Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

FastBikeGear, Thank you for sharing so much detail in your post. If anyone misses it, it's well worth reading.

I'm one that had to return my iPad1 and was hopping iPad2 had the wifi improved - guess not, so I won't be trying again. But, still following this thread, in case, something changes.

Thanks again for new information/insight I hadn't heard before. i.e. Apple acknowledges a problem...they wouldn't do that on mine.(s)

Add me to the list as well. I have noticed this constant drop at both my parent's house and my own. Both houses use a Belkin Wifi Router (approx 1 year old). I am planning on switching to Verizon that provides a free wifi router. Once that is accomplished -- I will switch over. Only negative is that it only goes up to G whereas my router supports up to N.

Hopefully APPLE WILL RESPOND TO THIS POST WITH ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS....

FastBikeGear wrote:

Apple acknowledge that their are wireless connectivity problems but say only a small percentage of users are experiencing difficulty. Apparently approximately 8% (source: customer survey) of iPAD users are experiencing these severe wireless connection issues. Given the numbers sold 8% represents tens of thousands of users. Apple has now provided refunds on request to many of the people who have not been able to find a work around for this problem.

Eight percent seems remarkably high. Do you have any information on this survey or a link to it? When was it done? Was it a real randomized survey or just a poll?

rsmith34 wrote:
REQUEST TO APPLE

I request the APPLE Team to please fix the issue of ipad getting disconnected from wifi after update to 4.3 ios. May be i should not have upgraded.

The ipad simply takes many finger taps to connect several times and its kind of frustating. It disconnects the wifi network only after 5 - 10 minutes without any reason. My Iphone with old software have no network problems. I never had any issue with network prior to upgrading.

Note that although hosted by Apple, this is exclusively a user-to-user forum. Apple does not respond here, and it is not certain that messages posted here will reach the people who might be in a position to solve problems such as this. You might want to also send your concerns to Apple via their feedback page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

JimHdk wrote:

Update the firmware in your Netgear router here: Netgear Support. Note: your router may be able to do this automatically - check the documentation.

If this doesn't work replace the router.

Another option short of replacing the router is to check whether your router is compatible with the open-source firmware that is available for a number of routers, including some Netgear:

http://www.dd-wrt.com/site/index

There is some misinformation in your summary of the many WiFi discussions on this forum. This is probably not your fault since what you are summarizing itself contains the misinformation.

FastBikeGear wrote:
Apple acknowledge that their are wireless connectivity problems but say only a small percentage of users are experiencing difficulty.

The only acknowledgement from Apple of any WiFi problem was for the initial iPad iOS release, 3.2, which, in computer terms, is far in the past. Since that time there have been 4 iOS releases for the iPad (3.2.1 - fixed the 3.2 WiFi problems, 3.2.2, 4.2.1, and the latest 4.3)

Apparently approximately 8% (source: customer survey) of iPAD users are experiencing these severe wireless connection issues.

This number is from informal polls not from any random survey. Because those who were having problems would be biased to respond this has no validity. Also these "polls" referred to the original 3.2 release. If there were anything like 8% of users having these problem these forums would be absolutely awash in posts. Currently 8% of iPad users would be more than 1.2 million people.

I was hoping that the intermittent wireless connection issues would be solved with 4.3 OS but alas for some people 4.3 just made things worse.

On the other hand, quite a few people people have reported the 4.3 did solve WiFi problems they were having.

Apparently the iPAD uses the Broadcom BCM 4326 WiFi/Bluetooth chip...

The iPad 1 and the iPad 2 as well as the current iPhone and iPod Touch all use the Broadcom *BCM 4329* chip.

I suspect the issue is that under some circumstances this chip does not run fast enough in the iPAD.

Quite unlikely.

As said earlier, Apple will not respond here. If you're having an issue that can't be resolved, please let Apple know about it by submitting your issue on their feedback form. It's important that issues are submitted to Apple so they can determine the size and the scope of problems like this.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Having the same issue with my iPad 2, 64GB 3G. My WiFi connection only ever persists for a few minutes. I have tried on three different WiFi networks and have had the same result on each. My original iPad does not have this issue.

JimHdk wrote:
The only acknowledgement from Apple of any WiFi problem was for the initial iPad iOS release, 3.2, which, in computer terms, is far in the past. Since that time there have been 4 iOS releases for the iPad (3.2.1 - fixed the 3.2 WiFi problems, 3.2.2, 4.2.1, and the latest 4.3)

Hmmm...I just assumed (perhaps incorrectly) the acknowledgement still applied as the problem seems to still exist.

JimHdk wrote:
This number is from informal polls not from any random survey. Because those who were having problems would be biased to respond this has no validity. Also these "polls" referred to the original 3.2 release. If there were anything like 8% of users having these problem these forums would be absolutely awash in posts. Currently 8% of iPad users would be more than 1.2 million people.

If you don't like the poll results - just blame the polling methodology?
Define "awash in posts" There are 5 pages in this thread alone and 13 pages in this thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2387620&start=180&tstart=0), 74 pages in this thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2387493&tstart=0&messageID=131 67238#13167238) and that's just on this forum alone. There are many many other threads on the iPad wireless issue in other forums. I am betting that most people who are swimming around in circles on the forums are just looking for answers and not commenting. So if we ignore the poll results just how many people do you think are experiencing this problem?

JimHdk wrote:
The iPad 1 and the iPad 2 as well as the current iPhone and iPod Touch all use the Broadcom *BCM 4329* chip.

Thanks for this correction. Do you know if this chip fully implements WPA2 and AES on the chip?

I suspect the issue is that under some circumstances this chip does not run fast enough in the iPAD.

JimHdk wrote: Quite unlikely.

JimHdk it is very possible that I am barking up the wrong tree but given that Apple have previously advised users to turn up their screen brightness to cure this issue ref http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3304 I smell a hardware/chip/power issue. Apple have yet to offer any explanation of how turning up the brightness of the screen affected wireless connection.

Their are many issues that can attribute to intermittent wireless connectivity such as: weak signal strength and interference, DNS problems, DHCP lease issues, Key rotation or time out etc.

But...

My other non Apple wireless devices have no intermittent connection problems with my Cisco/Linksys wireless router in exactly the same environment at the same time nor did they have a problem with my previous D-Link router. I made no special configuration changes to any of these devices yet my iPAD (before I returned it earlier this week) did not have reliable connectivity in exactly the same environment.

*Test 1. Is this an Apple issue?*
Do any of your non Apple wireless devices have intermittent connection problems in the same enviroment that you are having these difficulties with your iPAD?

*Test 2. Is this a security issue?*
It's only a suspicion at this stage that the way that wireless secuity is implemented in the iPAD is causing performance or compatibility issues with third party products. If you are having connectivity issues, what happens to your wireless connectivity issues when you temporarily turn off WEP2, WPA, and WEP?

Message was edited by: FastBikeGear

I had to set my router to 11g mode only on my trend net router and ever since the wifi is working flawlessly. I was thinking of returning my iPad 2 wifi only and getting a xoom wifi only but now I will keep the iPad.

Jack.100 wrote:
I had to set my router to 11g mode only on my trend net router and ever since the wifi is working flawlessly. I was thinking of returning my iPad 2 wifi only and getting a xoom wifi only but now I will keep the iPad.

Jack does your router support the faster N Standard? If so what happens if you set it to N only?

{quote:title=FastBikeGear wrote:}

JimHdk wrote:
This number is from informal polls not from any random survey. Because those who were having problems would be biased to respond this has no validity. Also these "polls" referred to the original 3.2 release. If there were anything like 8% of users having these problem these forums would be absolutely awash in posts. Currently 8% of iPad users would be more than 1.2 million people.

If you don't like the poll results - just blame the polling methodology?

It's not a question of "liking" the results it's simply that the poll methodology made the poll results meaningless.

Define "awash in posts" There are 75 pages in this thread alone and over 25 other pages in other threads on this forum alone. ...

This thread only has only 69 posts in it not 75 pages (note that 'pages' is ambiguous). If anything like 8% of users were having WiFi problems there would have been at least a thousand times as many posts.

JimHdk wrote:
The iPad 1 and the iPad 2 as well as the current iPhone and iPod Touch all use the Broadcom *BCM 4329* chip.

Thanks for this correction. Do you know if this chip fully implements WPA2 and AES on the chip?

WPA AES is implemented on the chip.

My other non Apple wireless devices have no intermittent connection problems with my Cisco/Linksys wireless router in exactly the same environment at the same time nor did they have a problem with my previous D-Link router. I made no special configuration changes to any of these devices yet my iPAD (before I returned it earlier this week) did not have reliable connectivity in exactly the same environment.

Are implying that it is only Apple devices that have WiFi problems? I don't know how you could reach this conclusion based on your experience with only one device which, according to your previous post, you were told by Apple needed repair.

If you visit any router forum you will find that there are plenty of WiFi problems out there and they involve all types of equipment.

I have an iPad 1 64 GB wifi and I purchased the iPad 2 64 GB 3G. I am using an Airport Extreme router and I have several other Apple devices throughout our house. I have never had wifi issues with any devices including the iPad 1.

The iPad 2 will have a significantly weaker signal than the iPad 1 in the exact same spot in the house at the same time. Typically it is 1 to 2 bars weaker signal and there is a considerable drop in performance. Sometimes pages won't open at all.

Both iPads are running iOS 4.3 so I don't think that is issue. Very frustrating.

JimHdk wrote:
This thread only has only 69 posts in it not 75 pages (note that 'pages' is ambiguous). If anything like 8% of users were having WiFi problems there would have been at least a thousand times as many posts.

There are 5 pages in this thread alone and 13 pages in this thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2387620&start=180&tstart=0), 74 pages in this thread (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2387493&tstart=0&messageID=131 67238#13167238) and that's just on this forum alone. There are many many other threads on the iPad wireless issue in other forums.

I am not sure why we are even discussing just how many thousands of people are experiencing the IPAD wireless issues. I am more interested in a technical discussion that can give us answers to what these users are experiencing.

JimHdk wrote: Are implying that it is only Apple devices that have WiFi problems? I don't know how you could reach this conclusion based on your experience with only one device which, according to your previous post, you were told by Apple needed repair.

In my environment only my iPad is having WiFi problems. I don't know where you got the understanding I only had one WiFI devide in my network from. All my other wireless devices work fine in exactly the same environment. The intermittent connectivity on my unit was also evident when trying to use McDonald's wireless hot spots. My laptops have no problems with stable connection to McDonald's hot spots.

The online support person was only able to advise that I do a restore on the unit and re test it. This did not alleviate the problem so they then advised that I take it into the service centre.

It seems to me that if the wireless chipset is any good in the iPad it would make a good basic platform for a simple wireless test/survey tool. It would be nice if the unit had even some very basic wireless diagnostics (like most laptops) that would identify wireless network channels, signal strength in dBs etc.

Unfortunately when I sold my last IT company which was a country distributor for Cisco, D-Link, Proxim wireless routers, I lost access to the suite of brilliant wireless network diagnostic tools from Fluke that our engineering department used. These would possibly have allowed me to very quickly see exactly what was going on. Unfortunately my local Apple service centre apparently doesn't have any wireless diagnostic tools, Nor do I suspect that they have any specialist wireless engineers - but I could be wrong.

The repair centre guys have also told me that they only have an Apple wireless router to test connectivity with!?

I have offered them other wireless routers to test with but they have declined my offer. Somehow I don't think that by testing only with an Apple wireless unit they are going to get to discover any third party device connectivity issues?

FastBikeGear wrote:
If you don't like the poll results - just blame the polling methodology?

To understand what a poll means, you have to understand what question it is really asking.
To ask the question, "What fraction of iPad owners are experiencing WiFi problems?" you must randomly contact iPad owners and ask them whether they are having wifi problems.

On the other hand, a poll on a forum such as this really asks the question, "What fraction of the people who choose to visit an online support forum and read a thread on wifi problems and respond to a poll on that thread are experiencing wifi problems?"

For the first question, 8% of the people reporting problems would be a remarkably high figure, indicating well over a hundred thousand people with the problem. For the second question, it is impossible to extrapolate how many people are having trouble, but 8% is rather low, suggesting that wifi problems are probably fairly rare.