OSX WiFi
Archives Forums/MacOS X Discussion/OSX WiFi
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| Does anyone else have problems with Mac Mini WiFi on OSX Snow Leopard, here it drops randomly and takes ages to do anything sometimes. Other times its fine and works for ages. |
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| Try putting your router on a different channel. Some routers (notably, the BT ones) use an automatic channel select by default, so if that's the case, stick it on a fixed channel. Mine's on channel 3. |
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| Hey I see you change [TEAMS] ;) Me, no. Download KisMac (free) and see if you're getting any interference. |
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| 3rd vote for the router. My mini's been fine, but many routers have many problems and not always with all devices or at consistent times etc. Wifi can be a nightmare to debug. |
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| I have the same issue. I can connect with virtually anything (cell phone, Wii, Win XP, Vista and Seven) to the router but my macbook keeps dropping the connection. I tried just about everything I could find, and nothing works. The only thing that made it work was changing the router to WPA2 (or not using any encription at all), instead of WPA - but then, it stopped working on everything else. There are literally TONS of messages on the internet about this issue... and Apple does absolutely nothing. If I was to use this in my day-to-day computing (thanks God I'm not) I would be really, relly mad with something like that. Last edited 2011 |
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| Not defending the issue, but if you're using WPA you might as well not be using anything (the password can be sniffed with free software in seconds assuming even light network traffic...). What router(s) are you using? Does it only have issues with your home router or in other places (library, etc.) too? Wifi is inherently sketchy as well, does it happen regardless of where the router and computer are? An inch can make all the difference in the world sometimes... Last edited 2011 |
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| I think you mean WEP. WPA is a fair bit harder harder to sniff and WPA2 is quite secure. Last edited 2011 |
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| bah, yes, misread, apologies. Come to think of it I've never actually used WPA(1), seems like it got leapfrogged by WPA2 so fast I never bumped into a config running it... |
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| I've experienced OS X WiFi connection drops in the past. The problem disappeared when I bought a TP-Link router and installed DD-WRT (a Linux distribution for wireless routers) on it. |
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| Yeah the router is something virgin changed out loverly perfect working modem and seperate router for its one of thier combi things. I have changed the channel to 3 and im already using wpa2 wouldnt use wep as its about as secure as windows firewall ;) I will see if that helps there does seem to be some serious issues with wifi on mac osx snow leopard though and it would be nice if it was fixed at this rate i will use my netbook to write me games as its xp and works 100% of the time. |
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| Yes, on upgrading my Mac Mini to a recent(ish) Snow Leopard release (I think it was 10.6.5), wifi connections became very erratic. So much so that I had to use another computer to resolve the problems. It was nothing to do with the type of router, or what security protocol you are using. It is most likely a permissions issue with various parts of your system that the newer Snow Leopard takes offense with - 10.6.4 was no problem at all... There are MANY discussions online about this very issue. Repairing permissions solved the problem for me. You can do it through Disk Utility. For your boot drive, you may need to boot up from your Snow Leopard DVD and perform the permissions update from that. (you can access Disk Utility when booting from the DVD). Of course, your mileage may vary :-) |
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| Interesting... wouldn't the the first time permissions has caused some seriously weird headaches. Glad to know that the permission repair at least might be a solution for some. |
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| Thanks brucey I will look into that as I have upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard :) |
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| I repaired permissions over and over again, and still, it didn't solve it for me. The only way the Mac could connect (And stay connected) to the router (which is sitting right besides it!) was using WPA2, or no encription at all. Believe me, I've spent almost a week finding 'possible errors' on the net, changing the connection order, repairing permissions, checking for updates... even reseting the 'pram'; nothing worked here. And again, all other 3 computers (tried with Windows *and* Linux), plus my cell phone and the Wii can connect without problems, from any room in the house. So, for a fact the problem is with the Mac :P And another note: just booted Ubuntu 10 on the Mac. No connection drops, so it's not a hardware problem. The problem lies on Mac OS X! Last edited 2011 |
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| At the moment permissions seem to fix the problem thanks for the help guys |
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| Slotman, is your WPA using TKIP or AES? The airports only officially support TKIP for WPA personal mode... they support AES for WPA2... Also is there any reason you're using WPA rather than WPA2 (another device doesn't support WPA2 perhaps?) Also still wondering what make/model your router is... |
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| It's an Encore 802.11g router - don't know the model exactly. Encription type is set to "Auto" (but changing to AES or TKIP has no change). |
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| And another note: just booted Ubuntu 10 on the Mac. No connection drops, so it's not a hardware problem. The problem lies on Mac OS X! You will have the same magical experience when you install Windows on your Mac. This is a known problem since the release of Leopard 10.5.0, and it only got worse with later releases. The Internet is full of blogs and discussion threads about this subject and Apple apparently doesn't really care. Like I've said, I've had the same problem in my house with a couple of Macs, and the problem completely disappeared after I bought a cheap TPLink router and installed Linux on it. OS X communicates well with Linux-based wireless routers (like Mikrotik RouterOS or dd-wrt) but appears to be having issues with almost everything else except for Apple's own Airport base stations. And this definitely is NOT a hardware problem. |
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| If anyone have another solution (besides repairing permissions, changing connection order or zapping pram) I'd like very much to hear it...! It's really annoying having the connection drop every 5 mins or so... :( Edit: also tried to change channels, and router configs, to no avail. Last edited 2011 |
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| Re-asking. Is there a particular reason you're not using wpa2? You said the router supports it, it makes the Mac work, and it's more secure... Would be nice to get it resolved of course but if you're going for a practical solution that seems like win win... |
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| Cell phone doesn't support wpa2, just wep and wpa. Also one of the computers have an old wireless card, wpa only. So no, wpa2 is not an option. |
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| aah, suspected there was a legacy device or 2 in the mix... Personally I would consider a router upgrade to something that supports wpa/wpa2 simultaneously (every router I've seen in the past couple years seems to) so you get better security on for your newer devices but still have legacy support at the same time... or just any other router and run 2 wireless networks, 1 for new devices and 1 for old, this would have the added benefit of freeing up some wireless bandwidth since fewer devices would be on each access point... But of course those require other hardware which is an expense best avoided when possible... If you have an extra wifi, or a computer in range for a wired connection you could set it up to share it's connection... Personally I hardwire anything I can for the speed and reliability but this isn't always an option either. |
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