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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

Dec 16, 2012 7:01 AM in response to Vector2nds

@Vector2nds: When I saw you sending Angie down the wrong path, I felt compelled to respond. I am on a few threads that discuss this issue and QoS has clearly been one of the key things to cause a problem. For you to say, "reset your router and don't worry about QoS" is bad advice. I also deal with Apple on a corporate (enterprise) level. I have met with their engineers about this exact problem. Sorry. not trying to make you feel stupid, but your advice was incomplete.


@next_exit: I have heard of 6.0 upgrade breaking wifi. The only person I have heard that fixed this claimed they lowered their brightness (allegedly used less power) and the signal went back up. It's hard for me to buy this solution but I guess its possible. There still must be some connection with ios or bios that can affect this issue.

Dec 16, 2012 2:00 PM in response to Vector2nds

All right you guys... enough is enough. Both of you guys have provided information with intent on helping others who have experienced problems with connectivity and thats what this message board is about, no one needs the continued emails that deviate from the intended topic.


@Vector2nds - You feel bashed and in fact you were, you've expressed it_ One reponse was adequet.


@TheDr1970 - Surely you could have worded you advice in a more professional manner, no need to take away from someones good efferts in trying to help - We only need to know whats helps or what has been helpful to you.


Hopefully this will end your disputes_Please! Rock On!

Dec 23, 2012 10:21 AM in response to CM2010

I just bought a Netgear N600. Dell laptop works fine with wifi. Samsung S3 works fine with wifi. (using speedtest.net). iPad 3 has terrible ping (989ms) and then starts off with high speed, but slows down to 3Mbps. So, I look at the router's Advanced settings and turned off WMM. No immediate improvement. Then, I went on the iPad and turned off the wifi and turned it back on and now everything is great. Low ping and 20Mbps download.


I would never go tilhrough a complete iPad restore for something like this. The problem is that if that is the solution, what if you have to keep doing it?

Dec 23, 2012 12:17 PM in response to michael714

Hi Michael714,


I'm one of the original posters on this thread. It's a valid question/concern that you express (that being, if you fix this at home, do you have t keep doing it, and what about when you're traveling to other places and connecting to other WiFi networks)? All I can say is that after I fixed it on my home network, I've never had the issue on any other network, either private or public. I've had my iPad 2 for almost two years now and haven't experienced any other speed issues since the original problems at home that were documented in this thread at that time.


As others have since noted and confirmed, turning off WMM (or QoS), seems to immediately remedy the problem. And, yes, you sometimes need to restart your iPad to have it take effect. Hopefully, you won't have any other issues either.


cheers,


Keith

Dec 30, 2012 11:29 AM in response to CM2010

I tried disabling WMM from QoS in my router. I then reconnected the IPAD to the network and still had the LOOOONG download times on videos. I was trying to download a single episode of Big Bang Theory from ITunes and it told me it would take over 600 minutes.


What I finally did that appears to have resolved the issue was completely disable all security on my Wifi network. I then connected and tested. Speeds were fine using speedtest app, and download times were down to about 20 minutes or less. Apps were installing quickly and internet speeds were much better.


Once I had tested all that and it looked like the problem was resolved I went back into my router and did the follow to make it more secure. Heres what you do, the steps are different on all Wifi routers but the settings should all be there, you might have to poke around a little.


First TURN OFF SSID broadcast (Write it down so you have a record of it, with CaSe SenSitiVitY in mind). Once you do this you will no longer see your wifi network show up in the list of available networks. You must manually enter the SSID into any devices that you want to connect to the network. You may have to do this immediately as the SSID will turn off and you may lose connection. Get reconnected by manually entering the SSID (CASE SENSITIVE) and reconnecting.


Now go into wireless settings and look for MAC Address Filter


Turn it to enabled/on


and Tell it to "ALLOW THE PC's BELOW" NOT the other one to BLOCK the PCS BELOW


Find the WIFI MAC Address for your wireless devices. For the IPAD you can find it under settings>general>about and its at the bottom of the table called Wi-Fi Address. Enter that set of numbers WITH COLONS usually. The MAC filter should give you examples of how to enter the MAC, with or without Colons.


For PCs you should bring up command prompt and enter ipconfig /all and locate the wireless connection and look for the hardware address. enter the hardware address as the MAC address. I believe Windows displays hardware ID's with - instead of colons so just substitute colons for dashes.


Google other devices you may have to find out how to get their MAC address.


Once all of your devices are added to the MAC filter you will have to manually add each device back to the network. My recomendation is to test with JUST the IPAD first make sure the speeds are fine and then add the rest. If this procedure doesn't fix the IPAD speeds then set the network back to the way it was before with security.

Dec 30, 2012 11:38 AM in response to PhoenixTwo87

Your idea to remove encryption will definitely speed things up- at the loss of security. Even with the other features you've enabled, someone can still listen in on your unencrypted data traffic. Turning off SSID broadcast does not prevent war drivers from finding your network and listening in.


One thing I have read is that WPA2 encryption is much faster than WEP or WPA. So, if you were using WEP or WPA, you might consider using WPA2 encryption instead. If you feel you must use unencrypted wifi, I think the additional steps you are taking are worthwhile, but they won't prevent someone from "listening in" on your wifi traffic.

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

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