Q: Intermittent Wifi issues with iPad 2 and WiFi

Wow. I just bought the ipad2 yesterday and the clerk assured me, as long as airport was on on my imac at home, the ipad would connect no problem. What a freakin' headache. Has anyone managed to hear back from Apple support re: all this? I'm steaming mad; this is just an expensive piece of crap if it can't connect.

whyphi wrote:

 

Wow. I just bought the ipad2 yesterday and the clerk assured me, as long as airport was on on my imac at home, the ipad would connect no problem. What a freakin' headache.

If you want your iPad to connect to the Airport on your iMac then you have you have to turn on Internet Sharing as well as the Airport.

If you need help from Apple Support give them a call; you have free telephone support at this point. The telephone numbers are here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HE57

I bought the ipad about 3 months after it first came out, then upgrades to the ipad 2 right when that was released. I have had no issues with connectivity until about 2 days ago. SInce then it seems it has gotten even worse asking me to reenter my password to join the network. Now today, my ipad original is having the same issues.

This is very annoying. I was never an apple fan until the iPad, but if this problem doesnt get solved I may have to retract all the praise I have given the iPad.

Here is another issue which may be nothing. Both my iPads were wifi plus 3G, I noticed that using my 3G service at my house I only get 1 bar, and can never connect. Using wifi (when it was working) to watch youtube videos takes forever for it to load and sometimes never loads up. I never had these issues with my original iPad.

I figuerd it was AT&T's crappy coverage in regards to the 3G but the wifi connection with youtube videos and such may have been a forshadowing of what I am facing now.

I just updated to 4.3.5 so cross your fingers and hopefully that will work for me.

i too am having wifi issues with my ipad 2, it wasn't until i updated the software that i started noticing wifi issues when returning from sleep. it also happens if im tethered to my iPhone using the hotspot feature when the pad goes to sleep it will loose the connection and yet automatically pick up the wifi signal at work.. i think its a combination of the type of router, and the new iOS software revision.. i reset my network settings and will see how things pan out.. im still within my 90 days but im sure as **** not buying a new router. the one i have is a  300 dollar cisco multi media router.. lol

I have been on 4.3.5 since it came out (a week ago?) - My iPad 2 has just started having the issue.

My wife's is the exact same way. Scary that we are just seeing a problem that others were hoping the latest upgrade would fix. New iMacs and year old iPhones do not have this issue.

The iPod Touch doesn't have this issue either. 

Mark

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased an Ipad 2 with only wifi (4.3.3)

I'm having a somewhat different problem, but still I think related to wifi connections.

When at home and connected to wifi, I'm not able to run most videos on apps such as CNN or HSW etc.  Sometimes I'm not able to even refresh and access the non-video content.  It says;

not able to play video for video errors

and

connection error for non-video issues

In addition to the above, I'm - sometimes - not able to download normal & video podcasts and apps.  I use the solution of insistence; after 20 tries it usually works .

On the other hand, when I go to my place of work, I'm able to access the same stuff I wasnt to access at home.

It is a wireless modem + ipad 2 related issue because my macbook pro works fine.

I've had this problem for a while with my Iphone4 (4.1) , but didnt pay much attention to it and just used 3G   but now that I cant use my Ipad 2 it's become an issue.

Wireless modem is D-Link.

Looking forward to suggestions, thanks

Try resetting your DSL modem/router Group Key Update Interval from 3600 to Zero. This has worked for my iPad2. Hasn't dropped out for 3 days so far.

You can do this by logging into DSL setup at Ip address 192.168.1.1

ID is admin and password is admin. Go to wireless Security, set level to WPA2 and then set Group Key Update Interval to zero.

I don't have any problems with my mobile wifi modem when I'm travelling. I think the iPad is very sensitive to any variation in signal strength.

Thanks for your suggestion.

I tried setting the group rekey interval to zero.

No luck it didn't solve the issue.  Although, I did notice that

after making each change (ie to zero and then back to 3600),

My CNN app video and hsw app videos would function for a couple of minutes.

Then they would stop working.

Concerning the security, I left it as it was wap2-psk. 

When I switched to just wap2, it was asking me the ip of the radius server etc

Since this is uncharted territory I just left it on wap2-psk.

Any ideas ?

I haven't tried to run a video application so unfortunately I don't have any ideas with that issue.

Setting the group key update interval has stopped my iPad2 from dropping the wifi connection.

Leaving the wap2-psk is correct. I was referring to the wireless basic settings for the wap2 setting. Sorry for the confusion.

I hope you can fix your problem soon. It's very frustrating. I have found a lot of bugs in many of the apple apps.

One last thought, have you tried the DSL problems forum. They have many modem/router solutions.

Hi community, just wanted to let you know that I was also having the iSleep issue: a minute without using wifi, and the connection was lost until I manually set the airplane mode on+off. Very annoying, tried all the tricks from this thread & others: no dhcp, g-only mode, static channel, turn auto-brightness off(!), chicken bones to the bonfire, n-only mode... And then finally the group key renewall to 0 seconds. This workaround seems to work, going 30+ minutes without having to restart wifi, also went through two sleep modes ... Amazing, feeling optimistic. A proper fix would better still be on our way, this workaround cannot be used unless you control the router.

Have tried this too so let's hope it works...wish this silly issue could be resolved.

Problem has returned after 6 days of trouble free wifi. After resetting my network settings my signal strength was excellent but as I thought this solution would only be temporary. The problem is forcing me to get a data plan until a proved fix is determined.

I'ver been working on intermittient, but frequent, poor wifi operation on my home network with my iPAD2.  I finally called Apple for help (I have Applecare on my iPAD).  I must say they were helpful and professional.  Before my 90 minutes of calls were completed thay had escalated my call to three different areas, and two gentlemen actually gave me their direct phone #'s in case I needed a followup call.  This alone has been unheard of in my experience. 

In any event, they finally ended up advising me to change the configuration in my Airport Express (which I use to extend my Airport Extreme network) and to relocate the Airport Express in my condo.

This has resulted in DRAMATIC improvement in the operation of my home network, and I think I can live with this now. 

LESSON: I should have called Apple sooner.

It still appears to me that the iPAD has a weaker antennae that my other wifi devices (iMac, Macbook Pro, Kindle, iPhones, Roku, Sonos, etc), but at least I can now use it throughout my condo.

@JBinKC:

I have been meaning to call apple as well I just haven't had time where I could spend to call and try and trouble shoot the issue.

You mentioned Airport Express, is this your router?

I have also read on some other forums that it could be my Internet provider and if I call them they could reset some things on their end and this may help.

It's odd that this issue has just started to affect me. As I said I had the original iPad for nearly a year and never had this issue. I still used my original iPad from time to time after getting the iPad 2 and still it worked perfectly. It never dropped wifi signal even once.

My iPad 2 was working fine as well until about a week ago when suddenly the signal would drop. At the same time I noticed signal dropping from my original iPad as well as both my wife's original iPad and her iPad 2.

So my first chance I get I want to call my Internet provider (Surewest) and see if they can do something on their end maybe. I don't see why the anntenna would stop working after about 4 months of use without any issues on my iPad 2 and over a year of use, again without any issues on my original iPad.