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Dave Z Author

Level 1

60 points

iOS 4.3 cannot connect to 802.11n at 5.0 GHz

I just updated to iOS 4.3 (from 4.2.1) on my first generation iPad. I have a Time Capsule running a 2.4 GHz network and a Linksys E2000 setup as a network bridge (DHCP and NAT disabled) running a 5.0 GHz network. I live near a college and need the 5.0 GHz network because there are at least ten 2.4-based networks in the area.

Before the update to iOS 4.3 my iPad was able to connect and use the 5.0 GHz network without issue. Immediately after the update it reports it cannot connect to the network. My wife's iPad, still running 4.2.1, can connect to the 5.0 GHz network without issue. I have removed the WPA2 key and ran the network unsecure for a couple of minutes but that didn't resolve the issue. When I re-enabled WPA2 I also changed the Linksys to use 2.4 GHz instead of 5.0 GHz; the iPad connected immediately. When I changed it back to 5.0 GHz the iPad immediately would no longer connect.

I am quite familiar with networks and, despite having two routers on the same network, they are configured properly and this setup has worked for months. Indeed, it still does work with my iMac and wife's iPad (running 4.2.1).

Is anyone else having difficulty using the 5.0 GHz spectrum after this OS update?

Thanks!

iMac (Late 2009), Core i5 2.66 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 16 GB iPhone 4, 16 GB iPad (1st Gen.), Apple TV (1st Gen.)

Posted on Mar 9, 2011 11:41 AM

56 replies

Mar 11, 2011 7:45 PM in response to Dave Z

Correction to what I posted. 4.3 won't let an iPad, ip4, or ATV connect to ANY 802.11n networks in either 2 or 5 ghz band. I hadn't noticed the 2ghz band issues cuz my router was in mixed mode. Sone I set 2 and 5 to N only.... Nothing could connect to it. So I had to downgrade it all back to 4.2.1

Mar 12, 2011 5:16 AM in response to Dave Z

Same issue here, updated to 4.3 & now can't connect to upper band on my dual band router. Tried all resets etc & still no joy.

Bobtat

Level 1

7 points

Mar 12, 2011 6:09 AM in response to Dave Z

After updating iPhone 3Gs to 4.3 I can connect to wi-fi but several apps that require an open port 443 will not work. Turn off wi-fi and they work. This did not happen until the 4.3 update. Waiting for 4.3.1 Apple.

JKtheMac

Level 1

0 points

Mar 12, 2011 7:01 AM in response to JKtheMac

This issue hasn't been getting a lot of publicity so I have used apple feedback to at least log my issue. I would urge anyone else that is having problems to let apple know.

Mar 12, 2011 7:36 AM in response to Dave Z

Since upgrading to iOS 4.3 on my iPhone 3Gs I also was finding it could not connect to my Linksys E1000 N router,So I logged into my router and changed my network mode from Mixed to Wireless G Only,And now it works great I hope this helps

Mar 12, 2011 8:05 AM in response to Dave Z

It's not just 5ghz. 4.3 prevents ANY iDevice , including the ATV for using 802.11n in any band. Many ppl don't see thus because their routers are in mixed mode. So for 5ghz ppl , the devices drop to 802.11a, and for 2.4ghz ppl, the devices drop to G.

I hate mixed mode on routers because it degrades performance. So my 5ghz is N only and my 2.4 is G only. So I noticed this right away. But once I set my 2.4ghz to n only nothing would touch it

This also is not a 40mhz vs 20 issue as my 5ghz was forced to 40 and the iPad and ATV used it just fine, and i tries 20mhz N only on both band and still nothing.

I'm just shocked there are NO press releases. 54Mbit is not enough to stream movies to an iPad. The iPad does buffer to storage like the ATV2, it buffers to ram. So on a G/A network, HD video streams to my iPad then stops every 1-2 mins

However, I was able to downgrade everything to 4.2.1 because apple is still signing it

Mar 12, 2011 8:47 AM in response to Dave Z

I started a new thread with a better, more descriptive title and info: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2780119&tstart=0

Mar 12, 2011 2:14 PM in response to Dave Z

Issue solved. Apparently iOS 4.3 REQUIRES WMM support to be ENABLED or it will refuse connect to a dedicated N router or it will fall back to G on a mixed mode router. I read the final IEEE 802.11n requirements and it hinted WMM is now mandatory.

WHY apple would force this w/o telling ppl is a mystery. But once I enabled it, all my idevices can now do 2.4 and 5gz N again on iOS 4.3

tgibbs

Level 1

70 points

Mar 12, 2011 2:26 PM in response to Dave Z

When I first brought my iPad2 home, it gave me an "unable to connect" message when I tried to connect to my 802.11n router at 5 GHz (D-Link 825). Thinking that maybe the iPad2 was not 5 GHz compatible, I turned on mixed 2.4/5 GHz 802.11n, and the iPad2 connected just fine. But then I was able to switch back to 5 GHz-only mode and the iPad2 reconnected just fine.

Dave Z Author

Level 1

60 points

Mar 12, 2011 6:19 PM in response to TallBearNC

I had to update my Linksys E2000 firmware to version 1.0.04 (from version 1.0.03), but doing that in conjunction with enabling WMM seems to have resolved the issue.

Thanks TallbearNC.

FYI to others: Routers that support it will most likely have WMM under a QoS section.

Fubar_UK

Level 1

0 points

Mar 13, 2011 1:04 AM in response to TallBearNC

Nice one TallBear - enabling WMM fixes the issue for me too. Why the he'll don't Apple Support know about this and inform us when we call!

This still isn't acceptable as a solution though - what if you want to connect to a public WiFi setup that's N only and they don't have WMM enabled? Say "excuse me, can yiu change the config on your router please?" Not good Apple - why have you done this?

JKtheMac

Level 1

0 points

Mar 13, 2011 1:19 AM in response to Fubar_UK

WMM fixed issue here too! That's a bit weird actually as I had bad experiences with WMM in 4.2, I was unable to maintain a constant connection. That was the only reason I had it turned off.

Will have to give it a try for a while and see how it goes now.

Thanks for the solution.

wctai

Level 1

0 points

Mar 13, 2011 1:21 AM in response to Dave Z

In my case. I need to fix the channel width of my router to 20 Mhz but not auto.

Mar 13, 2011 1:57 AM in response to Dave Z

Many ppl, including me manually turned WMM off as it's really not needed in many cases. However, the IEEE 802.11n standard states that all devices must use WMM to use N speeds. I think apple forced the idevices to require this so their devices comply now as well. I made apple support aware of this solution. So they should b able to help people now.

This is something the should have made known to the users in the iOS 4.3 release notes that under ios 4.3, WMM is a req to connect an iDevice to an N network

My ATV2 is happy, and streaming video under 4.3, but slower than it did under 4.2.1. My iPad is NOT happy 2Mbps movies are stuttering when I stream to my iPad either in G 54Mbps or N 108Mbps. I'm going to keep tweaking my router.

JKtheMac

Level 1

0 points

Mar 13, 2011 3:56 AM in response to JKtheMac

And surprise surprise, now my network connection intermittently drops out, just as it did before I gave up on WMM with 4.2. I am not convinced that Apple's WMM implementation is very stable. Certainly this makes it difficult to stream video, which is after all what it is supposed to make possible.

iOS 4.3 cannot connect to 802.11n at 5.0 GHz