Issues with a 2011 Macbook Air dropping its wireless network?

Many people are reporting issues with the Macbook Air using wireless networks. From poor performance to the network simply not responding, even though it appears connected. I'm aware of a couple of threads on the subject.

Wifi Issues with MacBook Air
New MacBook Air wireless problems

Here's a script I wrote that will detect a network meltdown and do something about it. No warranty implied or offered. It works for me. Your mileage may vary.

This is NOT a fix for this issue. Unfortunately we need to wait for Apple to both acknowledge the problem publicly and/or fix it.

check-network.sh

It needs to run as root via cron? Don't know what I'm talking about. perhaps this isn't for you. I can't be held responsible if you break something. But I'll try to provide some simple instructions below.

NOTE: This assumes its running on a Macbook Air and that the wireless interface is en0

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1. Download the script and put it in a suitable folder. (I use a /scripts folder in the drive root. eg at the same level as Applications etc)
2. Open up terminal
3. Change the ownership of the script to root:staff (sudo chown root:staff /scripts/check-network.sh)
4. Ensure the script is executable (eg sudo chmod 550 /scripts/check-network.sh)
5. Add the script to the root crontab to execute every minute. ( sudo crontab -e)
* * * * * /scripts/check-network.sh

Type :wq to quit the crontab editor

7.The script will now watch your network and give it a kick when it identifies a problem.

If you have growl and growlnotify installed, edit the script and change the USEGROWL=0 line to USEGROWL=1.

You'll now get a sticky growl notification on your desktop when the script needs to take action.

Otherwise you can check for entries in the /var/log/check-network.log file

**Update and commentary on other published "fixes" - 29/08/2011

• 10.7.1 hasn't fixed it
• Creating an "internet" profile doesn't fix it
• Disabling bluetooth doesn't completely fix it
• Removing the Bluetooth PAN device from your Network profile helps, but doesn't fix it.

Summary: Apple needs to get their act together and resolve this.  Macbook Air is a Wifi orientated portable device. If Wifi no worky, its a massive FAIL:

Customers shouldn't, under any circumstances, be expected to have to carry out any obscure low level technical "workarounds" to get their device to function to a basic level. Shame apple. shame.

*Update 2/2/2012

• 10.7.3 seems to help with the Wifi on wake issues
• Explicitly disable IPv6 seems to solve the random internet dying issue.
• sudo networksetup -setv6off Wi-Fi

Time will tell.