iPhone 5 wifi issues

Great advice!

Probably the most sensible reply I've see here!

Dear Kk8Dreams,

I thank you so much for your input and resourcefulness with iOS and iphone 5. I am very glad your were able to exchange you iphone. Allow me to add your extremely helpful comments to the file I am editing "Repair iphone 5 wi-fi issues ", in order to share it with other iphone 5 owners.

Yes, I got lucky with my "hard reset" solution, however, there are many defective hardware units around.

You have a great weekend, and a very merry Christmas!

intuitionist

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but I'm a little confused.

I want to disable WMM on my router (E2500) so I can boost my speed, but as this thread indicates, it kills iOS wifi. After glancing through the responses, it seems that some people have been able to get wifi working DESPITE WMM being disabled. Anyone know how they did that?

See this post from apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3727

<confused>

Dear mvish86,

It could software (easily fixed with a hard reset") or it could be hardware i.e. a bad iphone 5 unit. Let me paste different solutions which worked for different iphone 5 users. I certainly hope it will help you restore you iphone 5 wi-fi capability.

Dear mvish86,

If your iphone 5 is not getting decent wi-fi at home I would advise you to first perform a "hard reset", i.e. hold down the on/off button (upper right hand corner) AND the Home Button (fingerprint scanner) at the same time until the phone restarts. Let it restart completely, and check for wi-fi connectivity. Second, make sure your router is isolated (about three to five feet AWAY from anything electrical (we are testing, if it works you can then place it a little closer to other devices.) If need be you can try performing another hard reset, remember your iphone 5 works somewhere else, hence it has got to be your location at home.

You can even try to isolate the devices to a room where there are NO electrical equipment and then test your iphone. Let's remember wi-fi is completely dependant on distance, wall materials, in other words if you live in a house that has any masonry exterior, or sheet metal on inside the roof, or anything of that sort, that is what would be killing the signal coming from outside the house to your router and then weakly broadcasting to your phone.

I do hope these tips will give you a somewhat workable technique to allow you to enjoy your iphone 5 the way you expect it to. In my case the same afternoon that I received my iphone 5, I activated it and started noticing very poor wi-fi connectivity (I have got a killer Motorola Surfboard AC modem/router, an Intellinet N access point they do sit close by though), and poor wi-fi nonetheless. I got online, went to apple's website, read some forums, and found that this poor wi-fi connectivity on iphone 5's is common to many users. People were doing all kind of things with ip addresses, changing routers, etc, etc. Until I found a comment explaining what worked for him. Guess what? Perform a "hard reset" and viola! It worked for me as soon as I did the "hard reset" the very first time. I do hope it works for you too.

Your iphone 5s gold enthusiast,

intuitionist aka Juan L. Blanco

First, let me say this is my first post, however, I've trolled this site for years, finding it to be a huge source of support. With that said, I recently spent 8 hours bouncing between Apple-AT&T-Apple-AT&T only to discover something interesting.

Here is my configuration:

• Internet Provider: AT&T Uverse 18MB speed
• AT&T Router: 2Wire. Setup to disable wireless router.
• Time Capsule: Acting a WiFi router behind AT&T router.
• 1 iMac, 1 Macbook Pro, 1 Macbook Air, 2 iPhone 5s, 1 iPhone 5 and 1 iPad mini

Situation

• iMac, MBP and MBA all produced download speeds of 17 mb
• iPhones and iPad all produced .8 - 2.0 mb download speeds

  Same download speeds when connected via WiFi to Time Capsule (down stream of AT&T 2Wire Router) and when connected to AT&T 2 Wire Router with Time Capsule eliminated.

• All test performed using speedtest.net
• All test were conducted with devises within a 5' radius of Time Capsule, performed sequentially not simultaneously.
• Similar to others on this board, after hard reset, I do achieve fast speed for a short period only to return to slower speed after a few hours.

Actions taken during attempted resolution.

• Apple suggested Time Capsule settings under wireless, wireless options.....Changed 2.4GHz to Channel 3 and 5GHz to 44. Note I am not using 5GHz but they still recommended the change.
  • Radio Mode is 802.11a/n-802.11b/g/n (Automatic)
  • Security is WPA2 Personal
  • I am using a Guest Network with no security

    Note, I'm not sure this had any impact but it was part of my resolution.

• AT&T adjusted setting on my 2Wire router.
  • Changed wireless channel to 9 (2452 MHz)
  • Changed Security Authentication to WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK

    This now matches what is on Time Capsule

Status

• Changes made minimal improvements and AT&T is scheduled to make a site visit to determine if line speed is the issue. This service call will be performed in two days.
• Frustrated, I thought I would think of what other things could be impacting this performance. Keep in mind, it seems strange only IOS devises work poorly and how could 4 of them (1 being two days old) all be doing the same thing while computers were fine.

Theory:

After performing multiple speedtest functions, I noticed when I select different locations on speedtest, my speed dramatically improved.

• Location is automatically selected on IOS devises. Location chosen was AT&T's major competitor Charter Communication. When using Charter as the server, I experience low speeds. If I change server in the speedtest settings to a neutral server, my speeds return to 16-18 mbps.
• To confirm my theory, I forced my MBA to use Charter's server on a Speedtest which produced a slow 1.5 mbps. Previously it was much higher as MBA was using neutral server in all of my previous speedtest.
• My plan is to ask AT&T if they can block Charter's server or force communication to a neutral server.

Dear dutchmafia,

I feel total empathy, admiration and respect for your troubleshooting steps up to now, however, let's face the facts, 2Wire is a DSL modem/router hence it is slower by default. Now, let's give it our best shot. 2Wire used to be owned by Gateway, now it is owned by Pace. They suggest using a Residential Gateway in order to improve connectivity speeds to a faster rate. Allow me to attach their comments and their URL

http://support.2wire.com/index.php?page=view&article=95&text=how%20to%20tweak%20 2wire%20dsl%20modem%20router%20to%20achieve%20fastest%20speed&cat=1&sort=

• News & Events
• Investors
• Careers
• Contact Pace

• About Pace
• Technology Leadership
• Products and Capabilities
• Product Support

Home>Product Support

Gateway Product Support

• Technical Support
• Downloads
• Activation Keys
• Provide Feedback
• Software License
  Compliance

Back to Top

intuitionist

Dear Dutchmafia,

Impressed with controlled scenario test you performed, you may spent probably one or two hours doing that, unfortunatelly users are doing the work that apple engineers should do, and the worst thing is that apple is ignoring and care less this post and this problem, even I solve my problem replacing phone for a droid, some family members still stuck with this problem and can not take any action because are on contracts.

I'm just curious if any apple employee take a look of discussion posts in their site or it's just a way to play with users making them think someday will get supported, a way to relief frustration, maybe?

Apple, I'm really dissapointed, will you one day give support to your customers? if you haven't noticed we are a lot of them inquiring for it on this matter.

this lack of support is disgusting coming from a company like apple. really bummed about this.

I know, it's painful and it's making me angry. Every hotspot I've tryed works for 15 min then stops working. I'm now over in my data plan cause of this. Even at home now it says connected but won't do anything after few mins. I did hard reset just to have same thing. I have no idea about routers and stuff I just am like most and want to just connect. It's iPhone plain and simple but if u have an old one like my 3GS it has no issues. But we have 3 iPhone 5 phones and 2 don't like connecting the third one seems to work. This btw is my 4th cause I kept returning them cause of this issue. This latest one came right from china to me. I'm just so frustrated I got this to do the same thing as my old one but it's 10 times worse. Every hotspot everyday and apple stopped talking with me and won't honour there gift they gave me which now I can't get. So to all the iPhone lovers I used to be, but my contract upgrade is in less than a year and iPhone will be not one I choose next time. Cause a full year of this not working right makes me sad and angry

Oh the problem with apple is they dont know wats wrong, I spent to much of my time with this too

The local Verizon told store told me there was a known problem with iPhone 5 wi-fi. antennas. Apple decided not to fix it because they were to far down line and had the S and C comming out. Apple is sending me a refurbished phone. It begs the question, did they figure out a fix and just do it as people complained rather than a recall or will the "new" phone not be any better?

I was having the same iPhone 5 problems as everyone else - my phone used to connect to the home WiFi but all of a sudden stopped. It also wouldn't connect to other WiFis that it had previously connected to before. I knew my network was working bc my iPad and other iPhones were connecting just fine.

The thing is, this is the second iPhone to do this to me! The Apple store replaced the first one when I told them about the connection issue - didn't even bat and eye, kinda like they were expecting it. I went in today with my malfunctioning phone and was told it was out of warranty (don't get me started... a known hardware issue should be covered outside of the warranty) and would cost $300 to replace the phone.

But get this - my phone could connect to the Apple Store WiFi!!!! So in one last ditch effort to try to fix the problem, I got an AirPort ($99) and now the phone connects to WiFi. With the network card in the phone defective/damaged it seems like the AirPort is sensitive enough for it??? IDK - at least I didn't have to sacrifice a chicken!

I was thinking I wanted to get a 6 when they come out, but now i'm gun shy - what if there's more unresolved issues???

Hi cstrayer,

I thank you so much for your input. I am very glad you iphone 5 is working again. Allow me to share your input to other iphone 5 users experiencing the same lack of wi-fi connectivity.

You have a Happy New Year,

intuitionist

Hi Manolisve, How to change the DNS of iphone connection to 8.8.8.8?does it works only for US only or worldwide?I'm in Indonesia thanks...

cstrayer - Did you restore your phone as new? That is, not from a backup? After my conversation with the Apple tech, I am half convinced that it is a software issue. I'm on my third 5, and if it happens again, even within the 90 day warranty period, I've got to restore as new before going back to Apple. Hoping it doesn't come to that.