iOS 10 using WiFi Networks without Internet Access

Greg contacted Lantronix Technical Support, where I am a Senior Technical Support Engineer about this issue when using an iPad or iPhone running iOS 10.x to connect to a device using a Lantronix xPico WiFi as its WiFi interface.

I confirmed the behavior from an iPhone 6s+ running iOS 10.1.1.

I tried LACAllen's work around, setting up a static IP address and using the xPico WiFi's IP address for the Router and DNS settings. This caused the "No Internet Connection" warning to disappear, and allowed me to open the xPico WiFi's web configuration interface, and also to open a TCP connection to the xPico WiFi's serial interface, which listens on TCP 10001 by default and get bidirectional communication through the serial interface.

I've submitted a request to populate the Router and DNS fields from the xPico WiFi's Soft AP DHCP server in a future version of firmware.

We also request that Apple provide an option in a future version of iOS to revert to the iOS 9 behavior for stand-alone WiFi devices that do not require an Internet connection.

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know that I solved this issue. I was having the same problem. I use my old airport extreme base station to create a closed network with no internet connection to run my Behringer X32 Rack audio console. Up until the ios 10 updates, it worked flawlessly. I too saw the "No Internet Connection" in yellow/orange and couldn't consistently connect to my board.

I took the router, plugged it into my laptop via ethernet and opened Airport Utility. Once Airport Utility recognized my router, it showed a few concerns in red/orange. I clicked each of the notifications...

the DNS, No Internet Connection and No Ethernet Connection and checked off "Ignore" from the drop down menu.

Once the router reconciled these issues with Airport Utility, I unplugged and set my router back up to my X32. My iPad now connects like it used to in ios9. NO PROBLEMS. I'm assuming that the ios devices saw no internet connection from the base station and wouldn't connect. Once the router was told that it was ok to operate without an internet connection, the devices connect with no issues.

I hope this helps all who were stuck like me.

Try adding a router and DNS address.

I can replicate this on my iOS device by adding a valid static IP but no router or DNS server. Add those and the error gets away.

If leaving them empty doesn't help, fill them out (gateway and DNS) with router's IP address.

I was having a similar problem with the Kingston MLWG3 which is a portable network drive and WiFi router. There were two issues.

1. With iOS 10.x it will tell you "No Internet Connection" in yellow text when the network you are connected to does indeed not go out to the internet but also unlike versions prior to 9.x and prior it will not show the Wi-Fi icon in place of the wireless carrier connection type. I seems it will still use your carrier data connection type (G3, G4, LET, etc) which is actually a good thing. In 9.x and prior you could not get internet if your Wi-Fi was not connected to a network with internet. However, you will see that are connected to that network as you can see in Setting > Wi-Fi there will be a blue checkmark next to it. This should now be the absolute indication that you are connected, not the Wi-Fi icon. Since Apple changed the way this is presented in 10.x it confuses users.

2. The connection app had been cached in the iPhone's RAM or something. Even after powering up and down and force quitting (home button twice and swipe up) the app it was still cached. I had to force quitting every instance of app that was running, it seemed like 50 and some were apps I had not opened for weeks. Only then would my app that uses the local connection see my drive.

However, with the prior generation of product, the MLWG2 if I connect to it I get the Wi-Fi icon, no "No Internet Connection" in yellow text, and my apps can see the device. But if I switch over to an app that uses internet and try to access it I get a Server Not Found error you would see when your internet connection is down.

I can confirm that adding a valid static IP, router and DNS address does make the "No Internet Connect" label go away in Settings-->Wi-Fi. Additionally, with that set, kSCNetworkFlagsReachable on IN_LINKLOCALNETNUM is true (in DHCP or without router/DNS set it is false).

However, I'm still unable to open connections (Socket, HTTP) to the router, even with the Static IP.

Did you confirm that connections were possible via Static IP/Router/DNS? Or just that iOS removed the "No Internet Connection" warning?

I've confirmed the behavior continues in 10.1.1

Adding a valid static IP, router and DNS address does make the "No Internet Connect" label go away in Settings-->Wi-Fi. Additionally, with that set, kSCNetworkFlagsReachable on IN_LINKLOCALNETNUM is true (in DHCP or without router/DNS set it is false).

However, I'm still unable to open connections (Socket, HTTP) to the router, even with the Static IP.

Matajen wrote:

However, there was no value for DNS, so I have no idea what value to enter there. Any suggestions?

Leave them empty. Leave router (or gateway) IP empty as well.

Here are the places to report bugs:

Get an account at

http://developer.apple.com/ then submit a bug report to http://bugreporter.apple.com/

Once on the bugreporter page,

-- click on New icon

-- See if you need to attach a log file or log files, clicking on Show instructions for gathering logs. Scroll down to find the area or application that matches the problem.

-- etc.

Developers:

"Submitting Bugs and Feedback

Your feedback goes a long way towards making our products even better. With Apple Bug Reporter, you can submit bug reports or request enhancements to APIs and developer tools."

https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/

Enterprise support:

Call enterprise support (866) 752-7753 to create a case ID number

Hopefully you've chosen to also report or address this issue to the Apple Feedback

section most appropriate to a likely resolution; as a note, I have sent a link to this ASC

discussion and hope that someone there can look into it.

• Product Feedback

from selection of feedback links here:

https://www.apple.com/contact/

Seems like too good of a feature to not re-enable for special purposes as noted here.

Good luck & happy trails! 🙂

{PS: Note an error in post-time indicated here where local time is 11:44AM ADT

yet the time shown in ASC post suggests the time is after 7PM; Nov 2 2016.}

I'm having the same issue with my iPhone in iOS 10.2. I'm trying to connect to a OBD-II port scanner while using my iPhone's cellular data connection for internet. This used to work by just doing a static connection where I would enter the IP Address and Subnet Mask and nothing else. But now the iPhone won't connect to the scanner's network unless I use DHCP, which cuts my iPhone off from the cellular data connection.

Are you saying your wireless devices can't communicate anymore? Did you verify all devices are in /16 subnet? That's 255.255.0.0

Have you tried resetting network on the iOS 10 device and re-entering static IP then reconnecting? If nothing works, your only option is to wait for iOS 10.x update. Sorry, I'm out of ideas.

That's disappointing. Just wait until there is some feature that you all of a sudden can't use, and then come back here and read your posted reply. Then tell me what you think.

I'm still hoping someone else comes up with a solution. Otherwise, we're dropping iPad's corporate-wide and moving back to Androids. We won't be a blip to Apple, but word gets around our industry pretty quickly...

Since I know a lot of use cases out of several industries that use these kinds of features where they connect clients to a local WiFi hotspot device without any internet Connection I really(!) hope Apple will release a fix in the next update!!