Q: Poor wifi reception on new iPad

I agree, to suggest going to a hotel receptionist and asking if they would mind your messing with their router is a foolish suggestion.

Out of curiousity....has anybody tested their Wifi performance after adjusting the brightness on the new IPad?  I was on another forum and there seem to be a number of users reporting that their Wifi performance increased after messing with it.  When I get a chance I am going to test but have not had the chance.

Just had an epiffeny!

Have a new router that was set to 'mixed' for the different wireless standards - as I have 2 iPhone 4s phones, a new iPad and an older laptop that only has a b/g wireless adapter.

Changed the router to "'G' only" and the iPads wifi performance is nearly 10x better:):):)

Hope it helps someone else.

I am in a middle of Wi-Fi testing session and looks like I have discovered a very interesting issue.

The test that I was doing is similar to death grip, I was launching speedtest.net test and in the middle of download while the speed was at its max, I was turning around and by this blocking the Wi-Fi signal with my body. The devises used are iPad3, iPhone4S and iPone3GS.

While doing the test I have noticed that iPhone3GS was performing better than other devices during low signal conditions. When I was blocking the Wi-Fi signal, iPhone3GS was dropping the speed to 10%, but continued to operate and was completing the test. iPad3 & iPhone4S in the same situation were freezing the test completely unable to recover.

THEN, I have noticed that iPhone3GS has a much older version of speedtest.net, the new devices have the latest version. I did an update to the latest version of speedtest.net and got a SURPRISE, now iPhone3GS is freezing like the other two devices.

The difference in operation is extremely profound, with the old version all the test I did completed successfully while having limited signal. With the latest version of speedtest.net it is a complete trainwreck and the test is ALWAYS freezing in low signal conditions.

This raises a very important point -- the speedtest is only as accurate as the app that's being run, the test, and how it's calculated.

Different versions of ios, of the app, and different formulas for calculating speed and different units of measurement (for instance kbps is different from Kbps as different from Mbps or bps). Speed results off by a factor of 8 might indicate that the different formulas are indicated.

Carriercompare for instance produces believable results on my phone (3.1mbps over 3g down). On my father's in a different location in town but same carrier 384kbps down.) Speedtest.net may produce different results depending on ÅPIs used and the factors listed above.

I still assert that the best test for these devices is signal strength (as measured by graphical indicator) and anecdotally. Can you stream youtube and/or netflix? (at a hotel, this may not work but at home it's ok.) Does surfing the web seem fast or slow? If slow, what part? finding the server. or afterwards?

--Sam

I tried turning off the auto bright and played around with differenct brightness levels.  No change in wifi recpetion, still pretty bad, 1 bar at 15 feet from the Netgear 3400 router.

Anyone else have any luck with this.

Yes, I've been recommending the mode setting consistently. This helped the ipad 2 as well, though not really permanently. You may have better luck. The more devices the router connects to the larger it's DHCP table, and the more likely it is to have problems. (so I have heard).

However, it looks like it's fixed for you, so that's great.

What router do you have?

IMO it is a BUG in poorly written software. I have repeated the tests a dozen times and the difference is more than just a new formula, it just doesn’t work.

The specific test that I was doing requires a high degree of accuracy and I am not sure that I will be able to analyze and measure the speed using youtube or anything else.

Sure. Where precisely are you in Greece?

Does it have a postal code?

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

This lists an applecare number for greece.

Start there. If you would like to have it serviced in person, ask where the AASP (Apple authorized service provider) is in your area of Greece. Prior to apple stores, there were third-party apple authorized service and sales shops all over the world. In my town with one apple store in the mall, there are three.

I would also recommend calling your router maker and your ISP. Change the mode to straight G or straight N and follow the instructions laid out here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4199

And elsewhere in this thread.

Mark the answers that helped you so that they can rise to the top of the thread. Please post back if you are getting bad wifi at hotels and such, or just locally in your house. Bear in mind that hotels have tech support numbers as well,  and the one time my ipad 2 failed to connect, they were very helpful.

If it is a problem in speed or latency, you should be able to see it instantly in speed of rendering, speed of video (it will be choppy), or things like copying a mail message from one folder to another (this happened to me on a dsl connection in a pc when the latency was really really bad.)

What is the test you are doing? Can you type up the steps, and list the apps you are using? Is the death grip applied? did you try say carriercompare (which works over wifi also) and speedtest.net? Did you try other speedtest apps?

Comparing cross-platform (android to ios) is not effective as they use different APIs. If you are getting a speed of 6-11mpbs, you should not be affected in real world performance.

I support you in your right to good customer service however.

The netgear routers, particularly the N ones, are extremely problematic with ios devices in general. Is it possible you could try a linksys? or try changing the mode on the netgear router to be standard wi-fi specs -- netgear uses an "extended range" technology which is a proprietary extension of the wifi standard which I have seen interfere with ipad connectivity before.

Try G only or N only, depending on what your router supports.

For completeness, I had to change this setting for a roku to connect to my netgear G router also, so it isn't just the ipad. My friend reported that his nook wouldn't connect to his netgear and his ipad 3 couldn't connect either, until we subbed it in with a linksys and no problems since.

Finally had a chance to check...

Serial number: [redacted] (cleaned up from '[redacted]')

Name: iPad 3

Group1: iPad

Group2: WiFi-4G

Generation: 3

Machine Model: iPad3,2

Model introduced: 2012

Production year: 2012

Production week: 11 (March)

introduced test: GOED

CPU speed: 1.0GHz

Family name: A1430

Screen size: 9 inch

Screen resolution: 2048x1536 pixels

Colour: White

Capacity: 64GB

Factory: DM (China - Foxconn) 

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the report.. My 6 iPads were from Foxconn and manufactured during weeks 5, 6, and 9.  They all have the death grip issue, but not seeing any connection/SSID issues..  Wondering if the faulty parts have washed through the system by week 11????

-Paul

I took my first iPad back due to poor wifi connection and they gave me another one.  That increased my wifi range by a couple of feet.  I have a Infinity Gateway wifi modem that everyone said was rotten for wifi so I bought a Netgear 3400.  I did NOT have the Infinity Gateway reset to 'bridge' mode.  I just set up the Netgear and both the Netgear and Infinity Gateway show up on my iPad and I chose the Netgear and it's a little better in range but still can't get more than about 25 to 30 feet from the router.

My question, should I have the Infinity Gateway reset to 'bridge' mode?  Could having both networks cause problems?

Bridge mode has always been one of those difficult concepts for me to understand but as I understand it, if the modem is passing traffic to another router, that modem should be in "bridge mode".

Technically speaking, a "bridge" is a device that bridges between two network segments, but in this case that makes sense. Your router has a different set of IP addresses or should, then the modem.

Make sure this is the case. Your router's IP needs to be different (in the third number) than your modem or you will get connection drop-offs, and other weird issues. This is known as an IP address conflict.

I believe the other logical thing to do would be to turn off the wireless on the modem. Otherwise you have two wireless networks conflicting in terms of channel and broadcast. (if the router is set to auto, it should cope, but there's no reason for it to be on.)

So yes, try bridge mode: on wireless: off

You can also contact your ISP and ask them how to configure the modem with a router. Note you are asking them to support their equipment. This is their job.

Who is your ISP? DSL? Cable?

--Sam