WiFi Issues - 802.11ac 5Ghz UNII-1 Band in AU

Question

PaulDynamik OP

Created Jul ’15

Replies 4

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OS X El Capitan Beta 3 doesn't seem to like the 5Ghz UNII-1 band with 802.11ac

Same behaviour observed in OS X 10.10.x Yosemite (Tested up to 10.10.4)

Tested and Replicated with WPA2 Personal PSK and WPA2 Enterprise 802.11x PEAP auth.

- Join channel 36-48 = connection starts ok then TxRate immediately drops to MCS0 or MCS1 rates, disconnects under load.

- Join channel 149-161 = client obtains full TxRate rate, varies under load.

We have tested this on several access points (HP 560 J9846A) and with several MacBookAir6,1

Also observed onMacBookAir6,2 and iMac14,2

Downgrade to OS X 10.9 Mavericks and WiFi works perfectly on all channels.

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Answer 1

PaulDynamik OP

Jul ’15

Update to this:

The issue is when AP is set to regulatory domain of Australia. (Country Code: AU)

When set to United States (Country Code: US), MacBook connects OK.

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Answer 2

heather1001 OP

Jul ’15

I have observed the same issue.

MacBook Pro Retina Mid 2014

AirPort Time Capsule - 5GHz channel set to automatic - Mac would always connect to channel 36.

Initial boot - obtains full (or high, eg 585 Mbps) TxRate.

After wake from sleep - briefly obtainss full TxRate, then drops to extremely low rate - eg 7Mbps

This has been an issue since Yosemite 10.10.2. I was able to resolve it in Yosemite by rolling back to the 7.0 version of the IO80211Family.kext driver (as was supplied in 10.10.1).

Have now changed AirPort to set 5GHz channel to 149. This has resolved the issue.

MacBook now obtains high TxRate on boot, and after sleep.

Note - I am located in Australia, and so the AP is set to AU. Am unable to set it to US (firmware only offers other Asian country codes)

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Answer 3

PaulDynamik OP

Jul ’15

Thanks for confirming the problem. Especially with the the AirPort Time Capsule!

I will have a look at the .kext and report back 🙂

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Answer 4

PaulDynamik OP

Aug ’15

More on this... it only seems to be prevalent on MacBooks sold outside the US.

If you go to System Profiler > Hardware > WiFi - check the Locale.

Locale: FCC Country Code: US = OK

Locale: FCC Country Code: AU = OK

Locale: ETSI Country Code: US = OK

Locale: ETSI Country Code: AU = Problem!

Now I'm curious for all the people complaining about WiFi in the Yosemite forums - if their hardware identifies as ETSI and not FCC.

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