Wi-Fi always disconnects after 1 hour of connection to a Wi-Fi hotspot

BleepCrash

Honorable
Feb 28, 2013
1
0
10,510
Have a problem with Wi-Fi, and going to work on this computer over the weekend. So before I get my hands on it, hoping to get some suggestions on how to get it done. The time for a fix will be limited, so if anyone had a similar issue please shed some light on this.

Hardware:
Mid-2011 Mac Book Air, Model A1369 EMC 2469.
Here are its specs: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP631
Unfortunately, Apple is so bad that they don't provide the exact build specs even for the serial number itself, nor do they list actual hardware components.
Middle to bottom of this page may have a bit more spec info, but still no actual hardware components info, unless one checks them on the laptop itself (which I won't have access to till I'm working on it).
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook-air/specs/macbook-air-core-i5-1.7-13-mid-2011-specs.html

Problem:
Wi-Fi always disconnects after about 1 hour of connection to a Wi-Fi hotspot under Windows 7 via Bootcamp.
These Wi-Fi drops happen in every hotspot (fast food, hotel, other free Wi-Fi) so far.
Symptoms:
Works without drops when connected to same Wi-Fi hotspots in Mac OSX 10.x.
Even works in Windows 7 when using own, separate Verizon 4G mobile hotspot, model MIFI 4510L. But again not when connected to the hotel hotspots/routers.
Loses Wi-Fi connection after about an hour when on regular Wi-Fi (via router/hotspot). Happens on different Wi-Fi networks in different places -- same problem.

Steps undertaken:
Checked online and saw lots of people having Wi-Fi disconnection problems in Windows 7 on Mac Books (Pro and Air). Also saw people having lots of disconnection problems with just Windows 7 (without a Mac).
No concrete solutions found so far though. Any pointers?

Things to consider:
What makes Verizon 4G hotspot so different from other hotspots? Is it protocols? Different encryption? Something else?
Obviously I can't change the settings on the routers (as they are the establishment's and are different in every place). I can only change something locally on the laptop itself.
I have very limited amount of time to apply any fixes I can think of. About 1 hour; 1 and a half max. I know that it's not best for trying to troubleshoot it, but that's all I have this week to work on it. In a few weeks I might have more time to spend with it. Laptop may have Hide My Ass Pro VPN proxy installed. Can't verify at the moment. OSX has it for sure. Windows side -- not positive. But switching it off will be the first thing I'll try. Can it interfere?

Questions:
What steps to try to undertake and in which order.
A list of all the things it can be would be helpful.
Any way to monitor the connection live and see what caused the disconnect? Say a live or recorded log of network card and router communication? With the data traffic filtered out? Can Wireshark do that? How to use it for it then? Can SysInternals suite be used for that? Any other special tools?
Reinstall drivers? Any better drivers available for it? The Wireless card is called Airport officially. But if remember correctly it is: Broadcom BCM43xx. Maybe there is something more stable for Win 7 out there for it?
 
Sounds like a driver issue to me. Hard to say what to do beyond update those drivers since I’m not a Mac user, and certainly not familiar w/ using Windows on a Mac, which may have its own idiosyncrasies.

One not so elegant solution is to use an ethernet wireless bridge to avoid the issue of wireless on the Mac entirely. Of course, in typical Apple fashion, they’ve made that just a little more difficult by removing the ethernet port and forcing you to buy a USB ethernet adapter.

<-- wireless -->[wireless ethernet bridge]<-- wire -->[usb ethernet adapter]<-- usb -->[mac]

Or else use another USB wireless adapter (w/ the possibility you’ll have similar driver issues).