Intermittent Wi-Fi connectivity issues with my iPad

Question

Intermittent Wi-Fi connectivity issues with my iPad

Greetings all.

I've owned my iPad for going on seven months now, and have been very happy with the device.

Recently, I've had an issue with the Wi-Fi and I would appreciate any thoughts or solutions you might have.

My router is a Cisco WRVS4400N running the latest firmware
My router is secured using WPA-TKIP
My iPad is the 16gb wifi version running iOS 4.2.1

When I go to use my iPad, it shows it is connected to my wireless network, but it will not connect to the internet. I have to go into 'Settings', 'Network', and renew the IP address lease to get connected. I have to do this almost every time I pick the iPad up and want to go online. (It will even "lose" connection if I spend to long reading a webpage.) Needless to say, it's very annoying.

I've got four other devices connected wireless to my router, including my iPhone4, and none of them have this issue. My iPad works just fine connected to any other wireless network, so I have to assume it's a router setting that is causing this issue.

What I Have Tried So Far:

Hard reset my router
Restored my iPad to factory settings

Does anyone out there have any thoughts on what setting might be wrong?

Thanks in advance,
Shaun

iPad, iOS 4

Posted on Feb 14, 2011 8:46 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 15, 2011 7:47 PM in response to superiormirage

Hi,

Try the troubleshooting help here.

iPad: Troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks and connections

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

melgish

Level 1

0 points

Feb 16, 2011 7:43 PM in response to superiormirage

I have the same router and same problems.

Changing channel bandwidth from 20/40 mHz to only 20 mHz will improve your iPad's network speed, but not help the connection drops.

If you change the wireless key renewal value from the default 3600 to 99999, you will not have to reconnect as often. Mine went from every time I pick up the iPad to once to twice a day.

The problem seems to be that the router sends the key renewal signal, but the iPad does not receive it, or perhaps responds incorrectly.

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Answer 3

Feb 17, 2011 8:00 AM in response to Carolyn Samit

Carolyn,

I appreciate the response. Unfortunately, I am well beyond the "check your signal strength" and "make sure your cable modem is connected" stage. The issue I am having involves a specific setting in my router, I just do not know where it is.

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Answer 4

Feb 17, 2011 8:08 AM in response to melgish

Melgish,

Thank you for the info. That is the first good advice I have gotten on how to minimize this issue.

The key renewal idea makes sense.

Stupid question: is there a way to change how the key is sent? (Does make sense?)

-Shaun

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Answer 5

melgish

Level 1

0 points

Feb 17, 2011 10:31 AM in response to superiormirage

You're welcome. Let me know how it works out for ya.

And it's not so stupid question. I imagine that the way the key gets renewed is part of a standard...either 802.11 or WPA (not sure which) ... so it's probably not something that can be adjusted easily.

Message was edited by: melgish

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Answer 6

May 20, 2011 3:42 PM in response to superiormirage

Hi Shaun - please read my entry.

Apple needs to put out a universal 'fix' for this issue and they will have to be forced to do this by their customers. Currently they are not openly acknowledging a problem.

They will only publicly face up to this issue if the media pick up the story.

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Answer 7

mrdylans

Level 1

0 points

Jun 9, 2011 12:27 AM in response to melgish

Same router, same problems here too.. thanks for the tip... so far it seems a bit less frustrating.

Something to note, I had this problem mostly with my iPhone, but I thought it was just due to an old 3GS, since the gf's iPhone 4 wasn't exhibiting the issue. But her iPad is... and so is my Mac mini... and now I find out her iPhone 4 in-fact was having the same issue. The other 4 Windows machines and 2 ubuntu laptops along with PS3, and my HTC EVO have no such issues...

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Answer 8

mrdylans

Level 1

0 points

Jun 9, 2011 12:37 AM in response to mrdylans

Also got tips elsewhere saying to set SSID beacon interval to 50 (although this shouldn't make any difference), DTIM to 1 (usually is by default), and most interesting, set RTS and Fragmentation threshold to 2304... this seems like it might make a difference if Apple wifi somehow is not properly picking up the packet terminate bits or whatever it's called.

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Answer 9

delldb

Level 1

0 points

Jul 30, 2011 12:53 PM in response to superiormirage

Try using fixed range ip on router and also wifi settings on iPad/iPhone also disable any guest account settings and also try another dns setting such as google dns 8.8.8.8 this is what I have done after weeks of frustration and it works for me I'd like to know your feedback if it works or not good luck chap!

Dave

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Answer 10

Sep 6, 2011 12:13 PM in response to superiormirage

Hello everyone,

Had the same issue and solved it! Read somewhere that turning off the "auto brightness" and moving the slider close to the max often solves the problem. Went to settings/brightness & wallpaper and did just that and now no more wifi problems. Don't ask why but it worked. Hope it works for you!

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Answer 11

RhodaLee

Level 1

0 points

Nov 10, 2011 11:17 AM in response to superiormirage

I'll try that, because my iPhone 4S and my iMac are all fine when this occurs and it comes right back up but I'm writing am article and bham it says that I don't have a connection. I have an Ipad2 which is only a few months old. The kid that brought out the iPad for me, it has 3G of course I didn't think to open the stupid box, it has Verizon as the carrier for the 3G which I haven't used yet because the iPad cost me $649, had to buy 3G stuff from Verizon for over $100 because of car charger and the charger from 3G to something that looks like one side is Verizon the other Apple. Since my carrier is AT&T it aggravated me. Then I had to buy $40 worth of extra memory for the iPad2, I thought it might help the problem, I bought a new router nada.

I've been buying all Apple since the Macintosh with the mouse that only had the one click no right and left like a PC, and I've noticed that Apple consistently releases new equipment with glitches all the time. Not once or twice on everything they release. I'll try the turning down the brightness, I don't use wallpaper I'm just not a pretty picture on my phones and computer woman. Thanks for the suggestion because it's soooo annoying!

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Answer 12

Dec 6, 2011 9:28 AM in response to superiormirage

I had the same issue, I changed my router from WPA to WPA2 and rebooted. Works fine now. (I had tried all other "fixes", but it was only this one of my apple devices with no connectivity, so I knew it was a setting problem).

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