AirPort problems in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5)
Fixes galore.
Card not recognized/will not power on -- new fix Users continue to report a serious problem where internal AirPort hardware is not recognized after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
We previously reported this fix, which has been successful for a number of readers: navigate to /System/Library/Extensions and drag the following files (if they exist) to the Desktop or another location outside the System folder (you will need to hold down the Command key while dragging the file to move it if you are not an administrator):
- AppleAirport2.kext
- AppleAirportFW.kext
However, that fix is not universally successful. As described by MacFixIt reader Jason:
"I did an Archive and Install of OS X 10.5. Worked fine but on reboot, it won't power on the Airport card in my Mac Pro. It sees it is there, and I don't have the AppleAirport2.kext file in the system/library/extensions folder as recommended on Macfixit (the file is not there, I didn't delete it)."
"I get this message in the Console: ERROR: ACInterfaceCreate() no airport interface found for en2 AC interfaceCopyStatus() called with invalid interface."
Clear caches Some users have had success with clearing caches to reinstate recognition of built-in AirPort hardware. Since many of the shareware tools for clearing caches through a GUI have not yet been updated for Leopard, you can take a blanket approach and delete the entire following folder:
- /System/Library/Extensions/Caches
then restart.
MacFixIt reader Jeff writes:
"I had a problem with my MacBook Pro Airport card (upgraded with a MacPro "n" card) not being recognized. Instead of pulling the files you mention out of /System/Library/Extensions, I simply deleted the /System/Library/Extensions/Caches folder and restarted. On restart the Airport card was back."
Wireless connection lost after sleep Other readers are reporting an issue where AirPort connectivity is repeatedly lost upon putting the system to sleep then waking it back up.
One reader writes:
"On mac mini, 1.5 core solo 1Gb ram, lose airport connection when waking from sleep. Have to re-enter network and join. Have applied keychain update, reset keychain and repaired keychain, all to no avail. Remember network name is checked. No problems on my iMac 17" 2.0 2Gb ram machine, however. Strange."
As described in our Wireless tutorial, you may need to delete then re-establish any encrypted AirPort network configurations in order to take advantage of automatic reconnection capabilities after sleep or restart.
You can also try deleting the following files from the ~/Library/Preferences/ directory (this is the Library directory within your User folder):
- com.apple.internetconfig.plist
- com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist
- com.apple.internetconnect.plist
In addition, delete any other files that have are named as such: com.apple.internetconfig[...]
AirPort disks not mounting MacFixIt reader Larry Galanter reports an issue where his AirPort Disk(s) is not recognized after upgrading to Leopard.
"It could be something I've done wrong, but after upgrading to Leopard, I can't get the USB disk connected to my Airport Extreme to mount. Apple says that the upgrade erases the Airport Disk Utility, which it does. While Finder sees the USB disks attached to the Airport -- I've tried my Drobo and an ipod in disk mode -- neither can be mounted. Apple said they would get back to me on this problem. I wonder if this is just me or if others are having the same problem."
If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know.
Problems connecting to routers (Apple Base stations and third-party), dropouts, timeouts A number of users have reported that they are unable to connect to AirPort Base Stations or third-party wireless routers after upgrading to Leopard. In fact, some users are reporting that their third-party routers are becoming non-functional after Leopard Macs attempt to connect. Some sample reports:
- "Installed Leopard (upgrade install over 10.4), rebooted. AirPort Card got turned on during installation processcame up with very low signal strength. Rebooted; came up as no wireless connection - and other computers lost contact with the Asante router. Turned of Aiport card, reset router, other wireless computers back on line. Reinstalled Leopard (Archive and Install); same as above except router still dead after after reset - will NOT come back, for wired OR wireless connections. Bad router? Swapped in spare FR1104AL; workd initially, but then turned on Aiport in Leopard as above. Now I have two dead Asante routers. It seems as though Leopard is trying to set/adjust/upgrade something in the router that it shouldn't and is killing them. I can't tell what, as I can't get back into either unit even after a hard reset." -- Scott Schuckert
- "I have a Mac Book and an iMac. Both were running Tiger and connecting to my DLink router without any problems. I upgraded the Mac Book to Leopard and have had nothing but trouble with it connecting since. Every time I try to connect to the router with the Mac Book, it kills the router; and I have to reboot it. The iMac with Tiger works fine, as long as I don't connect to the router with the Mac Book. Once I do, I have to reboot the router. So, I did a complete reinstall of Leopard (reformatting the hard drive); and the problem remains. My router is wide open, without and security on it. I have reset it back to factory default, checked for firmware updates, etc. I was going to replace the router until I heard that others are having problems with Leopard and wireless connections. Now I don't know what to do." -- Brad
- "After installing Leopard on my 12" Aluminum powerbook, I am no longer able to connect to my wireless LAN. My airport card can see the network, and those of my neighbors, but I am not able to connect to my LAN. I get a connection timeout error after just a second or two, which hardly seems like long enough for a timeout. [...] The thing is, I can just boot of my external drive which has a backup of my 10.4 system and everything works fine, plus my network cameras are all working fine, so I know the wireless LAN is fine. It just seems like Leopard is giving up prematurely on the connection." -- JJC
- "I have a G5 with dual 2.0 processors. Since upgrading to Leopard, I have been dropped regularly from my Belkin WAP. I was not transmitting my SSID and I'm now transmitting it in hopes that will help. I have two other Macs and they are not having any difficult with speed and staying connected. I've reset the WAP with no change. Very frustrating." -- Reno Pelletier
Fix: Hard-set channel In some cases switching channels on your AirPort Base station or third-party router can alleviate this issue. In order to switch channels on AirPort Base stations, use the AirPort Utility or AirPort Admin Utility -- depending on what type of Base Station you have (located in /Applications/Utilities). In AirPort Utility, you click your Base Station at left, then the "Wireless" tab, then select from the "Channel" menu. In AirPort Admin Utility: Click AirPort, and then choose a new channel from the Channel pop-up menu.
Consult your third-party router's manual for information on switching channels. This can usually be accomplished by accessing the router's configuration page -- open a browser and enter the address 192.168.1.1.
MacFixIt reader Nate, who had success with this fix, writes:
"I have an iMac G that the wireless network became unusable on after doing a clean install of Leopard. The symptoms were connecting to the wireless network would often time out on boot and after connecting severe packet loss (anywhere from 20-50 percent) even when just pinging the access-point/router and on the successful pings times were anywhere between 100ms-500ms. I experienced this problem with both an Airport Express and a Buffalo 802.11g router."I called Applecare about the problem and sent them some packet captures they in turn sent someone out to replace the Airport card. Replacing the airport card did not resolve the issue. I was unable to call Applecare back that day (extremely long wait times). But that evening I started grasping at straws and taking the shotgun approach to troubleshooting. I discovered during this that hardsetting the channel on the airport express made the symptoms go away and everything worked as it did before upgrading (no packet loss, and 1ms ping times to the gateway).
"During this whole ordeal I had a MacBook pro running tiger that wasn't experiencing the issue [...]"
Slow throughput Users are reporting extremely slow throughput under some circumstances after upgrading to Leopard.
MacFixIt reader Madeleine W. writes:
"Under Leopard, the iBook and iMac continue to get 5-6 Mbps throughput they had before (we have high speed DSL). But under Leopard, the QS has throughput so poor that it took 43 minutes to download a 17 MB file. Running 10.3.9 on the QS last night, I was able to download the same file in roughly 20 seconds. This morning I ran an ATT DSL throughput test on the QS running 10.3.9 and got 2.95 Mbps download speed.
"I tried different base station channels but that had no effect whatsoever. I hope there is a fix for this because, otherwise, I'll have to keep the QS running Panther. What a pity when, otherwise, it seems to run Leopard so well."
For various solutions to this issue, see our Wireless tutorial.
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
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