WiFi Issues & Questions

[kippyw]

OK, For the entire life of my experience with the iPad (1 year) I have aways been most excited about how quickly and easily it connects to available wifi networks. When you compare it to the Windows devices whereby you need to go into the networks settings and monkey around, the iPad is wonderful, But....
We are in Mexico this month and there is a wifi router sitting 12' from me, and the iPad (3) is having a much much more difficult time maintaining a connection compared to my old Dell sitting across the table running. For almost %50 of our month here, my wife is happily surfing away and I'm stuck.
I know you won't be able to resolve this without more information but, is there something I'm doing wrong in the iPad settings? I believe this issues has to do with the dynamic I.P. address.
i.e.: What does "renew lease button do?

 

[jmschnur]

Can you turn off an turn on the router?

If you can access the settings in the router you might be able to tell to give the MAC address of your ipad priority.

How many other devices are on the router? Etc.


J

 

[kippyw]

Yes, I am constantly turning the router off and on, in attempts to connect. This helps about 25% of the time (fresh IP address?). There is only the iPad and the Dell running on this router.

Mac Address? I have the iPad to automatically connect, can I manually enter a MAC address?

 

[scifan57]

If you can, have the owner of the router reset it, it usually helps solve problems like yours.

 

[BocataDeChoped]

OK, For the entire life of my experience with the iPad (1 year) I have aways been most excited about how quickly and easily it connects to available wifi networks. When you compare it to the Windows devices whereby you need to go into the networks settings and monkey around, the iPad is wonderful, But....
We are in Mexico this month and there is a wifi router sitting 12' from me, and the iPad (3) is having a much much more difficult time maintaining a connection compared to my old Dell sitting across the table running. For almost %50 of our month here, my wife is happily surfing away and I'm stuck.
I know you won't be able to resolve this without more information but, is there something I'm doing wrong in the iPad settings? I believe this issues has to do with the dynamic I.P. address.
i.e.: What does "renew lease button do?

When you press the renew lease button the built-in DHCP client asks the router for an update on your IP address. Most of the time it will give you the same IP but it might change. If you want to ensure that the IP address doesn't change either you go to the router settings and configure it to give the iPad a particular IP address (you'll have to look for "static lease" options and enter the MAC address of the iPad) or you can switch from DHCP to Static on your iPad wifi settings (just fill in the very same info it is on the DHCP tab).

 

[CMacDonald]

Hi kippyw,

Did you recently upgrade iOS? I was asking a similar question in another thread because it seemed like the WiFi connectivity on my iPad 2 became unreliable after it was upgraded to iOS 6.0.1:

http://www.ipadforums.net/ipad-gene...s-via-hotspot-spotty-after-ios-6-upgrade.html

The solution was to go into Settings --> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings which restores the factory defaults. Rest assured that only the network settings will be reset but you will need to set up any network settings you are using. I just tried this solution this past weekend & it seems to be working. I'll know for sure when I test it out again tomorrow.

Sent from my 32 GB iPad 2 using iPF

 

[kippyw]

Hi kippyw,
The solution was to go into Settings --> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings which restores the factory defaults. Rest assured that only the network settings will be reset but you will need to set up any network settings you are using. I just tried this solution this past weekend & it seems to be working. I'll know for sure when I test it out again tomorrow.

Sent from my 32 GB iPad 2 using iPF

HEY! That was it!!! At least I think so. I'm in a running, let's give this a few hours.
THANKS!

 

[kippyw]

HEY! That was it!!! At least I think so. I'm in a running, let's give this a few hours.
THANKS!

So tonight the iPad drops out of wifi again, and I grab my older Windows laptop... not a single problem. And this is after the network re-set idea. I just now tried re-setting again and that fixed it, but for how long?
FYI, This is Mexico and there is just horrible internet connectivity. I think some of the "DSL" is only two stands of copper (?) Should this matter?

 

[AQ_OC]

So tonight the iPad drops out of wifi again, and I grab my older Windows laptop... not a single problem. And this is after the network re-set idea. I just now tried re-setting again and that fixed it, but for how long?
FYI, This is Mexico and there is just horrible internet connectivity. I think some of the "DSL" is only two stands of copper (?) Should this matter?

Have you tried updating your router's firmware?

 

[kippyw]

Have you tried updating your router's firmware?

No, This is a beachfront casita in a little town on the coast of Mexico. And we head home in a few days, so it's not my problem. But, we come to this town a lot (over 20 years) and the internet has never been stellar service. It just baffles me that a laptop running XP connects instantly and stays connected almost all day, whereas the iPad struggles all day.

Besides...... Why am I even concerned when my margarita is getting warm while I type this?

 

[CMacDonald]

So tonight the iPad drops out of wifi again, and I grab my older Windows laptop... not a single problem. And this is after the network re-set idea. I just now tried re-setting again and that fixed it, but for how long?

Despite resetting the network settings, my iPad 2 is also still having problems - dropping the WiFi connection that before the iOS 6 upgrade worked just fine.

UPDATE: after some additional testing using a hotspot while on a train into work, the WiFi connection seems to be working fine. Seems the reset worked after all!

FYI, This is Mexico and there is just horrible internet connectivity. I think some of the "DSL" is only two stands of copper (?) Should this matter?

DSL typically runs over a copper pair (2 copper strands). Think of it as piggybacking the digital (Internet) signal over a regular analog telephone line. The signals from the provider come into the building mixed together. The DSL modem filters out the telephone signal whereas other inline filters are needed for each telephone.

Sent from my 32 GB iPad 2 using iPF

 

[zstairlessone]

Do you know if the router is A, B, G or N?