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ideal.dreams

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 19, 2010
2,374
1,073
I have an iPad Air running the latest version of iOS 7. When I went to use it today, I noticed that it wouldn't connect to our network. I tried forgetting the network and then reconnecting to it, but it doesn't connect. After I tried that several times, I reset the network settings and still nothing.

I don't know what's wrong - every other device in my house (including other iPads and my iPhone) are connecting with no issues.

Any help is appreciated!
 

Prawnstar69

macrumors regular
Sep 27, 2012
147
1
I have an iPad Air running the latest version of iOS 7. When I went to use it today, I noticed that it wouldn't connect to our network. I tried forgetting the network and then reconnecting to it, but it doesn't connect. After I tried that several times, I reset the network settings and still nothing.

I don't know what's wrong - every other device in my house (including other iPads and my iPhone) are connecting with no issues.

Any help is appreciated!

Do a hard reset hold the power and home button for 10 seconds until it goes off

FYI some routers have device restrictions, mine can only handle 8, if I try to connect a 9th device it will not connect. Try disconnecting 1 device and try. Hope I helped
 

ideal.dreams

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 19, 2010
2,374
1,073
Our Wifi is set up so that it's broadcasting 4 different SSIDs from two different routers which are on separate levels of the house. 3 of the SSIDs share the same name except for the 5 GHz band on one of the routers; that is the only SSID I'm able to connect to. My iPad will not connect to the other main network nor the guest network from the same router. I will also note that the 5GHz signal is set to not broadcast so you have to manually join the network.

Does this information help at all? I've noticed my iPhone is reluctant to connect too, but after failing a few tries it finally connects. Not sure what the issue is...
 

ewilson6

macrumors 6502
Nov 30, 2006
368
3
How do u have 2 routers setup in your house with the same ssid and the internet works? To me it sounds like your wifi setup is at fault not the ipad / iphone.
 

eduardrw

macrumors 6502
May 20, 2013
252
3
You may want to tell us a little more about your Network setup.
Do you really have two routers?
Or did you mean 1 router as DNS server + a 2nd "router" setup to create/extend a WIFI network on the other levels?

Are the "routers" connected via WFI or ethernet?

Without an exact description of your setup (best from Modem -> router -> WIFI extenders etc) it is impossible to give you any advice.
-------------------------------------
I have two Apple routers - 2 iPhones, 2 iPads (1 Air), 2 iMacs, 2 MBA. All work flawless including the iPad Air on WIFI.

From my experience, mixing router/WIFI extender hardware is never a good idea.
My setup is:
ATT U-verse Router/modem -> Time Capsule in DMZ as router and WIFI -> Ethernet (including switch)-> Airport Express setup to create a Wireless network.
I use one SSID for all WIFI networks 2.4 + 5GHz.
The guest network is only enabled on the Time Capsule since "extending" a guest network via AE seems to be unstable.
 
Last edited:

ideal.dreams

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 19, 2010
2,374
1,073
Let me clear some things up about the WiFi set up. I live in a two story house with a basement. My primary router (which is also the DHCP server) as well as cable modem are both in the basement. My computer is on the second floor so the signal from the basement is quite weak and lead to slower internet speeds. I recently bought a new Linksys router for the basement and took the old router from the basement and put it on the second floor to act as a range extender. DHCP is disabled and it therefore does not assign IP addressed to any devices connected to it.

Now to the broadcasted SSIDs - the router in our basement broadcasts both a 2.4 and 5GHz signal both with the same name, so the device connecting can pick the stronger band automatically. The router upstairs is set up in a similar way, HOWEVER, I gave the 5GHz band a different name and disabled SSID broadcast. The reason I did this was so that I could force my MacBook Pro to connect to the 5GHz signal. It would always choose the 2.4GHz band because it was stronger, however I didn't get the speeds I was paying for on the 2.4GHz band and I was on the 5GHz band.

So here's a summary of my set up

Basement:
-Cable modem
-Linksys router
-Broadcasts two SSIDs, both with the same name but different bands
-DHCP server that assigns IP addresses to all devices.

First floor:
-Nada

Second floor:
-Linksys router
-DHCP server disabled
-Broadcasts a 2.4GHz SSID with the same name as the ones broadcast from the basement router
-The 5GHz signal is not broadcast but still enabled, so one must manually connect to it to join it.

Now that that's behind me, I will say that my iPad will only connect to the 5GHz signal. It will not connect to the other SSIDs broadcast by the router.

I set everything up about a month or so ago and my iPad connected fine with NO problems. It wasn't until I made this post that my iPad started having trouble connecting to the publicly broadcast signals.

Hopefully this isn't too confusing :eek:
 

eduardrw

macrumors 6502
May 20, 2013
252
3
one more question: How is the Basement Router connected to the upstairs "router" ? ethernet or WIFI?
(I strongly suggest ethernet. Even power line is still better then WIFI)

You could try to reset the Network Settings on the iPad and see if it helps.
http://ipad.about.com/od/iPad_Troubleshooting/ss/How-To-Fix-My-Ipad-Wont-Connect-To-Wi-Fi_7.htm

If that does not help I suggest for troubleshooting is to name all SSID's differently and try to force the iPad to connect to all of them.

What you are trying to do is a roaming WIFI network. As I mentioned before I do that with Apple routers and it works.

With Linksys your mileage might vary. (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/21014-43-roaming-wifi-issues-switch-ssid - check out the post by Rick G 4th from top)
BTW you can hold the option key while clicking on you MBP's wifi icon to see Frequency,channels and signal strength for debugging)
 
Last edited:

ideal.dreams

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 19, 2010
2,374
1,073
one more question: How is the Basement Router connected to the upstairs "router" ? ethernet or WIFI?
(I strongly suggest ethernet. Even power line is still better then WIFI)

You could try to reset the Network Settings on the iPad and see if it helps.
http://ipad.about.com/od/iPad_Troubleshooting/ss/How-To-Fix-My-Ipad-Wont-Connect-To-Wi-Fi_7.htm

If that does not help I suggest for troubleshooting is to name all SSID's differently and try to force the iPad to connect to all of them.

What you are trying to do is a roaming WIFI network. As I mentioned before I do that with Apple routers and it works.

With Linksys your mileage might vary. (http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/21014-43-roaming-wifi-issues-switch-ssid - check out the post by Rick G 4th from top)
BTW you can hold the option key while clicking on you MBP's wifi icon to see Frequency,channels and signal strength for debugging)

It's connected via an ethernet cable. As mentioned in the original post, I did reset the network settings before I sought help here and it didn't help. I'm going to call Apple and see what help they can offer me before I start renaming our SSIDs; our doorbell and Nest thermostat are both connected and I don't want to have to set those up again.

Edit: Looks like the issue corrected itself? I tried reconnecting to the network one last time before calling Apple and it let me connect. I tried it again a second time and it worked again. Weird.
 
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