AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001 (#5): Continued dropouts (lapses in connectivity)

Users continue to report repeatedly interrupted connections under some circumstances after applying the AirPort Extreme 2007-001 update. In many cases, these issues are soluble through workarounds listed in our wireless troubleshooting tutorial (in particular, try disabling any third-party wireless signal monitoring or sniffing utilities). In more drastic cases, removal of the update entirely (as described in this article) may be necessary to restore stable connectivity.

As previously reported, many cases of unstable connectivity concern third-party wireless routers.

MacFixit reader Bernd writes:

"I have the same problem with my Macbook Pro and a Vigor 2600 VGi. After some minutes Airport drops connection and I have to restart my computer. (I'll try sleep insteat today). My fix: If I stay really close to the router (aprox. 1-2 meters) the connection persists. Therefore i suppose the bug might be located somewhere in the error correction procedure."

MacFixIt reader Raffi adds:

"It seems that when I start up everything works fine for a while, then if I leave the computer to go get something and come back, I'll find that my IP address has changed to something completely wrong and therefore it loses connection to the router even though Airport still says I have a full connection. To solve, I have to either shut down, restart, or sleep my Macbook so that the IP gets fixed and I can go on my way until it happens again."

Jon wries:

"At times I am only getting a few seconds of connectivity before the wireless network drops. Unlike William I had no connectivity issues before this 'update' was installed."

More success with kernel extension reversion Meanwhile, users continue to report success with restoring old 802.11 networking kernel extensions as previously prescribed.

One reader writes:

"I too have been experiencing issues after installing Airport Extreme Update 2007-001 on my MacBook Pro Core Duo. There are certain locations in my home where WiFi access is non-existent. Prior to this update, returning to another zone in the house and power cycling the Airport card resolved the issue. After the update, I must reboot my computer in order to regain WiFi access. I have full strength on the signal indicator, but no packets are routed. I tried deleting network-related plists with negative improvement. Overwriting the existing IO80211Family.kext with an older version did resolve the issue."

Once again, the kernel extension reversion process is as follows:

1. Download the most recent version of Mac OS X for Intel (10.4.8) but do not install it.
2. Download and install the shareware application Pacifist
3. Drag the Mac OS X 10.4.8 installer package onto the Pacifist application icon.
4. Click the triangle next to "System" to expand it
5. Click the triangle next to "Library" to expand it
6. Click the triangle next to "Extensions" to expand it
7. Scroll down and find the file IO80211Family.kext. Drag it to your Desktop or another location (you will have to enter your administrator password)
8. On your Mac OS X startup drive, navigate to /System/Library/Extensions and locate a similarly named file (IO80211Family.kext). Move it to another location for safe keeping.
9. Now drag the file from step 7 (the one that you retrieved from the Mac OS X 10.4.8 install package) into the /System/Library/Extensions, in effect replacing the newer file (installed by the AirPort updater) with and older copy -- you will have to enter an administrator password.
10. Restart your Mac

And to repeat our earlier advisory, this workaround risky because you should not generally mix and match kernel extensions after updates, you will lose some improvements (including security refinements) brought about by AirPort Extreme Updater 2007-001, and new conflicts can ensue. Still, in a bind, it can restore wireless connectivity where other workarounds fail.]

Console entries displaying problem Finally, MacFixIt reader Abbey Sparrow offers some Console log entries showing errors that coincide with dropped connections:

Abbey writes:

"I am on an early Intel MacBook Pro, ever since the "security" update, I cannot get more than 20 mins (usually more like 5 page loads) of airport traffic before my main base station, becomes undetectable on the laptop. Repeated attempts at restart and connection make the base station unstable. Cycling power on all devices resets to the starting state. Other wireless laptops and hardline desktops routed through the same base station have no problems (other than the standard spotty Comcast cable service). The relevant console entries seem to be:

• Jan 30 21:50:52 prometheus mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (192.168.15.103); delaying packets by 5 seconds
• Jan 30 21:50:55 prometheus mDNSResponder: NOTE: Wide-Area Service Discovery disabled to avoid crashing defective DNS relay 192.168.15.1
• Jan 30 21:54:30 prometheus configd[36]: rtmsg: error writing to routing socket
• Jan 30 21:55:08 prometheus mDNSResponder: Repeated transitions for interface en1 (192.168.1.4); delaying packets by 5 seconds
• Jan 30 21:56:12 prometheus configd[36]: rtmsg: error writing to routing socket
• Jan 30 21:56:36 prometheus configd[36]: Error: Failed to join most recent network "Apollo Airport Network", err=88001006 (will search for any others)
• Jan 30 21:56:40 prometheus /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport: Error: Apple80211Scan() failed -6

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous coverage:

• AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001 (#4): Success with previously published fixes; Continuing connection failures, dropouts; more
• AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001 (#3): Getting the update off your Mac (reverting) -- two methods; Dropped connections and other issues
• AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001 (#2): Does not enable 802.11n functionality; Connection problems, improvements after updating
• AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001 for Intel-based Macs released; security enhancements

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