Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

By the way it drops even I am sitting next the wireless router. What a shame.

Bought a 64-gig Wi-Fi only iPad2 10 days ago and introduced it to what has been a fairly stable, heavily trafficked all-Microsoft home network, anchored by a Netgear 3500 router.  After about 3 days, I noticed increasingly frequent wi-fi drops, sometimes in mid app.  If I renewed lease on the connection, it would work again, but quickly drop again.

Before I got in to heavy troubleshooting, I made three easy changes - upgraded the router firmware to latest release, changed security to WPA-2K only, and set the iPad to no longer automatically join networks.

Something worked, because in the 48 hours since I made those changes, I've had no problem.  The thing comes right out of sleep mode and is connected, and no drops.  Glad it seems to have been fixed so easily, as I was starting to get a litle peeved.

"Try changing the router wireless security Group key update interval to it's maximum value. Worked for me."

having the same issue of gettig connected to the WIFI when it is not password protected and not connecting to the same WIFI when it is pass protected. I also did what you said there was no success. This happens with both my iphone4 and ipad1.

What should i do?

Having the same issues with iPad 2 on Belkin G Mimo router configured as an access point. With security set to WPA2 the connection drops quite frequently and usually there is no connection when resuming from standby. The solution always revolved around the panacea of all IT ills: turning the wifi off and on again.

What is interesting is that during disconnects the iPad can still connect to the access point's web config page but it cannot connect to the ADSL modem or the internet. What is stopping it from getting from the router configured as an access point to the US Robotics ADSL modem and out into the big worldwide web? Like countless others, I have tried changing all the settings from the sensible static IP configuration to the bizarre brightness settings. I have tried everything with the Belkin too, including a factory reset. I do live in an apartment and I have changed channels to try to rule out interference playing a role the problem.

I recently disabled network security and instead opted for MAC address filtering, hardly ideal I know, but it no longer drops the connection. This same setup is used where I work and again the connection is solid there. What is going on? I guess I will have to work through all the levels of security to see which ones are problematic. What is confusing is that if it is a security issue that is causing the problem then how does it manage to connect to the configuration page of the access point during a disconnect? How is WPA2 interfering with net access.  After all, the error message from Safari is that the sever cannot be contacted, and not that there is no wireless network.

What is interesting is that during disconnects the iPad can still connect to the access point's web config page but it cannot connect to the ADSL modem or the internet.

Now that is interesting ... I'll have to try that next time I'm getting zero from the Internet on my iPad. I've seem this before with something else and figured the routing table got corrupted.

So far, I have the one APP I mentioned in a previous message that will, when used, seem to cause the same problem with Wi-Fi connectivity. As long as I don't use it, the iPad will stay connected for long periods without issues.

Thanks for the reply. Based on what you just mentioned, I have re-enabled WPA2 and activated RIP routing on the ADSL modem for the first time (it is not on by default) to see if that has anything to do with it. I will post positive results after a lengthy period of testing.  Of course, a negative result will appear here far sooner :)

If that doesn't work then perhaps I'll try a static route even though it may not be logical for a device on the same local network. I am quite desperate after all.

Thanks for the reply. Based on what you just mentioned, I have re-enabled WPA2 and activated RIP routing on the ADSL modem for the first time (it is not on by default) to see if that has anything to do with it.

 

I wasn't referring to "RIP", which is different from a "Routing Table" that TCP/IP keeps track of where to go to handle requests.

RIP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routing_Information_Protocol

Routing Table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routing_table

Also, not a good idea to enable RIP on your router in any case.

And avoiding the contest that this could turn out to be, I'm noticing some interesting behavior from the devices, that tells me something that I wouldn't have expected.  Someone else may want to do some of their own troubleshooting to see if theirs corresponds to mine:

-  A Restore of the iOS doesn't appear like it necessarily wipes out all settings, even though it indicates that it should.  Similarily, the "Reset All Settings" choice from the General-Reset menu within the Settings App doesn't wipe out all settings either, despite both of them requiring iTunes to reactivate the device and offering to push either a backup or a new profile to the iPad.  This was confirmed by using our secured (Cisco branded, password protected, cookie based) wireless at the office.  After five consecutive restore attempts, I finally managed to get WiFi to change from "not available" to something else, allowing me to choose an access point to connect to.  The first time, I entered the credentials needed to use our password protected public access point, which is cookie based (this AP stores a cookie on the machine that's wiped when the browser is closed, and has always worked fine on Safari, prompting for username and password properly each time).  I was then able to access the internet fine, with no problem.  I restored the iPad again, and retried the wireless, choosing the same AP.  Strangely enough, I didn't have to enter any credentials to access the 'net or browse past the initial Yahoo page, which was where I started before (thinking maybe it was looking at a cached page).  I then tried to reset all settings and reactivate the device...same behavior.  Still, though, my bluetooth is behaving flaky.  It almost acts like a software issue, though, instead of a hardware issue as it first did.  During all of this testing, I haven't put any apps back on the device, it was just a bare iPad 2....no apps, no photos, no documents.

Anyone else interested in testing this to see if they can duplicate it?

It didn't work. I had to reset the wifi to access this page and subsequently do it again after only writing this short message. Unbelievable.

All this is all well and good but where is Apple in all of this? I have both the iPad 2 wifi only and iPhone 3GS. When I upgraded them to 4.3.3 they quit connecting to networks unless they are only in one mode and not mixed. It is fine to mess with your own network to make it work but no one in the real world cares about your special Apple problems. So when I am using my products that I paid good money for and they do not work for one of the primary reasons I bought the for (iPad mostly) in traveling, it does me no good. I bought the iPad to replace a laptop while I travel and talk to family on Facetime.

How long does it take for Apple to realize what the problem is and get it fixed? Why not say we recognize there is a problem and we are working to fix it? One has speculated it is the airport software causing the problem again. That indicates there may have been a code merge problem. This should take no time at all to fix. More importantly, why not provide a way to move back to the previous version? When we designed our firmware, you could move to any version you ever created. If this continues I may as well sell it and go back to Windoze laptops.

Everyone keeps talking about routers-how is this a router issue when my iPhone 3GS and laptop don't experience this issue? Is that possible? My iPad was fine from March until 20 minutes ago when I launched my RSS reader-something I've been doing numerous times a day without issue until now, so not a likely cause. Dumb question-Can ISP's identify device type...? (I know-conspiracy theory!) :)

Problem is, a lot of the suggested work-rounds won't work for me. We have a Thompson Router, it has WPA and the latest firmware. It is set by Cyta and we can't alter anything on the router without going to the helpdesk and they have done everything they can.

My IPad2 32Gb WiFi+3g drops the Wifi after about a minute. I have turned off sleep mode so its not parking anything. I can be working with my MacBook Pro and my Iphone4 alongside each other less than 1m from the router and the ipad will drop the signal. I rang apple support and they were little better than useless. This problem is driving me nuts... what is the point of paying a fortune on a wifi Ipad if the wifi doesn't work??

So, having ranted, what can I do about this? I can't change the router... what other suggestions are there?

The problem is that the iPads are the problem, BUT the work around is to chnge the Router. I have said it here before that I would drop off the WiFi every 15-20 mins until I changed the Wireless security Group Key Update Interval to its maximum value 4 days ago and not one drop off.

However try doing that to a locked down router and they call you a hacker...

This "Fix" should tell the Apple idiots where to start looking for the problem that is affecting seemingly millions of iPad and iPhone users. They seem to be ignoring it. What a great company.

Cyprus Babs wrote:

 

My IPad2 32Gb WiFi+3g drops the Wifi after about a minute. I have turned off sleep mode so its not parking anything.

How did you turn off the sleep mode? I suspect all you have done is stop your iPAD going into a sleep mode after idle periods. I do not believe that this stops your WiFi going to sleep during idle periods. I suspect your WiFi connection will go into a 'power save' mode even when your iPAD is active doing other tasks that do no require a WiFi connection.