Mac OS X 10.4.5 Special Report: AirPort issues: Problems joining; spontaneous disconnects

by CNET staff March 3, 2006 2:52 PM PST

Problems automatically joining AirPort networks -- fix Some users have reported recurrence of an old issue under Mac OS X 10.4.5 -- the inability to automatically join AirPort networks after waking from sleep, starting up or first turning the AirPort card on.

One MacFixIt reader writes:

"I purchased the new Intel iMac. After the Mac OS X 10.4.5 update my AirPort Express will not join my wireless network automatically. I can go to the AirPort icon and manually join but who wants to do this when it was joining automatically before the update.

Solution -- deleting AirPort keychain entry Many users are able to resolve this issue by deleting the AirPort keychain entry.

This can be accomplished by opening the "Keychain Access" application, located in Applications/Utilities.

In the upper left corner, navigate to the "System" set of keychains. Delete the afflicted AirPort network keychain entries, then re-establish a connection to the network, re-entering authentication information.

Spontaneous disconnects We've also had a few reports from readers who have issues with AirPort networks spontaneously disconnecting or exhibiting other issues since the update to Mac OS X 10.4.5.

MacFixIt reader Emiliano Severoni writes:

"I updated to 10.4.5 the same day Apple released it. No problems until now: I usually stay connected to the internet 24 hours a day, last night I found that my connection was lost. Airport seemed to work fine, my ADSL modem lights showed connection, but I couldn't use anything: no mail, no Safari, and so on, they worked like my Mac was disconnected from the internet. I solved the problem by deactivating and then reactivating airport. But the problem reappeared again a couple of hours later."

The workaround Emiliano used -- turning AirPort off then back on -- is one of the many solutions for this issue listed in our tutorial "Improving AirPort reception, avoiding dropouts/lost connectivity, working around card/Base station recognition issues."

Disabling IPv6 also works to resolve an issue with frequent AirPort Express streaming dropouts that occur after the update.

One reader writes:

"The Mac OS X 10.4.5 update caused an annoying problem to appear - when streaming music to an airport express, the music would pause every 10 seconds making it unusable. Just letting you know that disabling IPV6 fixed this problem. (I was streaming from a 2.0GHz iMac Core Duo)."

In order to change this setting, open System Preferences and click on your currently used interface (Ethernet, AirPort, etc.). Click on the TCP/IP settings for the interface -- at the bottom if you see a button which says 'Configure IPv6...' click that and set it to "Off." Press the Apply Now button.

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