Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

I'll add to this thread in that I just got back from the Apple store with the same issue and basically the tech said that it IS a software issue and they were going to replace our Ipad 2. It took him about 15 seconds to tell us after we told him we were losing wifi signal so they are well aware of the problem. So, we are going to back everything up first then take it back.

I asked him if he knew of any patches to fix the problem that would be coming soon and he said no, as of right now the only fix was to replace the device.

I also told him that I had read on this site people who got a replacement and still had the issue. He said he personally has replaced 80-90 Ipads b/c of this and none of them have come back with the same issue.

I asked them if there was any particular wireless router or router setting to use and he said no, that it should pretty much work with anything.

So, hopefully the new one will work but it does not sound like any fix is on the way soon.

One interesting thing which the Apple shop man told me was an IOS firmware upgrade does not update all the firmware in the Iphone or Ipad.

I am a hardware/software developer and this suggests that probably the wifi radio module contains its own microcontroller (which is highly likely) and there is a defect in the code in that chip. The code resides in ROM (or FLASH which is not accessible for rewriting) and cannot be updated.

This is the risk in making a product which has some non accessible firmware. You need to make **** sure that part is bug-free 🙂 We make an industrial electronics product at work whose basic I/O code has been frozen since 1995 - for exactly that reason. All the rest of it can be uploaded.

In the consumer sphere it would be completely normal (and completely unethical, but virtually everybody does it) to stonewall and whitewash until all affected products are out of warranty and then slowly come clean. Otherwise the liability is enormous... think of the millions of Ipads which Apple had stockpiled prior to release for example.

Just wondering that since the iOS 5 (or whatever it is) has been released, is this still an occurring problem. I only ask because I want to get one and after reading this thinking of just getting the first iPad?

The same issues are present in the 1st Gen iPad. You have to be patient & try out different configurations of encryption, visible/hidden SSID, location of the Access Point, & other suggestions in this thread. You can obviously see that some people do solve their problems eventually.

I received my iPad 2 yesterday and can't get it to connect. I have an iPhone 4 and 1st iPad (which I am posting from) and they both work just fine. From the sound of it, I need to take it back tomorrow and get a new one then. Oi. This is beyond annoying.

Hi everyone!

I too have the same issue - esp when downloading large apps, or going online. I get kicked out of the internet constantly but it also happens with the ipod too. So not sure what's up???

Everyone on this thread is talking about their own routers but I am having trouble everywhere especially away on holiday and using free wifi spots. My husband's iPad 1 gets great wifi everywhere and I don't get a signal at all. He has fantastic signal strength and I may get a mere dot that comes and goes. I have barely used my iPad2 for the last week where he is up and running all the time. I also have to reboot my iPad to connect every time I try and connect to the hotel wifi. Pretty rubbish.

Update to ios 5.0.1 . If you have that already try a hardreset (power+home button pushed in the same time for 10sec and wait for the apple logo to appear).

Jeffinergiraffe: Just a stupid answer here for you I'm sure, but in hotels I've noticed that you have to open a browser first and accept terms before you get their signal. Which I'm sure you've already done that since you say your husbands gets great signals. Anyway just my 2cents 🙂

It was updating to iOS5.01 that started all my problems. Before that everything ran perfectly. I've tried everything without any luck. I also went back to Apple who acknowledged the problem but didn't want to replace my iPad2 because of a slight ding on one of the corners.

To cut a long story short, I've totally given up using wifi & simply run 3G all the time, I update & download my apps via my laptop. I just hope that the next iOS update will fix the problem. It's a bit annoying as I've been using the iPad2 for work but there's not much else I can do. *sigh*

I was having these same isses, and what worked for me was to change the security encryption on my routers wireless settings to WPA2 and now it works flawlessly. Reference this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1398

So, you've had success getting hotels and public wifi sites to reconfigure their routers to accommodate the issues your iPad is having? Seems like a better solution would be for Apple to fix their implementation of wifi in their product rather than expect the world to change to cover their technical issue.

I was on the phone with a rep for 1 hr last night and we reset the whole ipad to factory setting and I thought it worked but as soon as I tried loading the app Store it kicked me out again. 😟 ... She too told me about the WAN and all that stuff, but I had it on the correct setting so that's not my issue.

This is a follow up from my post a few days ago.

We went back to the Apple store to replace our current Ipad 2 with the Wifi issues and this time the tech that we talked to is claiming it is NOT a software issue but it is an antenna defect. So, I don't know what to believe as to the root of the problem.

At any rate we got the new IPad 2 home and as soon as we got it on our wifi we got a message saying that we needed to update from 5.0 to 5.01. I almost did not want to update since that one tech claimed it was a software issue but I did thinking "well if it messes up again, we'll take it back again".

It has been almost 24 hours and we have not been kicked off yet.

Wi-Fi is intermittent. Works sometimes, mostly not. Shows correct everything on connection... obviously it works some of the time. Loaded new IOS and it worked for 5 mins. then hung. All other devices in my home work fine. Tried every silly suggetion on help forums... brightness, resets, unlocking this and that, nothing works. But, at 4 in the morning, sometimes, it will work for a few minutes. Crazy. If it works for 5 minutes then everything is setup right, the point is why does it stop?