Wifi drops when screen is locked I have a Mid 2010 MBP, running 10.7.1.

Ever since I upgraded to Lion, I have noticed that Wi-Fi connections that require 802.1x authentication are dropping whenever I lock the screen. The connections remain down until I unlock, at which point they quickly start passing traffic again.

This behavior is new as of 10.7.

As I mentioned earlier, this only applies to 802.1x connections. Unencrypted Wifi and non-802.1x connections are not affected. My guess is that the keychain is de-authenticating my 802.1x session when I lock the machine and then re-authenticating when I unlock.

Do you know of any way to prevent this behavior?



Edit:
I'm using username/password auth for 802.1x, not certificate auth.
I had this exact problem, and I was pretty annoyed by it. I stopped "locking" my screen, and instead started "sleeping" display. The wifi stays connected when screen is asleep. I assigned "Sleep Display" to a hotkey using BetterTouchTool (http://blog.boastr.net/). 

Then, I went to System Preferences > Security > Require Password after sleep or screensaver begins. 

Now my hotkey puts my display to sleep, and then the computer requires password when I wake it up. So it's the same functionality of Locking my computer without losing wifi.