iPhone5 issues with WPA2/AES Wifi

As Steve Jobs exhibited in his Antennagate presentation, ALL phones will have antenna issues if held a certain way. Phone manufacturers try to place antennas to minimize this from happening.

With iPhone 5, if you touch the black bar by the volume buttons, you are shorting the Wifi antenna and you will see degradation in your signal. This is normal and expected. All phones have a similar location that you can touch or put your hand over to achieve the same result. If you get a case, this will no longer be an issue.

I really wish apple would man up here and come and tell us whether this is a HW or SW issue.

Launch owners ill be coming to the end of their refund/ retail exchange time and I will be fuming if this turns out to be a HW issue and I am left with a white box replacement on a phone that had a well documented/known fault at launch.

Sorry apple but you're making it really hard for me to like you!

@Barso

Hardware defects are covered for one year after purchase. White box phones are no exception. An AppleCare rep told me last week that the warranty is exactly the same.

For what it is worth, I too was having Wi Fi problems with my new iPhone5. Only worked on open netowrks, experianced 2-3 minutes of proper usage on WPA/WPA2 secured networks and eventualy it would just stall.

I confirmed latest firmware on my routers, network equip, etc and it did not matter.

I brought it into the Apple store (Genius Bar) the they replaced it without much discussion. The new phone works great!

iPhone 5 that did not work:

Model introduced: 2012

Serial number: C39JFTRUDTTN (cleaned up from 'c39jftrudttn')

Production year: 2012

Production week: 38 (September)

Name: iPhone 5 (GSM model: AT&T and Canada)

ModelCode: iphone_5

Model Number: MD634

Group1: iPhone

Group2:

Generation: 7

Machine Model: iPhone5,1

CPU speed: 1.3GHz

Family name: Become a pro user to see this information. (sorry)

Screen size: 4 inch

Screen resolution: 1136x640 pixels

Colour: Black

Capacity: 16GB

Factory: C3 (China)

iPhone5 that works:

Model introduced: 2012

Serial number: DNQJC0EESDTTN (cleaned up from 'dnqjc0eesdttn')

Production year: 2012

Production week: 36 (September)

Name: iPhone 5 (GSM model: AT&T and Canada)

ModelCode: iphone_5

Model Number: MD634

Group1: iPhone

Group2:

Generation: 7

Machine Model: iPhone5,1

CPU speed: 1.3GHz

Family name: Become a pro user to see this information. (sorry)

Screen size: 4 inch

Screen resolution: 1136x640 pixels

Colour: Black

Capacity: 16GB

Factory: DN (China, Chengdu - Foxconn)

MR44 wrote:

Of course, there MAY be a way to fix this hardward problem with software. However, it is definitely a hardware problem. The sure thing is to have your phone replaced.

You are right. I wish folks wouldn't cloud people's minds on this particular AES issue. Collectively the posters on this forum have spent hundreds of hours troubleshooting this thing, and the only resolution has been by replacement. Regardless of cause, it's not wise to sit around with a broken phone waiting for a "sofware" fix when a (tested) replacement is a proven fix.

Even if it is somehow fixable by software, it could be a kludge to work around defective components, still leaving you with an inferior product. Even if the whole thing were totally software, we have no idea Apple's priority on this. Don't assume they'll address it in iOS 6.1. Are you willing to wait for iOS 6.2? 6.3? 6.4?

Get a replacement. And if you get it from an Apple Store, test it on their Breakroom encrypted network before you leave. It's the only thing that will definitely "fix" it at this point.

If you're worried about costing poor Apple money they can't afford by demanding a replacement: Don't. They'll sell your original to someone else as "refurbished".

Guys, my problem is SOLVED!

Wherever I go, I have good wi-fi reception with my iPhone 5. At my parents or sisters house, reception is fine. However, at home it was really poor, around 1Mpbs.

What did I do to solve the problem?

I changed the AES encrpytion from WPA2 to TKIP, and now I get 22,9Mbps :-)

I agree that this works too but apple need to explain if there is still a problem with AES encryption and if its hardware related.

V_77 wrote:

Guys, my problem is SOLVED!

Wherever I go, I have good wi-fi reception with my iPhone 5. At my parents or sisters house, reception is fine. However, at home it was really poor, around 1Mpbs.

What did I do to solve the problem?

I changed the AES encrpytion from WPA2 to TKIP, and now I get 22,9Mbps :-)

Sigh. Great, glad you're happy with your solution. Have you read much else on this forum? The problem we are addressing is phones that won't work on ANY network with AES encryption. If your parents and sister are running TKIP or Open Networks you have solved nothing, you probably still have a broken phone and need a replacement. You WILL NOT be able to change router settings at a hotel, airport, or workplace (where you're not the network administrator.)

If they ARE running AES, yes, there is something wrong with your router. I.E. it needs a firmware update or something. But switching to TKIP is still not the solution, just a workaround until you get your router up to date.

A working iPhone5 will connect to any up-to-date AES network, and run blazingly fast with no effort whatsoever. Please take advantage of the expericences, freely shared only for the benifit of our community, of the many posters on here, like me, that went from lemons to beautifully running machines only when we got a non-defective iPhone replacement.

Barso wrote:

I agree that this works too but apple need to explain if there is still a problem with AES encryption and if its hardware related.

Don't hold your breath. A replacement is the only proven solution at this point. Apple isn't a charity or a political cause. You deserve to get what you paid for, and you can. Easier now than ever that AppleCare is aware of the problem. Why wait?

I am using a BTHomehub3 but I cannot select AES or TKIP. I can only select WPA and WPA2.

I would really like to check if I have a phone with thee issues but how do I check if I can't select AES or TKIP.

Thanks.

Yes I have read much else on this forum, for the last weeks and also posted updates and mac adresses and what not.

At work I connected through the password they gave me. I'll ask them tomorrow what kind of encryption they use.

Just to add my opinion...

I was against swapping my phone (as it was perfect cosmetically) until my earpiece broke.

I got my replacement yesterday morning and I can confirm my WIFI issues have gone away, also.

I was really hoping for a software fix, but switching the hardware fixed the issue for me.

Received new phone on Monday. My AES issues are gone. I'll have to repeat what has been said already "if you have AES issues replace your phone". I am curious if the replacements are new, someone else's return, etc. mine shipped from PA and came in a white box with no accessories. It doesn't really matter, it looked good and works good, just curious.

So I made a youtube video to show you that iPhone 5 does have WIFI Antenna Gate issues..... While trying different things out, I noticed my WIFI dissappeared when in the palm of my hand..... So I made a video to show you this.....

http://youtu.be/PGRDGLde9lw

Here we go again.... Now they are going to tell us not to put the iPhone 5 in your palm when using WIFI.

Best Regards,

Mike

@SpanishCop:

If you touch the black bar above the volume buttons, you will short out the Wifi antenna. Apple placed this antenna break as high as possible to make it less likely that people would hold it there.

This is a physics problem and almost all phones exhibit this issue if held a certain way.

I know some people like to keep their iPhones caseless, but any case will completely solve this problem.