There’s something on the horizon: Apple is quickly seeding its 10.5.3 developer builds, with 9D11 including fixes for the Airport connectivity issue, which I hope resolves my problems. It’s a shame something like this happens in the first place.
Further research tells me that my accusations are partly wrong. The problem seems to arise with everyone who installed the 10.5.2 update on a first-gen, rev. A MacBook or MacBook Pro. Probable solutions would be to 1) downgrade to 10.5.1 or 10.5 by installing through your CD and selecting “backup previous system”. 2) You can wait for your Wireless Access Point manufacturer to supply an update for their firmware (not sure wether this helps). 3) And for gods sake, Apple should fix these really annoying issues! That’s some really nasty lock-in, although I don’t think it happened on purpose.
For the record: I have an AirPort Extreme (0×168C, 0×86) with firmware 1.3.4
Just to be clear about the problem: I usually can’t connect to any network anymore (time out). It gives me a timeout. Sometimes a reboot solves the connection issue for a couple of minutes though..
Never install this TimeMachine and Airport Update from within the Apple Software Update. It completely made my Airport functionality break, meaning I couldn’t connect to networks anymore, only sometimes with about 50% packet loss..
My /var/log/system.log was full of error messages such as these:
Apr 2 10:22:22 Lena airportd[940]: Broadcast requests failed..
Apr 2 10:36:45 Lena airportd[1067]: FastFinder scanning channels again
Apr 2 10:36:54 Lena airportd[1067]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6
Apr 2 10:36:55 Lena airportd[1067]: Could not find any preferred networks; trying broadcast requests..
Apr 2 10:37:06 Lena airportd[1067]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6
Apr 2 10:38:00 Lena airportd[1085]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6
Apr 2 10:38:00 Lena SystemUIServer[966]: Error: airportd MIG failed = -6 ((null)) (port = 37895)
Apr 2 10:38:11 Lena airportd[1085]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6
Apr 2 10:38:11 Lena SystemUIServer[966]: Error: airportd MIG failed = -6 ((null)) (port = 37895)
Apr 2 10:39:23 Lena airportd[1097]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6
Apr 2 10:39:23 Lena SystemUIServer[966]: Error: airportd MIG failed = -6 ((null)) (port = 37895)
Apr 2 10:39:35 Lena airportd[1097]: Error: Apple80211Associate() failed -6
Apr 2 10:39:35 Lena SystemUIServer[966: Error: airportd MIG failed = -6 ((null)) (port = 37895)
Apple must have destroyed the driver stack for a certain range of wireless chips. I am not to sure though if it is really linked to the udpate since people have had similiar problems before the update.
The solution? Wait for Apple, get lucky or re-install OS X..
7 Comments
Had a similar problem. I just installed 10.5.3 and the problem is gone. The problem was network specific though: under 10.5.2 my Macbook refused to connect to my home network (Alcatel Speedtouch 780) but worked without problems on the network at my office.
Greetings,
Wim Kegel
Hi Phillipe,
Nice article. Thanks.
Yesterday I brang my macbook at a café down my street. I had the same exact problem with their open wireless. My connection dropped after a slightly longer time (7-8 minutes) and couldn’t reconnect it back (connection timeout). I had to reboot/standby to do so.
So whatever wifi access I have: private WEP or open free, I got disconnect from the routeur with the exact same errors showing up in the logs.
Have you sorted out your connection problem? I updated to 10.5.3 the other day but unfortunately nothing changed.
I’m about to purchase a new airport card because everything is leading me to the conclusion that my airport card is faulty/broken.
Please keep us updated.
Mal from Reykjavík.
Hi Phillipe,
I’ve been experiencing exactly the same issue. But unfortunately none of all solutions described here in there in forums helped.
My connection drops after 2 to 5 minutes. Trying to reconnect it give me a connection timeout erros and same things appears on the log. The only way I could get some connection back for another 2-5 minutes is to reboot/standby.
I’ve just updated OS X. I’m now on 10.5.3 but it didn’t fix it.
This problem started last Thursday out of nowhere and I’ve been having this in different type of access point (open free, WEP).
Please keep us updated if you resolved this.
- I have my finger ready to click on the “buy” button for a new airport card
-
cheers,
Mal
Hey,
I’m not sure why this worked but after googling a bit resetting the MTU for the adapter seemed to help - in terminal, set :
sudo ifconfig en1 mtu 1492
Hope that helps,
~Pev
somebody know what standard is this airpot extreme 0 x 168c is a g, g+ or N?
I can’t find information about
thanks everybody…
jaime
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