NikCh

Q: iPad Air WiFi (5GHz) issues after iOS 8 upgrade

After upgrading to iOS 8, my iPad Air only has a stable connection at 2.4GHZ; using 5GHz causes it (Safari amongst other programs) to hang and lose internet (but not necessarily the wifi link).  Fortunately, I can set up 2 SSIDs on my router and so 'force' the 2.4GHz connection, so I can still use the device.

 

The iPad's internet link worked perfectly well before the upgrade, so I'm assuming it to be a software/OS issue, not a router one.

 

Are others having the same, or similar problem?

Has this happened with previous upgrades?

Is there likely to be a software fix for it?

iPad Air Wi-Fi, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 19, 2014 6:22 AM

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Q: iPad Air WiFi (5GHz) issues after iOS 8 upgrade

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  • by Wanderingstacy ,

    Wanderingstacy Wanderingstacy Oct 4, 2014 11:30 AM in response to jmbgator23
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    Oct 4, 2014 11:30 AM in response to jmbgator23

    I am having the same issues you describe. My iPad Air was working fine on iOS 7, then updated to 8.0.2 and my 5ghz wifi (802.11n) keeps dropping out or becoming unusably slow. I too have noticed that "forgetting" my wireless network, and then reconnecting can solve the dropout temporarily, but the poor connectivity always returns.

     

    When I switch to the 2.4ghz channel on my router (dual band) I do not have any issues.  The connectivity problem seems to be related to 5.0ghz, and iOS 8.0.2.

     

    Apple, we need a fix here!

  • by Kokopéli,

    Kokopéli Kokopéli Oct 4, 2014 4:57 PM in response to Wanderingstacy
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2014 4:57 PM in response to Wanderingstacy
  • by Kokopéli,

    Kokopéli Kokopéli Oct 4, 2014 4:58 PM in response to jmbgator23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2014 4:58 PM in response to jmbgator23
  • by MBinPotomac,

    MBinPotomac MBinPotomac Oct 4, 2014 6:26 PM in response to Kokopéli
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2014 6:26 PM in response to Kokopéli

    It also is working for me....so far.  I turned off location services and reset network setting.

  • by Itcdominic,

    Itcdominic Itcdominic Oct 5, 2014 7:05 PM in response to NikCh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 5, 2014 7:05 PM in response to NikCh

    II'm having the same fact issue since upgrading. I'm extremely ******. My pad is my tool used all day everyday. If this is not fixed soon I need to find another solution.

     

    Very disapointed!

     

    dominic

  • by J & E,

    J & E J & E Oct 6, 2014 8:47 AM in response to Kokopéli
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2014 8:47 AM in response to Kokopéli

    I May be jumping the gun here, but resetting the location wifi based on the link provided may have helped. Fingers crossed, but we shall see.

     

    i was having issues streaming media like netflix and it seems to be not cutting out every 5 minutes. I have a bt homehub 5 for those who haven't seen my earlier post.

  • by Kokopéli,

    Kokopéli Kokopéli Oct 6, 2014 9:40 AM in response to J & E
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2014 9:40 AM in response to J & E

    Your BT is definitely not the problem here. I have BT too and everything was just great before that f****ng upgrade. Those little trick I found on that web site helped but there are freezes whenever streaming, the screen freezes with safari, every video takes time...

    Steve up there if you can hear us do something to move your pals...

  • by Lubel,

    Lubel Lubel Oct 6, 2014 10:00 AM in response to displacedgothamist
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 6, 2014 10:00 AM in response to displacedgothamist

    I have the same issue not happy

  • by jhonryan,

    jhonryan jhonryan Oct 6, 2014 10:06 AM in response to J & E
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2014 10:06 AM in response to J & E

    J & E wrote:

     

    I May be jumping the gun here, but resetting the location wifi based on the link provided may have helped. Fingers crossed, but we shall see.

     

    i was having issues streaming media like netflix and it seems to be not cutting out every 5 minutes. I have a bt homehub 5 for those who haven't seen my earlier post.

    I think you're jumping the gun.  I followed the instructions and my 5ghz connection doesn't "freeze" like it used to, it is severely impaired.  I'm getting 20-40 mbps on my iPhone on wifi 5ghz right next to my router (IOS 7x).  My iPad mini retina can now stream Pandora but netflix is still impaired to the point of being unusable.  It's speed clocks in around 2mbps on average but jumps all over the place.  5kbps (yes kilobits) up to 18 mbps.  On 2.4 it's very stable (just with the problems that come with 2.4 such as interference from other devices (like the microwave).

     

    Hoping Apple fixes this sooner rather than later.  It's very frustrating.

  • by Lubel,

    Lubel Lubel Oct 6, 2014 10:13 AM in response to stoutdu
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 6, 2014 10:13 AM in response to stoutdu

    I have the same issue done everything you have come on Apple

  • by etomcat,

    etomcat etomcat Oct 6, 2014 10:06 PM in response to NikCh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2014 10:06 PM in response to NikCh

    I have same issue - iPad Air, iOS 8.0.2 will connect to 5.0GHz ac WiFi, but no network traffic. Using 2.4GHz now, but it is not optimal as this frequency is congested where we live...

    I am new to the iWorld. We recently bought our first iDevices - an iPad Air and 15" MacBook Pro Retina. I have been Windows guy for decades...

    Is Apple always that slow to respond to (obviously) serious issues (excluding the no cellular network issue with iPhone 6 and iOS 8 release) ?

    For the price they sell their devices (price we all have payed) I do not feel the support is up to par...

    My MacBook will definitely NOT be getting Yosemite any time soon...

  • by Jo2708,

    Jo2708 Jo2708 Oct 6, 2014 11:40 PM in response to displacedgothamist
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 6, 2014 11:40 PM in response to displacedgothamist

    I Am having exactly the same problem since upgrade. I am also finding my battery life is much shorter than before. iPad also seems very sluggish. Never had these problems before upgrade.

  • by gazole,

    gazole gazole Oct 6, 2014 11:53 PM in response to NikCh
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    Oct 6, 2014 11:53 PM in response to NikCh

    Folks, as far as I see disabling Location services for Wi-fi as advised by some people here helps someone as Apple seems to have issues with 802.11d protocol implementation in iOS 8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11d-2001 and Location sensors for Wi-Fi.

    Basically what 802.11d does is that it does not allow you to use certain channels on Wi-Fi in certain countries. As you can see from this table (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels#5.C2.A0GHz_.28802.11a.2Fh.2Fj .2Fn.2Fac.29.5B17.5D) you can not use any channel you like while you are in US, some channels are not allowed in EU etc...

    What happens nowadays with lots of routers installed here and there is that some routers are sending 802.11d beacons and these beacons carry country code, but these country codes are not correct sometimes. So some router (most of those are made in China) broadcasts CN country code (which is China), iOS device sees this beacon and applies certain restrictions on channels it (iOS device) will operate. Thus some neighbour with such router might ruin your 5GHz 802.11n. If you have your router setup for US 802.11n channels (or set to Auto) and your iOS device see beacon from some other country earlier than same beacon from your router - you're stuck and your iOS device can't connect to your 5ghz 802.11n.

    How to check if this is an issue:

    if you're on Mac, start Terminal and run the command /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport -s

    you will see the following response (list of networks our Mac see)

    SSID           BSSID                    RSSI    CH   HT   CC   SECURITY (auth/unicast/group)
      dlink178      1c:7e:e5:d0:df:хх   -65   1,+1  Y      RU   WPA(PSK/TKIP,AES/TKIP)
      hh245          cc:5d:4e:fb:8f:хх    -67   1       Y      TW   WPA2(PSK/AES/AES)
      Dread          00:22:90:90:07:хх -69   11      N     --      WPA(PSK/TKIP/TKIP)
      MajorWiFi   50:46:5d:cc:c2:хх  -41   6       Y     --      WPA2(PSK/AES/AES)
      sohc             f0:7d:68:9b:da:хх  -75   6       N     --      WPA(PSK/TKIP/TKIP)


    you can see in CC column that some routers broadcast country code, some not. Thus is I am in Russia and want to use Russian 802.11n channels I might face an issue as my neighbour's wi-fi router is broadcasting Taiwan country code.

    Why resetting network settings might help? Because when you do the reset, iOS device resets the country codes it seen before and if you're lucky enough - it will hear the correct 802.11d beacon from your network earlier than any other.

    To fix this particular issue you need to shorten beacon interval on your router from 100 (default) to let's say 75 (on my dd-wrt it looks like this)

    This will make your router to send beacon more often, so chances that your device sees your network earlier than others are higher.

    2014-10-07 10_44_02-clipboard01_801.jpg (JPEG Image, 584 × 357 pixels).png

     

    Another point is to enable 802.11d in your router if it is not enabled yet (it is not enabled if you see "--" in CC column in terminal output higher above)

    I spent lots of hours trying to figure out why my Macbook can't use my 5ghz 802.11n network until I found the great post about this (http://wifi-mac.blogspot.ru/2013/03/mac-os-x-5.html). All credits go this guy.

     

    It seems that Apple made a mistake with the priorities device gives to data it receives from location sensor and Wi-fi. So if Location sensor tells device that you're in US and 802.11d says you're in China, obviously Location sensor should be the trusted source which seems to be not the case with iOS 8

  • by garyfromsydney,

    garyfromsydney garyfromsydney Oct 7, 2014 2:35 AM in response to NikCh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 7, 2014 2:35 AM in response to NikCh


    I have resort to using the following-

    1. 2.4GHz

    2. disabling Location services

     

    With this setup my iPad Air with 8.02 seem more stable.

     

    Using the 5GHz, the iPad will connect, works for a few minutes, and then become unstable and often website does not load.

  • by reccos10,

    reccos10 reccos10 Oct 7, 2014 4:19 AM in response to NikCh
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 7, 2014 4:19 AM in response to NikCh

    I too am having the exact same issue on my iPad Air (on 8.02). Connection to 5ghz is completely unstable (disconnects constantly and is very slow). I've tried almost every recommendation in this thread (resetting network settings, turning of wifi networking, etc.). I also did a full restore, but the issues persists. I've currently disabled 5ghz, and it's been working on 2.4ghz for the last 2 days. Every other device I have (2 laptops, Nexus 5, iPhone 5s (not updated to iOS 8), iPad (original)) works with both 5ghz and 2.4ghz.

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