Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

That's exactly how I fixed mine. This thread is too large and Apple just released an update that doesn't fix this issue. I feel quite disappointed to Apple, specially since this is my entrance to their world. (Yes, I have already written to their feedback page)

I just purchased mine yesterday at Best Buy, and I think I'm going to have to take it back. I can connect at will to the hotel wifi (I'm out of town on a business trip) using either my iPhone or Macbook Pro, whereas the iPad2, at the same location, drops wifi all of the time. I've done all I know to do on the iPad side, including the latest update, with no improvement whatsoever. I had waited a long time to finally see an iPad in a store and were it not for the wifi issues, I am learning to like it. I chose not to purchase a 3G version, so wifi is a very big deal for me and it's just too inconsistent to count on. I'm disappointed that quality testing didn't discover this before release, but I guess we've become yet another manufacturer's "quality team". I may still opt for a Macbook Air as a travelling companion, but my confidence in things Apple is just a little shaken right now, so I may just suffer through an Android experience with the Asus Transformer. At least I know there's work needed on that and can expect some wrinkles going into it.

I'm not fully decided yet, and I have 16 days I think to try it out, but so far, it's been frustrating.

I bought my Ipad a few months ago now and ever since it's been working great on every wifi network i've tried, not drops when sleeping etc. I've used my iphone as a personal hotspot for the ipad and same thing, no problems (btw ipad 2, 32gb).

Today, after reading a pdf document in iBooks the wifi connection stopped working. At times the ipad couldn't connect at all to my wifi, other times it connects but when trying safari etc. i said it wasn't connected to the internet. After reading much of this thread I tried solving this issue in many diffrent ways but to no avail. I have a d-link dir-655 router and white iphone 4, none of which was working to connect to.

After resetting the ipad/iphone/router multiple times and changing configurations etc nothing has worked. However, when I went into the router settings and changed two things, everything miraculously started working again.

1. I changed my administrator password on the router (not the wpa2 pass) to anything diffrent from before. This change is followed by the router resetting on demand.

2. In the router settings I simply ticked out the box that lets the router automatically choose what band to send wifi over.

And wham, everything works perfectly again. So for anyone who's ipad can't connect to wifi, and for those who's ipad's that can, but not connect to the internet, try these two changes and hopefully it will work! This might obviously be the reason why so many people keep dropping their connection on different routers aswell. So don't listen to the people telling you to buy a new router when the issue might be as simple to solve as this!

1. I changed my administrator password on the router (not the wpa2 pass) to anything diffrent from before. This change is followed by the router resetting on demand.

2. In the router settings I simply ticked out the box that lets the router automatically choose what band to send wifi over.

 

Wireless devices hand shake when they first establish a connection. This handshaingl allows devices to agree  on sessi0n characteristics, channel etc and validate passwords, etc.

The reason number 2 works is that when the iPAD goes into Power Save mode it should tell the router that it is doing so and the router then knows that it will probably try reconnecting some time later using the same connection session settings (includiding channel) that it negotiated with the iPAD when the connection was first established.

Unfortunately the Power Save mode operation on the iPAD is broken (or to put it in the best possible light - 'incompatible with many routers') and when it wakes up and tries to continue sending packets to the router using the originally negotiated session characteristics the router has no longer saved the session settings. During the sleep period it is possible that the router may automatically change to another channel... so there is no way that when the iPAD wakes up that it can talk on the channel it was previously using and it is not smart enought to establish a new connection.

It would be great if we had a way to turn off the iPADs power save mode so that when it wakes up it just renegotiates a new session.

The above is also why other users have had success in playing with the Power Save modes on their routers.

BTW I think that some users may find that iOS 4.3.4 has some unpublished changes that may reduce the wireless interconnectivity issues. (We know that Apple does this kind of thing don't we Kevin.)

I have had my iPad 1 for approximately 6 months never experienced a wifi connection issue. BUT.. After I downloaded the latest ios update on 17JUL11my iPad drops my wifi connection after about 10mins. No other changes were made to my network - only the ios update. Does anyone know of a solution to fix this problem? Is it a DHCP leasing problem as stated in a Princeton University report or something else? Please Apple.... fix this issue.

Finally figured it out. It is not the ipad. It is your modem and router. They are not reporting or the radio is not broadcasting the routers address back to the ipad. Here is what I did, I pulled the power cords for the modem and the router. I waited at least 5 minutes. Then I plugged the modem in and waited for it to be up and running, then I plugged in the router. All the trouble I had is now gone. Something about DHCP not updating or stuck. By powering down all that internet stuff you are forcing the modem and router to update itself. I actually tested my ipad by taking it from STATIC mode to DHCP MODE. For the first time ever with this ipad I watched as all the data was sent and updated. The IP, Sub Mask, DNS and outer were all filled in and all my wireless stuff is now wifi.

I think that a lot of you are missing the plot. It has to be the iPad (one other possible explanation below however).

If the fix is just resetting the router then what are your chances of getting this done when you roll into a 4000 room hotel and casually ask reception to pop round and power off ALL their routers/WAPs just so your iPad can work in their environment ? THAT is the issue ! I am sure that airports would be equally supportive to this request !

The one possible exception might be what happens when a large manf decides that we need to move forward so introduces a "feature" and makes this the only option available. So if there is some "feature" in how the iPad gets an IP address that Apple feels is a better way of doing it then they might have turned this "feature" on and we are now seeing the consequences being forced on us by this visionary. Don't think this can't happen. I remember when they made seatbelts in cars part of the door so they automatically folded over you when you sat in the car. This idea has hit the dust. There are hundreds examples of this happening.

I'm glad you figured that out and resolved your problem...however...you didn't figure mine out. It is not the router...it IS the iPad. IF I can connect my iPhone, my Mac, and my Windows machine, all, to the same router but cannot connect reliably with the iPad sitting on the same lap at the same location as the others, which do connect and connect reliably, it is in fact the iPad that is the problem. For example, I will be searching for information using the iPad when it suddenly loses connectivity at which point I pick up my macbook and finish what I was unable to do on the iPad. None of the other devices lose connectivity, but the iPad does repeatedly.

I'm not saying, in your instance, you did not have a router problem. I am saying, that in many instances, based on their description of their problem, they are not experiencing a router issue; but rather an iPad one.

Both MODEM and ROUTER had been powered down. Restarted both now everything works. That's my case. If it dowse not work for you I don't know what else I can say. And I did not read anywhere in these forums that anyone found a fix like I did. It's the modem!

By the way, look at your network settings, do you see ROUTER and DNS info there? If not power down the modem and the router. Wait for 5 minutes then power the modem up first and wait till it fully operational then power up the router. It worked for me.

Yes I do. My issue is with the iPad itself and not the router unfortunately. I just continually lose my connection on the iPad when the iPhone and Mac both continue to be connected. And it's not just the hotel router where this is displayed either.

I really enjoy the iPad with this notable exception, but I'm too dependent on wifi to be able to ignore the connectivity issues I'm having.

--phubai

My setup in is my home. I did take the Ipad to a free wifi place in town and it worked there. So when I got it home i realized the Ipad was not the problem. It was my home network.

I have the same issue with frequent dropping out of wifi.  My IPad 1 never gave these problems and my various other apple and non apple devices have no problems. As some more savvy people have commented this is a problem with the device.  I've tried adjusting various settings as suggested in this thread with occasional temporary success. My iPad works well on some networks but not on others, whereas my iphone and Air haveno such problems. I'm disappointed there isn't a clear description of the problem by Apple and that the software updates have not yet addressed this.  The most useful thing I've done is to instruct my iPad to forget the network and then reconnect and reenter the password, merely turning the wifi off and on isn't as effective.

I had a similar problem with the wifi on my ipad2 after upgrading to 4.3.3.

Although, it worked fine on my home network after putting in a static ip on y iPad. Then it could reconnect automatically everytime I was using it again. However, when using the tethering part via my iPhone 4, and using the wifi from my phone, then it didn't work. I read in another thread in here that it could be solved by shutting down the iPad completely for 5 minutes. Did that, and now there is absolutely no problems anymore.

When I open the ipad, I can see there is no wifi-connection, for a second, but then it connects automatically.

I think that the 4.3.3 update disconnects when the iPad is not in use now, whereas before, the connection was there all the time. And that part could make some DHCP problem if the iPad is not shut down 5 minutes after updating.

Hope this helps for you all.

Has anyone noticed an improvement with the intermittent connection problem with 4.3.4?

I haven't had a chance to do any testing before but I have one customer who says they have seen a marked reduction in the number of disconnections since upgradeing to 4.3.4 from 4.3.3.

We also made a change to one of the security settings in their Wireless routers last week so this may have been the fix rather than the change to 4.3.4 If I get a chance next week I will change the security settings back on one of these routers to see if the probelm gets worse again.

The customer is also reporting that the with 4.3.4 the iPAD goes into sleep mode much sooner than it use to during periods of inactivity - so it seems that Apple is also managing the battery life more aggressively. It seems that there might be a number of unpublicised changes that have taken place with the latest firmware upgrade.