Resolved: Request timeout for icmp_seq Mac OS X

My Setup: Mac OS X 10.6, Comcast Modem, Linksys router

Recently I noticed that suddenly my internet use to slow down. I started digging out for the exact problem. While pinging to Google I received following response:

64 bytes from 74.125.115.147: icmp_seq=3024 ttl=50 time=34.063 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.115.147: icmp_seq=3025 ttl=50 time=30.229 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.115.147: icmp_seq=3026 ttl=50 time=35.426 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
64 bytes from 74.125.115.147: icmp_seq=3027 ttl=50 time=32.416 ms
64 bytes from 74.125.115.147: icmp_seq=3028 ttl=50 time=31.934 ms
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2

If you notice the requests were randomly timing out. I initially suspected the Modem & Router and tried to reset everything but still that didn’t help.

Finally I think I found out the solution. This is basically happening because of the Airport card trying to access all the available wireless networks on the same channel.

Go To –> Apple Icon –> About This Mac –> More Info –> Airport

If you see all the networks have same channel listed, then that’s your problem.

Go to your respective router settings and inside the wireless settings change default channel to something else within range of 1-10 and not used by any other network.

That’s it :). Hope this resolves your problem.

6 Comments

fetmanMay 1st, 2011 at 7:20 am

I have sort of the same problem:
Whenever I start my computer up (be that from sleep or reboot) it connects to the wifi-network (802.11g, WPA2-passkey encrypted), and have a short period of full internet-access (I run a continuos ping with google), and then the internet connection falls out giving “Request timeout for icmp_seq 1” as a result. It takes about 5 min., and then the connection is back online, with no ping-timeouts.
I checked the Airport-list as you said, and all of the available networks is on a different channel than my own. I have tried different channel settings in the router but with no results.
Any solutions?

RyanNovember 19th, 2011 at 2:39 pm

did the trick for me…. nice catch.

OmarJune 9th, 2012 at 2:53 pm

thnks so much save my life ….

AlexFebruary 17th, 2013 at 8:13 am

From 60% packet loss to 0.0% 🙂

Thanks a lot!

PramodJune 22nd, 2013 at 7:12 pm

I got this issue fixed. Go to N/W Preferences -> VPN (mine is PPTP) -> Advanced

1) Options tab -> Check ‘Send all traffic over the network’
2) Proxies tab -> Bypass proxy settings for these hosts & Domains: Enter the IP you want to connect.

And reconnect you VPN and TADDA… it works for me..

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