Warning: This is a semi-technical posting for Mac-heads with network connection problems. If you aren’t experiencing this particular problem, you probably won’t find this post too interesting. On the other hand, if you have this problem, you may well regard this information as a God-send.
I thought I was losing my mind. About a week ago, my wireless network connection started flaking out. I would be connected for about two minutes. Then the connection would suddenly drop out. All the while the signal strength would appear to fluctuate wildly.
The most disconcerting thing was that all the other computers in my house were working fine. So, that pretty much ruled out a problem with the modem or the router (an Airport Base Station). Nevertheless, I tried changing a few settings on the router and managed to completely trash the system. Argh!
I finally got it to work for a few minutes and posted a request for help in Apple’s Internet, Networking the MacBook Pro Support Forum. I promptly headed for the gym to chill out.
After an hour’s hard run, I came back to the forum and found that a guy named Brody had posted a reply. He directed me to a FAQ he had put together specifically for MacBook Pro connection problems. I highly recommend it. I had already tried most of his suggestions, but #12 completely healed my system. I have been up and running with zero problems for the past two hours.
Here’s what I did:
- I clicked on the Apple Menu () on the upper left-hand corner of the screen. I selected System Preferences. I then clicked on the Network icon.
- In the drop-down Show field, I selected Network Port Configurations. I then clicked on the Airport entry and drug it to the top, so that it was the first entry in the list. It looked like this:
- I then clicked on Apply Now and shut down my computer.
- Next I re-started my computer and zapped the PRAM. This sounds more dangerous than it really is. You simply hold down the Command (⌘), Option, P, and R keys simultaneously immediately after re-starting the system. You must do this before the gray screen appears. Don’t let go of the keys until you hear the startup sound for the second time.
That’s all there is to it. Evidently, something got corrupted in my PRAM. Clearing it fixed the problem. Kind of like a reboot.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand what PRAM is. I still don’t. All I know is that my system is fixed, and I am happily surfing away.
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I did the IPV6 thing and it worked!! I knew it was something with my router because I didnt have the issues on other routers. My router is the cheapest linksys that only had a g connection. Maybe it worked on IPV4 that is an older technology. Apparently the macs are a little slow when it comes to downgrading to IPV4 automatically. The article is old and I cant believe this has not been solved here is a quote of the article: The solution here had to do with the “next generation” version of the Internet protocol (IP), IPv6. IPv6 replaces the aging IPv4 protocol that most of today’s Internet uses. IPv6 fixes a number of problems in IPv4, such as the limited number of available IPv4 addresses. It also adds many improvements to IPv4 in areas of routing and network autoconfiguration. IPv6 is expected to gradually replace IPv4, with the two coexisting for a number of years during a transition period.
Awhile back, I came across a tip at MacFixIt concerning connectivity and IPv6. “Mac OS X seems to give IPv6 priority in attempting to establish connectivity. Unfortunately, most network components don’t support it. ‘Regular’ IPv4 becomes established only after IPv6 times out. This can also often lead to mysterious dropped connections from a server that does support IPv6 when PHP or other server side supporting applications only know how to handle IPv4 address space and thus go confused.
So far so good with the PRAM…but will it last! Thank you. This is my MBP 1 yr anniversary and I'm still not that proficient..no time. I will try the V.6 trick if this does not work. http://www.tellinitlikeitiz.wordpress.com
SCORE!!!! Wifi hasn't worked for several months now so I have been tethered the whole time. I have tried several different 'fixes' to no avail. VERY happy to say that this last ditch effort worked!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Ive just bought a new Macbook Pro and carn't for the life of me get it to connect at all my wireless connection. The WEP key is correct . Any suggestions PLEASE?
I did it and I am hoping it helps, this problem has been driving me nuts for a few months now. Thanks for zap tip.
Just bought a MacPro, also have ipod touch which connects to wifi with no problems. MacPro finds wifi but when you try to join it says " Computer couldn't connect to the internet. click ok and try again" Router in same room. please help as want to play.
That worked for me! Thanks!!! I've been googling all day trying to find a fix and applecare customer service could not help. Hopefully the internet will still work when I power back up.
Oh, well. Back to the drawing board. Once I rebooted, the internet doesn't work again. Wireless still works with my PCs and it works with my Ipod touch. The MBP says that wireless is connected but websites will not come up.
Worked like a charm when combined with disabling ipv6. Thanks for posting this. My wireless network was dropping from my new MBP when my wife was using an old one without any problems. Now it works fine.
When disabling ipv6, don't forget to also disable it on all your wireless routers or at least put them in link-local mode.
TURN OFF IPV6
Yes, I know I'm shouting, but only because I have struggled with Wi-Fi drop out for the past three months and finally this quick settings change seems to have fixed things!
This is a software issue that Mac has no fix for. This has been going on for a long time and the common denominator has been when there was a security update. Zap Pram (3 times), ipv, play with router, buy new airport card….nothing. Go into library/preferences/SystemConfiguration and trash it and restart. Go into system preferences from APPLE icon. Network/Location/NewLocation
Will get you a stronger signal for a while….then….back to crap.
Apple has been ignoring this because they don't want to admit that there is a defect somewhere in the software/hardware config. Cheaper to ignore.
If you go to the discussion boards 54,000 people have scanned the discussions and over 750 posts.
My own issue is different. I can browse the Net just fine using Airport. What I cannot do is see my other Mac nor any networked printer. I did the Zap, did the Little Snitch–nothing. If either compuer uses Airport–no network access but can browse the web. If I use Ethernet-they can see it just fine. I give up
Mike / fellow wireless connectivity sufferers,
I’ll give you a bit of back story regarding my particular wireless issue it’s been ongoing for months / a year I have one of the first macbook pro’s 15″ screen so around 3-4 years old. And about a year ago it started with the all too familiar symptoms; no wireless connectivity i.e. I could see the networks but I got a connection timeout when I tried to join them no bars on the menu bar unless I was sitting on top of the router. The problem was network / router independent, i tried all the fixes suggested on this post ad nothing worked. It wasn’t the wireless card (we cleaned the contacts and switched my card with a friends and put my card in his machine – my card worked fine in his machine his card (which had previously had no problems now had the same problem) We then started to think about a tricky and expensive antenna change – but as the antenna is basically a wire it is either there or it isn’t . then one cold winters evening I brought my mac book home out of the car booted up and got full connectivity in my office (something that hadn’t happened for over a year) then over the course of an hour it deteriorated and eventually fell off, then after another cold day I noticed a similar pattern, and the penny dropped – overheating – I don’t know if its causing the contacts in on the card to expand and lose the connection or just that the card doesn’t work well when hot. But I installed ISTAT and SMC fan control and so far my testing seems to suggest keeping the CPU temp low keeps my wireless connection up if it gets hot as it gets it get around 60 degrees C and it starts to deteriorate. I would be interested to know if anyone else finds the solution works for them!!
Also are there any dangers associated with forcing the fans to overwork / running the machine at an artifically low temperature.
Rob
I was having the same issue last night and thank goodness I found your post! The Airport Update on Apple fixed the issue, and I wanted to come back to this site and thank you for putting this information up. What a relief!
I am having same issues but mine deals with a ATT gateway route/modem combo. At the moment I am using my macbook pro through ethernet cable and I dont loose the connection like I did when I was using it wirelessly through the airport built in. This is a new Macbook Pro. Before i bought my macboo pro I never had this issues with my PCs.
if anyone can tell if this can help that situation please let me know or if anyone know how I can fix this issue.
email:
bigdaddy94063profile@yahoo.com
thanks you
I have just fixed my Wireless problem , on my 5th call to apple care, it worked out to be the router channel, that was causing the problem. It seems that most routers are on channel 11 so i had change it to channel 5 and it has sorted the problem.
you need to go to Network, select Airport on the left hand column, press Advanced, Select TCP/IP, Copy and paste the Router number into safari press return, My user name was Administrator and the password was the serial number off the router, if this does not work call your internet provider they will tell you what it is, than you need to Configure your wireless access point, i am using 02 so i found it at,( home network, WLAN: O2wirelessC593EB, Configure, top right hand corner, than channel.
Try and go lower than 11, hope this helps
ipv6 – I turned it off – wireless worked for the first time in a month – thanks for the help!
Folks I have been a certified Mac Technician for 5 years now and I will tell you that Macs have just as many unique, petty and quirkier issues as Window computers if not more because most companies that develop network, software, and printers think of Macs as an after thought then the engineers do a haphazard means of making their product work with Macs so most of the time it works half way or not at all. One thing I have come across is an issue with trying to get Cisco routers to work with Macs especially wireless and through airport cards. I have tried several different fixes and had to get created with some of my setups so I hate to say this but I'm thinking about a PC for myself now….
Thank you — zapping the PRAM worked for me!
Couldn't get my Macbook Pro to connect to my wireless after upgrading to Snow Leopard (used to work fine before that). Tried dozens of suggestions posted on the internet but none of them worked. Then I tried the suggestion posted here of resetting the PRAM. It worked! Excellent. Thanks for the very clear instructions, much appreciated.
Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou so much !!! I have an imac and over the past year it has connected via wireless no problem. I've got snow leopard and it was working perfectly. However the last month I have not been able to access the internet via wifi. Just like all those listed here – usual story, connection timeout message. I could connect to any other wireless router but not my own. I tried everything previously suggested i.e resetting from WAP to WEP, changing channels, resetting keychains etc nothing worked. However I just followed the steps as per described ending up with zapping the PRAM and it worked !!! Yeeee Haaaaaa. After a month of not connecting it worked first time. You have so helped me thanks thanks thanks so much.
Just thought I would add to the comments to reinforce the validity of the fix. Though its only been about 20 minutes since I turned off ipv6 (this alone didn't change anything, so I'm not sure if it was necessary) and zapped the PRAM, there seems to be a marked difference in my wireless connection at home.
Ok this is the first time that I have added to blog. I love my Macbook pro but have been extremely frustrated with wireless problems. Thank you sooooooo much…this completely fixed my problem.
Didn't work for me, I'm afraid. I think I'll try some of the other suggestions in the comments section…
Thanks for the tip! This worked on my MacBook 13" Aluminum that was experiencing constant disconnects from the wireless network.