Fixed my slow iPad Wi-Fi issue, here is what I found...

After "fixing" this problem a while ago ... the problem reared it's head again this week. I know for a FACT that my download speed was slow (and that it's wasnt some sort of SpeedTest issue) becuase YouTube and Netflix videos were constantly freezing and pausing.

I had to go back into my router settings ... and even though it showed WMM was turned off ... I had to turn WMM on again and then back off again.

Doing that increased my download speed by about 25x from 1 MPS to 25 MPS

I guess I will have to do this jury rigging every so often.

Poor poor clueless Apple! It's no wonder their stock has dropped by nearly 50% in the past 9 months!

I have 2 ipad 2's. One (a 16 gig) gets the same speed as my wired connection (12Mbps) and the other (8 gig) gets an average of 1.7 Mbps. Any idea what gives? These are identical iPads except for the memory. Different apps are loaded on each, but I used to get full speed on the 8 gig, and now cannot. Tried the WMM trick even though the 16 gig was fine, and it predictably did nothing. All apps are shut down at least I think since I know of no way other than the double home press to see if apps are loaded in memory. Without a more detailed task manager, I cannot see what other apps may be slowing me down. Anybody have an idea?

Ok, after downloading speedtest X HD, it's reporting 12 Mbps (the 16Gig had an updated version already), so I guess problem solved. Still doesn't explain youtube and other streaming site freezeups, but no need to reply for now.

I'm wondering if the root cause of this is a software bug on the iPad corrupting soft memory. What happens if you turn the iPad off and back on again. I had a similar issue on my iPad and I don't remember if I tried this simple solution.

Where's the problem?

I have Comcast - should have speeds 'up to 50Mbps' ...

Have a Motorola 6121 modem and Linksys E1000 wireless router ...

With Macbook plugged directly to Modem via ethernet I got 61down/11up ...

With wifi I was getting about 21down/11up ...

Changed the Qos WMM thing and it went up to 31down/11up ...

Anyway to increase further (up to the 61 by ethernet) via wifi????

Thanks!

i wanted to mention that previous i had to turn OFF wmm on my cablemodem/routerbox too get a fast speed on my ipad ... however over the past month that speed has slowed down again (from 25 Mbps to 1 Mbps ...

So after I played around with things a bit ... now I figured out that I need to turn WMM back ON on my router box to get the faster 25 Mbps speed

It's pretty screwed up over there at Apple Computer with their ipads

Same issue on iphone

So I suggest either turning WMM off if its on ... or ON if its off

if you are getting very slow download speeds on iPad and iPhone on your wireless home network

Hi Stiznoit,

Keith here. I'm one of the original posters on this thread and still try to keep up with it. If you're having trouble getting the full speed out of your WiFi, my experience is that can be due to interference, generally from other WiFi networks. This used to only be a problem in busy office buildings. Now that everyone has WiFi, it's gone from being a problem in apartment buildings to now in many (if not most) neighborhoods.

There is a free tool available (find it through Google) called "inSSIDer". If you run that, you can click on the tab labled 2.4 GHz (few networks are 5 GHz these days, but you can check that too if yours is). On that tab, you can see a visual representation of every other WiFi network within reception of your location. I live in a single family home in a subdivision and I can pick up 14 networks from my living room now where just a couple years ago it was 2 or 3! See the attached screen shot. If your network is broadcasting on the same channel of another network, particularly if the other is close and strong, you will definitely get a lot of interference and that error-correction will slow your throughput down to a crawl. It's no different than trying to tune a radio to a station when there is another strong station very close to it on the dial.

Note that depending on the model of your router, it will show your channel as a range of either +/- 2 or +/- 4 channels of the ones where yours is set, but in the list of networks at the top it will show the actual channel each is set to. Best is to choose a channel that is unused and as far as possible from other strong signals (the stronger the signal, the higher up on the chart it will be shown). In any event, set your router's channel as far as possible from other nearby networks.

Hope that helps!

This still doesn't explain why I can get 18 Mbps on my iPhone and only 5 Mbps on my iPad from the exact same location.

There is definitely something wrong with the iPad 2 in my opinion.

Has anyone else experienced this?

What seems to happen with me ... is my iPad and iPhone slowly slow down over the period of a week or so. From about 20 Mps to maybe 1 Mps

Previously I found If i toggle the WMM support in my router control panel off and on and off ... both devices speed back up to about 30 Mps

This past week, that didnt work as good as in the past ... but when I unplugged my wireless router box ... waited about a minute ... then plugged it back in

Then did a RENEW LEASE on my wireless in both devices (in my SETTINGS icon) ... both devices sped back up to 30 Mps

Honestly I think this is a BUG in the operating system for iPhone and iPad as other devices work fine accessing the Wireless in my house.

Apple seems pretty oblivioius to this problem. (No wonder their stock dropped from $700 to $450 after Steve Jobs died) There is no innovation at Apple anymore and theyve all pretty much turned into a bunch of "clock punchers" just looking to slide by on past glory. Such a shame seeing a company going down in flames like that.

Lots of chatter here on this thread abou slow wifi on iPad3 (which is the model I have) and disabling WMM / QoS on the router.

Can someone list the steps I have to take to do this, please? I would like my wifi on my iPad to be quicker too.

I have a Netgear router on my home computer for the wifi access on my iPad but it is so slow.

I have my main desktop hardwired to my wired and wireless combination cable box and router

i dont know if you can also do this same sort of access through a wireless connected device or not (maybe so)

what i do is on my desktop computer ... i open my web browswer and enter

http://192.168.0.1/

then I login to my cable modem router using my UserName and Password that I used to set the box up

if you dont remember your username and pass ... try "admin" for username

Once you are logged in there should be a link along the top of the page that says WIRELESS

Click on that link

Then on the next page that loads there should be a link along the side that says WMM

Click on that link

On the final page that loads

You should see a pull down menu for WMM SUPPORT ... the pull down menu can either say OFF or ON

if its off .. try turning it on .... then click the APPLY button (just underneath)

if it's on ... try turning it off .... then click the APPLY button (just underneath)

Sometimes I simply toggle if off and on a few times clicking apply after each change

Then click the LOGOFF button at the top

Right now on my box WMM Support is turned OFF ... and my iPad is pretty fast right now (around 30 Mbs)

I think the last time I tried this fix, my ipad still wasnt super fast (I think about 3 Mbs)... so I unplugged the router modem ... left it unplugged for about a minute ... then plugged it back it (after that I was getting 30 Mps on my iPad

By the way ... Download the SPEEDTEST ap for iPad (or iPhone) ... it's free and tells you the upload and download speed you are getting on your device ... though you usually know when the iPad is running slow since movies and youtube tend to freeze up

Hi all,

Just a quick update FWIW. I'm one of the original posters here from more than two years ago. Even after all of the tweaking of my router, I would get from 10 - 18MB down on my PC (Comcast cable internet, clocked with Speedtest) and I would get between 6 - 12MB down on my iPhone and iPad.

Last week my router (NetGear n150) started crapping out and I was getting between 0 - 2MB down for a few days on all devices. I went out and bought a replacement, an ASUS N600 (RT-N56U). All I can say is OMG what a difference. I'm now getting between 27 - 68MB down on my PC and 16 - 29MB down on my iPad and iPhone. In addition, I have a new game console (OUYA) that would never connect on my old NetGear router that works great on the ASUS.

I used the same SSID and passphrase on my new router, so all of my devices just connected immediately when I set it up. For any of you who are still experiencing problems, I'd highly recommend considering one of the new routers now available. I've now quadrupled my download speeds without having sign up for a faster plan from my provider!

Sweet! Fixed my incredibly slow wifi on the ipad 2 ! I just connect to my Internet with the STATIC setting , totally fixed the huge issue that my Internet was slowed down 80%!

Changes-

With the dcph setting-

6.8 Mbps down

1 Mbps up

49 ping

Router- an extended reapeter device.

With the static setting-

18 Mbps down

3 Mbps up

31 ping

Router - the extended repeater device

Note the static setting actually gave results similar to my computer!

Important: If you use any iOS devices, do NOT perform step one. Here's proof:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3727?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

1) TURN OFF Qos (WMM) ON YOUR ROUTER.

2) Only broadcast the best 802.11? that your router can handle. This means, set it to N-only. If you have devices that are G, consider getting second router, cable LAN to LAN (NOT WAN on the supplemental router) Turn off DHCP on router 2. Make sure the IP of router 2 is in the range of router 1. I'm sure there are some expensive wireless routers out there that have truly separate the internal connections of a/b/g/n/ac, but likely only if you get a commercial grade WAP; you'll probably never find that description / spec on a consumer grade router... then again, there might be one out there... I just haven't found it. Basically I think there is only one connection between the "LAN" and the "radio" so it can only go as fast as the slowest connection... maybe... My router was $130 new, so maybe we have to buy the $200 ones to find out.

3) Use 5Ghz N if possible. This will get your out of the frequency range of all your neighbors, but it has a harder time going throw multiple walls than 2.4Ghz. You will see an improvement in internet speeds, but not by much unless you are paying for 100+Mbps. Not all N devices support this, like iPhone 4 and older. Even my iPhone 5 is having trouble connecting to 5Ghz right now. (WMM... that's how I found the link above)
These steps definitely helped in the short term, but we'll see how it's working in a few days.

4) Probably get something other than Linksys. I'm seeing many posts on here that state they are using Linksys. I tried a $200 AC router about a month ago, and I was having the same issues. I haven't tried a different brand yet, but that's my next step. Asus most likely.

I was getting 15Mbps down & 20Mbps up (I pay for 50Mbps down, I get 60 Hardwired all day long)
I am now getting about 35-40Mbps down on N2.4

I have a Linksys WRT320N. I've heard Linksys could be the problem. The "nerd" at the blue store said that... he didn't have any facts to back it up, but "he and all his buddies" use the netgear I was looking at and they love it; never had any problems. The first Cox tech said I'd love the shiny new modem he had for sale in his van, after ripping off my $5 F-connectors and replacing them with metal-painted plastic connectors. The second cox guy said that I should get a phone/internet combo modem, bc those "seem to work better" ... than the one I already bought... from cox.
Just try a combination of these tweaks and you should have some luck. Again, we'll see what happens in a few days.


HAHA right after I posted this...
I'm on 2.4 N only (testing). My laptop is back to 15Mbps down, 28Mbps up (!!!) My desktop is still getting 62Mbps. This IS frustrating!!!
Switched to 5 only, pulled 42.5/24.1 on the laptop.

As a bit of a real-world test, I'm downloading WALL-E from iTunes, its coming in at an average of 6MB (yes BYTES, as in 1BYTE = 8bits, as in 48Mbps) and it's peaked at 8MBps (64Mbps). (get MenuMeters) again, this is N-only, 5Ghz-only. WMM enabled.

… I'll try again in the morning.

I have read all of the many posts here, as I was having the same problem. Here is a brief overview and my fix:

I recently gave away my previous router which was a 5th generation apple airport express. I never had any issues with it. I replaced it with a linksys 3500 upon the recommendation of a "knowledgable" person. That's when all of my problems started. While the speeds on my PCs stayed fast, the speed on my iPads and iPhones dropped dramatically. I tried all of the fixes listed here, but none really worked. Then I read some of the reviews of the newest apple AirPort Extreme 6th generation. All were positive. All stated that their wifi speeds increased...even in a large house/office. I then bit the bullet and purchased the AirPort Extreme 6th generation. Now, all of my wifi issues with my i-devices are gone. I get great speeds on them all...even I'm my basement in the room furthest rom the router. I can stream in any room. Even my PCs are experiencing much greater wifi speeds (all speeds taken with speed test).

I really don't know what the issues are with the various routers, but I would say that although the AirPort Extreme doesn't have all the bells and whistles that other (no parental controls, etc), if you're looking to fix the speed issues, and if you're looking for the fastest router with the largest range, get one of these. I'm loving having no more issues!