New MacBook Airs may suffer from Wi-Fi connectivity issues

[brianwillis]

I use an iPhone 4 and Macbook Air as my main devices.

One of the first comments on the Ars Technica page is "you're holding it wrong". It's a predictable joke, but I'll begrudgingly admit that I laughed.

[acdha]

Or, more likely, it's a few people who got dud hardware or are misdiagnosing marginal WiFi coverage and some tech “reporters” acting as an echo chamber to amplify it. This is a couple of forum posts run through Gizmodo and (disappointingly) ArsTechnica – i.e. the plural of anecdote.

[smackfu]

OTOH, Apple is renowned for keeping hardware problems on the down-low and quietly swapping things out with no questions when people come in to complain. The only way this kind of thing gets out is through forum complaints and such.

[singular]

I have had an issue both with my previous mac, a second gen air and a first gen pro retina with sustaining a connection (I am immediately next to the wifi router and get wifi drop outs yet my colleague, a distance away using a PC, has no dropouts whatsoever.)

I also have a curious problem that has affected both of them - if I rest the laptop on my naked chest, the wifi connection degrades to the point that connectivity is significantly affected, and if the signal is not strong enough completely drops out. Seems to me to be related to the aluminium case. Quite frustrating as this is (an arguably not very healthy) common use case for me :)

[marquis]

I ended up running a script on launch that pings 127.0.0.1 every 5 seconds - my Wifi was disconnecting every few minutes and this has fixed the problem for the last 6 months for me.

edit: actually pinging the router, 192.168.1.1 etc. Script is:

#! /bin/sh

ping 192.168.1.1 > /dev/null 2>&1

[delinka]

1) Have you tested moving away from the AP/router? I'd suggest that if you can pin it down to a specific situation, you can a) give the "Geniuses®" something to repair and/or b) find a workaround that works for you.

2) Have you forgotten about the metal plate in your chest? ;-)

[marbletiles]

I get exactly the same thing with the chest. But put it on a blanket and it overheats. Arg.

[OrsenPike]

I have owned several Macbook[Pros|Airs] over the years and consistently the biggest issue has been poor wifi. Either dropping or just being generally crappy performance wise compared to other systems right next to me on the same next work. It is annoying that it is still an issue several years later.

[janlukacs]

Same here. When Lion came out it was the worst. (always used quality APs).

[jonheller]

I love my MacBooks, but every one I have had (totally three so far) have had wifi connectivity issues, usually which involve the connection dropping a few minutes after I resume from sleep and me needing to disable wifi and reconnect.

[seabee]

I love my MacBooks too, and in OSX I had this problem with some APs but not others. Hardware compatibility is hard, I think the only thing you can rely on is that everyone tests on Windows...

[illdave]

I'm using one of the new MacBook Airs and I've yet to experience this (although of course, I'm just one data point).

[sjm]

Ditto. For what it's worth I've only connected via 802.11n so far, so it could be an issue with a/b/g.

[joonix]

Same here. On N.

[esamek]

Been using the new 11" for days. No problems with WiFi, but I have noted a few recurring themes about WiFi connectivity.

802.11 b still works pretty well for most people.

802.11 g has better in-house or building range than 802.11 n

802.11 n can be faster. but I haven't notice that being true...ever.

5 Ghz spectrum connections sucks at penetrating walls.

[windexh8er]

You're confusing a few key points. 802.11n can operate on both 2.4 & 5Ghz networks. So while you state speed and range metrics the real question is the quality, capability and environmentals you're, likely, not taking into consideration.

Quality: not all antenna or radios are at all equal. Just because you have an N capable AP means nothing for client connectivity.

Capability: Is your AP MIMO? How many TX & RX? These things matter. Many of Apple's designs for Airport look pretty but are effectively junk for RF performance. This has always been a clear case of aesthetic over function. Many people often buy all in one devices to handle 30�Mbps Internet connections and also lump in 10� wireless and wired devices. These wireless 'enabled' devices are often horrible since they're often underpowered to handle the increased connection speeds as local transfer and Internet speeds increase.

Environmentals: Do you live in a shared living space with lots of neighbors contending for use of channels? Do you live in a 4000+ sqft house and have your AP in the basement? Etc...

TL;DR I look at this stuff in a lab on a daily basis. This generalization is quite bad.

[hboon]

I have wifi problems with my MacBook Pro retina since I bought it. It's probably a recurring software issue.

[securingsincity]

I used to do a lot of audio and video editing and the releases of OSX always seemed to have problems on launch day so much so that people in the industry always suggested to wait for the .1 release. Over the same time you've seen similar problems in apple's hardware. "It's mostly alright but some people are getting yellow cinema displays" "wi-fi connectivity issues" "a few models were XYZ" perhaps the same policy should be applied to hardware. Wait a month until they get the kinks worked out and you'll be rocking and rolling.

[mikeash]

The same policy should definitely be applied to hardware. It's fairly common knowledge in the Apple community not to buy the first version of any new hardware unless you want to experience all the highs and lows of the bleeding edge.

On the other hand, it's hard to say what constitutes a ".1" in the hardware. The latest Air is a relatively small revision to the current Air line that's been around for a few years now, so I wouldn't have treated it as something brand new like I would have with, say, the original Air from 2008, or the redesigned one from 2010.

But yes, if you're not in a big hurry and don't want to risk a fight with the hardware, just wait a month or so after any given release.

[nknighthb]

This is a recurring theme with new chipsets. I'm sure it'll get cleaned up in firmware/driver updates as usual, but at some point, you'd think Apple would figure out a better QA strategy for wifi.

[xmodem]

There's only so much QA you can do - are they going to extensively test with every wifi router and firmware configuration ever made? At some point you have to ship and look at the logs you get back.

[MoOmer]

My first gen retina has problems connecting to certain WiFi points. Netstat shows an assigned ip that's out of range, while others continue to receive regular IPs. Renders it useless for helping teach Rails development/googling to find solutions to others' issues.

Waiting for a thin, light, no os laptop that works well with GNU/linux

[malandrew]

I've seen the exact same problem on the newest iPads as well. It sucks for development, because every time the wifi connection drops I lose (auto-closes) the window for the remote web development console in Safari.

[omegote]

Features, features everywhere.