Shop RadioShack for Great Gifts
October 8, 2009 10:06 AM PDT
AirPort dropouts in Snow Leopard
Many users have been finding that under Snow Leopard they are having dropouts while using wireless internet via AirPort. Most users report that other non-Mac machines on the same network have no issues connecting using wireless and all wired connections are fine.
Apple Support Discussions user "Torn Barb" reports:
I have a MBP with SL installed, ATT U-verse with a 2-Wire wireless router. I've had no problems with my connection until the update to SL. My pings are good, MBP hardlined in works with no issues. I have a server hardlined, gaming console hardlined, no issues. I've checked all my settings on the MBP and nothing that I see is set to cause the network drops. Same goes for the 2-Wire. I did some test by setting up my Linksys wireless router, the MBP continued to drop the signal.
Other users echo the problems "Torn Barb" has seen. After a series of failed troubleshooting attempts "Torn Barb" reported a solution that seems to have worked:
Changes made:I did some more research and contacted a few of my network friends about the issue and they have stated that Snow Leopard is having issues with auto channel on certain routers. Not saying that Snow is having issues with auto channel or WEP vs. WPA all the time, just certain routers.
- Turned off auto channel and made a dedicated one [choose a single channel (i.e., 3 or 9)]
- Changed my network [security] to WPA
Other troubleshooting tips for networks include:
- Delete unused locations from your Locations list (System Preferences > Network > Location > Edit Locations)
- Delete unused networks from your Preferred Networks list. Be sure your home network is first on the list. To delete networks, click the Advanced... button in the Network System Preferences. Highlight a network and click the minus (-) button. You can click and drag networks to reorder them in the list.
Experiencing issues, have questions, want to let us know about an issue we should report on? Email Us!
Joe is a seasoned Mac veteran with years of experience on the platform. He reports on Macs, iPods, iPhones and anything else Apple sells. Before joining CNET, he even worked in Apple's retail stores. He's also a creative professional who knows how to use a Mac to get the job done.
In my neighbourhood alone there are inconsiderate a**holes who erect wireless networks with no consideration as to what other people use as their channel. The auto-channel just doesn't work - if it did, my router wouldn't be sharing a channel with 2 other routers in the area.
I'd use Channel 13 if I could but thanks to Dell's crappiness, I can't :(
Btw, who is using WEP? do you want your computer hacked and personal information stolen?
Upgrading to 10.6.1 and restoring 10.6.0 didn't help. My local Mac technicians were unable to identify any problem so I ordered a new Airport card. This did not solve the problem at the shop but when I brought my computer home, miraculously there was no dropout! Certain that the problem had been resolved, I upgraded SN to 10.6.1. Big mistake! Now my Airport cannot even detect nearby wireless routers
I reinstalled 10.6.0 and ran Disk Utility which verified that my files were fine. Still no connection.
My network security is WPA local. I have deleted any unused locations and unused networks.
My technical experts say the problem could be the logic board and I should wait until 10.6.2 to see if it resolves the problem or buy a new computer. Any better suggestions?
What I ended up doing was flashing my TimeCapsule (1GB, though I doubt that makes any difference), loading an earlier version of 10.6, then reloading the newest 10.6.1 patch. All Better.
Hope this helps.
-S
What I ended up doing was flashing my TimeCapsule (2 month old, 1GB, though I doubt that makes any difference), loading an earlier version of 10.5 (printer worked fine on Leopard wired or wireless), I then upgraded to 10.6 again, followed by a download of the newest 10.6.1 patch. All Better.
Hope this helps.
-Steve
From the start, I had the network set to a specific channel and WPA security.
I wound up taking the computer in to the AppleStore and they wound up (after one false start) doing a Snow L reinstall. I?m not convinced that the problem?s gone, but I?m keeping my fingers crossed.
One thing that the reinstall did is clear out all my locations and my preferred networks, so my two preferred networks are now my home and workplace. We?ll see.
Upgraded to Snow Leopard and the problems started. Upgraded the firmware on my Belkin G router; helped for a day. Struggled with various other attempts to solve the problem. Finally bought an Airport Extreme; that made the situation slightly better.
Meanwhile, throughout this ordeal my wife's Dell laprtop and the Dell laptop issued by my job worked perfectly. I still have a problem with my MB and the Dell's still work perfectly.
Remind me again why I spend extra to buy Macs.
-
by kaspar77
December 1, 2009 2:35 PM PST
- same here. deeply regret switching to SL just to get a bit faster (stupid as the 8 cores are idle anyhow).
-
Like this
Reply to this comment
-
(17 Comments)I have two airport express that provide cover for my house. For years did not have a problem with that setup and a macbook, iTouch, iPhone, a macpro, an old sony notebook as well as countless visitors. But since SL upgrade the connection throughput (I use menumeters) often drops to zero and Safari tells me it cannot find the server although it just browsed fine! The funny bit is that sometimes a download in Safari continues while any new connection fails and iChat etc. drop the connection. Weird! I also noticed that the express station starts flashing amber and then goes back to green every once in a while... like it was confused by SL.
Switching airport on and off in the menu normally gets a bit of life back into the story but on a bad day I have to do it every 5 minutes.
I tried the channels plus I switched from no encryption to WPA2 both to no avail. I also checked interference robustness but again no success. Most macs are now on fixed IP which seems not to help either.
I'll try the location delete and preference file stuff but cannot express enough how very disappointed I am with Apple!!!
PS> oh yes, the samsung CL 300 printer does not work any longer. never really did cooperate well with the airport :-((