Unterstanding MacOS wifi logs

I'm using a Macbook Pro mid 2014 (Big Sur) and try to investigate wifi connection problems.

My router (Fritz!Box 7590) shows in the logs that constantly every 10 minutes the Macbook has been logged of from the wifi network (802.11ac) and logged on again.

E.g. it shows that at 10:04:30 the device has been logged off and then at 10:04:34 logged on again.

I turned on wifi logging on my Macbook:

Unfortunately I don't understand the contents of the wifi.log.

May anybody give me a hint if there are specific log messages that indicate the reason for logging off and logging on again?

Best regards
I had the same issue. Setting my WIFI encryption from WPA3 to WPA2 in the router solved the problem.
hi, I don't hope setting your network to less secure is the answer. Although this would fix a lot of problems ;)
I think the culprit is:
Code Block
Wed Dec 2 10:04:29.904 Driver Event: <airport[3314]> _bsd_80211_event_callback: APPLE80211_M_ROAM_START (en0)

I have the same issue, which is very annoying for video calls.
(MBPro 2015/Big Sur and Fritzbox 7580 with Mesh using FB-Extender 3000)
No other devices seem to experience this issue.
My current knowledge is:
Running a
Code Block
ping --apple-time 192.168.188.110 -i 0.1
13:21:12.730147 64 bytes from 192.168.188.110: icmp_seq=3750 ttl=64 time=1.214 ms
13:21:12.836592 64 bytes from 192.168.188.110: icmp_seq=3751 ttl=64 time=3.009 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3753
-snip-
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3787
13:21:16.694166 64 bytes from 192.168.188.110: icmp_seq=3788 ttl=64 time=3.420 ms
13:21:16.805075 64 bytes from 192.168.188.110: icmp_seq=3789 ttl=64 time=4.709 ms


and a

Code Block
tail -f /var/log/wifi.log
Tue Dec 15 13:21:12.857 Driver Event: <airport[175]> _bsd_80211_event_callback: APPLE80211_M_ROAM_START (en0)
Tue Dec 15 13:21:12.857 Info: <airport[175]> Roaming started on interface en0
Tue Dec 15 13:21:12.857 Info: <airport[175]> PRIORITY LOCK ADDED [client=airportd, type=4, interface=en0, priority=5]
Tue Dec 15 13:21:12.859 Info: <airport[175]> -[CWXPCInterfaceContext setAWDLOperatingMode:interface:error:]: attempting to set AWDL mode to 2
Tue Dec 15 13:21:12.859 Info: <airport[175]> SUSPEND AWDL for interface en0, timeout=10.0s, reason=Roam, token=8
--- Snip / too long ---
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.648 <kernel> installGTK: IGTK installed
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.648 Info: <airport[175]> Roaming ended on interface en0
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.648 Driver Event: <airport[175]> _bsd_80211_event_callback: RSN_HANDSHAKE_DONE (en0)
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.649 Info: <airport[175]> -[CWXPCInterfaceContext setRoamInProgress:reason:]_block_invoke: roam status metric data: CWAWDMetricRoamStatus: status:0 security: 2 profile:5 origin:{length = 3, bytes = 0x000000}(-49) target:{length = 3, bytes = 0x3ca62f}(-57) latency:3.791029s
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.649 Info: <airport[175]> -[CWAWDManager submitMetric:]: submitting metric id 0x90046
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.649 Info: <airport[175]> RESUME AWDL for interface en0, reason=Roam token=8
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.649 Info: <airport[175]> PRIORITY LOCK REMOVED [client=airportd, type=4, interface=en0, priority=5]
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.650 Info: <airport[175]> -[CWXPCInterfaceContext setAWDLOperatingMode:interface:error:]: attempting to set AWDL mode to 0
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.709 <kernel> postMessage::1412 APPLE80211_M_BSSID_CHANGED received
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.709 P2P: <airport[175]> _p2pSupEventCallback: APPLE80211_M_BSSID_CHANGED
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.709 Driver Event: <airport[175]> _bsd_80211_event_callback: BSSID_CHANGED (en0)
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.709 Info: <airport[175]> _bsd_80211_event_callback: Frequency Band updated <2>
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.710 Offload: <airport[175]> tcpKeepAliveActive: TCP keep-alive is active.
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.710 WoW: <airport[175]> LPAS not supported on en0, applying legacy WoW behavior
Tue Dec 15 13:21:16.710 WoW: <airport[175]> WoW successfully ENABLED on en0

point to roaming, as the wifi cuts out between roaming start and end.
Unfortunately I have not found a solution yet.
If anyone can point me to disabling wifi-roaming, I would be grateful.
I tried setting the joinMode to strongest (was unset before) with no success.
Code Block
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport prefs JoinMode

and disabling roaming, but that seems not to be supported any longer.
Code Block
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.airport.opproam disabled -bool true

I will test disabling WPA3 to see if this changes, but hope someone has a better idea.
Update:
well, thanks @isehfbeil it does work,
as for whatever reason the roaming does not run anymore.

I solved this problem by doing two things:

  • Making my Wifi 2.4ghz and 5ghz have the same name (SSID). I had them with different names.
  • Fixed both 2.4 and 5 to specific channels rather than letting my router choose the radio channel automatically. I chose ones that were not too busy. You might want to try a couple of different channels (particularly for 5ghz) in case it doesn't fix the problem right away.

If it helps, my router is a FRITZ!Box 7581.

I find useless messages in the wifi.log file. All devices connect to my AT&T 1Gb Fiber connection but the MacBook Pro. This device connected without issue prior to the Monterey upgrade, now it's dead. Oddly, it completed the install, connecting repeatedly after two or three reboots. When finished, it claimed I connected, but that I had no internet. Switched to Linux device and Windows 10 device, no problem connecting there. Reboot MacBook, still no network configuration. Must be a DHCP problem.

Unterstanding MacOS wifi logs
 
 
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