Wireless Witch: New MacBook Air Wi-Fi Issues? Try These 5 Solutions

There have been grumblings throughout the Apple customer community about the new Macbook Air ( at Amazon) and Wi-Fi connection drops. Speculation looms—is this a wide-spread issue or with a particular batch from the factory? A problem inherent in OS X or just the operating system's networking stack? How will Apple handle the complaints?

Those are all issues for the News Desk to handle, in the future. I'm more interested in workarounds to help connectivity problems. So I'd like to take a step back, take a look at some of the issues being reported, and offer a few suggestions to new MacBook Air owners who may be experience problems based on some testing I've done the past few days.

Internet Drops and Slow Data Transfers
First, it's not clear if the majority of complaints pertain to dropped Internet connectivity, or disconnects from inside a home network like from the router or while connecting to another device within the network, such as a NAS. From what I see on the Apple community forum, it seems as though a significant number of users are complaining about Internet drops. A few tech reviewers and analysts have published articles stating they are seeing slow data transfer rates from the new MacBook Air—which to me indicates a more local issue possibly, within OS X or as some reviewers have claimed, perhaps an issues with the networking protocol that the operating system uses.

However, no one at this point knows for sure what the issue is. Apple hasn't issued a statement about the issue, although some reports have said that the company began instructing Apple Genius Bar workers to start collecting information…and MacBook Airs that users are bringing in to complain about. Until we know more and get confirmation from Apple about what may be going on, it's really not prudent to start a blame game.

That said, I can understand how frustrating not having a lot of information on the matter is if you are one of the new MacBook Air customers experiencing connection drops (either inside your network or with your Internet). I've done wireless testing the last few days using the new 13" MacBook Air and the newest 802.11ac-supported AirPort Extreme Base Station. I didn't experience connection issues during testing. I took note of my setup and offer a few suggestions if you are experiencing issues:

What You Can Try

- Update Router Firmware: Checking to make sure your router has the latest firmware is the first step you should take to resolve any connection issues. Go to the router manufacturer's website, download the firmware for the appropriate model and follow the vendor's instructions for upgrade.

Turn Off Some Router Features: Some reviewers report issues with the way the new Macbooks handle something called TCP windows scaling. In a nutshell, this is a feature that should happen automatically within an operating system to help network performance. There is no definitive proof that this is the issue at this time. However, it might help to turn off a few network-traffic oriented features you may have enabled on your router.

Double-NAT: For instance, make sure you don't have double NAT (Network Address Translation) going in your network. Sometimes, ISPs will give you a cable or DSL modem that is already performing NAT and that you may have added a wireless router into your home network that is also performing NAT. Make sure only one device is setup to do NAT.

Quality-of-Service and Other Features: Also, try disabling any Quality-of-Service features or applications prioritization rules you may have enabled. I would also try backing up the router's configuration (many routers do allow this) and then turning off other features such as port-forwarding rules, DMZ and anything else you can disable without compromising security! For instance don't disable the router's firewall or WAN protection but if you have firewall rules in place for specific applications, try disabling them.

Of course I don't mean turn all of these features off at once! If you have QoS turned on, or any sort of traffic shaping feature designed to help boost video streaming or other applications' performance; turn it off, work with your MacBook and see if that helps the issue. If not, disable something additional and try again. A step-by-step approach is critical here.

Reset the Router to Factory Defaults: This is not a suggestion most users will want to hear, as it means setting up your router from scratch. However, sometimes it pays to start with a clean router. If you have the time and the willingness to set up the router again, try to reset it back to factory defaults and see if that helps with connection drops.

Run the network at 802.11n: A large number of the complaints I've seen come from those using the new MacBook with one of the pre-draft 802.11ac routers on the market. If you have an 802.11ac router and are connecting the MacBook at 11ac mode, trying setting the router's 802.11ac mode to 802.11n legacy mode on the 40MHz channel. This can help with disconnects at least until more information becomes available.

Try the New Airport: In my testing, I didn't experience connection drops using the 13-inch MacBook Air and Apple's new AirPort Extreme. This does not necessarily mean the new AirPort resolves any issues that the MacBook may (or may not) have, but if you are looking for a new router anyway, and you have an Apple-device heavy network, the new AirPort, which supports 802.11ac, may be worth a look.

In the meantime, you can check out more ways to troubleshoot Internet connection issues in "12 Tips for Troubleshooting Your Internet Connection."