Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

IPAD 2 WIFI PROBLEM SOLVED!!!  Its not that hard to fix this issue at all.  I struggled with this issue for weeks, but was able to fix it on myself in less than 5 minutes. 

I have an Apple Time Capsule serving as my wireless router.  I simply went in and setup a second 5 ghz wireless network, manually set it to G/N band and had my iPad 2 join this network.  You can do the same with any multi-band router.  I am giddy as I haven't once had to renew the wifi lease or turn airplane mode on and off to reacquire a wifi signal!  It has now been 3 days since I setup the separate network with NO interruption of wifi and my iPad 2 is faster than ever before when using!  I also disabled auto brightness just to be safe.

I was about to take my iPad to the Apple store but this really was an easy fix that proved to work...I hope this helps.

Sorry to pour water on that or rain on your parade but you may have solved it for your particular issue but you haven't solved the problem that everyone else is reporting... The new Netgear router I bought has a seprate 5 Ghz band which I set up as a seperate (SSID) network and i experience exactly the same issue with this as the 'b/g' wireless network.

You may have had a configuration issue with your 'b/g' network that the 5Ghz 'n' network is not experierncing that has sorted out your particular issue... The experiences of the people here, some of whom are very knowledgable about WifI and networking suggest the fix is down to Apple.

Rain on my parade? 

Wow, I was only trying to help...good luck with your "issues" I promise to go back to minding my own business.

Sent from my PERFECTLY working iPad 2 

People realise you are trying to be helpful but unfortunately your solution seems a very ultra specific one.

I think the main issue is that everyone who has claimed a "fix" have done so by ultra configuring their home router or even had to go out. And buy a brand new one specifically to run their iPad 2 when no other device is having problems. It seems a bit excessive if you ask me. Shouldn't I be able to connect to any network given the device is sold as a PORTABLE option. Not much portable about it if you need to have an ultra defined network setting just to access the Internet. And what about less tech savvy folk out there???

I can definitely say it is an iPad problem and not a router one. Router changes may help some people but this isn't the same issue as many are having where a good signal is impossible to find unless you are sitting on top of the router and even then we are experiencing signal drop out. I myself have just got my wifi to start working again after an hour of it failing to connect for no apparent reason and no amounts of resets and reboots fixed it and then it came back on as mysteriously as it went off.  That doesn't seem like anything to do with my router when I was still able connect with other devices.

Wow, Chillax Steeler550! Haven't you ever made a comment or post on a board? If you're feelings are hurt by someone else simply voicing their opinion I suppose minding your own business would be a great "FIX" for you. Yikes!

Did anyone try to off the "Join the network" and make the HTTP Proxy to auto, it seems nonsense but it works for me.

I am yet another iPad 2 owner with wi-fi issues.  I have issues with connectivity literally every time I wake the iPad from sleep.  Every so often I will lose connection despite full signal strength, and it is unable to receive an IP from the router (despite having a static IP set on both the router and the iPad)...to the point where I have to completely turn off the iPad and back on. 

At my house, I have a TP-LINK WR1043ND wireless router on the top floor and a Belkin N+ in the basement acting as an AP.  With the iPad, if I move from the basement to the top floor, I have to renew lease without exception despite never losing the connection (according to the iPad).  Since owning the iPad, I have tried numerous times to fiddle with the network settings even though it had worked flawlessly with any/all devices including iPhones.  For a little while, the two iPhones in my house were having the same problems.  Changing the wireless settings to Apple's recommended configuration fixed the problem with the iPhones, but not the iPad.

I agree with those posters stating that buying a new router is NOT a fix-all solution.  There are WAY too many instances of this same problem for it to be a router issue. If it was, then why isn't there an official iPad-compatible router???  I was actually shopping for an Airport Extreme before taking another look at this forum.  I'm glad I did!  There is no way I can be convinced that the problem is anything other than the iPad itself.

I am another user with the same problem. I have iPad 2 wifi 16gb, and I get disconnected every few minutes. This is really frustrating and annoying. My router is CISCO. Is apple going to resolve this. I can't understand the technical solutions u guys r talking about.

I need help.

Nadyahassn wrote:

 

I am another user with the same problem. I have iPad 2 wifi 16gb, and I get disconnected every few minutes. This is really frustrating and annoying. My router is CISCO. Is apple going to resolve this. I can't understand the technical solutions u guys r talking about.

 

I need help.

If you need help you likely aren't going to get it in this thread.

Start a new thread detailing your problem and the network equipment you are using, i.e.,

your router make, model and version, the wifi security being used (WEP, WPA, WPA2), etc.

After yet more testing it seems even more conclusive that while certain router fixes may work for some issues, what I personally am seeing is a failure to read the data if the screen darkens for "non-use" (not very good if you happen to be reading an article or just happen to glance away for a while), despite the wifi signal still shown at full strength.   I suspect the iPad 2 is going into a power-save mode and failing to wake properly as it takes ages for the wifo to start properly working again....leading me to think this is a software update issue (and true enough it seems to only have been a major issue with the last iOS update).  

I am more convinced than ever that there are two distinct issues beign discussed in this topic, one of the iPad failing to connect to the router signal in the first place which is solved via router reconfiguration which the other seems a more inherent problem of the iOS in waking itself up to work with the wifi straight away.   We should be a little more clear abotu specifics of problems but I would also hope that Apple would announce a fix of this since it seems software related to me not hardware now.  Watch this space I guess....

OK...UPDATE....Went to the Apple store today for my appt at the Genius Bar.....I'd collected loads of evidence including recording what was happening on a HD camcorder and printing out screenshots from a wireless network mapping program. I'd also done a full network map of my home and compared wifi signals between iPad2, HTC Desire and Dell laptop. 

The guy at the Apple store switched on my device and couldn't even see the Apple store network!

They exchanged my IPad for a new one on the spot without any fuss.

Got this at home now and working and remains connected fine and with good range.

The guy had not heard of this issue being common so I told them about this thread and one of the guys said he was aware of it but there are different faults that can occur as well as misconfigured routers

If you are having wifi issues, go to an Apple store and make them aware.

Andy N Halesowen wrote:

 

The guy at the Apple store switched on my device and couldn't even see the Apple store network!

They exchanged my IPad for a new one on the spot without any fuss.

Got this at home now and working and remains connected fine and with good range.

 

If you are having wifi issues, go to an Apple store and make them aware.

Good advice Andy. I note in an earlier post that your first one worked fine for a few days before it started playing up. Could you update this thread in a couple of weeks to let us know if this was a permanent fix for you. Pleased to see that you got a permanent fix.

Yes I will update how this one performs.....so far so good.

I have had this issue and I have also managed to fix it. My IPad 2 was dropping the wireless and based on all of these forum notes it seemed to be something to do with the router and security so this is what I have done.

I have logged on to my router.

Switched off the security so I now have an unsecured network.

Turned on the restricted access list and added the devices in my house that need access. This list restricts devices by there MAC address.

My router (provided by sky) shows you the devices that are connected so all I had to do was click and add each device.

Since I have done this I have had no issues connecting via IPad 2 and the signal never gets dropped.

Obviously this is not ideal as my network traffic is not encrypted however at least no one can access my wifi!

matthewfromtavistock wrote:

 

I have had this issue and I have also managed to fix it.

 

I have logged on to my router.

Switched off the security so I now have an unsecured network.

Turned on the restricted access list and added the devices in my house that need access. This list restricts devices by there MAC address.

 

Obviously this is not ideal as my network traffic is not encrypted however at least no one can access my wifi!

Yes they can! Many wireless WiFi devices and WiFi Cards are able to work in what's called permiscuous mode. This allows you via software to set the MAC address on your wireless card to be whatever you want. And as you have turned off security learning the MAC addresses of you devices connected to your router is childs play. If I lived next door to you I could use your WiFi and Internet connection for free.

This is not a suitable fix for the Intermittent WIFI connectivity problem ...and certainly one not recommended by Apple!