Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

FastBikeGear, Wow, Thanks for taking all the time to do that...interesting! I've wonder why Apple just doesn't make suggestions for routers with all these problems.

Possibly another to add to the 'doesn't work' list, although it was my iPad1:

Cisco Linksys WRT1100

Router was only 3-5 weeks old & firmward updated when I got the iPad1 last Nov., everything else here works fine.
Ipad1: E-mail was slow, uTube never connected and Safari dropped a lot. Tested with Speedtest app and the whole connection was very slow. I returned the iPad1, and I'm on the sidelines if I'll try another iPad(s)...which is why I'm still following this thread.

Thanks again for such detail.

Settings on my D-Link DIR-825, which has been 100% reliable with my iPad2:
5 GHz 802.11n only
WPA Personal

GrendelBane wrote:
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.

What version of iOS are you running on each iPad (settings -general - about).
What brand and model of router are you using?

UlrikBS wrote:
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

What version of iOS are you running on each iPad (settings -general - about).
What brand and model of router are you using?

tgibbs wrote:
Settings on my D-Link DIR-825, which has been 100% reliable with my iPad2:
5 GHz 802.11n only
WPA Personal
tgibbs wrote:
Settings on my D-Link DIR-825, which has been 100% reliable with my iPad2:
5 GHz 802.11n only
WPA Personal

Thanks you will note I have your router on the list already. However I recommend that you change from WPA to WPA2. WPA is a trivial non brute force attack using freely available hacking software. WPA2 offers a much higher level of security.

I seem to be yet another user having problems with my IPad 2. I am sure nothing can be done until a new release comes out but I just thought I'd list the symptoms I have been having. I currently have the Ipad 2 3g thru AT&T (32G)

The first day I got it, I brought it home, updated iOS 4.3.1...connected it to my home wifi no problem. Thought to myself "this is pretty cool...I have to take it to my Dad's house to show him." (I have a Link Sys wireless G router)

My Dad's house I typed in his WEP and kept getting "incorrect password"...cut and past it...same thing. Turned off his encryption...still could not connect even though my iphone 3gs and his netbook had no problem...hmm...must be a problem maybe it was a conflict with his Westell modem/router....saw others seem to be having similar problems when I researched it.

My profession is a city firefighter. We currently have several stations that we can work out of at any time. My primary station I connect fine with our Westell modem/router. My iphone, netbook and everyone elses notebooks connect no problem.

I took it to another firehouse yesterday, which has a Belkin router. It kept saying I connected but it would not let me get thru to the internet (and it appeared to keep dropping the wifi signal.) When I looked into my ipad settings, the DCHP settings kept trying to give me a 169.xxx.x.x ip address even though my iphone had a 192.xxx.x.x address and connected fine.

Ideas??? Any other similar problems anyone have? So far, out of 4 different places I've tried, I cannot connect to two of them...we are batting .500 here which is only good in baseball.

Message was edited by: Jbird869

my ipad 2 has 3 types of internet connection:1 very rarely running good
2 usualy running slow while my pc runs fast in the same spot and at the same time
3 30 percent of the time saying it cant connect to the internet and asking over and over for the password witch for some reason it wont remember
i hope that they can fix thing cause right now i regret my purchase....it is agravating

Add me to the list of people having the exact same issue with iPad 2 intermittent WiFi connectivity. Initially, the device connects fine on every WiFi network I've tried. But once I close the "smart" cover and the device goes to sleep, the internet connection is lost and I need to go into Settings and manually turn WiFi on/off to restart/reboot the wifi connection. I haven't tested the issue on every network but it is very consistently behaving this way on my office network.

I have tried a variety of config changes to the wireless router as mentioned on this and other posts on this topic(e.g. using Apple suggested router security settings, enabling WMM, even disabling security to see if that would help) but none of these have yielded a consistent iPad 2 connection. Same issue every time - the connection is lost after the device goes to sleep for a minute or two. Contrast this with my other wireless devices that continue to work consistently regardless of how I setup the router, including my iPhone 4.

This is obviously a huge pain. I'm hoping there is a solution to this problem coming soon from Apple.

As a couple of others have done here, I replaced my aged router with a Dlink DIR-655 wireless N router and it immediately solved my problems with losing network connectivity. My old router was a Dlink 2810, and it worked on every other device I own flawlessly, including my iPhone 4.... that is, every device except my ipad2 (wi-fi only, 32 gb model).

I didn't mind buying a new router as my older one was getting a bit long in the tooth, but I can understand how others might not be so "forgiving".

As a side benefit, the iPad loads pages considerably faster with the N speed over the g...

IMO, Apple really does need to take a hard look at why the ipad2 has this issue, but I can say with 100 percent confidence that the new DIR-655 router solved my issues.

I hope that helps .....

I don't know if this will help, as my iPad2 reliably picks up its network connection virtually instantaneously once the cover is opened, but one thing that I've found to enhance reliability with some other devices is to set my router to recognize the device's MAC address and "reserve" a particular IP address for it.

The one problem I have had is that when there are multiple wifi signals available that the iPad recognizes, it does not necessarily choose the strongest one, and will sometimes connect to a marginal signal when there is a strong signal available, requiring me to manually switch it. My iPhone 3gs does this as well. I wish there was some way to prioritize networks.

FastBikeGear wrote:

tgibbs wrote:
Settings on my D-Link DIR-825, which has been 100% reliable with my iPad2:
5 GHz 802.11n only
WPA Personal
tgibbs wrote:
Settings on my D-Link DIR-825, which has been 100% reliable with my iPad2:
5 GHz 802.11n only
WPA Personal

Thanks you will note I have your router on the list already. However I recommend that you change from WPA to WPA2. WPA is a trivial non brute force attack using freely available hacking software. WPA2 offers a much higher level of security.

I'm using WPA-Personal in the D-Link's Auto mode, which uses WPA2 for devices that support it, but will fall back to WPA if that's all a device supports.

I have been through 2 different routers(netgear and cisco). I also had my ipad2 sent in which apple said was fine and returned it with a firmware reset. When i got it back it worked well for two days. Now i cant even connect to my router 5 feet away from it. I have to turn it off sometime for the network to even show up with one signal bar. I brought it to my office and the connection would go in and out. Apple! for the $700 i paid for this thing i feel ripped off. Its been two weeks with no solution, returning it tomorrow and getting a xoom.

Issue is consistent but mimics my ipad1 and iPhone 4 issue after 4.3.1 upgrade.

My iPod Touch4 gets a stronger signal than my iPad2. I have WifiTrack app on both and in the same position, my iPad shows -55 and the iPod shows -40 (relative readings where -55 is worse than -40).

I show 1 or 2 bars of signal on my iPad and 3 full bars on my iPod in the same position. Sometimes I show 2 bars when the iPad is 3 feet from the Airport Extreme. My security camera app takes 30 seconds to load on the iPad and 2 seconds on the iPod.

I have 5 Airport Extremes on a roaming network and 3 of them are dual band. I am used to strong signals but my iPad struggles to react.

Both my iPad and iPod are on 4.3.1, my Airport Extremes are up to date on firmware 7.5.2 and all have WPA2 Personal security.

I will call Apple in the AM.

My iPhone 4 easily out-ranges my iPad 2 on my home network, and from what I have read about other owner's experiences, that seems to be the norm.

If I were to guess, I would say that my iPad 2 has only half the wifi range that my iPhone 4 has...