iPhone 4S unable to join network

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iPhone 4S unable to join network

Hey Guys,

I have an Airport Extreme with the latest Firmware 7.6.3 installed and an iPhone 4S with the latest iOS 6.1.1 installed. The Airport works fine with a couple of other devices (iPhone 5 with iOS 6.1.1, iPad 3 with iOS 6.1.1, Macbook Pro Retina with Mtn Lion, Macbook Air with Mtn Lion, Amazon Kindle Keyboard, XBox 360 connected via cable, Windows PC connected via cable) and the iPhone 4S works fine with networks opened by other routers. Here is what I have tried:

- reboot the phone

- reset network settings on the phone

- forget the network on the phone

- disable all security on the airport

- open a guest network on the airport with another SSID and no security

- open a guest network on the airport with another SSID and WPA2 security

No matter what I do, my 4S will never ever connect to a wireless network opened by my Airport Extreme. All I get is "Unable to join the network "XXX"". This is really really frustrating. It's obviously a bug of some sort - with only Apple devices involved - and apple would even like to charge me money for opening a support case? Do you have any other ideas what I could try?

Regards,

Fabian 😢

iPhone 4S, iOS 6.1.1

Posted on Feb 17, 2013 3:44 PM

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Answer 1

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Fabian Frank Author

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Feb 17, 2013 3:53 PM in response to Fabian Frank

I just unplugged my Airport Extreme for 20s and plugged it in again. Now the phone connects just fine. ***? Shouldn't the reboot of the Airport Extreme do the same thing?

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Answer 2

JoeMY

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Feb 17, 2013 4:37 PM in response to Fabian Frank

It could be a problem with 7.6.3 after the firmware update. Wierd stuff happening which never did with previous firmwares. Do a factory reset and configure to clear this if you have future issues.

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Answer 3

Fabian Frank Author

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Feb 17, 2013 7:36 PM in response to JoeMY

I think that's a valid point. I had 7.6.2 almost a year and _everything_ was 100% flawless. I didn't reconnect or reboot my modem or AirPort Extreme in 11 months. Since the 7.6.3 update things got very messy. Forcing IPv6 to link local only improved things quite a bit. But next problem I'm downgrading...

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Answer 4

Fabian Frank Author

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Feb 17, 2013 11:41 PM in response to Fabian Frank

Unfortunately I had a connection drop (on all devices) yet again. I reverted back to the 7.6.1 Firmware after that, after all there's 0 in 7.6.3 that I need. Hopefully things will stay as is and back to normal from now on. Oh yeah, of course downgrading was only possible with the old Airport Utility 5.x, which is not really supported on Mtn Lion...Apple, what are you doing?

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Answer 5

Fabian Frank Author

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Feb 18, 2013 12:17 AM in response to Fabian Frank

And the tale goes on, internet on my iPad became extremely slow while the iPhone was still fast a few minutes after the downgrade. Now I performed a hard reset and reconfigured. So far all devices fast, maybe it lasts this time...

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