Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

My iPad tends to drop the connection when it is further away from the access point.

It rarely drops wifi when I am in the next room, however when I am upstairs it tends to drop quite often.

Normally when it drops the connection, I have to turn wireless off on the iPad and turn it back on.

As soon as I do that the connection starts working again.

The signal strength when it drops is usually 2/3 bars, so that's not the problem.

This is with a Netgear WNDR3700 access point operating at 2.4ghz 802.11n 300mbits with WPA2.

I have also tried using the 5ghz band at 300mbits with WPA2 with similar results.

At work I have Cisco Aironet 1121G Access Points running in 802.11g with WPA2/PEAP/802.1x.

They are ancient and somewhat slow, but everything works with them and uptime is more than a year.

I was hoping to replace them with 802.11n models last year, but due to a tight budget it's not going to happen.

I have seen it drop the connection at work too and each time it does I have to toggle wireless on the iPad.

Though at work the situation is quite interesting, whenever the iPad goes to sleep it drops the connection.

When the iPad is then awoken it takes 5-10s for the connection to be restablished.

Something tells me that 802.1x support on the wifi is half baked too...

joefromurmom wrote:

 

.... I'll admit it got better when I removed all security but thats not an acceptable solution even if it completely fixed the problem, which it doesn't. Still looking for an APPLE solution...

If you look back to threads in this forum you will see that Apple has had WiFI connectivity and performnace issues from day 1 of the iPAD. Both the iPAD and iPAD 2 use the same WiFi chipset.

Apple has so far been unable to remedy this problem with iOS changes.

Imagine if Apple can't fix this problem in the IOS or customers finally get so frustrated that they actually demand a remedy. Or everyone insists on a refund as many of us have already done and got (myself included).

Would Apple do a recall?

Or is the solution going to be an iPAD 3 with a current specification WIFI chipset?  (the chipset used in the iPAD and iPAD 2 was released by Broadcom as an early draft 2.0 802.11n compliant chipset, that is now about 5 years old)

I found this worked for me.

Change your AP to use G only. Turn off spanning tree.

Good luck.

Add me to the list of people with major wifi problems.  I'm using a smcwbr14s-n4 router with the latest 0.4.4 firmware from the smc website.  I have it set to g only and I've tried channels 1-10.  They all seem to just stop working after a while.

My ipad is running the latest firmware too.  I haven't had a problem with it using my laptop or my android cell phone.  I sent an email to smc about it but I'm pretty sure they're just going to blame apple

Hello Merid,

I have had the best luck using WPA. I have it set to a dynamic IP. WPA still has issues, but they are far less frequent. My connection drops consistently with WP2. Hope that helps.

Nothing new to add, other than this issue is driving me crazy too!  My iPad2 worked flawlessly at home for the first month.  Now I seem to be lucky if I get any WiFi connection at all.  Resets seem to help only for a short time.  My router (D-Link DIR-655) firmware is up to date.  I sure would like to see a resolution soon!

I got my iPad2, 32gb, 3G about 6 weeks ago. The first month, no problem connecting to home wifi. (AT&T Uverse 2Wire router) But, now, nothing! It sees the router, accepts it, but does not connect. This is VERY frustrating! My iPhone 4, laptop, and blu-ray have no problem connecting at high speed. iPad, not so much.

If there is no resolution to this obviously pervasive problem soon, this puppy is going back.

willo2 wrote:

 

Hello Merid,

 

I have had the best luck using WPA. I have it set to a dynamic IP. WPA still has issues, but they are far less frequent. My connection drops consistently with WP2. Hope that helps.

Be careful WPA is not very secure. Using WPA makes it relatively easy for someone with an automated WiFi cracking software to gain access to your shared pass key and gain access to your WiFi. WPA was a hurried patch to the worst problems of TKIP and hackers learnt how to breach it within several hours of it's release.

I am having the same problem with my iPad 2. My wifi will disconnect every couple minutes.  I have to "forget the network" and then re-login. I returned it to the store today and they gave me a new one.  The new one is even worse.

**** YEAH!!!

I've 100% solved my disconnects.

Before, I used 802.11n 300mbps 3x3 MIMO router and wi-fi connection just freezes while the indicator showed full strength. Also it didn't work after sleep.

Actually the iPad 2 max 11n connection speed is 65-72mbps due to hardware limitations and there's no need to use MIMO routers.

So I've bought a new Zyxel 802.11n router with a single antenna, which doesn't support multiple channels(mimo).

I've set it to N only mode and WPA2-PSK\AES and auto channel selection. And it really worked!

If you still don't beleive it... The wi-fi connection uptime in the web UI of my new router is more than 24 hours!

Also I was finally able to comfortable stream several hours of video without any drop.

Although the problem is clearly with the iPad itself, it's been found that certain routers work fine, and others do not.  Personally, I switched from a Belkin N+ router, which was MIMO, to a D-Link DIR-655 router, which is also MIMO.  I suffered frequent disconnects when using WPA/WPA2 on my Belkin router, but suffer NO disconnects on my new D-Link router.  MIMO isn't the issue.

Well, maybe I just got lucky with this router and ipad2 can flawlessly work with it.

But of course ideally it should work with any other router...

I was having all the same issues discussed in this thread with my Ipad 2.  Once you were more than 15 yards from my Airport Extreme you had these connectivity issues.

What I have figured out is that the Ipad has a weak receiver for wifi.  It has to have a strong signal to connect properly and maintain a connection with reasonable internet speed.

I added a Airport Express to extend my wireless network, now have full bars and great connectivity.

It does totally suck that I had to resort to spending another $100 for the Express, when the primary function of the Ipad is connect wirelessly.

Replacing the router when it works perfectly well with the other half-dozen WiFi devices I own, INCLUDING My 4th gen iPod touch, is NOT an acceptable solution AT ALL. nor is crippling the capabilities of my router, which will affect other devices on my network.

I had similar issues, my iPad 2 was disconnecting all the time, it was useless.... All other devices (MacBookpro, apple tv, iPhones, playstation, ipad1, etc) were working well in my home network (I have an relatively old cisco router), everything good but the ipad2.

I was wondering if the ipad2 was defective and took it to my office, that's when I realized it worked perfectly there. I then mapped the differences in the set up between my office and my home network. Turns out that I was using WEP at home and WPA2 at the office.

Bottom line - I changed my network settings at home to the following:

- WPA2

- G only

- channel 4 (instead of the standard 6)

IT WORKED!!! All devices working well, including the IPad 2. No more connectivity issues!!!!!

I saw many posts in this thread. They helped me to figure this out and that's why I'm writing back. I know that this unfortunately will not work for everybody, but it did work for me, so it's worth the try.

I hope this helps. Good luck!!!!!!