WiFi/Bluetooth interference
July 18th, 2011 at 10:13 pm by Dr. Drang
I kept seeing links last week to this article about how wonderfully fast Macs are at connecting to WiFi networks. I sort of resented it, because my Mac didn’t connect quickly when awakened—at least it didn’t until I turned Bluetooth off.
I mentioned the problem back in December when my MacBook Air was only about a month old. It would wake up immediately when I lifted the lid, but more often than not it wouldn’t connect to my home network. Toggling AirPort on and off always got the connection going, but doing so was a pain, even after I wrote a script to do the toggling with a single keystroke.
Eventually, I found this discussion on MacRumors, in which someone with the original MB Air had the same problem. Another forum reader suggested the problem was some sort of interference between Bluetooth and WiFi and advised turning Bluetooth off. I looked up in my menubar, saw the solid black Bluetooth icon, and decided to give it a try. My WiFi connection has been immediate ever since.
I don’t know whether the “interference” was truly a signal interference or simply some sort of software fight between two protocols, and I don’t know what I’d do if I were using a Bluetooth mouse and needed it turned on all the time. Maybe my problem wasn’t just that I had Bluetooth on but that I also had the MB Air set to “discoverable.”
Whatever, the problem’s gone now, and now I have the instant-on Air that everyone raves about.
July 18th, 2011 at 10:54 pm
My Air issue is: the screen wakes up right away, but the OS is unresponsive for a few seconds.
July 20th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Thank you so much for this post! My wife’s 3 years old black MacBook was having a very similar issue, and turning off bluetooth made connecting to wifi a breeze. (And it also stopped losing its connection.)
August 3rd, 2011 at 3:31 pm
I’m having similar problems with my Air, exacerbated by the fact that my wireless hub is extremely spotty (even after it connects, I get “No Internet Connection”). Disabling Bluetooth is a bit of a non-starter for me, because I often use the Air in clamshell mode with BT keyboard/mouse.
I don’t know if this is a viable option for you, but what worked for me was changing the frequency of my wireless network from 2.4GHz to 5GHz. It screws up iOS devices, but that doesn’t affect me.