Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

Indeed, I myslef had to put it on chn 11 but I hope disbling WMM will help stability and through-put

nothing on the forum has worked for me. I have an ordinary Optus supplied Netgear router. The Apple store has replaced my ipad twice now - after getting the 3rd one home it stayed connected for 5 minutes before it crashed my router.

The problem is not with the router. It has work perfectly for years with a range of things connected to it: cheap laptops, expensive laptops, desktops, various nokia mobile phones, media players and even a Nintendo DS...yet as soon as I brought the iPad home I started having problems.

My wife won't let me use it when she is working because it so randomly crashes the router and we have to go and bounce it.

What does Apple say? It isn't the iPad, it must be the router. Wow. So I said to the 'genius' so all those bits of hardware over the years which have work flawlessly have a problem because they are incorrectly successfully working? Of course, every time I backed the 'genius' into a corner he quote "I'm not in a position to confirm or deny that" (or something like that).

So, they've stuffed me around for nearly a year now, and there is about 2 weeks left on the warranty.

Nice work Apple, you got out of this one - I think I might stand outside the Apple store and warn people...

Jason, can you send me the model & firmware version of your Netgear router?

Netgear CG814WG - Wireless Cable Modem Router

jason, this is a known issue with the iPad/iPad2.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3304

the iPad/iPad2 doesn't work well with WEP. Apple recommends using WPA/WPA2. you can either get a new wireless cable modem that supports WPA/WPA2, or purchase an access point that supports WPA/WPA2 and plug it into one of the Ethernet ports of your NetGear Cable Modem.

Thanks ae58, but I am using: WPA (WPA-PSK(Wi-Fi Protected Access Pre-Shared Key), not WEP - and I tried the others too...

So, either there is an inherent problem with iPad2s, or it is unless to work properly with a major and very common router (i.e. Netgear).

Either way, it is Apple's fault.

NEVER again will I buy anything from Apple.

@jason: I get that you are frustrated and I agree that Apple's support over these connectivity issues has been terrible. However, you need to take your emotions out of the troubleshooting experience. Go buy a new router and see if it fixes your problem. I bet it will. If it doesn't then just return it to the store. No harm in trying. Clearly you have a crappy router if it loses ALL wifi connected devices when you use the iPad. Either it is a bad model or something in it is faulty.

BTW... I would turn off all encryption, turn off DHCP, turn off QoS/WMM and run things as clean and plain as possible to see if the problem changes.

Any guy who starts a sentence "My wife won't let me..." freaks me out a little. Step up and fix the issue. You can do it.

Is anyone else sick of responses that basically say, "Go buy a new router and reconfigure all the settings" in order to get our iPad's to work like all our other WiFi devices manage to work WITHOUT buying a new router and reconfiguring all its settings.

I find it ludicrous that we need to ask the world at-large to change out their hardware and customize their router settings in order to accommodate a pretty blatant Apple, Inc. shortcoming.

This is simply insane. Imagine the outcry if Microsoft had such hubris.

@LDJones: I totally agree and earlier in this thread I ranted about Apple's neglect. However, if I wanted my iPad2 to work properly (and my kids iTouches) then I had to make a router change.

Microsoft gets tons of flack back from home and business users for their decisions. As an IT professional it made me sort of laugh that you used MS as your example. People curse Bill Gates all the time for the way MS does business... some of them switch to the Mac. LOL

sorry, i failed to research your cable modem router as V3.

going back to the encryption issue, Apple recommends WPA Personal (AES). (see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4199).

actually, TheDr1970's suggestion of testing your WiFi with the encryption disabled makes sense, from a troubleshooting point of view. i would also try the wireless connection with 802.11g only (instead of 802.11b/g), set the Channel to 10 or 11 (specially if you're using cordless phones that use the same 2.4Ghz frequency).

and don't worry on starting your sentences with "My wife..." - i also get flak from my wife and daughter when i keep rebooting my router to make the configuration settings stick. (so i do my experimentation when everybody else is asleep :-)

when all else fails, you can always surrender to a higher force.

and buy an Apple AirPort Extreme.

After spending hours to find out what happened that my old iPad2 WiFI stopped working properly after IOS5 upgrade on the network it used to work with no issue, the solution that worked for me was manually adding a WiFi network.

New iPad had exactly the same issue, manual setup did the trick.

What I experienced:

- WiFi dropouts (after leaving it for a while or turning wifi off / on or airplane mode)

- having to re-enter wifi password each time to rejoin

- iPad 2 & 3 was unable to save the network

- no "forget this network" option

Solutions that I tried prior to above:

- disabling ask to join networks / bluetooth (on iPad)

- brightness settings (on iPad)

- static IP (on iPad)

- WiFi encryption on (WEP, WPA, WPA2) and off (in WiFi router settings)

- WMM on (in WiFi router settings)

- resetting iPad network settings (in iPad settings / general)

None of them worked, however I left WMM on and WPA2 encryption. Adding WiFi network manually solved all issues.

Hope this help some of you.

"However, you need to take your emotions out of the troubleshooting experience" - really? Nearly 100 pages and still no solution? That's hardly "trouble shooting".

"Clearly you have a crappy router if it loses ALL wifi connected devices when you use the iPad" - how does that even make sense??? The iPad is doing something to the router to crash it - after this happens, all devices including the ipad, cann *see* the router, they just can no longer connect to it...As I said, this only happens when using the iPad...

LDJones, I am with you, it is ludicrous to expect me to replace my perfectly good router just to suit the iPad, but I am starting to think that Apple and its heard actually beleive that it the right thing to do...

If you actually follow the posting in this forum, you will find that what appears to be a solution is found to be wrong several pages later.

TheDr1970, you say "Any guy who starts a sentence "My wife won't let me..." freaks me out a little. Step up and fix the issue. You can do it." - what exactly do you mean? It sounds like you think I'm less of a man because I "allow" my wife to tell me what to do? Is that right?

jasonfromloftus wrote:

nothing on the forum has worked for me. I have an ordinary Optus supplied Netgear router. The Apple store has replaced my ipad twice now - after getting the 3rd one home it stayed connected for 5 minutes before it crashed my router.

The problem is not with the router. It has work perfectly for years with a range of things connected to it: cheap laptops, expensive laptops, desktops, various nokia mobile phones, media players and even a Nintendo DS...yet as soon as I brought the iPad home I started having problems.

My wife won't let me use it when she is working because it so randomly crashes the router and we have to go and bounce it.

What does Apple say? It isn't the iPad, it must be the router. Wow. So I said to the 'genius' so all those bits of hardware over the years which have work flawlessly have a problem because they are incorrectly successfully working? Of course, every time I backed the 'genius' into a corner he quote "I'm not in a position to confirm or deny that" (or something like that).

So, they've stuffed me around for nearly a year now, and there is about 2 weeks left on the warranty.

Nice work Apple, you got out of this one - I think I might stand outside the Apple store and warn people...

dude... your router is crashing and you are blaming your ipad?

mobile devices stress routers in different ways than laptops or wired computers. if a firmware update doesn't help your router, try out a new one just for troubleshooting purposes. if a new one works, yes your router *****. if it doesn't work and the new one crashes then I would assume the problem is with the ipad.

get a new router and quit complaining. you spend over $500 on the latest technology with a tech company and are upset when your $20 router crashes.

there are plenty of us on here that only post to help people. i don't experience any connectivity problems with my ipad1 or ipad2, only trying to help others out. but you are being unreasonable.

Yes. I am blaming the iPad because it is the iPad that very much appears to be crashing it.

And no, if a new router works fine, it doesn't necessarily mean my current one is faulty - more likely (given the size of this forum) it means that the iPad doesn't play well with some routers, including mine. If my router is faulty, why do all my other devices work fine with it? <<== Please answer this, don't just pretend you didn't read it.

As I said, nothing else crashes it, therefore it must be the iPad - there's nothing unreasonable about that. Going to a store to buy a new router to try it out with the intention of returning it, as people keep suggesting is immoral. How would you like it if someone did that to your business? How would you like it if the item you bought was really second hand?

Let me break it down for you - over the years I have had the following:

ALDI laptop #1 - 100% working

DELL laptop #1 - 100% working

DELL laptop #2 - 100% working

ALDI laptop #2 - 100% working

DELL desktop #1 - 100% working

DELL desktop #2 - 100% working

ALDI netbook - 100% working

Nokia phone #1 - 100% working

Nokia phone #2 - 100% working

Visiting parents' laptop - 100% working

Nokia phone #3 - 100% working

Nokia phone #3 - 100% working

Blackbeery phone - 100% working

Nintendo DS - 100% working

Apple Mac Mini - 100% working

Apple iPad - 25% working - seem completely random.

It is pretty obvious to which device has the problem.

Glad that you're trying to help, but if you just say "mine works therefore there's no problem" then you're not helping at all. Sure, some iPads are working just great. But nearly 100 pages on this forum would indicate that a lot are not. Not everyone can simply change their router (mine is supplied by the Cable company), and not everyone is prepare to defraud a retailer to fix their problem (except Apple, now I'd happily do that).

Maybe you should go and help out in the forum about the new ipads overheating :-)

@jasonfromloftus: You won't buy a router with the intentions of returning it because it is immoral... unless it's an Apple router because you don't like Apple. That is called moral relativism. Someone whose morals are formed subjectively. I wasn't implying that you "rip off" some innocent corp like Cisco (I am snickering as I type... name one innocent corp who doesn't rip you off daily.) I was suggesting that if you were to spend $50 on a more up to date router and it solved your problem then you KEEP IT.

I have been doing this professionally for about 28 years now and I had wrestled with wireless on a home and enterprise level. Wireless is a pain in the ***. Routers are finicky and wifi built into devices is sometimes poorly done. There were G issues when it first came out and then N issues. I have NEVER opened a new router and had it live up to the expectations on the box that it will "increase your distance up to 3x". What a joke. My firrst N router (Netgear) only worked if you were within 12 feet of it!!

I totally understand your frustration and I felt the same way. I had about 6-10 devices working fine and only my iPad2 was slow. My iPad1 was fast... go figure. I felt for sure it was the iPad2. I do this for a living and the last thing I want to do at night is tinker with IT crap so I ignored the problem for months. Finally one day I decided it was time to really try. I stripped off every single thing I could from my Linksys router. (no DHCP, no QoS, locked it into G-only, turned of WEP, turned of MAC filtering, etc). I was totally shocked to find that the iPad2 speedtest app jumped from 0.8Mbps to 25.0Mbps! What the **** just happened? I decided to grab my kids iTouch and run the same Speedtest app and it was just as fast as my iPad2. Then I turned on all the Linksys options again and both the iPad2 and the iTouch got slow again. I eventually narrowed it to QoS and running in mixed mode (B/G combined). None of these tests affected my Dell laptop, Droid X or BB.

Apple did a sh*tty job with certain iPad's wifi. it doesn't affect all of them but some. There may also be a few router models that just do not like iPads for whatever reason. I have heard of some iPads having DHCP renewal issues and some that work better when you lock down the wifi channel. At the end of the day I don't care what fixes it, I just want it fixed!

I don't really care who wears the pants in your home. If it were me though and I had a wife getting upset about router outages I would declare a maintenance window; a planned outage. I would tell her from 2-5pm on Sat if she wants wifi then go to Starbucks. That is your time to get this fixed once and for all. Go to Best Buy and purchase a router just in case. If you are really that cheap (aka. "moral") then go to an Apple store with your iPad and test your connectivity on their Apple Airport router. If it is still broken then maybe you really do have a bad iPad.