torchredfrc

Q: Unreliable wifi to iPhone and iPad

I have an Airport Express Time Capsule with two Airport Express Extenders and about once every 3 days I have to power cycle it to get my iPad and iPhone to be able to actually use the Wifi.  The i-Devices connect and show that they have Wifi signal but they can not transmit data. The Airport App on the iPhone and iPad show the extenders but do not see the Time Capsule (which provides the route to the internet) when this symptom happens. I also have 2 MacBooks that use the Airport for Wifi and they do not seem to be affected. Once I power cycle the Time Capsule Wifi works again for up to 3 or so days and then I'm right back where I started.

 

I'm getting really frustrated with this, if anyone has any ideas what I can do to fix this I would love to hear them. Looking to me like I may need to consider either a new Airport or an alternative companies Wifi router to get the reliability I need.

 

Time Capsule is running firmware 7.7.7

Express Extenders are 7.6.7

Both iPhones are version 6S on iOS 10

iPad Pro is iOS 10

Both MacBooks on OS X 10.11.6

iPhone 6s, iOS 10

Posted on Sep 17, 2016 11:01 AM

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Q: Unreliable wifi to iPhone and iPad

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  • by Tesserax,

    Tesserax Tesserax Sep 17, 2016 12:56 PM in response to torchredfrc
    Level 9 (54,798 points)
    Wireless
    Sep 17, 2016 12:56 PM in response to torchredfrc

    FWIW, there have been a few post here related to iOS 10 and network connectivity. Nothing substantial yet, but just letting you know. However, one question would be: Did this start happening after upgrading your iOS devices? Is it also affecting your non-iOS devices as well?

     

    With that said, let's try to rule out your current network configuration. You mentioned that you have Time Capsule (TC) and are extending its Wi-Fi network with two AirPort Express (AX) base stations. Is the connection between the AXs and the TC wired or wireless?

     

    What are the exact models of each of your base stations? Where are the extending AXs located in respect to the TC?

  • by torchredfrc,

    torchredfrc torchredfrc Sep 20, 2016 9:42 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Wireless
    Sep 20, 2016 9:42 PM in response to Tesserax

    I don't have the exact model numbers for the extender models but here is an image of my network map from the Airport utility.

     

    Screen Shot 2016-09-20 at 9.39.45 PM.png

    As you can see they are older models. Both are connected wirelessly to the time capsule.

     

    The problem did not start occurring with the update to iOS 10 and has actually been an issue for at least 6 or more months but has only recently started becoming a huge nuisance. It does not affect my MacBook Pro but does affect all my iOS devices (wifes iPhone 6S, my 6S, my iPad Pro, and my sons iPad). This was also an issue with our previous iPhones but was far less frequent - those were iPhone 5S devices.

  • by Tesserax,Helpful

    Tesserax Tesserax Sep 24, 2016 10:18 PM in response to torchredfrc
    Level 9 (54,798 points)
    Wireless
    Sep 24, 2016 10:18 PM in response to torchredfrc

    It looks like you have a 1st & 2nd generation 802.11n AirPort Express base stations as the extenders.

     

    One thing that stands out is the base station names that you are using. Using long names with spaces or special characters can be problematic. I know you said this has been working, but I would still suggest something as simple as renaming all of your base stations so that they do not contain more than 16 alphanumeric characters nor use spaces or special characters. An example would be TC, AX1, & AX2. Give it a try to see if this solves the issue. If it does, you can rename them something more meaningful to you.

  • by torchredfrc,

    torchredfrc torchredfrc Sep 24, 2016 10:19 PM in response to Tesserax
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Wireless
    Sep 24, 2016 10:19 PM in response to Tesserax

    I changed the names of all my devices and so far so good. I'll report back in another week or so to see if I've had to reboot the TC to get a reliable connection to my devices but this is promising. Seems like an odd issue to have from a technical standpoint on Apples behalf. Hopefully this fixes it in the long term, this has been a huge source of frustration at my house for a good while now. Thanks again for your helpful replies!