MacOS – Random Signal Strength Drops

macbook promacosNetworkwifi

I have a Macbook Air (Mid-2011) at home and a Verizon Actiontec MI424WR Rev. I router. Recently, I noticed that the internet got slower for about 10 sec. and went back to normal. I then opened Wifi Explorer to monitor the signal strength, and sure enough, I see a drop in the strength.

Also, sometimes when waking from sleep, the wifi icon indicates that it is searching for my network. I have to turn wifi off then on to let it reconnect. This problem has appeared on Mavericks and Mountain Lion after I downgraded.

UPDATE 01/25/2014
I installed Windows 7 using Boot Camp. Strangely, it does not exhibit this problem.This leads me to believe that it is a Mac OS X problem. Anyone have any ideas?

UPDATE 02/14/2014
I retract my earlier statement. It does exhibit this problem.

Best Answer

well sense you exhibit the same problem on your bootcamp suggest to two things. either one, its your hardware, or two your internet. your hardware can be testet quite easily, just find another wifi and try it out for a while. if it is your internet however, it gets a little more complex sense it can be your router, modem, or provider... so i would try another wifi first, then contact your provider

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MacOS – Wifi drops when screen is locked

I had this exact problem, and I was pretty annoyed by it. I stopped "locking" my screen, and instead started "sleeping" display. The wifi stays connected when screen is asleep. I assigned "Sleep Display" to a hotkey using BetterTouchTool (http://blog.boastr.net/).

Then, I went to System Preferences > Security > Require Password after sleep or screensaver begins.

Now my hotkey puts my display to sleep, and then the computer requires password when I wake it up. So it's the same functionality of Locking my computer without losing wifi.

MacOS – way to auto switch wireless networks depending on signal strength

Not saying this is ideal or works well. But Just to give you an idea.

You can use command line tools to write a script that checks the strength. and then changes the network as needed.

To get the strength you can use this command line code:

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -I |grep -i "agrCtlRSSI:"

Look at the man pages for /usr/sbin/networksetup for changing the setup.

As an example here is a quick applescript. It only runs once as it is only an example of use. But in your script I would do it as a LaunchAgent There is an app called lingon that simplifies the writing of LaunchAgents. LaunchAgents can startup apps, run scripts at specific times, regularly or when something happens.

I hope this helps

set wifi1 to "wifissid1"
set wifi2 to "wifissid2"

try
    set strength to last word of (do shell script "/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -I |grep -i \"agrCtlRSSI:\"") as number
    log strength
end try
set network to do shell script "/usr/sbin/networksetup -getairportnetwork en1"
log network



if strength is less than 50 then



    if network is not equal to "Current Wi-Fi Network: " & wifi1 then

        do shell script "/usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportnetwork en1 " & wifi1 & " &> /dev/null & "

    end if



else

    if network is not equal to "Current Wi-Fi Network: " & wifi2 then

        do shell script "/usr/sbin/networksetup -setairportnetwork en1 " & wifi2 & " &> /dev/null & "

    end if

end if

Best Answer

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MacOS – Wifi drops when screen is locked

MacOS – way to auto switch wireless networks depending on signal strength

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