iPhone 3G / Wifi problem / 4.2.1

Well, I have tried every solution offered in this forum short of tearing my phone apart and doing some soldering. I was able to seemingly log on to my home network but as many have reported I was not receiving the signal. After a few attempts suggested in this forum I now can no longer log on at all as I receive a message that my password is not valid. I sat next to someone yesterday and he had not upgraded to the new software. We both tried to access a remote network and he used the same password that I did. He was able to log on and I received the invalid password message. This was not my home network so the idea that the problem can be fixed by adjusting routers at home is not a solution. I have given up and hope that the next upgrade will fix the problem. If not, then maybe it is time for a new phone and not an iPhone.

Thanks. That solved my problem.

Message was edited by: rlemonds@hotmail.com

Hi radcon_san. Encryption keys are case sensitive and for some reason on the iPhone if you make a mistake with the input it will not be resolved by using a backspace to delete the input. You must start the imput again 'Fresh' and be key perfect..

Ant..

Adnixon,

Thanks for your feedback. You actually helped. My password is all numbers so the case sensitive issue was not valid but it did get me thinking. I have been using the password for the router but I just tried using the Network Key as the password and low and behold it worked. I guess all the help from this forum did work and I feel a bit stupid over the password issue but I will get over it. Now it is back to that location where I had issues with the password that I spoke of and hopefully it will now work. Thanks to all of you.

Thanks for the feed back and you are very welcome. Given that we have a password for almost every occasion it is no wonder that from time to time we may not see the woods for the trees. So much to learn so little time... Ant..

Kia Ora, Antz. It's good to bump into another New Zealander on here. I had the opportunity to work in Melbourne on and off last year so I hope you're enjoying yourself over there as I'm sure you will be if my experience is anything to go by.

I agree with you that the sporadic nature of the problems experienced by myself and others on this forum would support your theory that certain router configurations are prompting these connectivity failures. I am fortunate enough to have plain sailing with my Wifi at home, but when I attempt to connect to a reputable public access Wifi hotspot then it's very hit and miss even with a strong signal available. When you're using a public Wifi service you don't have the option of reconfiguring or rebooting the router, and if other devices are working fine in this environment while your iOS device is choking then Apple has some explaining to do in my opinion.

Out of interest here is a quick non-scientific sample of my experiences of different Wifi hotspots over the last couple of weeks:
- Interisland Ferry : Worked fine on the Arahura heading south, but either refused to connect or refused to pass data on both my iPad and iPhone on the way back on the Aratere. Both of these ships have exactly the same Wifi service on board, but I am inclined to assume that there is some subtle difference in the router hardware or configuration that resulted in a trouble-free connection on the Arahura and a total nightmare on the Aratere.
- Picton Waterfront : Connected initially, but dropped connection after working fine for five minutes. Thereafter it either refused to connect, or worked sporadically when it was able to connect.
- Wellington Waterfront : Either connects and refuses to pass any data (the Wifi icon in the status bar does not light up and the device continues to use 3G), or simply displays "unable to join the network" error.
- McDonald's : Worked fine in Blenheim, but in New Plymouth and Newtown, Wellington it displays "unable to join the network" error.
- Brougham Heights Motel, New Plymouth : Appeared to work fine (admittedly I didn't use it for long due to excessive charges).
- Cafenet, Palmerston North : Worked absolutely fine for a good couple of hours.

These mixed results over a wide range of Wifi networks in central NZ have left me with a "too much hassle to bother trying" attitude towards any public Wifi hotspot until Apple can provide some clarity around these issues.

Fortunately 3G data here is reasonably cheap now so as long as my devices continue to play nicely with my Wifi at home then I can probably get by with just 3G when away from home, but it would be a huge annoyance if I had a Wifi-only iPad.

You are also having battery problems - my phone now needs charging twice daily and the wifi well as of this am it now says NO WI FI where at least before it said not connected and the wifi button under settings is now a pale colour that is you can no longer select this option.!
Does anyone know if there is any help out there as all the soloutions I keep getting are just ones that cost money and hey I did nothing wrong! 😟

Kia Ora alasta22 thanks for the travelog which was very interesting last time I travelled to Blenheim from CHCH was in 1962 in an Austin 7 which took 12 hours those were the days when to communicate over distance it was done using morse code. Look how far we have come. The router at Palmerston North may have been configured to cause the IP Lease's to expire after a set period of time in that case 2 hours or there abouts. NZ McDonalds and others probably just needed to reset their routers. I have never had a problem in Aus with the Free McDonalds Hotspots with 3G 4 or iPad so I have never had to ask the manager to reset the router. There are some routers in the public space that appear to be available 'without the padlock icon' that do not allow you to connect an example of that is a Internet Cafe at our local shopping centre. Perhaps they can disguise what type of encyrption they are running or have some other method of not publishing. As a matter of interest if you have a Vista Notebook you could should you choose so to do download a 'Free' program called 'Vistumbler' which I am told allows the user to engage in Wardriving Routers. Highly illegal in this part of the world as it is an offense to intercept radio signals in certain circumstances and to establish that your next door neighbour is unintentionally offering free internet access and to avail ones self of that connectivity without asking is probably not a neighbourly thing to do. The other router issues you mention may be range. I have a Desktop which picks up not only my answering point but another in close proximity. The card is an 802.1/n however neither either the 3G, 4 or iPad in the same location as my desktop can only see my router. All the places you have mentioned in a past life have been part of my stomping ground. And as far as the routers are concerned the Administrator of those devices just happens to be the all powerful genie. Cheers Ant..

Hi, I am also experiencing wifi connection problems with my 3G iphone (iOS 4.2.1)
However, I already had wifi problems before the update with OS 3.1.3.
I've tried connecting to various wifi networks (always detected with high signal strengh) with no results. Also, my home wifi network works well with laptops and android phones.

I tried many solutions (including some listed in this thread): resetting network settings in Settings > General, rebooting my router, testing WPA & WEP encryption, restoring my iphone to factory settings, configuring my router to use a fixed IP for my iPhone MAC adress, switching to static IP, etc. The result is always the same: iPhone unable to joine the network.

I'm now more or less convinced this is a hardware problem, although the wifi networks are properly detected by the device. So sadly I will have to buy a new phone if I want to use wifi again...

I have exactly the same wifi problem with my iPhone 3G. I also previously tried all the same solutions, all to no avail.

Why can't Apple respond to these requests for help? This is their forum. We are their customers. It is becoming more disappointing than the issue itself.

Hi there,
this is an old issue for my 3G. My problem was started when I updated my iphone with the 4.0.2.
Here some threads :
*Upgrade to 4.0.2 - WIFI is gone.*
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2557236&start=0&tstart=0
*No wifi grey Look At the starting LOG*
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12187860#12187860
*"No Wi-Fi" - Grayed Out in Settings - iPhone 3G*
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12187857#12187857


The wifi function stopped and the sign was «No wifi», known as grayed out. I sent the issue to bug reporter and the asked me to send the some logs from the iPhone Configuration Utility. Then they asked me the following:

+Can you please attach logs starting from boot? You should do the following, for both 3.1.3 and 4.1 (when the latter is released):+
+1) Fully charge the phone.+
+2) Connect the phone to a computer.+
+3) Start collecting logs.+
+4) Power off the phone, wait 10 seconds, then power it back on.+
+5) When the phone comes back, note whether WiFi is available.+
+6) If WiFi is available, you should try to connect to your home network manually using the settings app.+
+7) If you can connect, you should try to use WiFi for a couple of minutes.+
+8) Attach both sets of logs.+

All those emails come to me some days before every update of the os. My last communication with them is a mysterious email that said:

+«The syslog doesn't contain any messages from SDIO or WiFi. We'd need to capture this unit to get additional info.»+

Does anyone knows what SDIO is and what they mean by capture the unit?

Ten days before, out of the blue, the wifi came back full functional!!! But only for 5 days!!! Now I have still the gray sign «No wifi».
I don’t believe that I have a hardware problem as the representative of apple here said.
I tried all the solutions but without any result.
Any suggestions?

Got a MB702LL (8GB iPhone 3G) with 4.2.1 (8C148) with the same problem. Upgraded using iTunes, and WiFi stops working. Symptoms are as follows:

-No networks show up in the wifi network list
-Manual connections to any wifi network do not occur
-Battery drain faster than normal when doing anything

Symptoms continue after trying the following:

-Trying different networks, ranging from home wifi to large corporate/university network.
-Full restart of iPhone
-Reset network of iPhone + restart
-Full reset of iPhone + restart
-Reinstall firmware from iTunes
-Reinstall in recovery mode
-Reinstall firmware in fail safe mode

Again, the symptoms continue after any of these. Searching comments, 99% of people with problems have this exact model of 3G (MB702LL) and iOS 4.2.1. Apple will not fix the device as it's not under warranty, so, no more WiFi and you're SOL until you get a new phone.

Opinion Piece:
They should recall this device and definitely recall the iOS update. Phone has been horrible since iOS4 anyway. You can see that Apple really doesn't care about "legacy" users, that being anyone who owns something older than about 2 years. So, factor that into your phone cost--you're going to need a new one every 2 years if you go Apple. It's not worth it to me any more, especially when I see all the things the Linux (Android) phones can do. It may not be all slick, fancy and shiny but it simply does more. I don't want a phone as a status item anyway, I need it to do my work. This is the final straw for me. Bye Apple, and I'm selling my stock!

Hi dlc3

Whilst Apple is the Host of this support facility I am not sure that this is a forum that will promote a response from them. For some reason I have the impression that this is a forum for users helping users with solvable issues and there has been some acknowledgement of that.

Given your use of a statistic to promote a point of view one statistic I would like to see is the number of users who have had a WiFi problem for what ever reason read the forum solved their issue and for what ever reason not documented for others to share.

I am also very cautious when it comes to those who choose to post unsubstantiated claims like 99% of people with problems have this exact model. If that is the case then perhaps you together with those similarly affected should join forces and with the power of many run the fit for the purpose, useful life, lemon law, consumer protection, or damages argument just to name a few.

If you choose so to do then don't forget to take into account that every upgrade to the OS has been delivered by Apple 'Free of Charge' and if I am correct not a compulsory user requirement to upgrade unless Apple has acknowledged and published that it was to fix a known issue.

Personally I have never resolved an issue in a commercial setting without being able to produce the documentary evidence capable of validation that supported the view that proved beyond doubt the it was the suppliers responsibility to remedy.

I acknowledge and respect your right to comment as you see fit although venting is unlikely to give carriage to your issue good luck anyway..

Does anyone know why this thread is marked "fixed"?
Where is the working solution?

I guess it's because the initiator of the thread has solved his problem, apparently by resetting both his router and phone network settings (see his 3rd message on Page 1).
This solution however does not seem to be universal...