Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

jon06712 wrote:
Same problem here. I have ipad 2 and new mac probook. Got the mac book about a month ago and it never connected right to my home wifi. So I just used hard line. Then I got ipad2 yesterday and the same dam problem, now I know its apple and not the router. Every other device except these two works fine. I can't believe I have a 800 dollar ipad2 + a 3000 mac book that drop signal every 5-10 min. *** apple!

If you have two devices that don't work on your router then the logical conclusion is that it has H/W problems, is misconfigured (connection limit, MAC filtering, etc.), has obsolete firmware, and so on. _This is true even if some other devices still appear to work with it._

Fix your router and you won't have any problems.

If you want some help give the make/model/version of your router and how you have it configured.

The problem I am having is not resolvable by changing router settings. My iPad 2 works just fine on my home wifi b/g, not n) as do my iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 2g and my iPod Touch 4g.

When I go out however I get constant dropping of the wifi signal. The wifi icon at the top left corner continues to show there is a signal, but the iPad is not connected. This occurs at the three locations where I most commonly use wifi, including my office. The easiest way to resolve the problem is to "renew lease". But this can be as infrequently as after 30 minutes or as frequently as just a few minutes.

This does not occur with my iPhone or with either of the iPod Touches.

I can hardly tell my employer and the operator of the other wifi service to change their router settings to satisfy me and my iPad 2.

This has become a bit of an embarrassment when I try to show off my iPad 2, only to have to renew the lease.

Ernie Gorrie wrote:
The problem I am having is not resolvable by changing router settings. My iPad 2 works just fine on my home wifi b/g, not n) as do my iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 2g and my iPod Touch 4g.

When I go out however I get constant dropping of the wifi signal. The wifi icon at the top left corner continues to show there is a signal, but the iPad is not connected. This occurs at the three locations where I most commonly use wifi, including my office. The easiest way to resolve the problem is to "renew lease". But this can be as infrequently as after 30 minutes or as frequently as just a few minutes.

Your symptoms are identical to mine. I just got a brand new replacement iPAD yesterday. It still has the same intermittent WiFi issues as the one it replaced. The new one has 4.3.1 software on it. My old one was using the previous revision. One thing that I have noticed is it would seem that in 4.3.1 they have employed an old trick to improve network connectivity. When I look at the DNS entries (obtained from DHCP service and entered automatically into set up by the iPAD) )in the iPAD it now displays the two DNS ip addresses twice rather than once. This trick usually is employed on fragile networks where packets may be lost or time outs are occurring. It doesn't help my problem though in this case. Interesting that Apple made the change though and while it doesn't address this issue their is little downside to duplicating the addresses and it may improve connectivity when you have a weak signal at the fringe of network coverage.

I can get the new iPAD with 4.3.1 software to work fine by the same configuration trick I used on the router with the previous iPAD with the previous revision of software. However there is one new non standard configuration change I can make in the router that seems to also work, which didn't work when I tried it with the previous version of software, so now there are two non standard configuration changes I can make to my router to get the iPAD stable.

Rather than trying to get Apple to fix this problem we may have more success just asking the hot spot operators to reconfigure their routers. The simplest change that is working most consistently for a lot of people is to ask all of your local hot spot operators to turn off 802.11n mode in their routers (Even if it worked there would be no performance advantage to 'n' for the iPADs as they use a single stream radio chipset anyway). This is a good, realistic and workable solution until the next generation of iPADs addresses the issue, most likely by changing to one of the new Broadcom 802.11n compliant chipsets).

So please write to your local Hot Spot operators and ask them to turn off the 802.11n mode and just leave b and g operational in their routers, so that those of us using our iPADS instead of our laptops can use their hot spots. If we all do this I am sure it will be a very effective solution and it will save Apple having to address the issue - which means they can get on with more important stuff for us...like the iPAD 3.

FastBikeGear wrote:

Rather than trying to get Apple to fix this problem we may have more success just asking the hot spot operators to reconfigure their routers. The simplest change that is working most consistently for a lot of people is to ask all of your local hot spot operators to turn off 802.11n mode in their routers (Even if it worked there would be no performance advantage to 'n' for the iPADs as they use a single stream radio chipset anyway). This is a good, realistic and workable solution until the next generation of iPADs addresses the issue, most likely by changing to one of the new Broadcom 802.11n compliant chipsets).

Is this correct? My understanding was the single-stream 802.11n has a peak data rate of 65 Mbps, compared to 54 for 802.11g, and in practice could deliver as much as 50% greater throughput. I have not found it necessary to disable 802.11n to get reliable connections from my iPad2 to my home network.

Still the same issue for me since the update to 4.3.1.

I have tried everything I can.. (reboot router, reset network settings on the iPad 1, change Wifi b/g/n to b/g only, security to WPA2-AES/TKIP to WPA2-AES only, fixed IP address.....etc...

No change...still intermittent Wifi issue
My router : Orange Livebox 2 (from Sagem)
Airport Express 7.5.2 connected via Ethernet to the router and to my Hifi

Everything was OK in iOS 4.2.1...
Apple please fix this bug asap

Same issue here. It's like I'm on dialup again because no page ever loads. I've called tech support and of course it's not the iPad although every wireless device in my house has no problem. This is major and my friend with the first iPad has had this problem since she got hers. I've had this one a week and am sooooo disappointed because there is NO FIX! This should be against the law to sell something like this knowing there's a problem.

Have you checked to make sure that your wifi is set up according to Apple's configuration guidelines?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4199

Exact same story, especially when opening iPad after sleep, thinks it's connected but not Internet. Have to restart each time. iPhone 4 no problems.

Yannou69 wrote:
Still the same issue for me since the update to 4.3.1.

Replacement iPAD (under warranty) and 4.3.1 also made no difference to me. Yannou69 have you tried temporarily disabling all security as a temporary test to see if your problem is related to security incompatibility issues between your router and iPAD?

Ipad 2 is the first Apple device I bought, and I have to admit that I don't like the interface much, and with this WiFi problem, I'm thinking a lot about getting any Apple device, and I wonder how this can happen after a history of the same mistake, are we too lenient on Apple, and they are looking down on us. I'm really ****** after I read few article about this problem.

Thought that the following lists may help people determine which routers they should buy for home and for use in hot spots. If you have a router that you know is not problematic or one that is problematic from first hand experience please update this list. Please try to use the full correct product description.

Where a router has been reported problematic or good by more than one person in this thread I have listed it only once.

This list is only compiled from this thread. Both lists would have been longer if had also included routers form other lists in this forum and other forums.

If some reported problematic or non problematic operation but only gave a router brand and no model information I have not included it in either list. I have used the description of the router as given by the poster(s) but acknowledge that this may not be a complete description of the model.

Note: Many (Most) people who have reported intermittent connectivity issues in this thread have not listed the model of router they found problematic.



*List of routers people have reported problematic.*


Airport Express 7.5.2
Airport Extreme (early)
Belknin N+ router
Belkin N router with the most recent firmware
Cisco Linksys WAG 120n router latest software (reported successful work around reduce key renewal on router to 60 seconds instead of 3600 seconds)
Cisco Linksys E1000
Cisco Linksys E3000
Cisco Linksys WRT54GL
Cisco Linksys Wireless-N ADSL2+ Gateway WAG160N (reported successful work around changed the radio band to 20MHz)
Comcast Cable supplied router (Barricade N)
D-Link DIR-825 (reported successful work around switched router from N-only mode to 2.4 GHz 802.11g/n mode)
D-Link DSL-2740B
DGL-4300 “super G” - with super G option both turned on and off. (Reported successful work around set a long pass key of 20 characters on the router)
Hitron BVW-3653
Netgear WNR834B v2
Netgear range max 240
Netgear Wireless G router
Netgear DG834N
Netgear N300 (may be exactly the same model listed just below)
Netgear N300 WNR2000v3
Time Capsule
TEW-651BR (reported successful work around switched the router from mixed mode to using only 802.11N)
Trendnet TEW-651BR
WND3700 (reported successful work around changed WPA-PSK TKIP + WPA2-PSK AES @130Mb/s. to just WPA2-PSK AES.)





*List of routers people have reported non-problematic*.

Airport Express (exact model not provided)
Belkin Pre-N wireless
Belkin N+ router
Cisco Linksys WRT54G3 V1
Cisco Linksys e3000
D-Link Dir-655
D-Link DIR-825
D-Link G extreme
TimeCapsule (5GHZ "n") With WMM enabled. Listed here instead of in problematic list as WMM should be enabled so it can't really be called a work around)
Verizon Actiontech with WMM enabled


*List of routers listed in both categories above*

Cisco Linksys e3000,
D-Link DIR-825 (note there is a reported work around for this router so this could explain why it appears in both lists)
Airport Express (but I concede that the description of the one listed in the non-problematic list is not complete.)

when I disable all the security It works fine....

Yannou69 wrote:
when I disable all the security It works fine....

OK I think you have proved you have an authentication or re-authentication issue. Now re-enable wpa2 with AES and try experimenting with both an 8 character pass key and then if that doesn't work a 20 character pass key. Other users on this and other forums have reported success with both longer and shorter pass keys. Let us know how this works for you.

BTW how does your iPad work at hot spots?

Message was edited by: FastBikeGear

Same issue here - my iPad1 works, my iPad2 does not. I can fix the problem by switching off wi-fi and then turning it back on. I can run both the 1 & 2 next to each other and watch the iPad2 fail. This is not a router issue - it is an iPad 2 issue - i hope it is OS and not HW.

Hello

I just received my new Ipad 2 32 GB Wifi 3 days ago.

My problem is that I can only use it within very few feet away from the router (tried different routers with no luck). Do I go 15 feet away the signal becomes very unstable. And keeps loosing the signal complete. The old Ipad 1 worked great all over the house.
I'm very frustrated, I bought so we could have it in the living room for internet use.

Should I return it or is it a software issue that will be solved?

Thanks in advance

Regards Ulrik