Mdthbs

I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro, I installed ArchBang and am running i3 (Arch Linux x86_64; Kernel 5.0.9-arch1-1-ARCH). About three months ago I started to experience inconsistent network issues. My web browser would be working fine, for anywhere from five to twenty minutes at an time, then it will drop. I will either get an ERR_NAME_RESOLUTION_FAILED or the page load will just stay at 0%. I have "fix" this by either hitting F5 a number of times, disconnecting and reconnecting to the network, or by running sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager.service

When this first started happening I could still run ping -c 3 www.github.com and receive some results, even if it was just "100% packet loss." Also, my `mbsync.service` would still successfully run. Now, when the connection is lost ping will either stall completely or return "Temporary failure in name resolution" and my email sync will fail with an similar error.

I asked my ISP to come check my connection because when the internet was connected it was running much slower than usual. They sent someone out and when they finished their maintain my desktop was getting about 110 Mb/s; my cell phone was getting somewhere around 25/30 Mb/s; and my MacBook was getting anywhere from 8-10 Mb/s. After he left, I started my macOS Recovery System on the MacBook and did a speed test from Safari I was getting upwards of 85 Mb/s. (I used the same site for all devices.)

The first search I did returned a post suggesting I run `journalctl -f`, this mostly contained

dbus-daemon[490]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'dbus-org.freedesktop.resolve1.service': Unit dbus-org.freedesktop.resolve1.service not found.

/etc/hosts

----------

# Static table lookup for hostnames.

# See hosts(5) for details.

127.0.0.1      localhost.localdomain     localhost

::1            localhost.localdomain     localhost

127.0.1.1      macbang.localdomain       macbang

/etc/hostname

---------------

macbang

When that did not solve the problem I ran the resolv.service; however, with that running my computer stopped connecting to all websites, period. Every promising search result for systemd-resolv issues were way above my knowledge level, so I tried other things.

I tried wiping my system’s /, in hopes of a clean install correcting the problem. I tried Manjaro i3 first (I used kernels 4.19 and 4.20), then ArchBang again. A fresh install did not correct the problem. Interestingly enough, when running the Live Boot ISO, there were no connection issues, I surfed random sites and videos for two hours at one point and there were no issues. A few hours after the system was installed the network started dropping again.

I have a Dell, that is running Manjaro, and like my MacBook, is only connected via WiFi. It has had zero issues connecting to and staying connected. I have copied (as much as reason allows) those setting and still the MacBook has problems. I have copied the default settings from both live systems to no avail.

I tried switching from "NetworkManager" to "wicd." I also tried both programs with "b43," "broadcom-wl," and
broadcom-wl-dkms." No difference.

journalctl -f

-------------

Apr 24 20:51:40 macbang NetworkManager[8447]: <warn>  [1556153500.4827] dhcp6 (wlp3s0): request timed out

Apr 24 20:51:40 macbang NetworkManager[8447]: <info>  [1556153500.4828] dhcp6 (wlp3s0): state changed unknown -> timeout

Apr 24 20:51:40 macbang NetworkManager[8447]: <info>  [1556153500.4829] dhcp6 (wlp3s0): canceled DHCP transaction

Apr 24 20:51:40 macbang NetworkManager[8447]: <info>  [1556153500.4829] dhcp6 (wlp3s0): state changed timeout -> done

This is also very much the same output from systemctl status NetworkManager.service. One of results from my search claimed my ISP was the problem, but again, the Dell has no issues, either does my old ass iMac—​which only uses the wired connection). I then tried changed the DNS Servers, from both the router and Network Manager. I also tried editing the /etc/systemd/resolved.conf to read "DNSSEC=no" (while leaving everything else at default).

Since I still wasn’t able to find much information I could understand I went on to playing with Network Manager’s back-ends. I installed "dhclient" first and added the correct lines to /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/dhcp-client.conf. When that didn’t work, I installed and configured "dnsmasq." Then I tried running them together.

I couldn’t not find the correct keywords for an successful search (which has lead me to believe I will be unable to ask a successful question). I did, however, discover ifconfig -a and dhclient wlp3.

A couple of days again I reset my router to it’s factory settings, thinking that maybe last year’s attempt to create a home server did some damage to the network. I knew it would be a waste as my other computer and OSs have no issues, but I was hoping. In vain, of course.

I honestly have no ideas what setting on my MacBook that could be changed because from what I can see, "NetworkManager" might inform me (2 or 3 times) secrets were not recieved when they were, once it connects to any other network, it stays connected and keeps decent speed (I mostly browse text sites, so imagine how slow it had to be moving for me to notice). Using my iPhone as a hotspot produces better speeds than my router—​which I realized I haven’t detailed: Netgear N300 WiFi Cable Modem Router.I can’t imagine what is wrong with the router as none of my other devices or systems are having issues.