new and confused

Hi everyone

Sorry if this has been exhaustively posted and answered before, if it has i can't seem to find it!! Also apologies if it is in the wrong place, I am relatively new to both the forum and mac...

Quick question....

I bought a MBA about 7 months ago and it seems to have some ongoing problems with the WiFi. I have an iPad2 also bought recently and, in the same hotspots, this has absolutely no problem connecting, neither does my iphone4. My general question is....why would this be? Although my knowledge of computers is limited, and even more limited when it comes to mac, I think it might have something to do with the way they both use the internet? Does the iPad have better connection abilities than the mac due to the fact that it uses mobile type internet??

I am baffled by it to be honest, the macbook air cost 3x as much as the ipad, so it should excel past the ipad in terms of its capabilities.....

comments, etc are very much appreciated because i am sick of going to the genius bar in the apple store and no one being able to give me a straightforward answer in terms of why, in theory, this might be.

Also the MBA has been to the genius bar twice and had various hardware adjustments/replacements (they said the software was fine) and it is still having temperamental moments of being just CRAP!

I have read the other threads on wifi issues and tried all of the things in there, deleting and reinstating airport, checking settings, turning off router, checking firewall etc etc and I am starting to get a bit bored and thinking to myself why i switched to mac because i had NO problems before!!

any advice would be greatly received!!

thanks

bec x

beccaxcx said:

Does the iPad have better connection abilities than the mac due to the fact that it uses mobile type internet??

Click to expand...

No.

It will help if you're a little clearer (specific) about the kind of problems you're experiencing.

Sorry yes that would help wouldn't it! These problems are intermittent and are not specific to one hotspot.

1. A preferred network will be found but it will not connect- displays 'connection time out' message upon re-ntering password although this has been saved and it doesn't ask for the password all the time.

2. It will say it is connected to the network then fail to load the webpage (will start to load then stop)

3. When trying to connect at home and at my sister's ( we both have sky netgear routers) sometimes it will not even find the connection

In all cases iPad and iPhone connect fine.

Thanks for the reply

Bec x

Hi,
Please excuse me BL/VPI but I have had lots of these extremely frustrating issues.

On your Mac book Give a try to Apple/ System Preferences/Network and click on the minus sign at the bottom of the pane with the problem connection highlighted. This will remove the connection. Then click the + sign and choose a relevant connection (normally Wi-FI or Ethernet) then click apply.

Nothing to excuse pendlewitch - troubleshooting wi-fi issues can be incredibly frustrating - no doubt. So many things that can impact it - and so few tools (at least for most) that you can really use to diagnose - and very few knobs to be turned. The above problem sounds like one that would definitely be frustrating.

To the OP - I'd definitely give pendlewitch's suggestion a try.

A few more questions. Does it ever connect? Are you able to maintain a connection? Are you using WPA2 encryption? When you option click the airport icon on the menu bar - what do you see? Does it give you a link rate?

If it connects sometimes and then other times seems to have trouble with that, it could well be a sign of interference. Any cordless 2.4GHz phones in the house for example?

chas_m said:

If it connects sometimes and then other times seems to have trouble with that, it could well be a sign of interference. Any cordless 2.4GHz phones in the house for example?

Click to expand...

I moved my cordless phone + base station by 3 feet and guess what I've had seamless connection and no drop-outs all day until just now... when I moved the base station another foot, got back to my iMac and got dropped connection.

Both my base station and router are plugged into the same micro-filter which in turn is plugged into the master socket so my thoughts are that this could be a combination of proximity and faulty micro filter which moves when I move the base station.

I found this for the OP:

My broadband connection keeps dropping | Help | BT.com Help