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iPad WiFi Issue Fixes?

S

sheepopo39

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 18, 2008
251
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I know that this is a documented issue. My iPad is one of the devices affected with the weak wifi problem and the Internet on it is practically unusable. I can get it to work for about 10 minutes, then the signal drops and any Internet activity takes ages.

Anyways, I'm wondering if anyone has found any fixes to these issues?
 
Turning brightness up is meant to help. Otherwise you just need to wait like the rest of us.
 
WiFi issues? On the iPad??

Seriously though, check here for a slew of "workarounds" but no fixes, persay:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1363

What improved wifi for me was dropping the belkin router, returning the Airport Extreme and buying the Linksys E3000. Much better signal range. For me, using the 2.4 GHz band and 20MHz channels proved to be better than the 5 GHz and 40MHz ones. This isn't typical for everyone though.
 
Farfooz said:
explain to me how turning up the brightness makes wifi better? :confused: i dont get that
Click to expand...

Well, first off, I didn't say that. You quoted the wrong person. But it sounds like one possible reason wifi signal seems weak on the iPad is that it's trying to conserve battery power. Therefore turning brightness up increases the amount of power it's using, and somehow the wifi reception is boosted. Don't ask me about the science of it, because that's not what I do. But that seems to be consensus regarding brightness....
 
I have the iPad 64gb purchased in Australia, and when I was using it with my Apple Airport Extreme base station (2006 model) with no dual band or gigabit Ethernet support, it was running on WPA2 (AES) on the WiFi N (B/G compatible setting), and would randomly drop connection despite full signal strength.

The wireless signal icon on the ipad would flicker when it disconnected and reconnected. It only started doing this the last week, and the Apple Airport Extreme was running for 3 years 24/7 and never missed a beat, but in the last week the wireless drops affecting all devices got worse and nothing had physically changed. It was a sign it needed to be laid to rest.

So I bought the latest Apple Airport Extreme, used the same WPA2 (AES) encryption, have dual bands enabled which apparently cause problems, and no wireless device has dropped connection, I watch the iPad wireless icon like a hawk, and it has never dropped since replacing the router. This sees to indicate the issue may be hardware related.
 
ArmCortexA8 said:
I have the iPad 64gb purchased in Australia, and when I was using it with my Apple Airport Extreme base station (2006 model) with no dual band or gigabit Ethernet support, it was running on WPA2 (AES) on the WiFi N (B/G compatible setting), and would randomly drop connection despite full signal strength.

The wireless signal icon on the ipad would flicker when it disconnected and reconnected. It only started doing this the last week, and the Apple Airport Extreme was running for 3 years 24/7 and never missed a beat, but in the last week the wireless drops affecting all devices got worse and nothing had physically changed. It was a sign it needed to be laid to rest.

So I bought the latest Apple Airport Extreme, used the same WPA2 (AES) encryption, have dual bands enabled which apparently cause problems, and no wireless device has dropped connection, I watch the iPad wireless icon like a hawk, and it has never dropped since replacing the router. This sees to indicate the issue may be hardware related.
Click to expand...

What are your settings? Are you using G-only? N-only? Maybe explain your specific configuration (5GHz or 2.4GHz, 40 or 20GHz channels, etc.) so that it may help others.
 
ArmCortexA8 said:
It only started doing this the last week, and the Apple Airport Extreme was running for 3 years 24/7 and never missed a beat, but in the last week the wireless drops affecting all devices got worse and nothing had physically changed.
Click to expand...

I find this odd...because I have ahd the SAME exact drop off of connectivity. I had NO problems with my router the first 3 weeks of my use with my 3g...or hte 3-4 weeks with the wifi model.

Then, about 4 days ago, CONSISTENT drops! I can't keep wifi running. Sometimes it will run for a little bit...but more often, it drops out about 5-10 minutes.

If I renew and/or restart the router, I get better run time.

The router is only 1.25 years old.
 
sheepopo39 said:
I know that this is a documented issue. My iPad is one of the devices affected with the weak wifi problem and the Internet on it is practically unusable. I can get it to work for about 10 minutes, then the signal drops and any Internet activity takes ages.

Anyways, I'm wondering if anyone has found any fixes to these issues?
Click to expand...

I am waiting for an answer myself, I can not reliably connect to anything unless I am physically next to a router.
 
Brightness adjustment tip helps me!

Figbash Acrobat said:
Don't ask me about the science of it, because that's not what I do. But that seems to be consensus regarding brightness....
Click to expand...

VERY interesting. I just checked this tip about the brightness...and it DEFINITELY. Helps me. I have done it twice and it immediately forced the wifi signal to popup.

I think it is acting as a catalyst to prompt it to "wake" up. I don't have to leave it up bright. I have sb settings...and I simply slide across the status bar, touch the brightness and slide up, slide down, and the wifi network instantly reappears.

Another interesting detail is that for the past few days, maybe the same number of days as my wifi has been messing up, my birightness slider has been stuck in the middle. Everytime I go to adjust it, it is in the middle even though it is not that dim.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 
lokerd said:
I find this odd...because I have ahd the SAME exact drop off of connectivity. I had NO problems with my router the first 3 weeks of my use with my 3g...or hte 3-4 weeks with the wifi model. Then, about 4 days ago, CONSISTENT drops! I can't keep wifi running. Sometimes it will run for a little bit...but more often, it drops out about 5-10 minutes. If I renew and/or restart the router, I get better run time. The router is only 1.25 years old.
Click to expand...

All my devices in the house were randomly losing connection, not just the iPad. I wouldn't buy a whole new router if only the iPad had issues. The fact was multiple laptops and devices were losing connection as well randomly. Web pages that were struggling to appear via the modem worked perfectly via Ethernet on multiple systems.

I also added my SSID to the Wireless servings under Clieny ID, and this itself seemed to minimise drop outs. My iPad has never dropped connection since the new extreme router on dual band.
 
I set a static IP address on mine, no more problems. I believe what is happening is the iPad is shutting down wifi after a very short time of inactivity, then when you go to use it again, it has to reconnect.
 
MrWillie said:
I set a static IP address on mine, no more problems. I believe what is happening is the iPad is shutting down wifi after a very short time of inactivity, then when you go to use it again, it has to reconnect.
Click to expand...

Mines on dynamic and always has been, no problems of drop outs on new extreme.
 
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