Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

tgibbs wrote:

You mentioned that there was a problem with your iPad at the Apple store. Did Apple tell you that their own iPads were failing to reliably connect to the Apple store network? Considering that Apple Stores have a large number of iPads laid out for display, connected wirelessly, for demonstration purposes, that would seem to be a big obstacle to selling the iPad, wouldn't it? Yet they seem to be selling well, and when I've visited an Apple Store, any demo iPad that I've tried seems to connect at

Yes the staff were willing to confirm that their own IPads were not able to get reliable connection in store. I will be assisting them to resolve this later today.

Nice work FastBikeGear. Your fix proves your theory.

Your analysis also matches the symptoms I had. I was able to get stable iPad connections with no security or WEP secutity,, but not with WPA2 (four different WiFI devices had no problem operating with this router using WPA2). I purchased a different router and it is o.k. with all security types.

It appears that some router makes/models are more forgiving of the way the iPad logs in.

billeeee wrote:
Nice work FastBikeGear. Your fix proves your theory

Thanks, actually I can't lay claim to ownership of the theory since part of it came from internal Apple correspondence

billeeee wrote:

It appears that some router makes/models are more forgiving of the way the iPad logs in.

Yes it is either that or other routers re-initialize the session privacy key like I have now set mine up tp do.

billeeee wrote:
Nice work FastBikeGear. Your fix proves your theory.

Your analysis also matches the symptoms I had. I was able to get stable iPad connections with no security or WEP secutity,, but not with WPA2 (four different WiFI devices had no problem operating with this router using WPA2). I purchased a different router and it is o.k. with all security types.

It appears that some router makes/models are more forgiving of the way the iPad logs in.

I have had the same symptoms. In the end, changing routers fixed it. I was do for an upgrade anyway. I went with the dlink DIR-655 and everything has been solid.

I'm hoping to buy a wifi only iPad 2 (as soon as I can find one!). I use a Verizon MiFi 2200 to create my own wifi hotspot. Do you see any issue with the wifi connection this would provide to the iPad2?

Fastbikegear's troubleshooting would also explain why most people can connect at a public wifi location, they are not using encryption.

I too had similar issues on my iPhone 3g and iPhone 4 until I switch OS on my routers. I originally was using Cisco (Linksys) Business when I switched to Cisco IOS and the problems went away. I suspect there were issues with having DHCP leases for values like 'null' or unlimited.

In other words, I experienced issues just like the OP, I'd be connected to the WiFi, close an app and idle my phone for a little bit only to come back and not be able to connect. I think most SOHO devices don't have proper handling of DHCP. I know my Xbox 360 cannot use unlimited or null or infinite lease for DHCP either, and that's related to the device itself.

On a side note, my iPad 2 64GB WiFi + 3G, is exhibiting excessive amount of connections to the router. In terms of 100+ active connections which is yes, not normal and potentially an issue.

Kristerpher Henderson wrote:
On a side note, my iPad 2 64GB WiFi + 3G, is exhibiting excessive amount of connections to the router. In terms of 100+ active connections which is yes, not normal and potentially an issue.

What do you mean by 100+ active connections? Where are you seeing this in your router stats? Does your router identify a different port or service for each connection e.g smtp, html, etc?

Yes! I was having the same problem. With me it was the router my ip gave me. I went out and purchased one of my own. D-Link dir655. I've had it for one week. Easy setup works like a charm. Now I enjoy surfing the Internet at home on my new toy:-)

Is anybody having similar problems with Apple Airport Extreme? I am planning to get an IPAD 2 and want to know if I can expect this issue.

Your feedback is appreciated.

yes also have the wifi quit working and see full bars but get error message that says the internet connection appears to be offline.

Is Apple reading these posts?

Are you using iMovie when it goes offline?

Arniewint wrote:
Are you using iMovie when it goes offline?

I found like you that I would lose connection even though I had all the bars showing and similar to you I would often lose connection when I was watching something on youtube (I think the extra stress caused by high packdet loads when streaming data showed up the vulnerabilities more). Interestingly when I spoke to the iPAD support guy in Singapore yesterday he said he had been inundated with support calls about intermittent WiFi connections.

I was having the same trouble with losing the Wifi connection on my iPad2 with a new NetGear N150 router from Time Warner that I got earlier this week. I upgraded the firmware on it to the current version and the problems went away.

I have a Netgear WNR834B v2. I had the original firmware that was older, and the problem of disconnects were happening about once per hour on my iPad 2. By turning the screen off and on it will reconnect, or i can go into wifi and turn it off and on as well. Since it's an older n router I could only upgrade the firmware to dd wrt from aug of 2010. It didn't help at all. I am using wpa 2 and have tried numerous channels with no luck. My iPhone 4 as well as my wife's iPhone 4 don't have problems at all with the wifi connection on the router. I just ordered a e3000 linksys and will give that a try soon.