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Cannot get Mac wifi to shut off.

brady_brady

Hello SEs,

I have a new 15" Mac Powerbook Pro. When I try to turn off the wifi (screenshot below) the wifi turns off, then immediately turns itself back on (I assume because it senses a signal is present.)

How do I tell the computer "No, I really mean it, turn the wifi OFF and keep it off until I say so."

Surely this must be possible, but the only thing I find when Googling this topic involves Android phones.

Thanks for any help you can give.

Cheers,

Brady

Accepted answers

brady_brady

I have the info from staging--this IS due to a SAS-installed script, which can be disabled as described below:

This is currently how the Wi-Fi on/off scripts functions. I am working on GUI utility that will allow for customizable options, such as the ability to leave Wi-Fi on when Ethernet is disconnected among others. In the meantime, you can unload the LaunchDaemon for the script for the script by entering this command in Terminal:

sudo launchctl unload –w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.SAS.wifionoff.plist

All comments

Jeff_Perkinson

Is this your SAS MacBook, with the standard SAS staged configuration?

If so, send the question to the help desk. That's not normal WiFi behavior for a Macintosh. I know that they have configured them so that WiFi is turned off when ethernet is connected and vice-versa. Perhaps this is related to that.

-Jeff

brady_brady

Thanks Jeff--I will contact the help desk but should mention that no ethernet is connected. Sometimes for battery life (or, while I am in public and want zero chance of my machine being visible) I still want the wifi off. FWIW, this machine runs Yosemite... the procedure above worked fine on the Mac that this machine replaced, which was running Mavericks.

DonMcCormack

Have you tried turning it off through the Preferences? I have occasionally seen this behavior with my Mac

brady_brady

Yeah, I've tried that too. My hypothesis now, after over an hour on the phone with Apple support, is that this is due to some SAS IT-installed junk on my machine. I'd like to test this hypothesis, but that'll have to wait until someone else is issued a Mac. I have a workaround that stops the wifi from listening... but it doesn't stop it wifi from working, which is what would be best for battery life in such instances.

brady_brady

The current answer from the helpdesk was tangential to my question; I asked an even more more direct question in my follow-up and will update as I learn more. At this point I do suspect it is a SAS-installed "feature."

jules

Have you tried via the terminal? I suspect this wouldn't work if this was done intentionally (perhaps to maintain binding active directory) but it's worth a shot:

networksetup -setairportpower en0 off

to enable:

networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

if en0 isn't mapped to your airport for some reason, you can get a list of devices with:

networksetup -listallhardwareports

Chris_Kirchberg

Another thing to try is to go to Preferences>Network and create a new location (From pulldown menu choose edit locations). Once you have a new location created you can rename it to something like “no wireless”. When this location is selected, select Wi-Fi and then click on the minus sign at the bottom to remove this interface. Wi-Fi___33 should be shut off.

If you notice that things are grayed out, it is probably because the network settings is locked with an admin password. Another thing you can try is to see if you can create a new user with admin privileges that is not bound to access control via Active Directory (Yup, it’s possible to have a user account in mac os x bound to windows active directory). Login to that account to see if you can edit any of the changes or if you can change your SAS create account. I usually do this for both mac and windows machines in case something happens to my domain account and I can still get access to my computer and documents.

brady_brady

Thanks, Julian. I think this might be what the menu selection itself does. The behavior is the same, at any rate--the wireless comes back on immediately.

brady_brady

I have the info from staging--this IS due to a SAS-installed script, which can be disabled as described below:

sudo launchctl unload –w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.SAS.wifionoff.plist

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