my new iPhone 4s wifi connection keep dropping and not respond, after I hard reset the phone "power home" it work again. But after a while wifi is not working again. Is this a hardware problem or iOS 5 problem?

You need to change your wireless router.

I had the same issue with my new iPhone 4S. But I sloved it by swtiching to a different wireless router. With my older router which was Netgear, my iPhone 4S could connect my wifi, but can't go online. At the same time my iPhone 3G wifi works fine. I did some research and found some routers don't support iOS devices very well. Then I changed my wireless router to D-Links. Now my iPhone4 S wifi works perfectly.

Another way to test wheather your iPhone 4S wifi works or not is to go to some public wifi, such as Apple store, or Starbucks. If you can connect your phone with their wifi, it means your phone is fine and there must be something wrong with your wirless router. Try to use different brand name wireless router, try to use WAP instead of WEP for your secuirty setting.

Hope my experience will help you to slove the wifi problem.

Jayson

Good advice. Won't work all people though. I'm using an Apple Airport Extreme which absolutely should support it but I'm still having the WiFi problems.

@ Jayson To

Even if this were so, how ignorant and arrogant for Apple not to configure a system to accomodate the different routers on the market.

I've just been to the Genius Bar and they couldn't connect my 4s to their instore wifi and couldn't give me an explanation, but did suggest that it could be a hardware fault so suggested I exchange the phone, which I am already doing and waiting for Vodafone UK to dispatch my new phone.

I do think that there is an inherent hardware fault with the new antenna switching system - it must create some discrepancy or conflict with wifi signals rendering it either really slow or inoperable. Either that or it's an ios5 thing because old devices that have upgraded to ios5 have also had similar issues.

Have decided not to make it ruin my weekend anyway, going back to my old 3GS for now.

I think you have your finger on the issue. I suspect that there is key renewal problem. I seem to lose wifi connections after about an hour and I have my router set up similarly.

I found that switching to airplane mode AND resetting the router, and then turning airplane mode off again will immediately work around the problem. I suppose that this gets both the router and the iphone back to the preset key state.

My guess is that there is a subtle bug in the iOS 5 key renewal protocol that makes it incompatible with the Actiontek router I'm using. Or, maybe the router is wrong, but I don't care. I'd really like Apple to be more accomodating here. I can't upgrade every router out there. Hopefully there's a fix soon.

Among other inconveniences, this causes my iPad to switch to 3G and gobble up its lousy 2GB data allowance without my noticing.

I also get wifi problem. I have got iphone 4s this week. When I connect wifi at home, it is hard to connect during the day. At beginning I thought it was the router problem, while after restart router, it is still not stable. I also have an ipad 2, it alway works fine with wifi. So how can I solve the problem 😕 ...

Confirmed issue for me - iPhone 4S with iOS 5.0.1. Wi-Fi hangs (spinning) intermittently. I turn off Wi-Fi & use 3G whenever hang occurrs (3-5 times in an evening.) Switching Wi-Fi back on allows the connection to work for awhile then hang again.

Anxiously awaiting a fix.

I think I'm having the same problem. I have an iPhone 4s. It connnects to wifi networks when I'm not at home. At home I'm generating an ad hoc internet sharing network via the AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8C) card in my 2.8 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo Mac. I'm running Lion 10.7.2. I had a nice working wifi connection but after I restarted the Mac the phone won't connect. It picks up the network but I get a never ending spinning gear icon. It doesn't make sense that the iPhone can't connect to AirPort. They're both Apple hardware. I'm not savvy on the inner workings of these things so any suggestions would be helpful.

Has anyone found a solution? Except kicking out your router or Replacing your iphone?

What concerns me is that i've owned my 4s for a few months without issues and it just started now?

Same here. Works fine at home, but has started dropping the wireless connection at work. Makes no difference whether the phone is on charger or not.

Seems fairly random.

Upgrade to iOS 5.1 solved my wifi problems at home..!

I am having same issue, and IOS 5.1 did not fix issue. All other devices connecting with no problems to my router. I do not always get an hour before the net is unavailable. I reset by turning Wifi off then back on, it solves issue temporarily, until the next lapse occurs. When the issue occurs, it seems like I receive occasional emails especially over night, but no Internet connectivity. What's the most frustrating is that my back-up sync to the cloud doesn't work automatically, and I am lucky to have a reset connection and force a back-up before it goes back off-line.

Apple, please ackknowledge and tell use you are in work on a permanent fix.

I am a victim of the same problem. I've been looking for a solution for months without success. The point I want to make today is:

What's the point of having this forum in apple.com when no one from Apple has given any solution or orientation or even an acknowledgement?

I love my 4S/64 but wifi drops all the time. Only solution is to restart the router, which is annoying.

Apple, put your act together.

This is not Apple. Only users here.

Power off your Router and modem for at least 30 seconds. Power on the modem, wait till it is operational, then power on your router.

I disagree. It's Apple, not the users. You shouldn't have to power off/on your modem/router all the time. Apple should fix the problem. There are too many users with the same problem.

For those of you saying it is the router, I don't believe that is true. My wife and I both have 4s's (her's is white, mine is black, both 16gb) and latetly hers keeps dropping the wifi signal in the house. I am using a 1st gen Time Capsule and my phone never drops the signal, but hers does. We will be sitting next to each other and she will drop her signal and I have 2/3 bars and mine works. I think somone one nailed it on the head with the problem being the key renewal. We are going to take it to a Genius soon because she is getting sick of it. I have a MBP, iPad 2, iPod Touch, 2 ATV's and they have never dropped wifi so I am confident that it is a hardware problem and or the key renewal.

Not sure when I am going to go to an Apple store but if it is soon I'll post a reply if I get it fixed/figured out.