My 4 can see home wifi but won't use it without restarting

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Level 1

14 points

My 4 can see home wifi but won't use it without restarting

I have wifi at home and at work. Many times when I come home, my 4 will automatically connect to my home wifi, but seemingly won't use it without restarting the phone. I tried going into the network settting and did the reset and went and re-entered the wifi passwords for home and work; and soon after displayed the same bahvior. Work wifi doesn't bother it. My 4 didn't aquire this problem until OS6 and still does it under 6.0.1. Turning off the phone's wifi and back on doesn't help. Renewing lease on wifi doesn't help. My wife has the same phone on the same wifi and the same time and it does'nt do this. She doesn't have wifi at work.

Sometimes I get very sporadic an limited data, could be using 3G. After phone restart the phone is fine until another day when the problem returns. I've tried turning ap's off but nothing helps but a restart.

iPhone 4, iOS 6.0.1

Posted on Nov 14, 2012 6:24 PM

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Answer 1

rartist Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 7, 2012 7:26 PM in response to rartist

Hello, is this thing on???

Still dealing with this problem.

Turning off the phone's wifi and back on doesn't help. Renewing lease on wifi doesn't help. Throwing out the network settings and starting over doesn't help. Changing the wireless channels doesn't help. I have a strong signal. Data is intermittent at best, I can check my email faster by turning wifi off and using 3G.

So far the ONLY thing that works is to turn the phone off then back on again.

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Answer 2

Dec 7, 2012 7:27 PM in response to rartist

try going into the router settings and changing:

1. channel

2. authentication - if it is WPA aes+tkip, change it to only AES or only tkip and check everytime

3. mode: set only to 802.11n or only 802.11g and check.

try combination of above methods till one succeeds

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Answer 3

rartist Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 10, 2012 9:27 AM in response to electronicsguy

I've already tried adjusting some of these WiFi settings, but so far the only thing that fixes it is restarting the phone.

I'll check this out; as I said the phenomina ONLY manafests when I go from one WiFi service to another. After I restart the phone it behaves normally until I transition from the WiFi at work to my WiFi at home.

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Answer 4

rartist Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 17, 2012 1:37 PM in response to rartist

STILL seeing the problem, nothing works. Did I mention it DID NOT DO THIS under OS5?

Its like taking your trusty car in for service. You get it back and right away it has aquired a cold stall problem. The shop tells you to change your license plate number, drive on roads starting with "S" and "T", and never exceed 35mph. The car still stalls, but is ok once you restart the motor, but the shop won't fix it.

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Answer 5

Thom_D

Level 4

1,161 points

Dec 17, 2012 1:54 PM in response to rartist

The first thing you need to do is restart your router. Unplug it, wait 1-2 minutes, plug it back in and wait for it to connect to your provider and download the latest IP informaiton.

Next go into settings and forget your wifi network.

Reconnect to your home wifi.

Go into the settings for your network and set the proxy to Auto not off or manual.

Hopefully this will work for you. I had the same problem when I updated to iOS 6.0.1 and setting the proxy to auto seems to have cleared it up.

Not sure what Apple has done to the firmware and how it interacts with wifi, but hopefully they will have it worked out when iOS 6.1 is released.

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Answer 6

rartist Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 17, 2012 2:00 PM in response to Thom_D

One of the first things I did; immediately sucessful like a phone restart, but as soon as I come from the wifi at work to the wifi at home, same stuff.

Hope they know the issue exists; feels like I'm barking at the wind.

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Answer 7

Dec 18, 2012 11:31 PM in response to rartist

I am having the exact same issue with my iPhone 5. Even after updating to iOS 6.0.2 didn't help. I've exchanged for another iPhone 5 at the apple store and still the same. It only happens when I go from my work network (wpa2 enterprise) to my home network (wpa2 personal). I tried changing wireless settings in my home Linksys Wrt400n router with no success. The only thing that works is restarting the phone (or not connecting to the work wifi). Hope this gets fixed with 6.1.

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Answer 8

rartist Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 19, 2012 4:13 PM in response to stuperburrito

I went and got a ap that does wifi dianosis, shows green across the board; data is almost not to be found.

Power off phone --- Power on.

Wifi ap shows healthy connection as before; data good and consistent.

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Answer 9

rartist Author

Level 1

14 points

Dec 27, 2012 4:34 PM in response to rartist

Five days home from work over the holidays, five days of problem free wifi. Return to work today, the wifi problem returns with it when I get home.

You have reached the Apple Support Center. Our door is always closed. Feel free to talk to it.

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Answer 10

Jan 8, 2013 5:13 PM in response to rartist

Looks like the issue I was having with work/home wifi has been resolved. It could be 1 of 2 possibilities.

Possible fix 1:

I have a dual band Linksys at home and was previously using the 5GHz band. I switched to the 2.4GHz (G only, WPA TKIP) band and have not seen the issue since.

Possible fix #2:

I recently had other issues with the IPhone 5 and did a factory reset and set it up as a new phone (no sync at all)

I'm pretty sure #1 was the true fix for this issue but it could very well be the factory reset.

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Answer 11

rartist Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 14, 2013 5:34 PM in response to stuperburrito

Been there, done that, got no results. I just finished restarting my phone to restore wifi performance; so far out of many weeks of trying this and that, it is the ONLY thing that works.

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Answer 12

Jan 14, 2013 10:27 PM in response to rartist

Looks like its definitely the 5GHz channel of the Linksys not playing nice with the Iphone5. I switched back to that and immediately saw the issue again. It's most likely the Iphone not playing nice with the older wifi router.

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Answer 13

rartist Author

Level 1

14 points

Jan 16, 2013 7:05 AM in response to stuperburrito

My IV can see the router just fine. It is in contact with it. Its just that I get limited or very limited or very, very limited data. It ONLY occurs when I use my home wifi, then my work wifi, and then my home wifi again. Even then it doesn't always mess up, just most of the time. The ONLY fix is to restart the phone. From there it works at home indefinitely (quite nicely) until I do the home - work - home transitions. I have a little wifi diagnostic ap that produces the same readings before and after the restart.

My wife has the same IV, but has no work wifi, and has no problems.

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Answer 14

Jan 18, 2013 5:02 PM in response to rartist

Yes. I had the exact same symptons with my iphone 5. Only happens when I switch from work to home wifi. I even had the iphone 5 replaced with no success.

I recently decided to try a new wifi router (after my previous post) and have not seen the issue since.

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