Wifi issue... Pulling my hair out!

[udontno]

Okay, I have a MacBook Pro running the latest version of Mountain Lion. Earlier this week the wifi started acting up. I am a college student living on campus and after connecting to the network, a login screen appears (either appears without prompting it or you try to go to a website and that pops up).

I have called the IT people and they haven't been much help. My phone and iPad are both connecting to the wireless just fine. The computer either shows that it is connected to the network or that the network has limited availability. I have tried resetting my pram, restarting the computer multiple times, and a whole host of things. Nothing has worked so far.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Yesterday I was able to connect in an academic building and it stayed connected, even when returning to my room but it is refusing to connect today in my room and the same academic building.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[SMDBill]

I don't have a solution but I may be experiencing the same thing on 2 different Macbook Pros. My wife and daughter each brought their laptops to me to reconnect to the network because it just stopped working and then prompted them to enter the password for the network. It's set to remember the password so why would it ever need to ask? And on both? It's random as well. My wife was in the middle of using it, about 20 feet from the router, when it happened. No other computer disconnected from the network and this has only been experienced on the Macbook Pro computers.

Not sure what caused it but I suspect an update.

 

[udontno]

I don't have a solution but I may be experiencing the same thing on 2 different Macbook Pros. My wife and daughter each brought their laptops to me to reconnect to the network because it just stopped working and then prompted them to enter the password for the network. It's set to remember the password so why would it ever need to ask? And on both? It's random as well. My wife was in the middle of using it, about 20 feet from the router, when it happened. No other computer disconnected from the network and this has only been experienced on the Macbook Pro computers.

Not sure what caused it but I suspect an update.

After you reconnected them, did the wifi work? Have you had issues since? I did install updates recently. I don't know if that is related or not. Probably.

I haven't tried taking the computer to a coffee shop or something to see of it connects there but if this continues I will have to. I'm going to try to see the tech people tomorrow but the hours are inconvenient.

 

[SMDBill]

Once I retyped the wifi password they did connect back up and worked ok for the time they were used following that reconnection (maybe an hour each).

 

[jozeppy26]

You said this started last week. Did you have 10.8.3 installed before then (when you had zero issues with on-campus wifi)?

Just FYI for future reference: Resetting your NVRAM (aka PRAM) will not resolve network issues because no network settings are stored there. To reset your network settings, drag the folder (path below) to the desktop and delete the original. Next, restart your Mac. If the problem isn't fixed, you can restore your old network settings by putting the folder you copied to your desktop back to its original location (overwriting the newly created one).

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

 

[udontno]

You said this started last week. Did you have 10.8.3 installed before then (when you had zero issues with on-campus wifi)?

Just FYI for future reference: Resetting your NVRAM (aka PRAM) will not resolve network issues because no network settings are stored there. To reset your network settings, drag the folder (path below) to the desktop and delete the original. Next, restart your Mac. If the problem isn't fixed, you can restore your old network settings by putting the folder you copied to your desktop back to its original location (overwriting the newly created one).

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

I have not tried that. I had 10.8.3 installed before this problem started. I turned on the computer this morning to follow your suggestions, but low and behold I have a connection that is working. I will leave see what happens from here. This is so annoying.

I only tries resetting the pram courtesy a la google... It was one of the suggestions. I didn't know it had nothing to do with network issues.

 

[SMDBill]

All 3 of our Macbook Pros are still disconnecting and when they disconnect, the system prompts for a password as if it didn't remember the network. Our other wireless machines and all iPhones and Android phones stay connected without issue. It is inherent to the Macbook Pros and one of them is the Ivy Bridge while the other 2 are Sandy Bridge so they are at least different models but all have been fully updated.

Any ideas? I have just tried removing the system config file suggested (kept it on desktop) but do not know if that impacted or not yet. Will repost if it does not help.

 

[jozeppy26]

All 3 of our Macbook Pros are still disconnecting and when they disconnect, the system prompts for a password as if it didn't remember the network. Our other wireless machines and all iPhones and Android phones stay connected without issue. It is inherent to the Macbook Pros and one of them is the Ivy Bridge while the other 2 are Sandy Bridge so they are at least different models but all have been fully updated.

Any ideas? I have just tried removing the system config file suggested (kept it on desktop) but do not know if that impacted or not yet. Will repost if it does not help.

This worked for me when I was experiencing a similar issue with a cheap belkin wireless router. Try assigning static IP addresses manually to each device experiencing the problem.

 

[SMDBill]

I did delete the system config files from each machine and it fixed the problem. Sucks that Apple doesn't account for that as part of the update.

 

[jozeppy26]

I did delete the system config files from each machine and it fixed the problem. Sucks that Apple doesn't account for that as part of the update.

I think in the 10.8.4 beta updates Apple has been seeding developers, one of the listed changes is Wifi improvements. So, lets cross our fingers it actually fixes the problem.

 

[Serban]

yes wifi and graphics drivers so nice..there will be no more differences between windows and macos if they make it right