some routers choke on IPv6 packets, and Apple, in all their "forward-thinkingness," enable IPv6 by default.

It's worth a try!
 
I have deleted all the locations frequently and started with a new one but that makes no difference either. I have not disabled the IPv6 before but have done so now to see if that makes a difference.

Thanks
 
Disabling the IPv6 makes absolutely no difference.

On further research of the Apple discussion groups this is quite a common problem and the only two consistent things are OSX and the Apple products themselves. This would suggest it is either a problem with OSX or with the Airport cards as other computers on the same networks, Apple or PC, work fine.
The difference on my iMac is that it still has the original but updated OS on it, whereas on the others I have at some point done a clean install. That is my next task but there is a lot to back up first. There are also many instances on the forums where Time Machine backups have not been available after a reinstall, so I will not take the risk.
If anyone has any comments before I get that far they will be appreciated as always.
Thanks
 
My wife and I each have an Intel Core Duo iMac (bought only last Christmas). They live side by side in the same room about 30 ft from our Airport Base Station (Dome shaped). Mine runs 10.5.5, my wife's is still on 10.5.4. Since I updated to 10.5.5 I have been experiencing very frequent drops in my Airport signal - sometimes every few minutes, though I can't be really sure if the problem started when I updated or later, while my wife's 10.5.4 iMac has no more than the ocassional drop out - hardly ever, in fact.

I have thought of re-installing the OS, but this seems a little drastic.

In view of the fact that my wife's iMac, sitting right next to mine, has little or no problem, is the solution likely to be simply changing channels or is something else likely to be wrong?
 
I have just done a clean reinstall on the iMac and guess what. As soon as it was updated to 10.5.5 it started dropping out again. Up to that point it was fine. Unless anyone can convince me otherwise that is the problem. What I don't understand is why it only affects some computers.

I tried switching channels but that made no difference.
 
For me this may have been the fix... fingers still crossed. I have a PowerBook G4 currently running on OS 10.5.5. Ever since I upgraded from Tiger to Leopard a few weeks ago I’ve had horrible problems with my Airport connection. Although the Airport icon in the menu bar always shows a strong connection, and the Network Diagnostics utility reports that I am successfully connected to the internet, my connection was dropping dozens of times day. It’s been incredibly frustrating. Today I found myself on the phone with my service provider’s tech support (AT&T) and after an hour of troubleshooting, the guy did something that so far seems to have been the miracle cure. Apparently Leopard is most compatible with the wireless signal “N.” And my several-year-old 2WIRE router was giving a signal compatible with both “B” and “G.” N is the most recent protocol, and G is the second most recent. So he isolated my router, from his end, to give off a G signal only. No more outdated B. (Since my router is older, setting it to give off the N signal was not an option.) I hope I am not speaking too soon, but my connection has not dropped since… and considering how bad it was, this is really significant. I hope this helps others out there who are having the same maddening problem.
 
I have followed your suggestion and reconfigured my router (a Linksys WRT54GL) to only use the G-level protocol. It used to be set to automatically use either B or G.

It's now been running for around 24 hours without AirPort dropping the connection. I want to wait several more days to be sure, but its stability for a full day is rare, and this is a good sign.

I'm cautiously optimistic that this is the solution to the problem. I'll report back next week with my final assessment.

Thank you!
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Happy Holidays to everyone,

I purchased my MacBook Pro [2.4 GHz, 200GB HD, 4 GB Ram) 5 months ago with Leopard running natively. Since its purchase, I've been accessing the internet wirelessly via AirPort at local via WiFi hotspots as needed. No alternate configurations have been needed on any open networks and no problems were present prior to the 10.5.5 patch. In a nutshell, this computer works fine on a given WiFi connection, but since the patch the wireless connection goes down, and I have to manually tell it to reconnect, sometimes several times, never gaining a consistent connection. This tends to occur when other PC users are in the same room [close proximity] and are using Lime-wire or any program requiring absorbent amounts of bandwidth. To clarify, my connection completely disappears, while theirs stay consistent regardless of things being uploaded/downloaded.

The problem is not related to any unique wireless router or hardware, because I have perfect harmony when other computers are not nearby and never lose the wireless connection under that precept, even during the times when my Mac's bandwidth requirements are extreme.

I have a theory, but want a program to help me study this behavior. Can someone please make a valid proposal. I surmise for my scenario, that the AirPort connection might be dropping when other wireless computers in the vicinty start broadcasting/connecting. This signal output could be confusing the Mac, thus the attempt to relocate to a closer signal source. Other computers in close proximity may also being causing the signal to change from the wireless router to fit their operating needs. I want to be able to read when a signal changes, the type/strength of any source transmitter, and determine its general location with a tracking ability [radar display], to localize the anomaly.

As with Hippo Man's system, mine is completely up to date with Apple updates.

I'm not against other users using free connections in any way shape or form. This problem seems to only occur when others are in close proximity, ie. 10 - 15 ft.

Kind regards, and Seasons Greetings!
 
Holocron09 said:
I have a theory, but want a program to help me study this behavior. Can someone please make a valid proposal. I surmise for my scenario, that the AirPort connection might be dropping when other wireless computers in the vicinty start broadcasting/connecting. This signal output could be confusing the Mac, thus the attempt to relocate to a closer signal source. Other computers in close proximity may also being causing the signal to change from the wireless router to fit their operating needs. I want to be able to read when a signal changes, the type/strength of any source transmitter, and determine its general location with a tracking ability [radar display], to localize the anomaly.
Click to expand...
I agree with your theory.

After forcing my router to only use the G-level protocol, the problem started occurring with less frequency, but it's still happening. My guess is that there are fewer G-level broadcasters in my vicinity to interfere, so that the problem doesn't happen as often.
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