Wednesday, April 7, 2010

iPad WiFi woes continue into day four

Well, I'm at the last straw with my iPad. Tonight I'll set it back to factory standards completely and see how it behaves after that. This is depressing because I like it so much. I've scoured the Internet for fixes. Lots of people are having WiFi problems so there are plenty of suggestions out there to follow. I have a Verizon FiOS Actiontec MI424-WR Rev C router that's worked great for close to two years now. Firmware is up to date. I've had countless wireless devices working great on it for a couple years now with the default settings I used. I should have updated them a long time ago so I used this as an opportunity to make the following changes:

  • Change from WEP to WPA (this seems to have cut down on the bad wireless password messages more than any other change)
  • Changed "Wireless Mode" from 802.11b and 802.11g to only supporting 802.11g
  • specified channel 11 rather than leaving it on "automatic"

I've reset the network setting on the iPad multiple times and set the option "Ask to Join Networks" to "Off" as many have recommended on the boards. So how is it now? I'm sitting in our bedroom, which is the furthest room in the house from the Actiontec router, writing this on a 27" iMac and getting great WiFi reception. My iPhone has great WiFi reception here too. The iPad moves between one bar (which it has presently) to three bars and the browser is noticeably slower than the iMac or the iPhone. It's fast when I'm in the other rooms, but signal quality really does degrade back here. Our house is a single level with 1500 sq ft, so it's not like I'm a football field away or anything. I'm five feet from the door which has line of sight to the router (very simple floor plan). It's also still prompting me saying it has the wrong WiFi password periodically, though a good bit less than when I first got it on the network. Outside of the iPad I have my MacBook Pro, two iMacs, the Time Capsule, my iPhone, my wife's iPod Touch and the Printer all working great with strong signals. I've never had any of them give me messages about incorrect passwords either.

So far I love the device so it's going to make getting a refund very difficult on me. I've never turned in an Apple device before, but every time I get that dialog saying it has the wrong WiFi password I just want to throw things. I really, really want it to work properly. :-(


About The Author

Ron Grove draws on over ten years of training, network administration and development experience. He loves to work with new technology and see how that technology can be best utilized by his clients. You can find him through his company Evanoah, LLC or through his LinkedIn profile.

1 comments:

Ron Grove said...

Well, receipt says the store I bought it from charges a 15% restocking fee. Too much of a hit so I'll just keep working on it. I read someone on a board mention Best Buy had no restocking fee. I'll keep that in mind for any future expensive new products they come out with. Haven't had it prompt me for the WiFi password since resetting it which has been nice. I'll contact Verizon support and see if I can get a new router. They do have newer Actiontec models, but I don't see one with 802.11n support. That would be nice. They have another router vendor, too, so it wouldn't hurt to ask. Perhaps we'll see a software update work some magic, too.

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