Complaints mount about Yosemite crippling Wi-Fi

There has been a steady stream of reports from users whose Wi-Fi connections were affected after installing the latest version of Mac OS X

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Complaints that Mac OS X Yosemite disrupts or entirely disables Wi-Fi have been flowing into social media sites and discussion forums since the release of the OS last Thursday, but Apple has yet to acknowledge there's a problem.

There are multiple active threads on the topic in the official Apple Support forum, as well as in third party discussion boards, where frustrated users are furiously trying to troubleshoot the problem.

In the Apple Support forum, a thread titled "OSX Yosemite Wifi issues" is nearing 200 comments, and has been viewed more than 12,000 times, while another one titled "Yosemite (OS X 10.10) killed my WiFi :(" recently topped 100 comments and 10,300 views.

A thread titled "wifi keeps dropping since Yosemite upgrade" is active with more than 50 comments and has been viewed almost 3,000 times. A search for "Yosemite" and "Wi-Fi" on Twitter yields a long list of complaints dating back to last week.

Affected users report a variety of Wi-Fi issues after installing Yosemite, including connections that slow down to a crawl, that drop constantly or that simply don't work at all.

The forums contain a variety of fixes that have worked for some people -- reinstalling the OS, turning off Bluetooth, fiddling with system settings and other very involved multistep "solutions" -- but for most of those affected, the problem persists.

"As far as I see it, we should not be trying to find a work-around, or hacks to the system. This should be resolved by Apple ASAP. How can an operating system be released when the fundamental use of most machines require network access," wrote a user identified as "ecotecit" Tuesday morning in the Apple Support forum.

Meanwhile, a sampling of recent complaints about the issue on Twitter include:

-- "I will never upgrade again buy or upgrade an apple product within the first month of its launch. OS X Yosemite's wifi issues are appalling."

-- "Maintaining consistent Wifi on Yosemite is an adventure."

-- "Apple's forums are burning with 'yosemite killed my wifi' threads. Developer previews and open betas a-plenty... how has this slipped through?"

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.