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Horrendous Wi-Fi signal strength

Steve.P.JobsFan

Steve.P.JobsFan

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 27, 2010
1,010
613
Columbus
For about the past 18 hours, Wi-Fi on my iPhone 5 has been horribly slow. I'm averaging about 2-6 mbps download, and 0.6-1.4 mbps upload on Wi-Fi (I pay for 18 mbps down, 1.5 up on U-verse).

Before, I got excellent signal strength (AT&T's equip. only does 802.11g, not 802.11n) all over the house, and decent signal in the garage and driveway. Now, I have poor signal (one bar indicated in status bar) all over the house, and it drops out as soon as I step outside. It's bad enough that my iPhone keeps reverting from Wi-Fi to LTE, and now I've used my entire 5GB cap (at least my cap resets in two days!) because of this.

I'm going to try and reset my network settings now, and check some settings on my U-verse gateway.

Anything else I should try and troubleshoot this? I'm baffled, as it's worked without a hitch since October... :confused:
 
Beeplance

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
A lot of users are already having problems with the wifi issue, so I suggest you look around the forum. There's a thread saying that the wifi is "painfully slow on the iPhone 5", so you can take a look there as well.

I think said problem will be addressed when Apple releases iOS 6.1 in the future. It's currently under beta testing right now.

Maybe you can try to reset network settings to remedy the problem.
 
Steve.P.JobsFan

Steve.P.JobsFan

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 27, 2010
1,010
613
Columbus
Beeplance said:
A lot of users are already having problems with the wifi issue, so I suggest you look around the forum. There's a thread saying that the wifi is "painfully slow on the iPhone 5", so you can take a look there as well.

I think said problem will be addressed when Apple releases iOS 6.1 in the future. It's currently under beta testing right now.

Maybe you can try to reset network settings to remedy the problem.
Click to expand...

Well, I reset the network settings and went from one bar of Wi-Fi to two.. :D

...and now it's jumping between two bars, one bar, and Verizon's LTE. :eek:

What I don't get it why it just randomly started acting up. It's worked fine for almost two months straight (December 13 will be two months).
 
D

darster

Suspended
Aug 25, 2011
1,703
1
It's likely not your phone. One way to be sure is try a different wifi network. My bet is that your AT&T router is going bad.
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
If it acts up with more than one router then its most likelly your i5.
Usually a restart on my i5 fixes the very slow or completelly dead wifi connection.
Its a shame such a good device with major wifi problems like that.
Replacement iphones and restores and setup as new dont make any difference.
I dont know if it can be fixed with a software update, I really hope so though.
 
S

SomeDudeAsking

macrumors 65816
Nov 23, 2010
1,250
2
Ah, the perpetual poor wifi on iPhones. It just doesn't work. I bet what's going on is that Apple only makes the iPhone wifi work properly if you use an Apple router (forcing you to buy one). Any other brand and it will give you all the buggy wifi problems in the threads going on.
 
B

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,025
Beeplance said:
A lot of users are already having problems with the wifi issue, so I suggest you look around the forum. There's a thread saying that the wifi is "painfully slow on the iPhone 5", so you can take a look there as well.

I think said problem will be addressed when Apple releases iOS 6.1 in the future. It's currently under beta testing right now.

Maybe you can try to reset network settings to remedy the problem.
Click to expand...

Can't wait... I'm so sick of having to turn off wifi whenever I go to work. lol. I'll have max signal strength but no internet - or if I have internet it'll be 2g speeds with a high end $100+ router bought last year on Verizon Business FIOS (over 50mbps down).

But.... at home with a Netgear N600 I have no wifi issues. So yeah probably something with the router but it's business owned so I can't do much with it. My 4s didn't mind it all that much but my 5 just will not do anything internet related with the work WiFi router.
 
GeorgieAcevedo

GeorgieAcevedo

macrumors 6502a
Apr 12, 2012
740
1
New York City
Beeplance said:
A lot of users are already having problems with the wifi issue, so I suggest you look around the forum. There's a thread saying that the wifi is "painfully slow on the iPhone 5", so you can take a look there as well.

I think said problem will be addressed when Apple releases iOS 6.1 in the future. It's currently under beta testing right now.

Maybe you can try to reset network settings to remedy the problem.
Click to expand...

Me too, so far no fix. 6.1 and I still have one bar of wifi in my kitchen when I had full bars with my iPhone 4.
 
D

darster

Suspended
Aug 25, 2011
1,703
1
If some people are having issues, while others, such as myself, are having absolutely no problems, then a software update will not fix the problem. Either you have a bad chip in your phone, or a bad router. Can't fix that with software. I have never had a problem with any wifi router I connected to, whether home, or bar, hotel, etc. There will be no magic bullet from Apple that will fix your wifi problem.
 
P

psywzrd

macrumors 68030
Feb 6, 2008
2,837
35
SomeDudeAsking said:
Ah, the perpetual poor wifi on iPhones. It just doesn't work. I bet what's going on is that Apple only makes the iPhone wifi work properly if you use an Apple router (forcing you to buy one). Any other brand and it will give you all the buggy wifi problems in the threads going on.
Click to expand...

Definitely not true. My router is an Apple Time Capsule and I still have wifi problems with my iphone 5 running 6.0.1.
 
S

SomeDudeAsking

macrumors 65816
Nov 23, 2010
1,250
2
psywzrd said:
Definitely not true. My router is an Apple Time Capsule and I still have wifi problems with my iphone 5 running 6.0.1.
Click to expand...

That's your problem right there, you don't have the 2012 Apple Airport Extreme. The Apple Time Capsule is just a base model.
 
O

Obyboby

macrumors newbie
Jul 3, 2010
5
0
Just tested connection speed on my iPhone 4S and 5 together, had similar (good) results on both the devices. :p

My iPhone 5's chip is from Logital co. limited, by the way.
 
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