Q: iPhone 5 wifi issues

The problem is a simple fix if u wanna use wifi while at a hotspot turn off cellular data on your iPhone because the phone are being programmed by the company to look first to the data plan before wifi so if your using LTE data on a cellular plan if its faster than the wifi network your on then the phone will automatically use the fastest service. It's a way for the wireless companies to rack up data cost notice that they are going away from unlimited data plans.  I had wifi issues until I learned of this turn off cellular data and wifi works perfect hopes this helps you guys

Had same problem after having iPhone 5 since December. Connected fine to guest on home Cisco wi-fi, but not to standard full functioning protected wi-fi. Tried resetting and all other suggested fixes, but none worked for more than a few days before problem happened again. Wife has iPhone 5 that works fine. I also use her old iPhone 4 as a spare Wi-Fi only device. I looked at the connection info on the iPhone 4, then viewed my iPhone 5 Wi-Fi settings, changed from DHCP to Static and manually entered those settings. No problems now for 3 weeks. Hopefully this problem will be addressed in iOS 7, but this workaround does just fine for now. Changing to Static for one connection has not affected all other connections that continue to successfully use DHCP.

That doesn't work if, in fact, you have a bad wifi radio. Many problems, no simple solution.

But what about when you font have access to router settings? If unwanted a phone I could only use at home, of get a landline...

Same problems with iPhone 5 and Airport Extreme AC. iPhone 5 wifi disconnects from my home Airport Extreme network on the main and guest channels. I have no iPhone connection problems at work. The other devices in my house run constantly without issue.

Similar thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/22007514#22007514

Worth trying a few things at home:

1) Select a different channel, but don't choose anything other than 1,6, and 11 (choose anything for the 5Ghz).

2) Cloick on your Wifi in settings of yer iPhone and add a DNS. 8.8.8.8 is a good start.

3) Change HTTP Proxy to Auto, and type in the URL field: http://www.apple.com/library/test/success.html

My IOS 6.x  5G iPod touch  and iPad Mini fix on my home network is to have Squidman proxy server running on a "regular" mac, and set the IOS devices to use that.

These devices have defective software or hardware, I don't know which.  I suspect software since a software fix like this makes a huge difference.  Both devices will connect to either 2.5 GHz G or 5GHz N networks I have, but both show slow transfer speeds when not using the proxy server.

Also, the 5G IOS 6 iPod touch will regularly crap out connecting to a tmobile hotspot (SONIC, a Huawei 587) I have.  This issue is alwasys fixed by completely resetting the IOS network settings on the device.  And, over the course of a few days or few sessions, it craps out again.  I can tell you authoritatively that this phenomena is independent of wifi channel, B,G or N,  WPA, WEP or none used for security, SSI broadcast or not, using DHCP or not.  I have tried them all.  I've even set things up so the hotspot can use my home network's proxy server.  Nothing helps permanently with the mobile hotpsot.  It will connect well with the mobile hotspot right after a complete IOS network settings reset.  It will connect ok for a few times after that.  But after a while, it will connect but will not transfer any data, or do so extremely slowly, until I reset the network settings again.  That, in my opinion, is the greatest evidence of some kind of stack somewhere just overflowing and mucking things up.  If the hardware was bad, why would I get a decent connection after a reset which would fade over time, only to be corrected by another reset of the network settings?

Why this worsening connection over time happens with the mobile hotspot and not with my home network is a mystery.  I've always been able to connect and get full speeds with the home network as long as I am using the proxy server on a mac

I don't have significant problems connecting with other WIFI networks I come across (airports, other folks' home networks, etc), though I suspect the connections I get there are sub-normal regarding download speeds.  I only do significant downloads and video streaming when at home, where, like others, I discovered the speeds to be abysmal unless I take the simple step to use the proxy server.

Earlier models of iPod touches I have do not show any speed or performance changes with or without using a proxy server, and they work much better with a wider range of WIFI networks.

I am dismayed that Apple hobbled, through unacknowledged misdeeds or incompetence, my two recent devices for WIFI connections.  The only comfort I get is reading this thread of so many others in this boat.  I sure hope IOS 7 solves this idiocy.

We have 5 iPhone 5's but only mine seems to have the Wi-Fi problem. I have exchanged mine 3 times so far with Apple but still have the problem. I get the "unable to join network" error. The only way I have found to fix it is to delete the DHCP entry in our server, wait a bit, then try again.

Hi, I'm having the same issue as everyone else, and this is the idea I thought of too, but how do you do it?  How to turn off cellular data while you're in WiFi?  This sounds like a reasonable workaround if it can be done, otherwise I'm returning this iP5 before my 14 days are up!

Settings/General/Cellular at top you'll see Cellular Data

M4R1N4 wrote:

 

Hi, I'm having the same issue as everyone else, and this is the idea I thought of too, but how do you do it?  How to turn off cellular data while you're in WiFi?  This sounds like a reasonable workaround if it can be done, otherwise I'm returning this iP5 before my 14 days are up!

Ahh thank you!  Hidden from me in plain site!  I turned it off - at least that will save my data when it switches and I don't realize it..  probably won't help dropping WiFi problem but we'll see.  Thank you again!

Finally took my phone back and convinced the store to give me a swap out. Came home, all worked 100% so my conclusion is that the issue was hardware related.

Same thing with me. My replaced iphone 5 works perfectly. I am just upset that it took five tries over 8 months to get a replacement.

Had an iPhone 4 for years, wifi worked no problem.

Upgraded to an iPhone 5 earlier this year, constantly had dropping wifi.

Went to apple and a 'genius' replaced the phone,

Still having the same trouble with it. It's causing me to use more data, exceeding my contract amount, costing me money. Unless its improved by a software update, I think I'm going I look for an alternative to the iPhone after my contract ends.

After almost a year of no fix, I replaced my original time capsule and bought an asus rt-n66u. It almost unbelievable, but wifi now works amazing. Connected to my time capsule I would get slow wifi speeds of 2-5 Mbps on my 50 Mbps connection and while running a speed test it would randomly drop to zero throughout the test for seconds at a time. I was convinced it was defective wifi chips in both my iphone 5 and ipad 4 and it may very well be, as everything else on the network works fine but  the iphone 5 and ipad 4 play very nicely with the asus router I have now been running for over 3 weeks with zero problems and consistently pull down 47 Mbps on my iphone 5 with no drops.