Q: Poor wifi reception on new iPad

60 ft and several walls. I see a lot of posts in here about wifi problems but I don't think it's a wide spread problem. Apple didn't just fall off the turnip truck and I believe they have a firm grasp on issues like this. I don't know why there is spotty problems but if there is a general issue, it will get remedied by them. They know what they are doing and didn't just throw these devices together and hope for the best. It's an amazing device. Incredible actually.

Ditto!

I guess I got lucky and got a great one. I have held mine every way possible and I can't get less then 3 bars of reception in portrait, landscape, laying on a table, standing on my head, ect.

Marvso, can you try holding it in the way that I did in my video? Thanks

Have you seen this new Youtube Video which shows what happens if you hold the device down in the corner.

This looks just like the iPhone 4 all over again.

iPad 3: 16Gb Wifi

Router: WRT54G (unsecured, no special settings of any kind)

Just to let you guys know this isn't happening to everyone, so there is hope of finding a working one!

I just did a speedtest on my iPad 3 next to my iPad 1 and got nearly identical results.

I also did this at my fiance's house, and got nearly identical results.

I tried to replicate the 'death grip' in every orientation I could think of, with no loss of signal.

The only issues I've had with my iPad 3 are with the wifi at school, which uses a password to connect to the network, and then makes you log in via a webpage. On that network I couldn't even connect.

EDIT: I just took the iPad 1 and 3 and walked until I started losing bars. They both went to 2 bars and 1 within 2 seconds of each other. VERY similar performance from both of them.

When I Googled for news on this issue this was one of the top hits:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362319,00.asp

This is actually from April 2010, after the original iPad release, and describes many of the same problems. I didn't buy a 1st gen iPad so I wonder what happened to this issue? Now everyone seems to be saying their iPad 1/2 are perfect on WiFi. Perhaps something in iOS that needed to be patched, and that is the case now as well? Something related to different router hardware and environments that they didn't robustly test for?

My new iPad (32GB WiFi only) is coming today so I guess I will see for myself. I will test it against my iPhone 4 and my dad's iPad 1 at home, and then at work, at a hotel and a convention center this weekend so I will have a good variety of network hardware/traffic/environments.

Well, perhaps it is a batch of them with the issue, but obviously by the number of people posting here with the issue, it is an issue indeed, no denying that.

Another thing to test for those of you without the WiFi issue at home is to test it out on different WiFi services outside of your home, because you may not be experiencing the issue at home, but you could on different routers...

My experience with Apple so far is a mix bag, I bought an iPod for my son that after a couple of months began to overheat to the point of burning, but local Apple store Customer Service was excellent and his iPod Touch 4G got replaced without questions, I just bought another one for my daughter, so far so good. Now I decided to purchase the New iPad for myself, lured by the positive critique on the beautiful screen and colors it renders, but now I also read about a "yellowish tint to it" , that along with the Wifi issue being discussed here honestly has me concerned over my purchase. I am hoping for a response from Apple to the WiFi issue, but I will probably stick with my purchase, however, if any of this mentioned issues is present on my New iPad, it is going back, I sure hope not because I am excited about it , some of the music producing apps are awesome....

Dave_Beaudoin wrote:

 

 

This looks just like the iPhone 4 all over again.

Maybe we will all get free iPad cases! I very much appreciated the free $30 case for my iPhone 4 courtesy of Apple.

In addition to slow wifi I am also having same problem with verizon connection- anybody else experiencing with either ATT or Verizon? Ready to return for ATT model- at least ipad 1 worked on ATT

The AT&T 4g worked great for me 6 down and 1.3 up was consistant. Wifi and screen were bad though. Sent it back but still working with Apple techs on another one for testing.

Guys i know this isn't really a fix as such but has anyone tried it with a case??

It may be the same antennagate problem, i know that with a case my iphone 4 NEVER dropped signal.

Has anyone had wifi problems with a case??

In my video, I am using a griffin case - it still dropped wifi signal

That said, the griffin case does allow your hand to touch the metal, so maybe thats part of it. Might have to try it with gloves on??

Yes, made little or no difference. Still had poor wifi, holding it I or out of a case could cause the signal to drop as well.

I was skeptical of the youtube video posting, however, while my experience was not as dramatic as the one posted, I can defintley see diminshed throughput on my ipad 3 when holding that corner with my palm on the glass.  I still think there is a larger issue here other than the death grip.  My ipad 3 just has poor wifi reception when compared to every other device in my home at a distance of more than 35 ft from router.  And it just randomly drops its connectoin.  iPad 1 never had these issues.  I guess its possible that the ipad 1 just has better reception that the 3 and that is a fact of life.  But I can tell you that I'm not sure I can live with the issue and may be returning it if I can get a full refund.  I don't want to pay a restocking charge.  The 3 DOES get perfectly fine wifi reception when it has <15ft line of sight access to the router, but that's not the point.  And I don't feel that I should have to put wifi routers all over my house.   Ugh.