Q: Poor wifi reception on new iPad

I'm not impressed with the articles about overheating. I don't care what the temperature readings say. It's hot and it's not comfortable to hold it.

As for the wi-fi, I've tried resetting network settings, restarting the ipad, changing rooms - and all of those strategies work... for awhile. Then they don't. It's working fine as I write this response, but I know it'll stop working in a little while.

Apple is supposed to provide top of the line products.  Most of the time they do. But this one isn't living up to Cupertino standards.

I'll give up the speed and the screen and the LTE and the good cameras, go back to the iPad 2 and actually put some money back in my pocket - UNLESS someone tells me that a software update is going to fix my problems before my 14 days to return it.

As for router settings - I don't think that should matter. I'm going to want wi-fi to work at Starbucks, hotels or wherever I go and I certainly won't have any ability to adjust the modes on their wi-fi networks.

Oh look. I just got kicked off of wi-fi again. ****.

@Sam Katz1,

Using Apple Airport Extreme at home. Latest firmware and most current model.

Also tested with Belkin N+ 300, Netgear WNR3500L dualband, Netgear WNR3700 dualband all with almost identical results with poor iPad 3 connectivity and excellent iPad 2 and other MAC device connectivy.

I have the latest Airport Extreme and never have WiFi issues in my bedroom with my MacBook Air, iPhone 4S, or iPad 2, however my iPad 3 is CONSTANTLY dropping my connection, and when I do have a connection the quality is low.

Has there been any response from Apple about this?

I have the same issues..... through 1 wall in my home..... 50 feet from my router..... horrible signal and no signal at all.....

I walk into the room,,,, 20 feet from the router,,, with no wall.... the signal returns....

I like my new ipad..... I have had all three.......  I will keep this one and hope for a software fix on it..... if not.... looks like i am returning for a refund.... I will give apple a couple weeks to respond before I do anything......

Count me as another with problems- also had the problem with my iPad 2. If it is rainy outside, it is worse. I was 10 years from my router last night and couldn't connect. On my Android tablet, I have an ap which measures signal strength and it is quite strong.

I presume you mean www.speedtest.net. Anyway, I just did side-by-side tests, 2010 MBP vs. iPad [3]. Yes, I ran them serially, so as to not have the two tests collide. MBP results are 11ms ping, 15.33 Mbps download, 3.36Mbps upload. iPad [3] results are 17ms ping, 10.78Mbps download, and 3.33Mbps upload. I am not surprised the upload speeds are the same -- I use Cox, and my service is a 2Mbps upload service. However, the difference between ping and download speed is significant. Since I'm a Cox subscriber, I figured I would also try the Cox tool. There, I saw 16.16Mbps download speed on my MBP and... Oh sh*t - connection dropped on my iPad [3]! A few times playing with forgetting my network and adding it back, and... Oops - the Cox speed test uses Flash. Lose again :-(

I seems to have found the issue with my situation. I have a dual band router (DLINK DIR-825) with two wifi network, one G network using the 2.4GHz band and one N network using the 5GHz band. When I originally setup the iPad I used the N network on the 5GHz band to have the maximum speed, well that seems to be where the problem was, I switched to the G network on the 2.4GHz band and everything is working fine now, the same as my iPhone 4S.

I've done a few tests, and in my case, it does seem to be a "you're holding it wrong" issue.

I used an airport extreme base station (before the dual band one) running in b/g compatible mode, 2.4 GHz, and the latest firmware for it.

Also MBP, MB air, iphone 4 and new ipad 32/wifi only.

Our far bedroom in our wooden, single story house is the challenging wifi spot--we knew this already.

For those of you with Airport Extreme base stations, you can use airport utility (except, unfortunately, the newest version--I used 5.6) to monitor signal and noise strength. This is under Advanced, Logs & Stats button, wireless clients tab.

I monitored signal strength (noise didn't change) for 4 devices.

In general, the two laptops had a few decibel better signal than the phone or ipad.

If propped up on the bed in any orientation, the ipad had about the same signal as the nearby iphone 4. Also, about the same connection rate and speedtest results, with the portrait orientation giving 1 or 2 decibel lower signals.

However, if I had the ipad on my lap, then I could cause a loss of signal by holding the bottom corners in portrait mode. This could cause a loss of about 8-12 decibels, and enough to degrade or lose the throughput.

I did not see this in landscape, although landscape button right seemed to be a bit better than landscape button left.

If I propped in in my lap, in portrait, but didn't hold it, I got the same results as when it was propped on the bed by itself.

So in general, the new ipad performed about the same as the iphone 4 except when held at the bottom in portrait mode, when the signal would degrade about 10 db.

I probably won't be reporting this as an applecare issue, as we need to improve the signal in that part of the house anyway, and I can switch to portrait if I'm having trouble connect somewhere.

I don't have a case, so can't report on that.

Ron

Just got my iPad. Having the same problem here... 7 meters from the router and getting 2 bars

Went from an iPad 1 to the new one and also have wifi issues. It goes from full connection down to nothing and then somewhere in between. My iPhone, old iPad,  and MacBook pro all have full signal. If Apple doesn't acknowledge the problem and come up with a fix I'll return this one when they get some stock in the stores.

Just checking in to say that I'm having similar issues with my 32 GB WiFi only model.  I find that if I hold it in landscape with the buttons facing down, it will drop even when the signal meter shows full strength.  Mine has one of those snap on back covers and an apple magnetic cover, so I'm not sure if touching the metal makes it better or worse.  If I hold it in portrait mode, it seems like it is mostly normal.  I took my iPad 1 around and tested it in all the same areas, and it always pulled in full signal and speed, regardless of orientation or location.

So far, I have:

1. Yellowish portions of the screen with the top being brighter than the dark.

2. WiFi signal loss issues.

3. Warm left side bottom.

Even so, I might just end up keeping it and living with the flaws.  Walking around with my iPad 1 made me realize how poor the screen resolution on it is.  I don't know if I can go back to the iPad1/iPad2 screen resolution after looking at the iPad 3 for a week.  The whole yellow screen thing aside, I really love the new screen.  And it does not get warm enough to bother me.  I expect it to get a little warmer with all the power under the hood.

The other option would be to return this one and wait a few months to see if the iron out the kinks.  I don't believe that these issues are as rare as people think.  There are probably a lot of new iPads that have them, and people just haven't noticed, or don't care.

We've finally broken through, into the chatter on the net.

http://www.minyanville.com/dailyfeed/2012/03/21/apples-new-ipad-also-has/

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401924,00.asp

http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-iPad-3-Has-WiFi-Problems-Now-260075.shtml

http://www.idownloadblog.com/2012/03/21/for-some-early-adopters-wi-fi-reception- problems-with-their-new-ipads/

http://gizmodo.com/5895145/does-the-new-ipad-have-wi+fi-reception-problems

And with it is coming a repeat of incorrect info by those who are just reposting:

http://osxdaily.com/2012/03/21/fix-new-ipad-3-wi-fi-reception-problems/

http://www.isoftcoupon.com/tutorial/common-ipad-3-wi-fi-problems-and-fixes-also- ipad-2ipad-1.html

Apple is not going to respond unless you actively seek them out.

Do you have a dual-band/ or selective dual-band router?

Try to switch it to be single-band or to rename the bands to different networks and only connect to the one that is strongest.

Please at least report:

* your router brand and model

* your "Mode"

* your encryption type (I find personally WPA2 TKIP+AES" worked really well with Apple devices in the past)

* stock firmware? or other firmware?

Some wireless N netgear products have had consistent trouble connecting in my testing with the previous generation ipads.

All,

I just got off the phone with Apple support. I did not call them, they called me from reading the information in the forum. They do take note of things. I have pulled and am pulling diagnostic logs for them at this time and will be pulling more info for them tomorrow from my office connection as well. Apple does read these things and they are looking into our issues at this time. Just goes to show that if you have a problem and keep talking about it in the forums they will listen. Not to say you shouldn't call for support but just that they do ready theses posts. Thanks to Robert at Apple for jumping into this and letting us know that Apple does listen.

I just got off with support as well. They told me to take it into an Apple store to "diagnose" the issues. What a pain in the but. I just want my expensive apple products to work correctly. My wife's iPad 2 works just fine it's even downloading faster. I ran the speed test side-by-side with my iPad and my wife's and mine is definitely slower.