Help: Why can't my Macbook Pro connect to the Internet when it is connected to Wifi?

[DanJoshMass]

This past Tuesday, I purchased a brand new Macbook Pro from the Apple Store. It is the 13-inch without Retina Display (see specs here: https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/).
At home, my room is in the basement, and our Wifi router is in the office one floor up on the opposite side of the house. When I try to use the laptop in there, the Internet seems to cut in and out. It will say I am connected to the wifi network, but webpages won't load in Safari. Sometimes it will say that our wifi network isn't connected to the internet, but my iPhone and other laptops in our house are still connected to the internet just fine. When I use the laptop anywhere else in the house, it works fine. I never had this problem with my old Macbook from 2009.
Another problem, when I was at college on Wednesday, I could not connect to the internet at all. I connected to both of my school's wifi networks, but I couldn't load any webpages. Again, I never had this problem with my 2009 Macbook.
I took the laptop to the Apple Store, where they exchanged it for a new one. I am still having the same problem at home. I have not yet tried it out on my college's wifi networks or any other public wifi networks.
Anyone have a similar problem or know what's up with this?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

When you returned the first unit, did they take it out of the box and test it with their WiFi?

Sounds like you may have some form of interference that is causing a weak signal. The new MBP has much better WiFi hardware, but if it connects using 802.11ac, it may be more susceptible to interference than your old MB using 802.11b/g.

-What brand/model is your WiFi access point?
-Have you tried changing the broadcast channel?
-As for college WiFi, you may need to have their IT department install an 802.1X configuration profile/certificate to allow you to actually authenticate/login to the WiFi network, instead of just being able to see/connect to it.

C

 

[DanJoshMass]

Thanks for the reply.
When I returned the first unit, they tried out the Wifi and they couldn't connect to the store Wifi.
I am using a Netgear N600. It is a dual-band router (both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz). It is compatible with 802.11n as well as 802.11a/b/g. I'll have to see about the college Wifi network next time I'm there.