iPhone 5s and 5GHz Wifi

Question

poldybloom Author

Level 1

6 points

iPhone 5s and 5GHz Wifi

Hi there,

I have recently bought an iPhone 5s and I also own a simultaneous dual-band Airport Extreme router.

Until now I had never had a problem with previous iPhones and the AE, but the 5s seems to be behaving differently:

If I use the 2.4GHz Wifi network, all is fine
If I use the 5GHz Wifi network, the iPhone seems to disconnect briefly and periodically, show "3G" for about half a second and then show the Wifi signal strenght icon back again.

I am running iOS 7.0.3 and the latest firmware on the AE.

Has anyone else seen something similar with a 5s and a 5GHz Wifi network?

Thanks!

Posted on Oct 23, 2013 7:19 AM

Reply

Answer 1

poldybloom Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 24, 2013 1:59 PM in response to chattphotos

Thanks for your reply.

Looks like I managed to solve the issue by tweaking the Airport Extreme Settings:

Using Airport Utility 5.6 I enabled the following settings:

Manual Setup -> Wireless -> Wireless Network Options

Multicast Rate: Medium (was High before)

Use wide channels: Off (was On before)

The iPhone 5s now seems to work fine with the 5GHz network. Funny that the iPhone 5 worked perfectly well with the old settings.

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Answer 2

poldybloom Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 24, 2013 12:17 PM in response to wjosten

Hi there,

Thanks for your suggestion.

I tried that, but it didn't help at all. I still get briefly but consistently disconnected every few seconds. This also causes my battery life to go down very quickly.

I am currently on 2.4GHz exclusively, since 5GHz is simply not an option.

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Answer 3

Oct 24, 2013 1:35 PM in response to poldybloom

Send feedback to Apple about it.

The phones I've tried on dual-band routers seem to stick with 2.4 rather than going to the 5. (I don't know if it's a preferenc on the managed router network or if it's the phone)

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Answer 4

Patey154

Level 1

9 points

Aug 15, 2014 11:10 AM in response to poldybloom

I had the same issue, I resolved it simply by standing next to my router and re-attempting to join the 5ghz network. I know it sounds a silly fix - but it worked for me BUT kinda defeats the objective I know.

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Answer 5

poldybloom Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 23, 2013 7:42 AM in response to poldybloom

I should have probably mentioned that I tested both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz networks sitting beside the router, so the WiFi signal strength was showing full reception.

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Answer 6

wjosten

Level 10

95,369 points

Oct 23, 2013 7:45 AM in response to poldybloom

On your phone: Settings>General>Reset>Reset Network Settings...this will also delete all saved WiFi passwords. Try now.

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Answer 7

Feb 12, 2014 8:48 PM in response to poldybloom

I'll be the first to admit I'm not a WiFi expert, but doesn't this take away the benefits of 5G? By doing these steps you're making the 5G network basically the same as the 2.4G network. Or no?

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