weak wifi range on Iphone 4

I'm having the same problem, my 3Gs picks up full wifi signal while my iphone4 never has a full signal and goes from two bars to one and keeps fluctuating. I don't know if it's the phone, my router, or a software issue?

Exact same problem here on my iPhone 4 as well. I've compared the wifi signal strength to my iPad and 1st gen iPhone, and the iPhone 4 has the worst signal of the lot. Tried it out in three different locations using different routers with the problem being consistent within the iPhone4. My guess is that it's a hardware issue and I'm hoping they will replace my unit.

:edit: update to 4.0.1 doesn't solve the problem.

Message was edited by: vshl07

Is it just showing low bars but able to download as fast as 3GS or is speed as well as bar display affected? I'm finding my iPhone 4 has excellent wifi coverage around my house which is especially large and with heavily insulted walls. I'd suggest going to apple store and compare a staff phone with yours while walking away from their router with both phones. This is very easy to measure performance against a staff phone.

Same problem... Wifes wifi on 3Gs shows full bars and my iphone 4 , 1 bar.... And ridiculous download speeds....

Will take it in to the store this wk...

First week was gud... This seems to have started hapenning after a few weeks of use

Yes, I have the exact same problem. I have a 3Gs phone. When it was running 3.1.3 I had no problems, I had a strong WiFi signal, great bluetooth strength and my GPS picked up satellites inside my home. Now (with 4.0.1) my WiFi cannot pick up a signal 15 feet from the source, my bluetooth is choppy 2 feet from source and my GPS has trouble locking on satellites outside with a clear view of the sky. It's clearly a software bug since nothing has changed except going from 3.1.3 to 4.0.1. I've alway been an ardent fan of Apple products (yes, you could call me a fanboy) but this arrogant stance they've taken and lack of ownership by Apple is reprehensible. I used to tell folks "I buy Apple because I don't need to worry, their products just plain work", not anymore.

I totally agreee. Im sitting with my Windows PC finding 5 WIFI networks all with varying degrees of strength from 1 bar to 5 bars and yet my iphone 4
says there is none available.

Yet i know it works because if i stand within 20feet of a wifi station it will show up on the iphone with full signal. Same goes for 3G signal - Old phones had no problem connecting in certain areas. where the iphone wont. the iphone keeps dropping back to standard gms connection and then doesnt search again for 3g signal until i refresh the network list , switch to another and switch back...

VERY ANNOYING

This changes EVERYTHING again -> In a bad way 😟

Yeps. Today my 4G just started refusing to Wifi for some reason. It sees the network but continually insists "Data Roaming Is Turned Off" aka won't use Wifi even though it appears to connect to the hotspot fine.

Oddly my old 3G phone with 4.0 sitting right next to it works great on the same hotspot.

Oddlyer still, both were working fine for last 2 weeks in exact same spot & network (desk at work).

I've done a 'forget network' etc etc. Have done a soft reboot, hard reboot, put on my dancin' boots, everythin'.

Digging a little deeper and it doesn't seem to get an IP address properly. It seems to be getting a 169.254.x.x IP address.

There is one of those stupid zombie "Free Public Wifi" faux-peer-networks running on some idiots nearby PC and I'm guessing perhaps it's trying to attach to that, which is why its not getting the 192.168.x.x type of address that this network REALLY is supposed to hand out. So weirdly the 4G is indexing the network selection wrong on the wifi screen, or otherwise somehow getting the 2 mixed up..?

I can successfully enter the WPA2 password, and it LOOKS like it successfully connects to "SSIDname" but then when you go into details it never gets that right IP address.

DDDOOOHHHH irritating iPhone.

My iPhone 4 has really weak WIFI reception. I have owned iPhone 3G and an 3GS before and compared to them the WIFI performance is really bad. I can not be more than 5 meters from my router to have reception and my iPhone 4 just finds the wifi in my apartment while all other devices finds a lot av neighbours wifis.

On my phone the wireless speed is also very varying. From 22 mbps down to 1 mbps.

Me and my girlfriend both av iPhone 4:s, hers is i little better but still pretty weak compared to other phones. My brother has one as well and on his device it is just the opposite... He finds wifis I can't even see on my Macbook pro...

When looking on the back of the phone me and my girlfriends have different numbers than my brothers. FCC ID: BCG-E2380B versus E2380A on the "good phone". I also have another friend with no wifi issues at all who has the E2380A-version.

The "A" and "B" is suppose to be the same hardware but made by different vendors. The interesting thing here is that the hardware in this case is the chip that handles WIFI and bluetooth...

Could you guys (with problems and without) please check which versions you have?

Best!

/P

Mine has "A" and iv got the issues i explained above , just like yours...

Mine is detecting Wifi Networks that have a Windows Vista Bar strength of 3 and 4. Not 1 and 2 bars.

This maybe be the only good way to judge as windows uses the Strength in DB and then coverts it so different wifi adaptors should still represent an accurate reading is DB.


One thing iv noted is that 802.11n routers seem to show up with lower signal than abg routers.


Its definitly a software issue i think because i have seen posts where people say there 3GS was fine until they upgraded. Its most likely a battery saving update that has weakened the power for wifi.

I hope they give us a slider in setting to let us decide how much power to use

I'm having the exact same problem on my iPhone 4. Hope Apple get this one sorted quickly. It's very annoying being in the bedroom and not being able to get a connection from my own router in the front room. Even my original 2G iPhone didn't have this issue, it was perfect. What's changed?!

On another note though, the gf also has an iPhone 4 but her device seems to have a better connection to the wifi connections we have tested but still not great.

Thanks for your response. I got my phone exchanged yesterday and this one has perfekt wifi-reception. It also seems that it solved my problem with BT-headset and proximity sensor being to sensitive.

The new phone is 2380A...

Girlfriend still have the "B" and still having wifi AND BT problems. She will try to swap it today.

OK confirmed: When in presence of some retard's PC's zombie ad-hoc network ("Free Public Wifi"), no matter what I did the iPhone 4 wouldn't connect to a genuine network that it knows and loves. Then said anon retard with "FPW" zombie broadcasting apparently left the office, and voila. Works perfectly. No changes to iPhone at all.

Seems some bug in it makes it want to just getting sucked to that open ad-hoc network no matter what you tell it to do explicitly.

So if you can't connect to a network where everything else seems fine, and which works sometimes, look for a PC with a bogus ad-hoc network farkin with your Wifi. I wouldn't be surprised if this bug was behind 99% of Wifi complaints since so many idiotz have those zombies running on Windoze boxes...

I think there may be some relevance in the iphone hardware theory. I have two iphone 4s side by side, so the external conditions, whether interference or whatever, are exactly the same for both, one is picking up wifi all over the neighborhood, the other barely what is running in the house. Although, the good strength has the i.d. E2380B and the weak E2380A. One other thing to note: the weak A is a 32GB the strong B is a 16GB.

You would not be using a Netgear router my any chance, I have now found a fix I think, fast wifi for last 12 hours

iPhone 4 wi-fi range is pathetic!

Brand new iPhone 4 bullt in week 31 and wi-fi is unbelievable bad. I have two access points/routers. One is Apple's own Time Capsule (dual mode) and second is Huawei E5 Mi-Fi router. Time Machine is configured to make 5GHz N-network and also 2.4GHz B/G network. Wireless channels are set by hand. Huawei makes normal B/G network (channel is different than on TC). Both/all networks require WPA2 password when joining.

I have to literally use the new iPhone 4 next to the router. If I try to find wi-fi network from 4 meters away from router it won't find anything. From 2-3 meters I can get connection with one bar. When joining to Huaweis network situation is even worse. Right next to Huawei (about 5cm away) I get almost full bars but if I move the phone or Huawei 50-60cm I'm able to get one bar. And it's not just the bars. Speed is also affected. And I'm also aware that iPhone 4 N doesn't support 5GHz band so it will join to 2.4GHz (B/G) network.

I have two MacBooks (Air and MBP), Mac Mini, original 2G iPhone and wifi iPad. None of those have had any wifi problems (not even iPad before 3.2.1 update). I get full bars almost anywhere in my apartment. I have tried to change settings from routers but without any help.

I found this thread so at least I'm not alone. I have also found out that iPod touch users (2G/3G) are having massive wifi problems after iOS4 update. Also iPhone 3G users seems to be having some kind of problems (wifi greyed out). Maybe it's just because iOS4?

It would seem that taking to repair/change could be the easiest solution but not here in Finland. Apple doesn't have any own service provided here se we have to use third party service center. They don't repair phones. Every phone is changed to refurbished one and it takes weeks. Doesn't sound so good. iPhone is couple of hours old and If I take DOA device to repair I have to wait 3-5 weeks and after that I don't get a new phone. Maybe it's wise to wait iOS 4.1 update? Resetting network settings/restoring phone doesn't help.

Everyone here has changed/repaired their phone?