Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

Hi.

I'm sorry I haven't been reading alle replies in all previous 83 pages, but I was directed to this thread when googling about a problem I had with iPads/iPhones on Wi-Fi at work.

We were experiencing problems when authenticating using an existing RADIUS-server. Often we got the message "Could not connect to the wifi network" or something like that. I think I've tried every possible alternatives in the setup up until this morning.

Then I connected an iPad to my PC and started the iPhone Configuration Utility. When I connected (or tried to connect) the iPad to the network I could see everything happening in the log view. That gave me a hint of trying to set the preamble value to long, instead of the existing value of short.

I did that, deployed the changes and I haven't had a single problem with any i-Units since!

Wi-Fi solution is delivered by Juniper, so it's a bit different than lots of the solutions you guys have, but it might be worth a try changing the preamble setting.

Hooray!

Regards.

A while back in this thread I posted a "fix" - to power cycle the modem. Of course the "fix" was very temporary and I have to reset the modem frequently, sometime several times a day. Well, I broke down during black friday and bought myself another router. Yup, I lose. But thankfully now my iPad shows full bars and have not dropped for a few days now. Also my other devices seems to be running smoother and faster on wi-fi.

For those interested my old router was a NETGEAR N150.

The new router is NETGEAR N600 Dual-Band Wireless N Router WNDR3400-100NAS. My iPad2 is on the 5Ghz band, "N" speed. It shares that band only with one other device, a Sony blu-ray player. WPA2 security.

Since this Apple WIFI compatibility issue is pretty hot in the IT business right now, one would think that any new WIFI device would have been tested with the iphone and ipad, and that seems to be happening.

It is the existing ones which often expose what Apple have done, and most of them will never be fixed.

I have new airport extreme, 5th generation with updated firmware and still have problems. Thought new router would solve problem but no luck. Was thinking about a new modem but after reading this discussion I guess I'll forget it. Everything else seems to work fine IMac, MacBook, original iPad, and iPhone. Apple is going to lose their loyal customers with issues like this.

Same here. I got the extreme on Black Friday and yesterday experienced the same issues again... Lost my connection to my router. Went to settings and it couldn't find it. Waited and waited..nothing. Took off my smart cover and all of a sudden all the AP appeared around me and I was immediately reconnected to my own router. Put the cover back on and it retain full bars.. So confused, but my Extreme is going back. No use paying for a premium router if it ain't going to fix the problem. When they ask why the return, I'll tell them because the iPad2 looses connection all the time (not affecting other devices).

I have been able to get steady network signal for iPad 1st gen using WPA Enterprise encryption. WPA2 still not working after upgrading to iOS 5.0.1. Can someone verify if this is a fix for iPad2 and iPhone4S?

If you are still having trouble try WEP or WPA and disabling one of the broadcast bands - likely 5GHz. Seems most of the problems are stemming from WPA2 Personal and Enterprise encryptions.

peterh337 is suggesting that manufacturers of networking hardware design their products around the downfalls with Apple's recent product releases. I think Apple needs to conform to the international standards of networking. You may have heard of the IEEE, they're kind of a big deal in the IT business. They have standardized things like wireless networks and USB ports. Now Apple uses neither in their products anymore, Haha!

Has anyone tried tethering their smart phone with their iPad (assuming the phone has connected successfully)? I've never done it, but in theory it should work.

I think I've narrowed down my iPad 2 problems. It seems that the WiFi drop MOST frequently occurs whenever I try to watch video on the device. Doesn't matter if I'm on my home network or school one -- putting on a YouTube video, starting a show or movie on Netflix, or trying to watch Sportscenter on ESPN.com have all killed my WiFi. I have to turn the device off from anywhere between 5 minutes to an hour before it can reconnect to any network without dropping the signal again minutes later. If I stick with web browsing, Facebooking, and database searching, I can go for hours without any problems.

Anyone else notice a correlation between watching video and losing connectivity? Could it be large downloads in general?

I would venture that watching/streaming video requires a, more or less, constant wifi connection than the sporadic bursts of data needed for surfing, etc.  You would notice problems a lot less with the latter when you are having problems with intermittent wifi dropouts.

I hate to say this but I had the problem everyone here is having. For 3 weeks I constantly lost connection. The only think that worked consistently was restarting the iPad. Even after updating my software there was no change. Then without doing anything that was suggested on this site my connectivity problem went away I've had months of trouble free use of my iPad2. Go figure? I unfortunately have no answer.

yes.  I just got my first iPad 2 in the mail today (black, wi-fi only, 32 gig in case that matters).  I am unable connect to my home network which is a WEP encryption with WRT54g linksys running G-only mode.  I got frustrated trying to get it to work, so I turned tethering on with my android and the wifi worked fine.  Consistent DL speeds, just don't want to use my entire data allowance on the fifth of the month.

I was tired and frustrated at this wifi issue as well. A network engineer at my company suggested to add a static arp entry on my router. After i did that I have not seen this issue for a day. will know more as time passes by.

following is what i did

arp -i <ip address> <mac address>

hope this helps others.

Yes works perfectly with 3 from my iPhone 4 in the UK

I have the same issue. It appears to happen when i'm skyping so when it requires to use alot of data!

> but it might be worth a try changing the preamble setting.

BINGO!!!!!

I tried just about everything suggested in this 85 pages thread. NADA!

I was ready to give up and try other routers, when I gave it one last try and followed 4ndersjensen suggestion to change the preamble setting (in my Netgear Wireless N-150 router it is under Advanced Wireless settings). Mine was set to Auto and I changed it to Long Preamble as suggested.

Guess what? It worked! It completely eliminated the problem! I only tried it for one day, so am hoping it is not too soon to declare victory. If I find out the issue returns I'll report back. If you don't hear from me anymore, PROBLEM SOLVED.

So try no more, just change your PREAMBLE setting to long.

Thanks a bunch to 4ndersjensen for the tip!