Q: Poor wifi reception on new iPad

Well we have their attention now so maybe everyone will get some king of fix and soon!!!!!! Yeah ........

this suggests to me it's a dhcp leasing problem. Just for troubleshooting purposes, can you try releasing and renewing the dhcp lease on the ipad to see if your connectivity comes back?

Remember these are troubleshooting tools, not intended to be universal solutions.

If it is an airport router, apple should provide end-end support. that's what they're good at. Call them up.

Also, if you have a router that is not dual-band, you should try it. Most routers have dual-band functionality turned off -- that is they only operate in one band. When the ipad 1 had wifi issues of the same sort, it was due to dual-band connectivity issues.

Most routers allow you to select the band, and some routers allow you to rename them. The options are 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.

I'm using an older G router, so I can't comment on compatibility but I'm going to start a new thread so we can start listing configurations that do work.

--Sam

Just ran speed test on my iPhone 4 & new iPad (white 32gb wifi), both close to the router and at the farthest point in my 112 yr old brick apt, and got the same result as my laptop. Full speed, no issues.

Case closed for me.

Please post your router brand and if its dual band or single and if you are running G/N at 2.4ghz or N at 5 ghz and which your iPad connects to. Thanks

I am having this same issue at my school. Normally, we log into the 'student' wifi account with our school-wide password, and then put in our user credentials on a safari pop-up page in order to get access. I've had no issues with my iPad 1 or 2, which I've used for a year each.

I was unable to connect at my school at all, but once returning home (WRT54G router, unsecured) had no issues.

I didn't read through the entire thread but, is the consensus that it's a hardware issue?

On an unrelated note, I noticed, the day that I got my new iPad, that there were several (3-4) nicks around the edge of the iPad. Never had this issue before with any of the others?

Count me as another having this problem. I am getting the problem on both the 2.4 and 5ghz frequency on my router. It is connecting via N on a wndr3700. Both my 4s and MacBook pro get better speeds that are right beside me.

Depends on what encryption you might have? Do you know?

SAme issues here.. My iPad 1 could connect easily anywhere in the house, but the iPad 3 has lots of problems staying connected to my router..at the same location where I had no issues before. Sometimes going to airplane mode and back improves the connectivity for a while, but not permanently.

same here. original pad connected everywhere; new iPad totally janky. connecting to TC 2.4ghz and asus rtn56u 2.4ghz.

I'm chiming back in here to report that I tried the "forget network" and" "reset network" tricks to no avail.   The problems still persist.   I'd love to hear if this fixed the issue for anyone.  My base station is the airportextreme. 

I have run speedtest.net on iPad 1&3 probably 75 times and the iPad 1 consistently gets 18-21mbps download and the 3rd gen is in the 5-10mbps range.    The 3 has dropped the network and needs to be manually reattached to the network many times and is just terrible to surf the web in general.   I'm taking it to the genius bar tomorrow if I can get an appt. 

@combatvet, my ipad3 has a nick on the metal finish on the left corner from the home button.   Very odd and it was there from the outset / unboxing.  

Tried renewing the lease along with 50 other suggestions but still having the same issue. I have a brand new airport extreme router so it's dual band. Maybe I'll just buy 5 routers and place them all over my home to solve the problem. I'm really frustrated with Apple recently. When I ordered my iPad they even forgot to engrave my case. I'm actually debating returning my iPad for a refund, can't believe I'm saying that but it's true...

Just wanted to clarify a few things...

1) I am using a Time Capsule as my wifi.  It's set to default settings,  broadcasting on different frequencies (have an older printer).

  1.5) My new iPad always had good Wifi radio signal strength.

2) My new iPad was showing 9mbps download, 4mbps upload.

3) My first gen iPad was showing 18mbps download, 4 Mbps upload.

4) Resetting the device did nothing.

5) Resetting General:Reset:Reset Network Settings brought the speed to about 13 Mbps download.

6) Turning Wifi:Ask to Join networks:Off brought the speed to 18mbps, same as original iPad

7) Changed back to Wifi:Ask to Join Networks:On brought the speed back to 13 Mbps

Conclusion:

In my case, wifi radio signal at iPad was strong at all times.

But, changing those settings fixed my problem.

Perhaps the new iPad was defaulting to a lower freq. radio signal which could explain the delta seen when resetting wifi?

But, still do not understand why Ask to Join Networks would have such an impact on my speeds, or why the new iPad would default to a lower freq wifi (if that was, indeed the case?)

"death grip" is affecting me too, 16gb wifi new ipad... I can make the signal drop every time (to failure) by holding the corners in landscape mode with volume controls on the bttom. Router is only 10ft away, tried two routers. Very unimpressed because its natural to hold it in landscape!!!! ***!

Looks like it's a software issue, OSXdaily has probably found a way to solve it:

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

Hope it helps...>//<

This has been posted many times over the last few days and it seems to be a temp fix at best. Most that have tried it have not had any better wifi than before they tried it. I'm testing again this afternoon with Apple tech's and will post what they say afterwards later in the afternoon.