# Problem with WiFi on 2011 MBP



## darksteel88 (Jul 10, 2008)

So I have the early 2011 MBP and have been having some WiFi troubles. Sometimes my WiFi works perfectly fine, other times, it has issues. Sometimes I get no WiFi card showing up, sometimes it will show up but won't let me search for networks. Sometimes I get WiFi connectivity but the network speed is really slow, or pages seemingly fail to load at all. And of course, to top it off, sometimes it works perfectly fine.

I think the issue first occurred when I upgraded to Yosemite. It had previously been on Lion, hadn't really bothered upgrading. It started progressively getting worse. When I upgraded to El Capitan, it didn't seem to change at all, though I ended up having a GPU issue that was covered under extended warranty (they replaced the logic board).

When I was on El Capitan, I had a while where the WiFi just wouldn't do anything, it would either not show up or not search for networks. Various fixes seemed to help for some time, like resetting the SMC or disabling Bluetooth, but none of them proved to be a permanent solution.

Is this a failing WiFi card? Is there a way that I can check? I think the intermittent issues seem to suggest it's a WiFi card, but it's strange how it coincides with my OS upgrade. It's also strange that various fixes like resetting SMC seemed to make the issue disappear.


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## MartyF81 (Jan 23, 2013)

I would start with following the suggestions in this guide: Fixing Wi-Fi Issues in OS X El Capitan | OSXDaily

If this has been happening with many different OS installations... I am inclined to think it is a hardware issue though.

The Wifi Card could be failing, the WiFi card itself could be coming lose from the logic board, and or the antenna cables are lose etc... The only way to really tell some of those things is to take it apart and look at the card. 

Apple Hardware test can help diagnose some hardware issues though: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257


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## darksteel88 (Jul 10, 2008)

I've tried various suggestions from those types of posts. Of note, I have tried the plist fix, which has worked sometimes, but didn't work other times. That's right, it completely fixed my internet at least once, and has done nothing at least once.

I tried the other one with the custom DNS and custom MTU, it worked for a while and seemed to work, then started to struggle. Some pages were loading much slower than they should have. My speedtest was slower than it should be, but far above what's necessary for this. For example, browsing Reddit I got some results of DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET, then a few seconds later it would load pages as if that had never happened.

I suppose I'll have to try the hardware test and see if that yields anything.

I doubt it's the WiFi card coming lose from the logic board, as the logic board was replaced recently and the issue has happened before and after the replacement.


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## darksteel88 (Jul 10, 2008)

I ran the hardware test, didn't detect any hardware issues.


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## ralphch97 (Jun 6, 2016)

did you find a solution for your problem?? I am having the same one with my late 2011 MBP


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## Deleted 6-9-16 (Jun 5, 2016)

you need to check your router wireless settings. Make sure you have a secure connection so no one else is getting on. Chances are your wifi is broadcasting on the same channel as your neighbors. Most cable modems come with the wifi feature..so just log into it. usually they are 192.168.0.1 or something like that and you would type that in a browser. you have to check with the manufacture. Once you log into your modem, look for wireless settings and you should be able to see other wireless access points and which channels they are using and try to avoid those channels.


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