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iPod touch Weak WiFi signal for iPod touch

B

boillator

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I got my new iPod touch 3G 8GB (so its basically a 2nd gen with 3.1.2 installed) on New Years Day. When i got home i configured my router right away, changed its name to something i would easily recognize and switched from b/g to g only WiFi. I use an Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN network card that is installed in my laptop. After restarting the router and ensuring it was online, i turned on my iPod touch and tested out the WiFi.

There were certain spots in the house where i could get three bars, but when i went on the internet it would not load at all. The signal becomes unstable after a few seconds and goes down to one bar, then stays there. I still can't access the web. Once i waited five minutes while the WiFi was at three bars to load a website, and at the end it said the server stopped responding, despite the three bars. Then when i try the WiFi at the library it works perfectly, even at two bars! 😱

Why is my signal so weak? I can't even access the web on my iPod touch at home, which makes the extra $50 i spent for a WiFi enabled device with access to the app store and iTunes wirelessly useless, forcing me to use it as a game and music playing device. I just can't wait that long before the weather gets warmer and i can go to the library anytime i like. At the moment i am out of options. 😕

Also, at home there are various other WiFi signals at certain areas, one of which always seems to be at two bars, which bugs me. 😡
Turns out, there are 6-10 wireless signals that can be received by my iPod touch, and all of them are locked! Grrr. I think it could be an interference problem. Nevertheless, mine isn't one of the best wireless signals, even though i am the closest to it.

There seems to be one particular signal, as i mentioned above, that is always at two bars regardless of where i roam in my house.

Finally, i would also like to ask how i could access my Broadband VPN network at home, since the iPod touch seems to have the ability to connect to a VPN network.
 
boillator said:
.....I use an Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN network card that is installed in my laptop......
Click to expand...
I don't see what this card has to do with anything, when you are trying to connect your iPod Touch to your (hopefully) wirelessly enabled router??

You're not connecting to your laptop, and trying to share its Internet connection, are you? Rather than connecting the iPod Touch DIRECTLY to your router?
 
Well how do i connect to my router then? I typed in my IP address in the address bar and it took me to a D-Link Air Speed site. It detected a router and I configured it as it asked me to. I renamed the router.

Perhaps i worded it wrong. I did not do anything to the card, by configure i meant the router, and the network it detected was the router network. And YES my router is Wireless enabled.
 
On the Router - see if you can select the channel that you use. That alone might really help - get off the channels the neighbors are using!
 
boillator said:
Well how do i connect to my router then? I typed in my IP address in the address bar and it took me to a D-Link Air Speed site. It detected a router and I configured it as it asked me to. I renamed the router.

Perhaps i worded it wrong. I did not do anything to the card, by configure i meant the router, and the network it detected was the router network. And YES my router is Wireless enabled.
Click to expand...

You are sure you connected to YOUR router?

But go back in and see if you can configure the channel.
 
boillator said:
Well how do i connect to my router then?
Click to expand...
To start with, configure your router (from your laptop) to enable wireless, and broadcast an SSID you've chosen ("boillatorwifi" or something).

Then see if your iPod Touch can see that, and connect to it.
THEN, turn on security, like WPA2, (you'll have to set a secret password into the router from your laptop) and
finally: re-connect (you'll have to enter the password into the iPod).
 
I already configured it, changed the SSID to MY NAME which is very uncommon. If you would like to know it is Shuo. Only a few people in the world have the same name and i doubt they live in the neighborhood.

Secondly, i have not set a password. I do not care if someone uses my WiFi, good for them. I would just rather not have another item to factor in and remember (i've got enough things to remember)

I am sure a WPAkey is not essential to the functioning of the router.

On my iPod touch, i actually see my name on the SSID, and i can connect with it but the signal is very weak and i can't go online.

Also, i cannot reconfigure my router anymore because for some reason the Default Gateway is blank. When i type in the original IP address it does not work as it did before.

I typed in ipconfig/all in the command prompt and this is what i got:

C:\Users\owner>ipconfig/all
Wireless LAN adapter

Wireless Network Connection: Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-1F-3B-AC-A6-4B

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes

Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes

Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::7d35:c44a:6439:ee00%11(Preferred)

Autoconfiguration IPv4 Address. . : 169.254.238.0(Preferred)

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : fec0:0:0:ffff::1%1 fec0:0:0:ffff::2%1
fec0:0:0:ffff::3%1

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
 
boillator said:
Secondly, i have not set a password. I do not care if someone uses my WiFi, good for them. I would just rather not have another item to factor in and remember (i've got enough things to remember)

I am sure a WPAkey is not essential to the functioning of the router.
Click to expand...

It's not.

BUT.

I wouldn't do anything using a PW and private info... and know that anything connected to it - could then be easily hacked. A friend who didn't have a PW on hers (i had NO CLUE she didn't have it set or i would have fixed it) woke up one morning with a message on her computer from a neighbor hacker....

But hey, it's your call - and if you don't store personal info on your computers, then feel free to allow anyone to see it all (packet sniffing might be something you want to google).

ANYWAY.

I'd probably do a factory reset on the router and start over. It's often something like - hold the reset button while turning the power off/on. CHeck the website or manual.

Then you should be able to start over on setting it up - and pick a channel to use that appears to NOT BE what everyone else is using in da 'hood.

I'm out of other ideas this morning!
 
oh no. I checked my wired router and turns out it IS the wireless router. It is called the Gigaset Se567 and the last three numbers/letters for the MAC address is 2B3, which explains why there is a wireless connection called Gigaset 2B3 and why it is always at three bars when i am in the computer room.

😱 I finally know why "Shuo" hasn't been working. I inadvertedly changed someone else's router configuration! This is bad... so how would i go about recovering the password for the internet connection?

Oh i typed in my IP address into the address bar, and sure enough, the SSID is Gigaset 2B3. It won't tell me the WEP key however and i do not know the password, so this might be trouble. How am i supposed to recover it?

OK, i solved my own problem in less than an hour. I managed to log on to my router using the Ethernet Gateway IP and i set up my password and username. Took a while of searching to find out what the default password for the Gigaset was but i found it. now i have encryption 128kbs WEP key set up and i can go on the web anytime i like at home. I knew there was something wrong.

One little problem would be that i might have configured another wireless router instead of my own and renamed it. Oh well. All is well. Thanks for all your help
 
boillator said:
One little problem would be that i might have configured another wireless router instead of my own and renamed it. Oh well. All is well. Thanks for all your help
Click to expand...

😱 😱 Great example of why everyone MUST change the logon configuration password of your router too, away from the default (and not just the WiFi password). I'm glad you don't live within WiFi range of me!! 🙂

"Oh well. All is well." 😱 Not for your neighbour it isn't!
 
boillator said:
OK, i solved my own problem in less than an hour. I managed to log on to my router using the Ethernet Gateway IP and i set up my password and username. Took a while of searching to find out what the default password for the Gigaset was but i found it. now i have encryption 128kbs WEP key set up and i can go on the web anytime i like at home. I knew there was something wrong.

One little problem would be that i might have configured another wireless router instead of my own and renamed it. Oh well. All is well. Thanks for all your help
Click to expand...

Is it safe to say that you no longer agree with this statement you made?
Originally Posted by boillator

Secondly, i have not set a password. I do not care if someone uses my WiFi, good for them. I would just rather not have another item to factor in and remember (i've got enough things to remember)

I am sure a WPAkey is not essential to the functioning of the router.
Click to expand...

Glad you sorted it out - you may or may not be able to help your neighbor get back up and running - depends on if you can figure out who it was. THey will be pulling their hair out until they figure out how to do a factory reset and start over - and gee, maybe they will then feel the need to lock it down a bit.
 
Secondly, i have not set a password. I do not care if someone uses my WiFi, good for them. I would just rather not have another item to factor in and remember (i've got enough things to remember)

I am sure a WPAkey is not essential to the functioning of the router.
Click to expand...

Yes, after reading into the matter a bit i spose it wasn't a good idea to let people see my personal info :0

Glad you sorted it out - you may or may not be able to help your neighbor get back up and running - depends on if you can figure out who it was. THey will be pulling their hair out until they figure out how to do a factory reset and start over - and gee, maybe they will then feel the need to lock it down a bit.
Click to expand...

I'm not too sure about the whole situation... there is too much missing information for me to definitively say that it was my neighbor's per se, although given the circumstances what with the weak wifi signal i doubt it originated from my house.

For now i will be enjoying my wi-fi 😀, although i do know one thing and that is that the reason i got to changing the name of some other wireless connection is because i typed in my WLAN IP address, where it says the origin is my network card. Then my question would be, is a network card capable of giving a signal, however weak it may be?

It actually detected a wireless device of some sort, although since the name of my actual wireless connection did not change at all, and after that name change the network that was once called DEFAULT was now given the new name. It is especially considering i usually don't change the names of anything on my computer (my ethernet connection is called Connection 2)

So, again, my one question would be whether or not a network card is capable of emitting a signal.
 
boillator said:
Yes, after reading into the matter a bit i spose it wasn't a good idea to let people see my personal info :0
Click to expand...

Good choice 😀

So, again, my one question would be whether or not a network card is capable of emitting a signal.
Click to expand...

I'm a mac now. In my PC days there wasn't very much wireless floating around.

But, on my MBP i can create a wireless net to share a wired internet connection. It is something i have to specifically turn on, and I just know when it happens.

SInce i've never done that on a PC - i can't help much....
 
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