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

I believe the iPad may have a issue if the router's QoS (Quality of Service) is enabled. I have a Linksys WRT300N router and when I disabled the QoS my download speed went from ~500Kbps to ~13000Kbps. This QoS setting does is not affecting my iPhone and iPod devices, only the iPad.

I have not experienced any signal issues, so I don't know if this will resolve those issues. I have informed Apple of my findings. QoS is a common feature on many routers, so if you are experiencing Wi-Fi issues please disable QoS in your router and let everybody know if this fixes your problem. Please report back your routers make/model and where to find the QoS setting.

If your were experiencing signal issues and after applying this patch resolves those issues please let everybody know by responding to this thread.

< Edited by Host >

Mini, Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 12, 2010 1:32 PM

Reply
218 replies

Aug 1, 2010 2:21 PM in response to ahurst

Im having the same problem here. Im using an Apple Time Capsule as my wireless router. It's giving me a slower DL speed on my iPad compared to my iMac and Mbp.

I can't seem to find the option to disable that QoS... My temporary solution to my problem is renewing the lease on my connection in iPad. But this gets annoying as I always have to repeat it from time to time.

Any help would be appreciated.

Also, I've already updated to the latest 3.2.1 and I dont have any issues with wifi signal since Im always getting full bars...

Aug 24, 2010 6:46 AM in response to CM2010

I have been traveling with my son's brand new iPad. Wifi is practically non-exsistent, it always times out, looses signal. I can get e-mail fine but searching the internet for information is impossible. The old telephone line would be faster! I tried the Apple solutions and haven't solved the problem. Resetting MY router doesn't help when traveling and they should able to negotiate various routers! My MacBook Pro picks it all up fine, side by side with the iPad, so it is not the speed of the signal (blaming it on someone else?). I have been using Mac's since 1990, I have come to expect better from Apple. A lot of money to spend on an iPad when I could have given him my titanum Powerbook!

Jan 24, 2011 8:34 PM in response to CM2010

I tried this, but it didn't work for me. Not that I'm complaining too much, but I'm still trying to match the download speeds that my Windows laptop gets. Wireless N, my laptop gets 42 Mbps download and 32 Mbps upload. My iPad maxes out at 16 Mbps download and about 18 Mbps upload. Can't figure out how to do any better. Fortunaltey, I haven't had any issues with the iPad's download rate, but I'd love to see it how fast this thing can really work. Maybe the next software upgrade?

Mar 25, 2011 8:06 AM in response to callaway

I have problems with iPad download speed. Here is my configuration :

SMC SMCWGBR14-N Barricade N ProMax Draft 11n Wireless Gigabit Broadband Router
ISP - Armstrong - provides 10 Mbps download and 3 mbps upload speed.
Desktop attached to the router has 10 mbps internet download speed.
HP Laptop running on G network card - 10 mpbs download speed.
iPad has only 1 mbps download. The upload is 3 mbps which matches to the laptop upload speed.

Just strange that iPad is having only 1 mbps ... youtube videos are very slow to load.

Any help would be appreciated.

Apr 20, 2011 12:53 PM in response to CM2010

I was having the exact same problem that others have noted. My new iPad 2 would only get between .10 and .47 Mbs Down on my home network, while my Windows PC would get between 16 and 20 Mbs down and even my iPhone on wi-fi would get 6 - 8. It was essentially unusable for downloading, streaming or browsing.


My router had no tab or setting that said "QoS". I first tested by changing it from multi-mode (g/n) to n only and immediately was getting speeds of 16 Mbs down on my iPad. The problem is that I have other devices that are g only, so I have to run in multi-mode. I then found a checkbox that was labled MMS (Multi-Media Services), which as it turns out is the same as QoS. By unchecking that, I was able to get 16 Mbs down on my iPad.


As everyone points out (& I have found), that is great when you're connecting on your own router and can make that change, but no good if you're traveling - as I do. Today, I was in the Apple store. They wanted to swap out my iPad for a new one, but I resisted since I had no faith that for all of that trouble that anything would be fixed. After pressing them to go through the troubleshooting steps, low and behold, it said to reset the network settings. This is found under: Settings; General; Reset; "Reset Network Settings". We did this, and whereas I was getting .27 Mbs down on their network beforehand (and a Mac connected on the same network was getting 39 Mbs), after resetting and reconnecting, I got a full 16 Mbs down!


Note that I don't believe you'll ever get comparable speeds on an iPad or iPhone as you will a computer due to iOS differences in network throughput (so don't expect to see 40 Mbs), but speeds of 12 - 18 down should handle everything you need including streaming HD movies. Hope this helps!

Apr 25, 2011 4:11 AM in response to CM2010

Serge, are you looking for actual buttons on your router (for QoS, MMS, or G/N)? They won't be physical buttons. You need to log into your router to manage it's settings. If you don't know how to do this, usually you can go into your wireless settings &amp; look for the IP address of your default gateway (typically something like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.254, etc). Then open your browser &amp; type that IP into the address and hit enter. You'll either be presented with the admin page for your router or a login for its user name &amp; password. If the latter, refer to the documentation that came with it. If you didn't change the login information, the default is sometimes simply "admin" and "password".


Once you've logged into your router, there will be a number of setting available to change. If it's a recent router, you should have to the option to switch from mixed mode (G/N) to just N. You should also see either the QoS or MMS setting that you can disable.


All this having been said, this will only fix your problem while at home. If resetting your iPad's network settings didn't help, I suggest going into an Apple store for service. They will suggest two things, first, to completely restore your iPad. This, of course, you could try at home but it doesn't guarantee to fix the problem and it is a bit of a pain. If you try this, note that you want to do a "clean" install of your iPad when you reconnect it (i.e. don't restore it from a backup in iTunes) or you will just be reloading the corrupted settings from before. The second thing they will suggest is just to swap out your iPad for a new one, which may resolve the problem. Thankfully, I didn't have to go that route, as the reset of the network settings has completely resolved my throughput problems. I've since tested my iPad on several networks and haven't experienced any slowness on them.


Hope this helps!

May 8, 2011 4:59 PM in response to CM2010

Installed new Lynsys/Cisco E1000 N router to go with my new Motorola Surfboard DB6120 Docsys 3.0 cable modem.

One month old iPad2 was crawling before, and even worse after this hardware upgrade!


Luckly, found this board, and found the fix.


I have B, G and N wireless devices on my network, so had to have the newwork setting as Mixed.


OP is correct, in that the QoS is what needs to be fixed, at least fo the Lynksys/Cisco N router


On the Linksys E1000, select Applications & Gaming -->QoS (see image below)

Change WMM support to Disabled, save and reboot both the router and the IPad.

I had to deleted the device from the iPad and re-configure.


Went from less than 1Mbps to 20!!!!User uploaded file

Worked for me! Hope it does for you too.


User uploaded fileUser uploaded file

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

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