Wireless Problems with new Unibody MBP

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Dnovelta

Registered
I have the new 15" MBP and it's having some incredibly annoying wireless problems.

It all started the day I got it (wonderful right?). The machine couldn't hold a stable connection via Airport. The indicator in the menu bar was totally black indicating a strong signal, but when I opened FF3 or Safari I got a blank page. Sometimes I'd get a stable connection but nothing more than a few minutes and then it would fall out again. I would monitor it using a ping (pinging Google if that adds anything).

I finally changed the radio mode on my Airport Extreme Base Station to 5Ghz 802.11 N-only. At the beginning my connection was still shaky but if memory serves me correctly I just left my laptop alone (can't remember if I shut it down or put it to sleep or just left it on) but the next day it was holding a fast and stable connection.

Then about two days ago (meaning 2-3 days of strong stability) I decided to install a Keynote update and a digital camera compatibility update via Software Update. I was prompted to re-boot which I did and then I was back to the old wireless problems.

Now I'm not sure what to do anymore. I'm probably going to just go to the Apple store near me and request they repair it by replacing the Airport card at a very least. I'm definitely covered by the 1-year warranty, I'd just rather not have to give it up after only little over a week of having it.

In any case, any help is welcome.

Thanks.

If you need any more information please ask and I'll answer to the best of my ability.
 
First, click Interference Robustness and see if that works. How did you set up your router? Hopefully you have its firewall active? If not, turn it on NOW. Hopefully you have a password too.

If that doesn't work, go to apple menu and Location and create a location. Set up your wireless again there and name it MY WIRELESS or something you can remember. I find "Automatic" can get confused and log you into other, stronger, and unsecured networks without telling you.
 
Ok, I'll do the Interference Robustness. Exactly what do you mean by how? What are it's configurations or physically how did I set it up? If you mean the latter, I connected it to my previous MBP (earl '08) via Ethernet and set it up like that. It's got the WAP2 Password, uses DHCP.

I don't think I've got the firewall activated on the AEBS, how do I do that?

Just tried everything (except firewall) and nothing worked. I've reverted back to 5Ghz N-only for now.
 
Get your user manual for your router to turn on firewall. Usually you log in to administer it by using http://192.168.1.1 in a web browser (as you mentioned you set it up by connecting with ethernet first to the router).

Go to your Security settings in the router once you log in and turn on firewall.

As for broadcasting, have it broadcast on all frequencies, b, g, and n so you can use any of them. Might help.
 
Broadcasting in N-only has been the only frequency to work so far. That address you gave me doesn't lead me anywhere. I'll go find my manual somewhere, but I'm using an Airport Extreme Base Station, not sure if that helps at all.
 
Yes that's my machine. I tried the address you gave me on our iMac (connected via wireless no problem) and my MBP (the one with problems) via Ethernet and both came up with nothing. I'll try the new one and take a look at the manual.

I suppose setting up a new network won't be so hard and everything should work out the same.
 
Ok, I *sort of* set up a new network, but not really. Nothing has happened.

If it helps, if I leave the computer alone and just run a ping (to Google) it can go for hours and days. Last night I left my laptop on, and in the morning I saw it had 50k+ consecutive pings. Minutes after I decide to open FF3 and load Google, the ping goes dead and I've no internet access.

Sometimes running the Network Diagnostic gets things up and running again, but for only a few minutes if I'm lucky. The same happens if I turn Airport off and then back on again - a few seconds or minutes of access and then nothing.
 
Try a real ping in a Terminal window: ping -c4. If you get four packets sent and received, you're good. If not, something's not right with your connection.

Strange that it works for your pc but not your mac...can your mac connect to other wireless networks besides your home one?
 
All our machines are Macs.

When you say a "real ping" as in ping Google via the Terminal as opposed to Network Utility? I'll do that.
 
Just to settle any confusion: Airport base stations are not configured through a browser web page, as most other routers may be.
The Airport Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) is the right choice for Airport base station settings.
 
Dnovelta said:
All our machines are Macs.

When you say a "real ping" as in ping Google via the Terminal as opposed to Network Utility? I'll do that.
Click to expand...

When you go to http://www.google.com you're not "pinging" google. You're going to the web page.

When you ping from terminal you're sending test packets across your connection to see if they are sent and returned successfully. Looks like you can ping from Network Utility, but you'd want to ping your router, not a website, to first make sure your connect to the outside world is working, and how effective it is.

I recommend pinging from terminal to see how far your packets are getting, and how many, out of four, get lost using the code I gave you. You'll see it test four packets and you'll either get 0% "packet loss" or 100%.
 
DeltaMac said:
Just to settle any confusion: Airport base stations are not configured through a browser web page, as most other routers may be.
The Airport Utility (in your Applications/Utilities folder) is the right choice for Airport base station settings.
Click to expand...

I didn't know that at first but we definitely did figure that one out.
 
Alright, what I did was open Airport Utility, and find the IP address (I assumed that was the IP of my router). I then went into Network Utility and pinged the IP address (10.0.1.1).

I just got thee results and it came back with a 100% packet loss. It's odd because I am seeing a solid Airport indicator in my menu bar, but it makes sense. I can't connect to any of the other Macs in our house; iMac or other MBP. When I connect via Ethernet it works fine that way.

Is this something I could actually fix, or is a new Airport card needed?
 
Might be the card. If you can't use the internet at, say, a free wifi hotspot, you probably have a bad wireless card.
 
Yeah, I'm going to try and bring in my MBP to the nearest Apple store because they've got Wifi in there. If it holds then we'll know its my AEBS, it not then it's the card.
 
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