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Painfully slow WiFi on new iPhone 5
- Thread starter bryan85
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I wasn't so lucky at the Apple store today. Unfortunately, they didn't have more 64 GB in stock to replace mine with, but they weren't convinced anything was wrong either. He claims he's heard nothing of this problem, and I was the first one to come in with the claim. Apple also couldn't test it on a WAP2 server for me, as they "don't have that here." Basically I was told he "reset my network settings" and see how it works for the next couple of days, and when they get more 64GB in, I could have it replaced. I REALLY hope this software, I don't want a replacement phone. I'm REALLY happy with the screen color on this one.
Test your packet loss by running a continuous ping against the phone. That is what I did. I had over 80% packet loss to the phone on WPA2. Screen shot and print. Call the Apple store in the morning and talk to someone and explain the situation. Have them hold a phone for you. My store was able to o exactly this and it resolved my issue.
Fix for me
Possible Fix...
My family has 3 different iphone 5's and they are all doing the same thing. All other iphones and ipads in the house get the expected results on speedtest.net app. But our iPhone 5's get around half of what the other iOS 6 devices are getting over Wifi on the same server.
I have fixed the issue on our phones by going into Settings/Wifi/Blue arrow next to your Wifi name/ and typing test into Client ID and then renewing lease.
No idea why it helps but I was trying everything to get it working because I was blowing through my LTE not wanting to deal with slow Wifi. Issue completely resolved after doing this. Makes me think it is just a bug in iOS 6 that is only affecting the 5's for some reason.
Please let me know if this helps in your situations... Could be exclusive to my Wi-Fi setup (I run all Airport Extremes and Airport Expresses).
Possible Fix...
My family has 3 different iphone 5's and they are all doing the same thing. All other iphones and ipads in the house get the expected results on speedtest.net app. But our iPhone 5's get around half of what the other iOS 6 devices are getting over Wifi on the same server.
I have fixed the issue on our phones by going into Settings/Wifi/Blue arrow next to your Wifi name/ and typing test into Client ID and then renewing lease.
No idea why it helps but I was trying everything to get it working because I was blowing through my LTE not wanting to deal with slow Wifi. Issue completely resolved after doing this. Makes me think it is just a bug in iOS 6 that is only affecting the 5's for some reason.
Please let me know if this helps in your situations... Could be exclusive to my Wi-Fi setup (I run all Airport Extremes and Airport Expresses).
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If you are on a Mac, open terminal and type ping and then the IP address of your iPhone. If you are on a PC, open the command prompt and type ping and then the IP address of you iPhone plus a -t at the end.
Example:
Mac: ping 10.0.1.1
PC: ping 10.0.1.1 -t
Once you want to end the ping, press control+c. It will show you the results including the % of packet loss.
Thank you for that !!! Always wanted to know how you do that.
I had zero packet loss
Speedtest.net came back at:
30.35 down
5.32 up
Now look at the pic below. I have full wifi where I choose yet my wifi signal indicator on my phone shows almost nothing.... I dont get it. It is working obviously but the indicator is not accurate?
Any thoughts ???
EDIT: I did a soft reset and it is now at all bars. Though when I hit the home button and before I slide to unlock it shows I am on 4G for a few seconds and then kicks over to wifi. ODD ?
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Glad that worked, and that I could help. It's completely normal for the phone to say 4G for a second after you unlock the screen. Iv'e found that my phone does this when I have the SSID hidden on my router. If I unhide the SSID, the WiFi connection seems far more predictable in its connection state.
Have a read of apples recommend iOS wii settings. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4199
Things to note. They say to NOT hide the SSID and this is echoed by many network pros.
They also recommend for the 2.4ghz band you set it to 20mhz only. Not 20/40 or auto.
This is happening with my iPhone 5 as well. While I can connect to the network at first, the wifi is constantly dropping out. I've done speed tests side by side with my iPhone 4 and watch as the iPhone 5 loses wifi during the speedtest and takes twice as long to even complete the test itself.
The last test I took was the following:
iPhone 4 - Download: 15.48mbps, Upload: 3.99mbps
iPhone 5 - Download: 5.10mbps, Upload: 4.04mbps
This is really upsetting... Going to try to change my wifi over to WEP after reading a few suggestions here to see if that helps.
The last test I took was the following:
iPhone 4 - Download: 15.48mbps, Upload: 3.99mbps
iPhone 5 - Download: 5.10mbps, Upload: 4.04mbps
This is really upsetting... Going to try to change my wifi over to WEP after reading a few suggestions here to see if that helps.
Also having this issue, MacBook speedtest shows 9MBPS DL while iPhone 5 shows 2MBPS DL. Tried resetting network settings and no luck, any other possible ways to fix?
My wifi signal drops when I hold the phone at the top like in this video. Is this a related problem or something else?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILaKGJjm5rQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILaKGJjm5rQ
Enable SSID broadcast. Your no more secure by hiding it and hiding can cause dropouts and slow down connection speed (the time it takes to lock into the wifi, not your download speed).
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Your signal reduces because that's where the wifi antenna is located. They put it up there as no one holds their phone like that
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Your signal reduces because that's where the wifi antenna is located. They put it up there as no one holds their phone like that
Unfortunately this didn't work for me. Seems I have a very real antenna issue. My network speed drops like a rock when I'm only one room away from the router. In addition, if I'm holding the phone in landscape and covering the top side of the phone, my Internet barely works like I'm running on the Edge network.
Really bummed, guess my phone is going back today.
Enable SSID broadcast. Your no more secure by hiding it and hiding can cause dropouts and slow down connection speed (the time it takes to lock into the wifi, not your download speed).
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Your signal reduces because that's where the wifi antenna is located. They put it up there as no one holds their phone like that
Have the same problem shown in the video. The antenna should be strong enough to get a signal through your hand. To those saying "Don't hold your phone like that", just holding the phone in landscape mode while typing has a similar effect. I would consider that normal usage and this is a very real HW issue.
Something is definitely up with the 5's wifi strength/range.
If I'm in the room with the router, fast as my 4s, about 30-32 Mbps.
Go into another bedroom on the other side of the house, drastically reduced speed. Where the 4s in the same spot isn't affected at all. It's clear to me the wifi on the 5 is having trouble penetrating obstacles and/or with distance from the router.
This really sucks as I do most of my phone use and browsing at home on wifi.
I've tried every type of encryption/authentication, doesn't make a difference. The wifi is just not that strong, and has limited range. Interesting this was a new wifi antenna design. I'm betting this can be mostly addressed with a firmware tweak. Hoping.
It works, but definitely struggles to keep a good connection if there's anything in the way. I hope this is a software fix. I can only imagine trying to duplicate this at an apple store. Plus, the phone is perfect in every other way, I could get a replacement with the same issue, plus a dust speck under the glass.
If I'm in the room with the router, fast as my 4s, about 30-32 Mbps.
Go into another bedroom on the other side of the house, drastically reduced speed. Where the 4s in the same spot isn't affected at all. It's clear to me the wifi on the 5 is having trouble penetrating obstacles and/or with distance from the router.
This really sucks as I do most of my phone use and browsing at home on wifi.
I've tried every type of encryption/authentication, doesn't make a difference. The wifi is just not that strong, and has limited range. Interesting this was a new wifi antenna design. I'm betting this can be mostly addressed with a firmware tweak. Hoping.
It works, but definitely struggles to keep a good connection if there's anything in the way. I hope this is a software fix. I can only imagine trying to duplicate this at an apple store. Plus, the phone is perfect in every other way, I could get a replacement with the same issue, plus a dust speck under the glass.
I was having the same issues. After all my research I kept seeing people posting that iPhone 5 has an issue with WPA2. I went into my time capsule (3rd gen) and disabled security then made it a hidden network. Manually joined and my issue was instantly fixed. I'm now getting just under 16Mbps (15.94) on a 18Mbps package. Prior with WPA2 enabled I was getting 1.5M or under and Pings in the 400-600s
My wife and I both seem to get good wifi speeds when browsing with Safari, using Facebook, etc. The only problem we run into is with the App Store, oddly enough. VERY slow app downloads and timeouts.
If you have your phone in a case/cover, try removing it to see if it makes a difference. It solved the problem for me...but I can't go without a case on my phone, so I'm hoping that not all cases cause this problem!!
Performance in the Apple store, especially this weekend, should not be used to judge Wifi performance. As one might expect, the Apple store is seeing record traffic right now and their servers are bogged down.
I had the same problem. I upgraded my router with a model that provided a stronger signal. Problem fixed.
It appears to me that the iPhone is more prone to interference than some other devices and requires a stronger Wifi signal. Returning the iPhone won't increase your wifi signal (unless defective, which seems unlikely if your LTE performance is good, because it uses the same antenna), but upgrading your wireless router, changing the wireless channel on your router, and/or altering the placement of your router may do that. Here's a tip on selecting for picking the best wireless channel from Lifehacker (http://lifehacker.com/5580636/change-your-wi+fi-routers-broadcast-channel-for-a-stronger-connection).
From what I've seen in testing, WPA2 vs. WEP has nothing to do with the problem. In fact, WPA2 AES results on my iPhone 5 are much better than the WEP results - nearly three times as fast. With a modern router, unencrypted and WEP networks only perform better when you've got an inadequate signal and lots of interference, and WPA2 AES is required to obtain maximum 802.11n Wifi performance on the iPhone 5. Furthermore, WEP networks are insecure and can be cracked in 60 seconds or less with a number of different utilities (when run, these reveal your WEP password), potentially allowing others access to the personal files on your computers and notebooks which have built-in wireless.
Be wary of poor speedtest results. In my immediate area, there are three speedtest servers. One of these servers reliably returns 70+Mbps with 30-40ms pings. Another of these servers reliably returns 30-40Mbps with 100ms pings. The last one of these servers returns anywhere from 0.5 to 5Mbps with 200-400ms pings - clearly that server cannot handle the increased traffic it is seeing this weekend. Whenever I run speedtest, the app randomly picks one of these three servers. Therefore, I only get consistent results if I manually pick a server each time I run the test.
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I either have a defective phone, or a strange software issue.
I did a restore and set up as new, didn't help.
Basically in a nutshell.
My 4s screams at 28-35 Mbps, doesn't matter where I am in the house or how close I am to the router. It hits those numbers 99% of the time.
My iPhone 5 can hit 30 too, if I'm within a few feet of my router. The minute I leave that room, performance deteriorates badly. So, I'll be in my living room. The 4s and the 5 next to each other, same exact position, same speedtest/server, same everything. The 4s will hit 28-35 nearly every time. The 5, under identical conditions, same place, time, server etc. struggles and is very erratic. The 4 is getting 30, the 5 gets 5, then 10, then if really lucky, 18, but mostly it jumps around struggling and erratic, between 5-12, while that 4s is getting 30 every time. My 4s sees my network from my back yard, the 5 doesn't.
So, the wifi range/strength of the 5 is absolutely horrible, or at least my particular 5. The 4 is running ios6 too, so it's not an iOS bug.
I have read similar things. I'm almost sure this has nothing to do with the encryption/authentication setting of the router, I tried them all. It's not that the phone won't connect, it does, but the signal is weak and erratic, and falls apart as soon as you leave the room where the router is.
At this point I have to believe I have a phone with a defective Wi-Fi antenna. I'd certainly love to hear anybody's thoughts or opinions on this.
I did a restore and set up as new, didn't help.
Basically in a nutshell.
My 4s screams at 28-35 Mbps, doesn't matter where I am in the house or how close I am to the router. It hits those numbers 99% of the time.
My iPhone 5 can hit 30 too, if I'm within a few feet of my router. The minute I leave that room, performance deteriorates badly. So, I'll be in my living room. The 4s and the 5 next to each other, same exact position, same speedtest/server, same everything. The 4s will hit 28-35 nearly every time. The 5, under identical conditions, same place, time, server etc. struggles and is very erratic. The 4 is getting 30, the 5 gets 5, then 10, then if really lucky, 18, but mostly it jumps around struggling and erratic, between 5-12, while that 4s is getting 30 every time. My 4s sees my network from my back yard, the 5 doesn't.
So, the wifi range/strength of the 5 is absolutely horrible, or at least my particular 5. The 4 is running ios6 too, so it's not an iOS bug.
I have read similar things. I'm almost sure this has nothing to do with the encryption/authentication setting of the router, I tried them all. It's not that the phone won't connect, it does, but the signal is weak and erratic, and falls apart as soon as you leave the room where the router is.
At this point I have to believe I have a phone with a defective Wi-Fi antenna. I'd certainly love to hear anybody's thoughts or opinions on this.
I have a problem with my own Wifi. I switched from WEP to WPA2 that didn't work. Restarted my router and reset network setting on iPhone, that didn't work. I set my wifi with no password, then of course that didn't work.
Could it be a hardware issue?
Could it be a hardware issue?