Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Just to add my two cents... I recently started having the same problem discussed here (after months with no problems) on my iPad2 and iPhone 3GS. Was it caused by upgrading to OS5? Who knows. Following the advice of several here, I configured my Netgear DGN3500 to 802.11g only, and both devices seem to have stabilized.

Thanks everyone for talking through the problem and your proposed solutions in so much detail. It really helps.

We are now a 2 iPad family, both iPad2's

Adding a router between the cable modem and my access point fixed my problems. My problems were with the iPad's and my wife new Blackberry Torch not our laptops I keep getting emails of comments because of joining discussions earlier.

Neither my son or wife have experienced these problems with their iPads at home or when in other locations. I do not think the problems some posters are reporting are part of some essential flaw with iPad2. This suggestion does not match my family's experience.

I tried turning off the auto brightness although it does not make any sense that it will be related to the wifi connectivity in any way. I can confirm that it did not make any difference. My ipad 2 connectivity is so bad now that I can no longer use it. It looses connectivity every few minutes. No problem whatsoever with my iphone, ipod touch, iMac, so this MUST be an ipad2 problem (and not specific to any iOS since I had this problem before upgrading) and I found the fact that Apple ignores it very disturbing.

The eonly thing left to do is to tinker with my wifi router configuration or replace it, but even if it will help, it is still an iPad2 problem if only ipad2 suffer from it.

I was having so much trouble with my Wifi conductivity that I finally made a call to "AppleCare" support. I was told to reset the network (Settings/General/Reset --- Reset Network Settings) and believe it or not, it's been fine ever since. You will loose all of your Wifi settings but it's worth it to re-enter all the Passphrases. Not saying that this will fix your issues but it's worth a try.

My iPad 2 WiFi connection issues got fixed after iOS 5 update ... I got lucky I guess!

Cheers

I bought an ipad 2 IOS5.0 16gb wifi and it arrived 2 days ago. If I get more than 30ft from router it loses its connection. An ipad 1, iphone, and itouch all work fine. Apple support acts like they have never heard of this problem even though this thread proves it is a bit widespread. I am sending this one back and giving it one more chance with a second model. If it does not work I will send it back and get an android based tablet.

My wife and daughter really like the ipad so hopefully it works out, but after reading several responses I don't like my chances.

If your family like the iPad 2 so much get yourself a router that uses wireless n dual band technology. A D-Link DSL-2780 made the world of difference for me.

@Mikerobe

If Apple likes their customers so much, they'll support not-so-old technology. Besides, for most of us, it is not a router issue.

I use an Airport Extreme and everything else (all Apple) works great. If it's just the iPad 2 having issues, how can the solution be to buy a new router?

I tried everything I could think of and that was sggested here. none of them helped:

1 - replaced my ipad2 twice!

2 - Restored to factory setting.

3 - Reset network connection.

4 - Turned off auto brightness (which of course has nothing to do with wifi connection, but some comments recommended that)

5 - Changed wifi settings in the router, which already has wireless N (relatively new router)

If I turn off the encription, the problem seem to go away, but I don't want to do this. I also don't want to replace my router, since it has no problems with any other wifi device, including other Apple devices.

The problem is even worse, when looking at the wifi connection setting, I can see that it looses all the IP info about every minute! Usually it reconnects automatically immidiatly, but not all the time. When it doesn't, this is when it become a problem. I looked at both my iphone and ipod touch at the same time, none of them is loosing the connection. It is only the iPad!

What I don't get, is how Apple can get away with it for so long, and pretend there is no issue?? There was big noise a year ago when the iPhone4 had a slight antena problem which happened only when touching in certain place, so had an easy workaround, yet everybody talked about it. At the same time, no one is making noise about not beeing able to use their ipad2 with wifi at all?? I don't get it. Any bloggers out there can spread the word?

It does not suprise me that turning off encryption helps, because I found very early on (on both the Iphone4 and the Ipad2, pre-IOS5) that if I had two wifi access points going concurrently, and one had WEP64 encryption, the other had WPA/PSK encryption, and if the i-device had both setup (i.e. I had at some previous time entered passwords for both APs) then the wifi speed would slow down to a crawl.

I posted all over the place about it, and all anybody could say was that nobody should be using WEP anyway...

We solved it by turning off the WEP AP. Most of the time we didn't need it; it was there to support one specific client.

I also suspect that the problems do not exist with Apple's own access points.

The problem is that the huge majority of people do not have Apple access points 🙂 I bought the Airport Extreme the other day, but sent it back because it has no HTTP admin. Only the Apple config program can be used to configure it.

A little update on my iPad2 wifi dropping.

Installed a wifi repeater last night and have seen an instant fix. So far. Full bars. No YouTube drops, nor any other videos stopping midway through. Websites are displaying fine again. Mail is collecting, no problems.

So it seems, so far (only 12 hours in) that the iPad's wifi receiver/transmitter is just very weak. I have no problems with any other wifi devices including 3DS and laptops.

Will update if it seems I've jumped the gun, but so far, I'm fixed.

Nevermind about my issues being fixed. The last couple of nights my Wifi has dropped a few times. It's the first issue since I've been on iOS 5.

I was hoping the recent AE firmware update would have permanently fixed it, but my problems reoccurred after that update. :/

Random thought, I use the smart cover, is it possible that the magnets could be interfering with the signal? How many other users use the smart cover on here? I also use a plastic case that snaps onto the back of the iPad, but that wouldn't cause issues.

Got a new iPad 2 at the weekend as a gift (lucky boy), unfortunately I appear to be suffering wifi issues, I don't have any issues connecting or with signal dropout, only weak signal strength which results in very poor wifi / broadband speed. I've got a broadband speed test app (free from itunes) and been around the house comparing the ipad to my iphone. In every room the ipad was considerably slower than the iphone apart from in the living room itself (where the router is situated), so the problem is definitely with signal strength. I also have a smartcover which I removed during testing, it didn't appear to make any difference.

The router is a DrayTek Vigor, which though a year or two old is a high end router, known for its reliability and flexibility, I've tried using different types of encryption and even no encryption at all, again it did not affect the results. (also tried turning bluetooth off, changing the brightness, only using 11g, altering the http proxy, all of which did not affect the results)

I'm sure the problem could be easily fixed by putting an extenders around the house, however I am reluctant to just 'accept' this as a 'fix'. The iPad 2 is a high end product, the usability of which depends absolutely on its ability to communicate over a wifi network, so the weak signal strength is a core failing with the product. I'll be contacting Apple direct later to see what they suggest, I am happy to exchange the product but if the issue remains I'm afraid I'll have to return for a refund as it is unrealistic to expect to have to be within 2 meters of the router for it to work properly.

I had the Draytek 2900 routers at a couple of sites, and the Ipad2 wifi would "crash" them. The result was a very very slow wifi data rate.