iPhone 4 - painfully slow wi-fi performance

hey..I made a appointment with Apple store today and went in to tell them my wifi slow issues (slower than 3GS and 2G) and few drop calls issue. They replace my phone w/o any problem. And I was playing around the new i4 now...it seems slow at beginning, but after an hour, the wifi looks faster. I did test the HD video through wifi connection on Youtube to make sure the speed is good. I hope my new i4 do better job and will let you know if there has any problem. (I still have signal low issue with only AT&T 1 to 2 bars showing on screen sometimes)

what the ****, Apple CEO said it's slow casue too many people using his wifi... *** she should have know that his crap doens't work!!

I called Apple Care today and after some on the phone troubleshooting (Not the most advanced) and a restore they are sending me a replacement phone. I'll let you know if this fixes my wifi issues.

ok..I did some test after go home today for my new replacement i4. Actually, I found something new "yellow spots" on the new replacement (which makes me feel bad now). And the wifi speed...I'll say, it is not stable, but it is slightly faster than previous one. Still not showing smooth of Youtube HD video. So guys, if you have chance, please test it to run some HD videos through Youtube. I usually search "HD" then pick up some short videos like "AVATAR, Big Buck Bunny 1080p HD, Bali Diving HD,...". Right now, I still have slower wifi speed than 3GS to watch these videos (videos stop by itselves on iPhone4 but works fine on 3GS). Thanks!

Just getting in on this now - I thought my iPhone 4 was the only one suffering poor wifi.

So, is it right to assume that this DOES still happen with b/g networks (as well as n)? And that Apple appear to be replacing handsets?

Finally, what's the deal with the youtube HD content - is that a reliable test?

Well add me to this growing list. I've been using wifi (in my house) on both my 3GS and my fiance's 3GS for about a year now with absolutely no issues. After upgrading to iOS4, I started to notice that everything was starting to take longer and longer when I was using wifi on my 3GS. At first, I didn't really think much of it, and, at the time, my iPhone 4 was in route to my mailbox, so I wasn't really too worried. Well, now that I actually have my new iPhone 4, it's the same story. My wifi is EXTREMELY slow, and I actually got so frustrated that I just leave it off completely now. While browsing over 3g I can at least load webpages, so I guess that I'll just have to do that until further notice. I'm really starting to wonder what Apple is doing here. It is VERY unlike them to completely botch up a hardware/software launch like this, and I hope that they are at least reading these forums to help incorporate these findings into their next firmware update.

Just to update on this... went to Apple store today, they ran a test and replaced the handset. Got home tested it out and still slow wifi. By slow i'm talking about 10 kilobits per second! My 3GS was still chugging along at a nice steady 1600kbps. So I called apple support, went through several troubleshooting procedures and it was passed on to a specialist. They in turn have passed it on to some engineers who will be in contact.

Not content with leaving it at that, I went out and got a new router, its a Belkin "N" Wireless router. So now I have the option of b, g, & n wireless signals. (My old router only did up to G) So finially got it all installed and running, and the speed is faster on the iP4 but its not stable. I have it sat directly next to my iMac which picks up approx 1600kbps, and the iP4 is getting about 800-900kbps.
I'm really starting to think its a problem with the phone that is not ironed out. I think the fact that both my iMac and 3GS work on my normal network and router and the iPhone 4 doesn't, means that the iP4 is the culprit.

I'm seriously considering returning it as it just doesn't feel like a product thats ready for release.

All of these comments sound very familiar to those of us that purchased iPads a few months ago and have had consistently weak wifi signal strength (in relation to several MacBooks, PCs, and my iTouch that are all on the same wifi network - yet the later all have very solid signal strength). I, like many of you, had hoped that Apple would offer a fix for this ..... but they have not - and it has now been several months in waiting.

I for one will not be purchasing an iPhone until Apple fixes these wifi problems - and now it appears these wifi problems are impacting multiple Apple products. Come on Apple - you can do better than this !!!!

Glad I'm not the only one.

Have SKY Broadband, with the DG834GT Router on a g/b network.

The 3GS kicks the *** of the iP4 on any internet based activity. My acid test is going on facebook and trying to look at peoples photos. They take FOREVER to load up on the IP4 whilst the 3GS has no problems.

It's driving me nuts.

The weird thing is that the speed test app reckons I'm downloading at over 8mbp/s but the phone is slow as s**t.

So is this a hardware issue or software?????

Just to add some more info to this...

still no call from Apple support... will contact them today if I do not hear from them.

I managed to take my phone round a colleagues house, and they have the same Netgear router with the same ISP. I was getting a consistent download speed when testing with the speedtest.net app, however "real world" testing of different webpages was up and down, some fast, some slow. Again 90% of the sites were beaten by the speed of the 3GS.

I would say therefore that it is hands down a problem with the phone. Obviously the airport chip inside has been changed or tweaked and it is just not as good and stable as the previous models.

I must say its EXTREMELY disappointing to find your previous generation iPhone outperforming the new, VERY EXPENSIVE model! Unfortunately I feel this is not going to be rectified any time soon as it is more than likely a hardware problem (like the signal issue) than a software problem.

To add:

I have just gone back and watched the WWDC keynote, and the problem that Jobs has, is exactly what happens each time I sit my 3GS next to my iP4. 3GS loads without a prob, iP4 takes an age. The problem is there for all to see, unless you believe the 500 wifi stations caused it to fall over. Funny that it didn't seem to bother the 3GS!

Message was edited by: shornuk

I have posted this before and will do it again.. It's an iOS4 bug. Steve jobs had it in his keynote and many 3GS owners who have upgraded also are having this issue.. We need an update!

http://www.lanewsmonitor.com/news/Verizon-iPhone-Release-Reasons---iPhone-4-Wi-F i-Driver-Issues-Real-Reason-Behind-WWDC-Demo-Glitch--Report-1276369936/

Here is a follow-up to my original post. I received the replacement iPhone 4 and all my wi-fi issues are gone. The wi-fi performance is now as good or better then my old 3G and 3GS.

So if anybody is having wi-fi issues, contact AppleCare and get a replacement unit.

Well, I found a solution that is working for me! 🙂 I decided to straight up bypass my home network's DNS server, and simply use the primary DNS for Comcast instead. After I did this, my iPhone 4, my old 3GS and my fiancé’s 3GS are SUPER fast now! I'm not really sure what to attribute this to other than the new firmware because my DNS server was providing a fast connection BEFORE the iOS4 firmware update. So, with that said, you might want to give this a try and see how it works out for you. Since doing this, I've had absolutely ZERO connection/speed issues, and that's fine by me. 🙂

Here's a link to all of Comcast's primary and secondary DNS servers by state:

http://dns.comcast.net/dns-ip-addresses.php

Obviously, you'll need to research your own ISP to find their DNS address(s) if you are not using Comcast.

Hopefully this helps everyone out, and please post up if this works for you so we can all benefit from this work around. Thanks!

wow!!!!

that worked really well. why can't the ip4 figure this out by itself?

Awesome!! I'm glad that this worked for you as well!! Now, maybe others, that are having this issue, can use this workaround too (since it's at least working for both you and I). As for why the iPhone 4 can't do this on it's own, I'd have to guess that it's some kind of software bug in iOS4 because both my old 3GS AND my fiance's 3GS were slow before I did this as well. Glad I could be of help though! 🙂