iPhone 3.0 wifi dropout

This is very interesting. I have both iPhone 3GS and the 1st generation iPhone. Both are running 3.0 software. I have no problem of connecting 1G iPhone to my MBP and using Remote, but I am having the same problem you are having with my 3GS. I tried the same with my iMac and 3GS, and got the same bad result. If I set a static IP address to my 3GS with the same network address as the MBP, then reconnection is quicker, but still get frequent disconnects.

So now I am confused. I thought the problem was with my 3GS hardware, but now I think the problem might be with 3.0 software.

I have been having WiFi problems in an environment where there are large number of APs, so I have run tests with both of my iPhones (running 3.0 software), and there are enough hardware differences (maybe wifi chipsets are different?), 3GS behaves worse than 1G.

I now have a hunch as to what might be contributing to all these WiFi issues with 3.0 software. The 1st Generation iPhone must be using a different wireless chipset than iPhone 3G and 3GS, and both 3G and 3GS with the same chipset. Maybe the wifi driver on 3.0 software is misconfiguring wifi chipset?

Message was edited by: kyrules

Hi biggo,

I can not explain why creating a network through System Preference will make your wireless connection last longer. Were you creating an Airport network using a different encryption method? When you create an Airport network through the Airport icon in the menu bar, the only encryption method available is WEP. What encryption did you use when you created a network through Sys. Pref.?

Cheers

Diagnosed and resolved this problem for my network. No Apple visit necessary!!!
I have an Airport Extreme and was getting consistent and annoying dropouts.

The unit had a fixed channel setting sometime ago to deal with a neighbors broken router.

I changed that back to automatic and rebooted.

It picked a new channel (compared to the one it was locked to) and now it's working very reliably and quite quickly.

The airprort logs showed the following (I've replaced the remainder of the mac address with XXX):

+Jun 26 23:22:31 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:22:33 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:22:33 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:23:33 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:23:34 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:23:36 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:23:36 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:24:36 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:24:36 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:24:38 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:24:38 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:25:38 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:25:39 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:25:40 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:25:40 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:26:40 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:26:41 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:26:43 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:26:43 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:27:43 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:27:43 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:27:45 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:27:45 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:28:45 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:28:45 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:29:50 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:29:50 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:30:50 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:30:50 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:30:53 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:30:53 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:31:53 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:31:53 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:33:46 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:33:46 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:34:46 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:34:47 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+
+Jun 26 23:34:49 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:34:49 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 26 23:35:43 Severity:5 Clock synchronized to network time server time.apple.com (adjusted -1 seconds).+
+Jun 26 23:35:49 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+

When it's working it looks like this (same note about XXX as above):

+Jun 27 00:24:27 Severity:5 Associated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 27 00:24:27 Severity:5 Installed unicast CCMP key for supplicant 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 27 00:31:10 Severity:5 Disassociated with station 00:26:0XXX+
+Jun 27 00:31:11 Severity:5 Rotated TKIP group key.+

I pressed the sleep button at 00:31 to end this connection but otherwise it is now constant until it sleeps itself.

For those wanting to check this on their airport my log level is set to informational (6). Logging is under "Advanced" - that gear wheel.

In Airport Summary the channel is shown and when running in Automatic mode this will be in parenthesis (round brackets like these) after the channel.

The setting can be changed under the wireless tab for the airport.

I suspect that either the security enhancements or frequency agility changes are causing some grief (how it's tied to your specific I iphone I don't know).

I should note my ipod touch v1 was not noticeably having problems even though I moved it to iphone OS 3.0 on the release date.

Hope this helps other.

I recently updated to 3.0 firmware, I tried using remote, and my connection kept dropping. I remember remote working really well. I could be in another room and control iTunes from my iPhone. But I hadn't used it in awhile when I used it after the 3.0 update my connection keeps dropping. I created an ad hoc network on my laptop and in settings I could see that I was connected. One thing I did was create an ad hoc network on my laptop and went into settings and looked under wifi and my iPhone said I was connected. But when my iPhone screen would dim the connection would be lost. I called apple and they said that it is normal for the connection to be lost when the phone is going to sleep. The guy from apple said to keep the phone active and see if the connection is lost. I connected to my ad hoc network and kept the phone active by touching the screen with my finger. And I saw that the wifi connection would periodically drop, like every 20 seconds or so. Any help would be appreciated.

Which iPhone do you have?

I am having an issue with wifi as well. It seems that since I upgraded from 2.2 to 3.0 I am not getting the same range, i.e. before the update I could easily get the wifi signal in my office whereas now it is difficult to get a signal.

Thanks,

Eric

I have an iPhone 3g

Ok, I took my iPhone to the library and used the library's wifi. My iPhone connected and stayed connected while I was at the library. When I got home I created an ad hoc network on my laptop and connected to it but my iPhone would say not connected again. I tried ressetting the network settings with no luck.

Some comparisons on this issue, leading to the conclusion that it has to be 3.0 related:

My New Iphone 3Gs keeps dropping off the wi-fi network. It sometimes even refuses to rejoin for ages and i must repeatedly re-select the network with it replying "Unable to join the network xyz"

My Ipod touch works perfectly on the wi-fi network and always has the network with full bars. It never loses the network. (the touch has NOT been upgraded to 3.0)

My Flatmates iPhone 3g worked perfectly on the wi-fi with full bars and always connecting automatically. After upgrade to 3.0 it is having identical issues as my new 3Gs

this is all on a home wi-fi network with all devices next to each other each getting their own ip address (when they do actually connect - so there was no competition there) and also tried them each individually with the others off..

Same here I have a 3g, and it won't stay connected to a wifi connection for more than a few seconds, it drops the connection then connects back. I also have just update the OS to OS 3.0 and mine also was rock solid prior to this, and it is annoying 'king life outa me.

hmm i have the same problem with my 3Gs 32GB Black.

At home the connection drops very frequent, tried turning the security off but still the same.
Then i want to a friend who has a different router and the connection was much more stable there but still dropouts.
At work my connection is very stable (had 1 disconnect on 1 GB download in total)
but i had to turn off 'location at the general settings'

it seems like a software problem to me

ok, I had to do this twice (i dont know why it did not work the first time, it was one of the first things i tried) but now I don't seem to have the dropout problem any more

Settings --> General --> Reset --> Reset Network Settings

then re select select network under wi-fi settings and re-enter wi-fi passwords..

lets hope this works for others too (and that it stays fixed for me)...