Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

Clearly there are issues and we can assume Apple know what it is, due to the numbers of people on the many threads all saying the same thing. The feedback forms and visits to the Apple stores will have made them aware quite early on. Considering the issue was repeatable on iPad1 as well ...

The problem Apple have though is seperating those users who have the same issue that this thread is about, to those who have specific router issues or other issues that are similar but not the same. I've certainly seen forum users posting in the threads who think they are talking about the same issue, but even with my limited knowledge of IT equipment it is clear they think they are talking about the same issue and clearly are not.

Maybe that could be the issue, or maybe there really are many problems with the iPad family as a whole, all related to networking and communication.

I've said it before in this thread, I'm not jumping in on the iPad3 until it is 3-4 months old and the forums have revealed which problems infect it, then I'll decide whether the frustration is worth it.

On a completely related note, and again repeated just in case it helps anyone - extending my network really has helped, by adding a wifi extender (£35) to the upper floor in my house. Before, I was getting regular drops from anywhere in the seconds to minutes while trying to watch videos and even surfing websites - even while sat in the next room. Now I get the occasional blip where the iPad2 will decide it has forgotten the network password, but after a few minutes it decides it has remembered it again - I think the last time this happened was early last week sometime and it is very rare. But I have not had any more wifi signal drops ...

I had to change the security settings to get the extender to work, that could be the fix rather than the extender itself but its working and I am just happy to have it so. I also have MAC address and static IPs rather than DHCP.

Does the OS version make a difference? My ipad2 was running without a hitch until the latest OS upgrades. Now the wifi connection drops, safari is unstable & I cannot connect to the iTunes store directly. Very frustrating.

Adding a network extender (in my case, an Apple Airport Express) to my network was the most helpful thing I have done.  When I called Apple Support, they helped me configure my network correctly, and that has much improved my iPad operation.   The iPad reception is still marginal, compared to every other device I have (iPhones, Kindles, Roku, iMac, Macbook Pro), but at least it is usable now.

Good luck.

Thanks peterh337, I think it's the only way forward to go for an extender, not sure whether to go down the powerline (wired) route or get a wireless ap and extend the network wirelessly (is that a word? ;-) As far as the Draytek 800 is concerned how did you set it up, i.e different SSID or the same and if so do you have to manually get the iPad to change networks (to the strongest signal) or do you find it picks it up automatically?  If I can find a central enough location for the extender I may be able to get it to work in all the rooms I'm likely ever to use the iPad in and just get it to remember that SSID and forget the original (router) one to save the hassle of it swapping etc.

I've had a good read through the step by steps at smallnetbuilder which are a very helpful resource for extending networks and other related advice.

Thanks everyone for help & advice, once again the best resource for problem solving are the user forums.

Problem solved for me!!

This time I waited 4 days to make sure it is solved before announcing it. I tried everything else suggested so far on this forum, including replacing my ipad2, upgrading router firmware etc but the problem kept coming back.

The only thing that solve this issue is to change the security option from WPA2 to WPA as someone else suggested earlier. My Netgear N 150 was set to 'WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES]'. I changed it to:

'WPA-PSK [TKIP]' and it completely eliminated the problem! Until I did it my ipad2 was dropping wifi connection every few minutes, now it did not drop the connection even once in 4 days! Hurray!

I wish Apple was including this advice in their troubleshooting section!

Ramy

I use WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES] all the time on my router with no problems.

Whatever problem you were having is probably unique to the firmware in your router.

@JimHdk, I guess you do have wifi problems if you found this forum :)

In any case, this is not firmware specific as I upgraded to the latest firmware and had the same issue. I believe this issue may be specific for certain routers as evidently  switching from WPA2 to WPA solved the problem to others as well. I have no doubt this solved my problem. Not a single connection drop since! So my general recommendation to anyone facing wifi issue is to try changing the encryption first.

Ramy

I've tried almost every suggestion I've found in this thread and some of them work.. for a while.. I don't want to keep hard-resetting my iPad2 all the time.. These problems came with iOS5... Can Apple please fix them ASAP..

Had major connection problems with new iPad 2 and Netgear router WNR2000 v1. Updated firmware and software version on router and no more problems.

I posted here 1 month ago becouse i had issues with the Ipad and the wifi. I looked a lot on different webSite, tried so many manipulations...lost so many hours...Finaly i decided to return my ipad back on the Apple Support.

After 3 weeks, i got it back, a new one! And...NO PROBLEMS ANYMORE. the reparation status show that they found an "hardware issue". So... Good luck guys

Just to be clear, i had a lot of random disconections and then impossible to reconnect to any networks (but still visible). Reboot or factory reset didnt changed anything, i just had to w8 a random time (1/2h, 1 night...) and then it works again.

I was having issues with connecting to my home wifi. Two things to check - first, make sure you have disabled

Mac filtering on your router. Then, take a look at your wireless phone. Is it a 2.4 ghz phone? If so, you may want to try changing the channel on your router from the default (usually channel 3) to channel 9 or 10. This seemed to work for me...

I think it is quiet obvious that there are multiple wifi issues with ipad discussed here, each one has different solutions. For my issue of loosing the connection frequently, often every minute or so, regardless of signal strength, the solution was to change the encription from WPA2 to WPA. Nothing else suggested here helped, including returning my ipad2 twice. At least if everybody will return their ipad2 for wifi issue, Apple will suffer enough loss to take this issue seriously. 

My issue is even if I could make a few changes to my home router, that is not the only location I have the wifi drops. Most of the time I am using wifi at a location other than at home. Am I required to demand that all the cafe's, starbucks, McDonalds, ect..., make changes to their security just to suit my iPad2 needs??? Even at work, and changes there will not be made unless others are having issues as well, which there not. I am the only iPad user at work. There are 2 iPhone 4S users and they are not having this problem.

So what is the solution for me. As I see it, apple just needs to fix the problem which did not exist until updating to iOS5. When I was running iOS4.3 I never even once had a wifi drop. Now I have drops and bad reception.

I was setting my sites on the iPad3 but no longer. Apple needs to show some customer-care or I will get my toys from another store.

I tried everything on many replies that I read and still could not connect my iPad to my wireless network.  Just going through settings over and over.  Then, I decided to turn off Bluetooth for the **** of it.  BINGO! I am connected!  So...now I am surfing the net with my iPad.

In general, if you have multiple wifi access points in your house, you should put them on different channels (which is fairly obvious) and give them all exactly the same SSID, and set each one up to be a "bridge" (first option under "operation mode configuration", and disable the DHCP server in each of them.

Then, each client device will get its IP allocated by the central router's DHCP server, and you get seamless roaming around the house without breaking things like secure (HTTPS) sessions as you move about.

Each AP will have a fixed IP of its own.

If you need screenshots of the Draytek 800 config, drop me an email on peter at peter2000co.uk and I will see if I can upload some somewhere.