iPod Touch will not connect to WiFi network

Great, we all purchased the Touch bec it has WiFi, and then the WiFi craps out. Initially I had no problem connecting wirelessly either at home or downtown on a bunch of free networks. Now I can't connect anywhere. In the "settings" section, my Touch thinks it is connected, but Safari says it can't connect to the server and You Tube also can't connect. It crapped out in the middle of reading BBC news online while eating lunch in Madison WI. Since then I can't get it to go event though I have completely restored the system and tried all the other fixes in Apple's troubleshooting section.
Whoa, big problem here! And look at the # of hits in the discussion forum on wireless problems -- that's building every day.
Those of you who say it is due to some kind of router settings are barking up the wrong trees. This is clearly Apple's problem or it wouldn't be so widespread.

It would be nice if Apple would walk those of us that "know little or nothing about computers" through the steps to configure, since they want us to buy their products....

Did you ask the car dealer who sold you your car to teach you how to drive it?

Also, lots of volunteers here ARE helping everyone who has problems...

Apple teaches me how to use it, but not how to fix it. With my car, if it isn't working, the dealer fixes it. If I don't know how to use the 4 wheel drive, the dealer shows me. Apple is leaving it up to all of the volunteers here and not assisting their customers.

Well, I think that's a copout, personally.
How is a company supposed to show millions of people how to make computers/iPods/printers/cameras work?
There's simply not enough people to do that.

If I buy something, it's my responsibility to make it work, if it's broken, I go back to whom I bought it from.
Most of these posts are remedied with differing suggestions.
If the iPod has bad hardware, you simply get a replacement.

I'm sorry, but some folks don't have the knowledge it takes to own/use hi-tech gear.
We try to help everyone here, but most haven't even downloaded the manual to try and help themselves.

I think there's a lot of folks wanting someone to hand-hold them for everything.
As I said, we all come here to help, but we can only do so much.

The point that everyone on the discussion board is trying to help is well taken. I found nowhere else on Apple's website to find how to cure my problem - including in the manual. I didn't mean to offend you or any other person here - I was only complaining about Apple and the fact that I can't get the connection to work. Certainly nothing personal was intended and I am sorry if I offended you or anyone else trying to help.

If you or anyone knows how to solve my problem (set forth below) I'd appreciate the help.

FYI - I have an older D-Link router and it does not support 128 bit WEP encryption and from what I have been told the iTouch (Apple) only supports the 128 bit WEP encryption. Resolution for me would be to update my hardware. This may answer some of the questions asked.

You can do whatever you like, but for many people this will help. Too many people on these boards have no idea how there wireless networks are setup. This includes what type of security they are actually using if any, whether they have more than one wep key set in there router, some of them don't even know if there routers are actually connecting succesfully to there modems. Doing a factory reset and having them reset all of the settings forces them to actually go in and verify that everything is configured correctly, and gives them some idea of how there network is setup. Don't complain that an answer given to other people won't work for you, figure it out yourself then, but don't discourage others that are less knowledgable than you from learning/understanding what they are actually doing.

You forgot: in my case (and some others) the WPA encryption (no MAC filtering here) worked for some time and then stopped working. No way to get it working again but if i change the SSID (and nothing else, not even the passphrase) on the router, the iPod works again (of course only for some days).
This looks strange to me and if anything else works and just the iPod stops working, i start to blame Apple for a software problem.

No problem on other networks, but all of them are WEP encrypted, did not have the chance to use other WPA encrypted networks for a longer time.

Beside: my passphrase is random, but only contains chars and digits, like my SSID.

Ahmen!

I've received my Ipod Touch yesterday and I've been trying since then to connect to Internet. To do it I had to remove the space in the SSID of my router. Thanks for the hint.

This should be mentionned by Apple!!!

You forget that security protocols like WEP and WPA are international standards, and this is why there are not 'tons of ways' to configure the security settings. If it wasn't a standard, I wouldn't have been able to get my laptops and Nintendo Wii to connect first attempt to my wireless router. The WPA-PSK protocol is well documented and has been in use for several years. If Apple cannot get their implementation in the iPod Touch to operate in the same way that, say, Nintento can do it, then they will get lots of confused and more importantly unhappy customers. Guess what, we see lots of confused and unhappy people on this and other forums all asking for help connecting to a wireless network. I'm not yelling at Apple, I'm expressing my disappointment that such a wonderfully designed and beautiful piece of equipment isn't as easy to use as it could be.

The object of my post was to see ifothers were having WPA issues like I was, to try and understand what the issues with the iPod Touch security implementations are. These posts are trying to be helpful to others.

did you just punch in the numbers for the open dns to get it to work?

Just like many others, I bought Ipod Touch in Christmas and felt frustrated about surfing the net. I have read many posts in the forum. And I have tried many methods suggested by others to try to figure out the problems. Finally I have solved the problem and I want to share some ideas with others.

Steps of Checking:
(1) Check whether you have a wireless network at home or at work. Check whether the network is security protected or not. If it is, better ask the admininistrator (at home, the admin should be the one who bought the wireless router.) for password.

(2) Check the latest firmware upgrade for the wireless router (in my case, I use Linksys WRT54G. After I upgraded the firmware, my ipod touch could get the necessary IP from the router.)

(3) For the wireless router, better broadcast the SSID for the first time so that the IPod Touch can find it easily. I use WPA2-Personal Encryption AES (though many buddies here point out that WEP, WPA or even no security is also okay). I even set the MAC filtering and the Ipod Touch still works fine!(though you need to input the MAC address of your Ipod Touch to the MAC filtering table in the admin page of your router. the MAC address of Ipod Touch can be found in the Ipod Touch general information. There is a string like XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

(4) To mininimize the interference from neighbouring wireless networks, better try the connection near the wireless router.

(5) If you have tried for several times and failed to connect, you may reset the router by powering off for 15 seconds and reset the network configuration of the Ipod.

I have used Compag IPAQ before and I must say that for those tiny toys with Wifi capability, the connection is not that stable. However, I find that using the Ipod Touch to watch Youtube video is very good and the speed is excellent!

The steps suggested above are not exclusive. There are too many factors which influence the performance of Wifi. Hope you will succeed and enjoy the Ipod Touch in the New Year 2008!

As one of those who cannot connect my iPod to the internet at home, I think your comments are unfair.

Reading the publicity and promotional material for the product it is implied that you buy the product, take it home and voilà ! it connects to the Internet.
Judging by the number of posts about the subject on this board alone that just isn't the case at all.

The promo for the product does not mention changing the security system on your network or downloading firmware for your router or any other thing which has been suggested here.

If you are supposed to know how to reset your router, change security levels etc then this should be made clear at the time of purchase.

Friends with Windows laptops can come into my house and connect to my internet network without any problems, so I don't think it is unreasonable to expect the same from the iTouch.