10.5.3 Fixes WiFi Issues

Leigh McMullen ()

A few months back we reported many Mac users were experiencing problems with WiFi maintaining connections. These connection drops seemed to be mysteriously tied to large file transfers. The issue became so bad that the NYC school system stopped all orders for new Macs until the issue was fixed.

I’m happy to report that for at least this user the issues seem to be resolved. For the past three days I’ve been seeding and leeching “The Cult of Mac” and “The Cult of iPod” by our own Leander Kahney with no interruptions in WiFi service. I’d love to hear if anyone else is still having problems.

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About the author

LeighMcMullen

Leigh McMullen leads the Advisory Services & Strategy practices for the professional services arm of one of the Big-Five firms. He has written several books that would cure any insomnia you might have, and is an avid Mac junkie.

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Posted in Macintosh |

  • http://11-pl.us Brett

    Not for me. I keep losing my connection even after the update. I just went in to the apple store to get it fixed.

  • http://ceebee.com Chris Bulow

    Confirmed: since the .5.3 upgrade, the Airport connection in this MacBook Pro has not failed to lock on to my home (or other) signal at anytime. Prior to that, after resuming from sleep or even just when returning home, I often had to re-boot the wireless router, even though other machines could see it and acquire a signal, before the MacBook would deign to acknowledge that it was there…

  • http://bok.xs4all.nl/weblog/ BOK

    Problems? I’m sorry to disappoint you: 10.5.3 solved mine so far! ;-)

  • Dylan

    I was losing my connection every 10 or 15 minutes before the update. Since the update I have had no problems at all.

  • MacBooker

    Definitely improved my 802.11g performance/reliability-the frequent dropouts and “scanning” pauses seem to be gone now.

  • http://haggaret.com Kevin Haggerty

    Unfortunately, the update doesn’t seem to have fixed it for me. I *might* say that things have improved a bit, but I’m still getting random drops, and it’s driving me crazy!

  • Nikita Shulga

    My Mac Book Pro works fine with Fujitsu wifi-router before and after update. But my wife’s Mac Book fails to work with this particular wifi-network after resuming from sleep, though it worked fine with it before 10.5.2 update. And 10.5.3 hadn’t solved the issues…

  • http://sxseventy.com Grant Hamilton

    I have a dream that someday my Mac Mini will hold its Airport connection for more than an hour. That would be awesome. 10.5.3 did nothing to improve it.

  • Chiljon

    I did never lose my connection, only file transfers are still very slow

  • MacBookGrl

    I’m still having problems. My MacBook seem to pick up the only non-locked wireless signal from my house fine at certain regular times of the day, then the signal gets steadily weaker until it’s unuseable by 8.

    . . . of course, maybe I should just stop piggybacking and get my own router. XD

  • Thomas

    I’ve never had problems with my connection, before of after patch. MBP, 2.2Ghz C2D. Weird, eh?

    Cheers,
    Thomas

  • Kerry Plunk

    Prior to 10.5.3, my SlingBox which is connected to an Airport Express which in turn is connected to my Extreme Base Station was regularly dropping the connection. Has been rock solid ever since updating to 10.5.3.

  • Peter

    So that’s what’s been going on and, no, it isn’t fixed and it’s driving me crazy. I invested in an Express to try to boost the signal; no soap. I have to keep turning the network off and then back on and then off and then back on and off and on until I finally establish a stable connection. And then my wife will come down to tell me that her email doesn’t work and it’s right back where we were.

    Mac owner since MacPlus. My daughter’s gummi Mac manages to keep a stable connection…

    Arggh.

  • http://www.essedi.it Diego

    even for me. no problem at all until upgrade to 5.3.
    Now, after the update, I loose my connection randomly every 10,15 minutes :(

  • what

    Same problems post-patch on an iBook G4 updated via Software Update.

  • Jack

    I had no problem until AFTER installing 5.3 Now I have to manually connect to the router after resuming from sleep.

    (And it seems to have broken remote printing via Bonjour, too)

  • Kyle

    My Wi-Fi’s always been fine.

    Does that mean Leander doesn’t care if we download his books? Are you telling us to do that or is it a trap?

  • http://www.cultofmac.com Leigh McMullen

    @Kyle: no trap, Leander put them out on TPB for everyone’s enjoyment.

    L

  • axelle

    My MacBook’s even worse AFTER the 10.5.3 update. It now drops intermittently every minute or so!!!! Driving me crazy. I’ve changed channels, deleted airport preferences files to no avail…..

  • roger

    I bought a MacBook Pro with 10.5.2 and now upgraded to 10.5.3. Using a Linksys WRT160N router on wireless home n/w with Comcast cable modem. Airport has consistently been scanning since Day 1…bigtime frustrating…when will Apple make the fix??

  • ian

    I upgraded to 10.5.3 and afterwards i could no longer reliably use my neighbors super fast wifi connection. I assumed it was because of the update as I downloaded the 420 mb update super fast and afterwards i could not maintain the connection. I downgraded back to 10.5.2 and this fixed my problem! 10.5.3 made my wifi worse..

  • Andrew

    This is driving me insane, it goes from 100% strength to nothing, then it says it can’t find my network. Even when the network become available on the list, it doesn’t connect automatically, I have to click. What’s causing the drop?

  • ian

    yeah 10.5.3 definitely has something wrong with it having to do with wifi signal strength

  • Nathan

    I can confirm that 10.5.3 broke something in wifi on my MacPro. Prior to this install wifi was rock solid … 4 bars all the time. Now it fluctuates between none and 2. I reinstalled Leopard to be sure. Before doing the 10.5.3 updates I had 4 bars. After I was back down to 2.