I have several iPhone users in a company office. All of them appear to connect to the company WiFi access point but the WiFi logo does not show up in the upper left and the iPhone appears to be using the 3g or 4g network instead of WiFi. All Android devices in the company work fine. What is the problem?
iPhone 6, iOS 8.1.2
Troubleshooting: On one (or more) of the phones, after attempting to connect, go to Settings/WiFi. Tap on the i to the right of the network name and look at the IP address. If it begins 169.254... this means that the WiFi router did not assign an IP address, so the phone created an "ad hoc" address. If this is what you find this is a router problem, not an iPhone problem.
Start by rebooting the router. Sometimes this correct the problem by restarting the DHCP daemon in the router that assigns IP addresses. Beyond that you can try updating the firmware in the router to the latest version.
Troubleshooting: On one (or more) of the phones, after attempting to connect, go to Settings/WiFi. Tap on the i to the right of the network name and look at the IP address. If it begins 169.254... this means that the WiFi router did not assign an IP address, so the phone created an "ad hoc" address. If this is what you find this is a router problem, not an iPhone problem.
Start by rebooting the router. Sometimes this correct the problem by restarting the DHCP daemon in the router that assigns IP addresses. Beyond that you can try updating the firmware in the router to the latest version.
Here's the screen. As I was doing this I noticed some other odd behavior. I tried turning LTE off with Cellular enabled and the WiFi icon appeared for about 5 seconds. Similarly, with both LTE and Cellular turned off, when I enable Cellular, the wifi icon appears briefly for about 5 seconds. When cellular is off, the wifi signal is strong at 4 or 5 bars.
edmuseer wrote:
But the cellular provider and signal indicator are still present in the top left too.
That is normal. Turning off cellular data only affects data. It does not affect voice and text services. The phone will still get and make calls, and can send and receive SMS (but not MMS). So it is relevant to show the carrier and signal strength.
If you want to try with all cellular services off put the phone in Airplane mode. You can then reënable WiFi and have a phone that will do WiFi only.
It's worth trying pogster's idea. Also, seeing if WiFi signal strength matters - try getting right next to an access point.
Something else that just occurred to me - do the phones have MS Exchange accounts on them? If so did you install an enterprise security policy on the phones, or enable VPN? Some of the settings may force the phone to use LTE over WiFi for security reasons. You can check by going to Settings/General an scrolling to the bottom. If there's a security policy installed it will appear as a Profile below the Reset selection.
Here's information on Enterprise support. http://www.apple.com/support/enterprise/
I don't know if they can provide help without a contract, but it's worth asking. Also, are you using this: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apple-configurator/id434433123?mt=12
Another test is to turn off Cellular Data on the phone and see if it still has connectivity.
I've just confirmed a 4th user with an iPhone having the same issue. All 4 of these phones work at the users home WiFi routers. Android phones and laptop wifi have no trouble. I'm using a brand new ASUS RT-AC66U router.
How do I contact Apple Enterprise services?
Two possibilities. When you connect to a WiFi network the phone attempts to go to an internal Apple site. If it gets there WiFi is established. If it does not the phone assumes that the WiFi network requires an http login (typical of hotels, public hotspots) and waits for the network to redirect to the login page. But why the phone successfully uses WiFi when cellular data is off doesn't entirely explain this as the issue.
As far as ports are concerned, here are all of the ports that Apple products might use: TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products - Apple Support
I just read through this discussion -- very strange issue, indeed. I don't have any ideas to contribute but wanted to make sure you were aware of the following Apple Support articles (just in case):
iOS and OS X: Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points - Apple Support
Good luck!
I'd like to summarize what we know so far. Please add or correct anything I've missed:
Things that have not been addressed yet:
DHCP is supplied by a server other than the wireless router which has DHCP turned off and is configured as a wireless access point. It is the only wireless AP in the office.
Things that have not been addressed yet:
Is a valid DNS being assigned? Can you try manually adding a public DNS to what's there (such as 8.8.8.8, Google's public)
Yes, the two DNS address are correct. Don't know what it would accomplish to change DNS to Google.
Is the subnet mask correct?
Yes.
Is the router address correct?
Yes
Have you tried tapping Renew Lease?
Yes, no change.
Even though the "fan" is not displayed is the phone using WiFi data?
This is a good question. Don't know for sure.
But you still don't see the "fan" icon in the status bar? Does your network have MAC filtering, and are the affected phones whitelisted if it does? Do you get any error message on the phone (e.g., "could not connect to network")?
When I enter the SSID and then the key to connect, it appears to connect and be using it. But the fan icon never appears in the upper left. No MAC filtering is configured. All Android devices work without any trouble.
So the SSID is hidden? That shouldn't be a problem. Can you monitor the network and see if the phone is using WiFi? Or ping the phone's IP address on the network?
Note, BTW, that an iPhone will only use WiFi when the screen is open or the phone is connected to power. WiFi is turned off 30 seconds after the phone goes to sleep to preserve battery. But this doesn't seem to be your issue.
SSID is not hidden. I should say, when I tap on the SSID name in the WiFi list. MAC addresses are showing up as connected (both Apple and Android phones) in the WiFi router. I am able to ping the IP supplied by our network (Wireless router is configured as access point and dhcp is turned off). I have 3 iPhone users with 8.2.1 and all exhibit the same behavior.
The cellular provider's name will always appear, because it provides the voice service. Can you post a screen shot showing the top bar when cellular data is on? To take a screen shot press and release the HOME and SLEEP buttons at the same time. You can then email the image to yourself.
I've never seen an issue like this before. WiFi works, but its giving preference to LTE. It shouldn't do that. Have you tried using a different WiFi network?
I see that you have TTY enabled on the phone. I don't think that has anything to do with it, and I've tried enabling TTY on my phone, and it doesn't reproduce your issue. The setting for TTY is in Settings/Phone.
I think you need to contact Apple's Enterprise Services support.
Connects to WiFi but does not use it?
