OS X Lion, Imac i5...Internet connection dropping

Hi all,

I just recently started using Mac OS X and, while I find it fantastic to use, I am getting constant issues with it maintaining an internet connection.

I've been searching all over the Net and there are dozens of pages, threads, posts regarding the same issue. Basically, the Wifi connection seems to drop after a period of Internet inactivity.
I've spent several days going over different "how-to" guides, deleting .plist files, network configurations, deleting locations, deleting the ports / setting them up again, all to no avail.

Doing a "airport -I" command shows that the Wifi card seems to start scanning and never reconnects. The logs show "BSSID changed to " and that's when the connection problems begin.

The solution is to turn Wifi on and off. Simple and irritating but effective. I've found a script on the net to automate this with launchd (basically, ping the router and, if no response is given, then simply call "networksetup -setairportpower en1 off" and then the same with "on").
Constantly pinging the router works too.

But is anyone else experiencing this issue and perhaps have a better way to solve this? Router is fine with all other devices, never drops the connection.

Hopefully, there'll be a patch soon from Apple to solve this.

Sad Professor

There's a lot of Lion problems at the moment. I've been experiencing wireless problems as well. Although in my case they are causing the whole machine to lock up.

Did you have these problems under Snow Leopard?

I'll be honest, as soon as I started the Mac up, I updated the software and downloaded 10.6.8.

I did notice the problems after that, although they were not nearly as frequent (I see it now at least twice within half hour of usage).

Issues similar to this seem to have existed for a while though, I even thought it might have been the cordless phone right beside the router but it doesn't interrupt other devices and the Mac problem still occurred even after removing the phone altogether. So nothing I've tried seems to alleviate it.

The automatic restart runs in the background and I don't notice it now.
I just feel it's a bit "hacky", for want of a better word.

On a positive note, I'm very much enjoying the new system, there's a lot of little things that seem to contribute to an easier experience (e.g. Spotlight, installing / uninstalling applications, etc.)

Sad Professor

Are you on Lion or 10.6.8?

Upgraded to Lion the evening of release.

It works, as long as the network is kept active (i.e. keep pinging the router) and the connection works as expected.

It's just a pain in the arse

m_c

Try some of these steps..
http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/22/wifi-dropping-in-os-x-lion-fixes/

darragh o meara

I had the exact same problem and it turned out to be a problem between my eircom router and my iMac. Ive since setup my airport router linked back to the eircom one and it works 100% fine since. There might be more too it but seems to have solved my problems. I've unplugged the airport and connected back to the eircom router and the problem reappears.

nesf

Yeah, I've been spared dropping connections, the only issue I have is with Lion refusing to connect to my network after it has been restarted or brought back out of sleep. Which is annoying but far less of a problem than a randomly dropping connection.

m_c

m_c wrote: »

Try some of these steps..
http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/22/wifi-dropping-in-os-x-lion-fixes/

Thanks for that but I've already tried out the steps on that page (extensive Google searching!) but they might solve similar problems.
Actually, sorry, I just saw that ping solution there! Easier than that networksetup approach, cheers!

Darragh, I was wondering myself if the router could be doing something when the Mac is expecting something different...do you mean you have an Airport Extreme / Time Capsule connected to the Eircom router and the router is set to Bridging? That might be my next step.

darragh o meara

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks for that but I've already tried out the steps on that page (extensive Google searching!) but they might solve similar problems.
Actually, sorry, I just saw that ping solution there! Easier than that networksetup approach, cheers!

Darragh, I was wondering myself if the router could be doing something when the Mac is expecting something different...do you mean you have an Airport Extreme / Time Capsule connected to the Eircom router and the router is set to Bridging? That might be my next step.

Yes that's exactly what I've done.