Hopefully by now you’re running Apple’s shiny new cat, OS X Lion, on your Mac. You may be noticing all the improvements and changes that Apple made in Lion, and we recommend reading our comprehensive review of Lion for all the info you need to know about the latest edition of OS X.
For most users, upgrading to Lion is a smooth and pain-free process. For others, there seems to be several problems, specifically with intermittent Wi-Fi dropouts.
Reports from disgruntled Lion users have been surfacing on the web through social networks like Twitter, and even on Apple’s discussion forums. Most of these wireless-related complaints condense into one problem: unreliable Wi-Fi connectivity.
There’s a myriad of possibilities as to why this issue could be happening for so many users, but it’s most likely related to a driver issue with some Mac wireless cards and Lion. There’s a good chance that Apple will push an updated to Lion soon to fix this problem, alongside others.
Here are some basic tips to fix spotty Wi-Fi connectivity in Lion.
Basic Wi-Fi troubleshooting tips in Lion:
1. Turn Wi-Fi off and then back on in Airport on your Mac.
2. Reboot your Mac.
3. Reset your router.
Step 1 is definitely the first thing you should try to fix a bad Wi-Fi connection. Simply switching your wireless card on and off could very well fix any wonky connection between your router and Mac.
Step 2 could reset some settings on your Mac that may have carried over from Snow Leopard and caused conflicting issues with Airport, but that’s far-fetched. Rebooting your machine is really just the most basic thing you can do to see if something can be easily corrected.
Reseting your router (unplug it for about 15-30 seconds) will theoretically fix any issues specifically related to your router not playing nice with Lion. If you’ve got some IP address confusion with multiple devices on your network, a router reset could just do the trick.
If you’re still having problems with Wi-Fi dropouts, OS X Daily has some more advanced Wi-Fi troubleshooting steps for you to try.
Set a manual IP address with DHCP – if all else fails, use “DHCP with manual IP address” in Network > Advanced > TCP/IP settings. Pick an IP that is in range of the router, but out of range of conflict. For whatever reason, this has worked for years to resolve Mac OS X wireless problems with some routers
Move Wi-Fi to the top of the Service Order list – This is an old tip that simply prioritizes WiFi as the primary method that your Mac should connect to the internet, and it seems to help maintain connections
Move the primary router to the top of “Preferred Networks” list – this is accessed from the “Advanced” menu in Network settings. There is some speculation that if you are in range of multiple routers, the connection will juggle between the two causing WiFi to drop. Drag your primary router to the top of this list.
Delete existing WiFi connections and re-add them – this is done by clicking on the ‘minus’ icon in the Network settings lower left corner, then just click on “+” and add a new WI-Fi connection
Add an extra DNS entry – it’s not clear why this works, but many users report success with just adding an additional DNS address to the list. 8.8.8.8 is Google’s public DNS and is reliable
Add a New Network Location – from the Network control panel, do the following:
o Pull down the ‘Location’ menu and navigate down to ‘Edit Locations’
o Click the + sign to add a new network Location
o Give it a name, click OK
o Select the “Network Name” (wireless router) and click Apply
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