Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

Apple has just lost a class action this week on the aerial problem that effected the iPhones. They have been ordered to offer all customers who suffered this problem either a free case or a $15 dollar refund. Analysts believe as many as 20 million customers may claim this compensation. The cost to Apple will be around 300 million dollars. This could be the reason Apple has taken a very quite approach to this problem.

I am one of the original people who reported on this thread, Apple replaced my original iPad with another one and then I got a full refund 13 months later when this didn't solve the problem. My wife used the refund to purchase an iPad 2 which then experienced exactly the same problems. Several iPad software upgrades later and an upgrade by my carrier to a faster broadband plan (still using the same WiFi/ADSL router with no further configuration changes ) and the problem disappeared.

Her iPad has been running faultlessly now for several months.

Mikerobe,

  I should hook up my old router, that worked for 8 months with my iPad 2, then mysteriously stopped for 6 weeks, then suddenly started working again for 6 months, then stopped again 2 weeks ago not finding servers even though it said it had an excellent router connection and check the IoS setting.

  I hate technical mysteries!

TaosGuy

Hope you keep getting better TaosGuy!

Tech issues like this are all too common and it is pretty standard for the manufacturer to pretend they don't see a problem. It is always refreshing when one admits it but its rare. Hopefully this post will help many others who have been frustrated.

I am so busy with work and kids that when I come home at night the last thing I feel like doing is troubleshooting my own hardware. I ran a tech corp for many years and now I am a GS15 in charge of IT Security for a fed agency. My days of getting in the weeds and fixing crazy IT problems is long past. That's why I just gave it to my wife and let her play Words With Friends. LOL. It was too slow for me to use.

The only loser in all this is her because now I want my iPad2 back!

After turning off WMM QoS  On my NEW NETGEAR N300 for the last day the iPad2 finally stays connected!!!  Thank you! Now I'm crossing fingers that it keeps working!

It would be interesting but not absolutely essential to know the QoS setting, so only do it if you feel truly up to it.

Best wishes

Could it be that there is something in Netgear's QOS which conflicts with something the Ipad is doing?

I've been experiencing this problem since I first unboxed my IPad 2.  I returned my first IPad 2 within a week because of the the intermittent wifi problem.  The second IPad 2 did not experience anny connectivity problems, but I had to return this unit because it developed stuck pixels (so frustrating!), and the 3rd IPad 2 - the one I'm using now - has been hit or miss with connectivity.  I think I may have bypassed my problem for the time being though.  Here's how ...

Up until recently I was using the westell 7500 modem/router given to verizon/frontier customers.  This router has it's fair share of issues.  The IPad 2 would occasionally struggle to retain a connection, but the problem would hang around for a day or two then the IPad would function normally.

Settings - security status open (IPad didn't like WEP or WPA on this router ... would not connect) - wireless devices filtered by mac address only

I tried removing all security, including mac address filtering, using different encryption settings, but nothing would alleviate the problem.  Recently my dedicated ereader had a firmware update that made it icompatible with the westell 7500, and regardless of the settings I could not connect my ereader to the router.  So at this point I dug out an old Netgear wndr3400 and let it handle all of the routing reponsibilities.  Wouldn't you know it both the ereader and the IPad 2 connected immediately.  I can only hope that the IPad 2 remains stable on this "new" connection, but I'll update with any information if it doesn't.

This is not a perfect solution, and may very well only address a specific connectivity issue with the westell 7500.  I would recommend to anyone out there using this router to disable wifi and use it strictly as a modem, and virtually any other router out there offers more features with greater ease of use.

I am using an older model Linksys at home. I am not there right now to verify the model # but I am guessing it is circa 2008. None of my Apple products would access the internet with quick dl speeds until I disabled QoS; now 5 of 5 devices have all been fixed. So we have confirmed fixes with Linksys, Netgear and possibly Westell.

I wish I knew EXACTLY what about the implementation of QoS causes this but I do not. it must be something fairly standard that PCs have no problems with. Maybe it is older (more legacy) coding of those protocols and Apple decided not to support them? Maybe router manufacterers updated the coding of QoS (or other services) only on SOME firmware or model updates? I have no idea. All I know is all my devices work great now.

QoS is not a protocol which I have studied or really care about. All I know is that it is a "smart" feature of a router to prioritize traffic. Perhaps Apple traffic is sent/received with some different header info in the packets which confuses the router into thinking it is low priority traffic? I still find it hard to believe that this setting alone changed my dl speeds from 20/Mbit per sec to 0.8/Mbit per sec. That is a HUGE change.

The fact that QOS is not available on the Airport routers, must tell you something (that Apple doesn't like QOS).I have also disabled QOS on my Netgear 3700 and it's been stable since. The router was also moved closer to where I use it the most, so this likely helps as well.

Hi, Don't know if this is related, so appologies if not.

My Ipad2 (WiFi only) has been working fine since I got it (about 7 months ago) and working on home and modile access point.  However the last few days it has started dropping the WiFi Connection and I seem to have to do a hard reset to get it back.

Today though even with hard reset I can't get the connection back, in fact it will sit on the "WiFi Networks" page showing "Choose a Network" but shows nothing.  Where I am there are at least 4 good networks.

I have tried resetting the network settings, doing hard resets, but the best I can get is for it to briefly show a list of the networks (after a reboot) but when I try to connect they also disappear.

I have a feeling this is a hardware issue, but would appreciate any suggestions on options, or if it really does need fixing what's the best approach.

Thanks  Paul

Hello Mg-Paul,

I have the exact same problem with my iPad2, I try every possible way that I have read in this forum in order to try to fix the problem, even I buy a new router and nothing that I do to the iPad or router fix the problem. I really believe this is a huge hardware problem and my suggestion for you is, go to you apple store and demand not ask to replace your iPad2.

I call to apple call center and I'm waiting for the box to send them my iPad to fix it or getting a new one (because where I live, there is no apple store), yesterday my Wi-Fi dies, in the settings says "No Wi-Fi" so I true believe there is a serious hardware problem.

I hope this information will be useful for you.

Regards,

Guillermo

This does sound more like a hardware failure of the iPad itself.

Thanks Guys,

It's what I was thinking as had tried a lot of the points on this and other threads.

Lucky for me I am currently living in Hong Kong and there is an apple centre here, so have it booked in to be looked at tomorrow morning.  I will let you know how I get on.

Thanks

Just back from Apple Store.

Looks like it was ahrdware related as even with a full reset to default it still had the problem in the store. 

I now have a new unit as replacement and am in the process of restoring the backup.

All very smooth and well handled, no quibbles or trouble.

Thanks

paul

My son's iPad 2 was having constant connectivity issues with our Netgear N 300 router.  After reading a bit here, I looked at the settings and noticed that Qos was defaulted at off, but I also disabled WMM (wi-fi multimedia) settings.  It seems to have solved the connectivity issues, but will I lose some network/multimedia capabilities?