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New iPad having problems with iMessage and Facetime in home WiFi.

Just to start off, I have 2 iPad gen 1s, and 2 iPhones in the house too, and they all have no problem with their respective Facetime (iPhones) and iMessage (all of them) on my home network.


When I first got my new iPad (iPad "3"), I could not activate iMessage and Facetime at home. I kept getting "Check your network settings", however everything else to do with the network was fine: Safari, iTunes, games, etc. I made a Genius bar appointment to check out the problems activating the iMessage and Facetime, but as I was waiting for my appointment, I decided to try again while on the Apple Store's WiFi. To my surprise, both iMessage and Facetime immediately were activated, and I had no trouble using them. I cancelled my Genius bar appt and went home. At home, Facetime will not work, and iMessage transmisison sometimes works. Keep in mind that all my other IOS devices work fine, and my 2 Macs. I have looked through my router settings and can find no port blocking set at all. I have seen some anecdotal discussions about setting the DNS to Google's public DNS, but I have not tried that, and besides which, why would only my new iPad not work, but the other IOS devices would?

Posted on Apr 16, 2012 6:48 AM

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22 replies

Apr 16, 2012 8:26 AM in response to GAPman

Very interesting. I wonder if there's an issue with the iPad registering the account, it might be getting confused by the other devices on the same network during whatever part where it registers the device with the apple service as able to recieve facetime messages.


Another thing to check is to make sure your time zone and time are set correctly.

Jun 30, 2012 10:21 PM in response to GAPman

Hi guys. Guess what? My wife just got her new iPad (third gen) and had the EXACT same problem as what you describe here. I just did what paul_999 described above as his fix and . . lo and behold IT WORKED!


Wow - how in the world did anyone come by this information in the first place!?!? And what an arcane thing this is to have as a fix for this problem. Even more mysterious is why would this be an issue for only the new iPads (3rd gen) and not for other idevices such as my iPhone 4s?? Does this point to a manufacturing defect with the new iPad?


By the way - I had spent a couple hours on the phone with Apple support this past week about this. They had absolutely no information about this resolution! (too bad)


THANKS!!

Jul 5, 2012 12:44 PM in response to Maddie Boo

Once connected to your network, go to Settings->WiFi, then tap on the blue arrow to the right of the network name you're connected to. You should see a menu with settings like "IP Address", below that "Subnet Mask", etc. Tap in the DNS field, and the keyboard should come up. Type in (without the quotes) "8.8.8.8", then tap the "Wi-Fi Networks" left arrow at the top to go back to WiFi network list. It should think about it for a couple seconds, then should show a checkmark next to the network name when done. That should be it.

New iPad having problems with iMessage and Facetime in home WiFi.

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