MacBook Special Report: Wireless (AirPort) dropouts -- fixes

Some users are noticing increased wireless signal strength from the MacBook relative to previous Apple notebooks. Unfortunately, a number of users are also reporting more frequent disconnects.

Interestingly, the same users are reporting a lack of similar disconnects when using Windows XP under Boot Camp on MacBooks, indicating potential AirPort software (driver, etc.) issues.

MacFixIt reader Paul writes:

"At least with my router the MacBook will not keep a connection for more than 2 minutes.

"I have a trusty Linksys WRT54G 802.11g wireless router and booster with the latest rev of the Satori firmware that I use throughout my house as a WAP-secured access point. I have absolutely no problem with my router on my 12" PowerBook, Dual G5, Roku music server, ThinkPad laptop, and a friend's Dell laptop. I was able to enter my WAP key to connect to my router from the MacBook without issue, and it showed much stronger signal strength than my PowerBook. But after two minutes or so it disconnected without warning. The interesting thing is that my network still shows available in the menubar list, and I can reconnect to it immediately if I manually select it from the menubar. But over time (generally 2 minutes or less) it will just spontaneously disconnect and not reconnect, even though it sees the access point.

"I have tried numerous settings to no avail, including enabling/disabling the Airport interface, rebooting, enabling/disabling Interface Robustness, changing Airport settings to 'Keep Looking for Recent Networks', 'Automatically connect to Preferred Networks', deleting then re-establishing my network settings, recycling the power on the router, and even changing the router broadcast channel (funny that I'm the only router in my area that has changed from the default channel 6, so I'm not colliding with other networks)."

Many users have reported that the connection does not drop when the MacBook is connected to AC power, but does drop when running only from battery power.

As such, it appears that the dropouts are somehow related to a power conservation feature in Mac OS X that is active only when the unit is run exclusively from battery power.

Some users have found that entering the following command in the Terminal then pressing return:

• ping -i 10 foo.com

allows the connection to remain active. This command results in a network ping being repeatedly sent. Note that the Terminal window with this command must remain open in order for the ping to be persistent.

MacFixIt reader Eric Bostrom writes:

"My setup is 2x wrt54g in WDS using sveasoft alchemy1. While plugged into AC it doesn't drop connection at all but on battery, it does. Keeping a terminal window open with ping running will maintain the connection, so that?s the solution I've been using till it's fixed."

If you are still experiencing frequent AirPort dropouts/disconencts with a MacBook, you may want to explore some of the suggestions listed in our tutorial "Improving AirPort reception, avoiding dropouts/lost connectivity, working around card/Base station recognition issues".

Index:

• Do-it-yourself hard drive replacement instructions
• Excessive heat: Usage notes, cooling pads and more
• Final Cut Express is supported by GMA 950 chipset
• Irritating noises; eliminating
• Keyboard suddenly stops working
• Matched RAM pairs can come from different manufacturers
• Poor speaker output: Software-based workarounds
• Projector issues
• Release notes
• Sudden shutdowns -- possible fix
• Trackpad button "mushy", not registering clicks -- solutions
• Vertical lines appear on screen during startup
• Wireless (AirPort) dropouts -- fixes

Resources