Wifi Dongle Troubles

Hi all,

Brenton here, long time reader, first time poster.

Recently the Wifi chip in my 2011 MacBook Pro stopped working. I took it into the Genius bar here in Sydney to get it sorted and he told me there was little I could do but buy a Wifi dongle that will take up a USB slot but will allow wireless connection. He went so far as to recommend the DLink Nano N300.

After a tricky set up, it all appears (emphasis on appears) to be working - the bars are green and it recognises a Wifi network. However, in System Preferences, it's telling me the adapter is not connected, that it hasn't got an IP address.

I've since called Apple Support, but to no avail there. So I've taken it back to the Genius bar, who told me the Wifi dongle must be defective.

So, I tried the Netgear A6100 Wifi dongle and the same thing is happening - in System Preferences it sometimes shows as green and says the connection is active with an IP address. Even when it is green and apparently 'active', it still won't connect and if it does it's slower than 1998 dial-up speed. Please note, also, that I don't have a driver installed for the Netgear one, as I was told in store it was fully compatible with Mac - the odd thing is that it has recognised the Wifi and been able to connect once or twice (albeit slowly) despite having no driver. It's performed better than the DLink dongle, which has a driver installed.

I'm guessing I've got the settings messed up, or I've not configured it properly, or I haven't paired it correctly with the router or some such thing. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated - I'm a novice when it comes to tech stuff and I've had no net connection on my Mac for weeks and it's driving me insane!

Anyone else had similar issue?

Brenton

Did either of these dongles have any kind of connection software other than drivers? I ask because I had one of these dongle's once that would show the symptoms you are having but would not command unless you used the connection utility to initiate the connection. Consequently, wireless would not actually connect to the Internet until I had opened the utility and manually initiated the connection.

I also discovered that some cards needed a driver to function reliably even if the manufacturer did not have a Mac driver. I would find out what the chipset is inside the dongle and go to that manufacturers website to look for a driver. I think Apple uses mainly Broadcom chips so if you can find one with that chipset it may not have this issue.

What's wrong with using your ethernet connection? Router too far away? You can use an ethernet cable up to 3 meters in length without effecting the signal as long as you buy a good cable.

Brenton I have never found any dongle to be satisfactory going way back to G4 days. Why did the Genius Bar not replace the Airport Extreme Card I wonder?

harryb2448 said:

Brenton I have never found any dongle to be satisfactory going way back to G4 days. Why did the Genius Bar not replace the Airport Extreme Card I wonder?

Click to expand...

The "Genius" told me they were unable to replace it because the laptop was too old, they were unable to get the part or do the repair.

Brenton

chscag said:

What's wrong with using your ethernet connection? Router too far away? You can use an ethernet cable up to 3 meters in length without effecting the signal as long as you buy a good cable.

Click to expand...

Router is a fair distance, but it's worth a shot which may sort it for when I'm at home. I'd still need a solution for connecting to WiFi anywhere else outside home, though.

Brenton

No, they didn't. Just the drivers themselves. In the case of the DLink one, I had to download it from another computer onto USB and install it on my Mac.

I'll certainly have a look into the chipset, thanks for the advice.

Brenton

OK, then you might be able to find a replacement airport card on eBay. Make sure you get the right one for your machine. Instructions for changing it out can be found at www.ifixit.com.

Or find a reseller rather than the Genius. A reseller will do it, but I have done Airport cards in MBP, Mac Pros, G5 etc and generally they are a snack ith only a screw or two and an antenna.

I can confirm that the WiFi module in your MBP is replaceable. in fact, you can upgrade it to an 802.11ac card if you don't want to use the original part. Here's a link to a compatible replacement:

http://www.quickertek.com/products/Ucard.html

A trained chimp could replace it, it's that easy.

Just check the precise model MBP you have, Brenton. Three are listed in Mactracker with 2011 models, one is reported as a straight extreme card and two are reported as builtin. The builtin model requires a slightly different card.

Hey guys,

Thanks so much for your assistance so far. I've found a repairer who has said they can do the job with next day pickup for AU$150. Think I'll take it to them. Will definitely post the outcome here on the thread.

Thanks again,

Brenton