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Recent Apple updates leading to WiFi issues?

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Re: Recent Apple updates leading to WiFi issues?

#5

Post by soziawa »

lapcat wrote: post #3

> Note: if you opt to not use the script and want to use the UI, you have to disable both Bluetooth and AirDrop. Periodic reminder that Apple re-enables Bluetooth on every OS update: https://lapcatsoftware.com/articles/bluetooth.html

It also resets custom DNS settings for all networks.

Re: Recent Apple updates leading to WiFi issues?

#6

Post by varenc »

Their actual solution for disabling AWDL is running this script in the background:

    while true; do
        if ifconfig awdl0 |grep -q "
That just checks the awld0 interface every second and turns it off if it's on. Apple really doesn't offer any other way to disable awdl?

Note that setting AirDrop to "No One" doesn't fully disable awdl. It's used for other things like screen sharing, AirPlay, bonjour device/service discovery, etc. Though perhaps disabling AirPlay is enough to stop the WiFi issues. You can sniff awdl traffic with `sudo tcpdump -i awdl0`

Re: Recent Apple updates leading to WiFi issues?

#7

Post by snarf21 »

I really really really wish that Apple would always use DHCP and get an open IP instead of assuming their last one is still good just so they can say they connect to WiFi 100 ms faster than anyone else. It is so infuriating and causes all the devices in my house to fight for their rightful slot.

Re: Recent Apple updates leading to WiFi issues?

#8

Post by tristor »

snarf21 wrote: post #7

I really really really wish that Apple would always use DHCP and get an open IP instead of assuming their last one is still good just so they can say they connect to WiFi 100 ms faster than anyone else. It is so infuriating and causes all the devices in my house to fight for their rightful slot.

Is this true? I hadn't even noticed, because I assign every device a static DHCP assignment so I can categorize devices numerically. That is really messed up, and akin to what Google does with TCP/HTTP for connections to google.com in order to ensure it gets first byte faster. Companies are doing all sorts of "performance hacks" that just straight our break standards, and therefore break interop. I know for Apple devices I had to disable some standardize WiFi functionality on my access points because these devices cannot handle it despite claiming to support the standard.

Re: Recent Apple updates leading to WiFi issues?

#9

Post by mrtesthah »

varenc wrote: post #6

Their actual solution for disabling AWDL is running this script in the background: while true; do if ifconfig awdl0 |grep -q " That just checks the awld0 interface every second and turns it off if it's on. Apple really doesn't offer any other way to disable awdl? Note that setting AirDrop to "No One" doesn't fully disable awdl. It's used for other things like screen sharing, AirPlay, bonjour device/service discovery,…

You might also try something like:

   sudo /usr/libexec/airportd en0 prefs AWDLEnabled=YES
(Edit: see varenc's reply below)

Or you could create a kext (using deprecated KPIs) that continuously blocks the interface from coming up:

   errno_t awdlblock_ioctl_handler(void *cookie, ifnet_t interface, protocol_family_t protocol, unsigned long ioctl_cmd, void *ioctl_arg) {
    
    if (SIOCSIFFLAGS == ioctl_cmd) {
     struct ifreq *ifr = (struct ifreq*)ioctl_arg;
     
     if (ifr && ((ifr->ifr_flags) & IFF_UP) != 0) {
      return EJUSTRETURN;
     }
    }
    return ENOTSUP;
   }
   
   kern_return_t awdlblock_start(kmod_info_t * ki, void *d)
   {
       struct iff_filter filter = { 0 };
       errno_t err = ifnet_find_by_name("awdl0", &p_ifnet);
       if (err) {
           printf("interface awdl0 not found\n");
           return KERN_SUCCESS;
       }
       filter.iff_name     = "AWDLBlock";
       filter.iff_ioctl    = awdlblock_ioctl_handler;
       iflt_attach(p_ifnet, &filter, &p_filter);
       
       return KERN_SUCCESS;
   }

Re: Recent Apple updates leading to WiFi issues?

#10

Post by lilyball »

snarf21 wrote: post #7

I really really really wish that Apple would always use DHCP and get an open IP instead of assuming their last one is still good just so they can say they connect to WiFi 100 ms faster than anyone else. It is so infuriating and causes all the devices in my house to fight for their rightful slot.

Why are they fighting? Why is your router aggressively reusing the IPs as soon as the lease expires?

In my house, all of my devices end up with pretty stable IPs (even non-Apple ones) and I haven't done anything special to configure this. I assume my router holds onto previously-assigned IPs in case the device comes back as long as there's still unassigned IPs available to give out to new devices, though I haven't investigated it.

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