Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iPhone 5 Wi-Fi Problems

S

Sebby

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 20, 2008
682
46
London, UK
Ever since getting the iPhone 5 I've had problems with its wi-fi. Safari would sometimes work and sometimes not respond at all.

iOS 6.0.1 helped a bit as the wi-fi started to work well with at work, which it previously hadn't, but I'm still having trouble at home. As I say, web pages sometimes load but generally don't. Even trying to access my router via its IP address doesn't always work.

I can see that several others are having trouble with wi-fi, but there's not a huge amount of information around.

On a perhaps related note, my data usage is massively, massively higher than it ever had been, despite my actual usage not changing. I suspect this wi-fi issue is causing it.

I have tried resetting network settings, but it hasn't helped. I've also tried manually setting the DNS on the phone and changing the security on the router, to no avail. I know that the router is not a fault per se as I was using it before - plus have a fourth generation iPad, a MacBook and an iPhone 4S happily using it.

Is anyone experiencing the same? Effectively my iPhone 5 is unusable on my home wi-fi.
 
You can just use Google’s DNS Services for this (8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4), or follow the full process to find the fastest DNS servers. Either way, you should see an improvement.

How to find the fastest DNS Servers: Download NameBench on your Mac or PC and run it to discover the fastest DNS servers for your location, the test will only take a few minutes.

Take the best result and grab your iPhone 5.
Open Settings, tap on “Wi-Fi”, and tap the blue arrow alongside the connected Wi-Fi network.
Tap next to “DNS” to manually adjust the DNS entry. (Didn’t run NameBench? Try the Google DNS servers: 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4)Leave Settings and run Speed Test, browse the web or try any online based activity using the Wi-Fi connection. It should be noticeably faster.

The theory is that the whole problem is a compatibility issue between the iPhone 5 and certain routers. This could be why not everyone has the problem, (I haven’t had the problem… Yet.), and why the same iPhone 5 will have problems with one network, and yet work fine on another.
 
JamesWilliams12 said:
Take the best result and grab your iPhone 5.
Open Settings, tap on “Wi-Fi”, and tap the blue arrow alongside the connected Wi-Fi network.
Tap next to “DNS” to manually adjust the DNS entry. (Didn’t run NameBench? Try the Google DNS servers: 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4)Leave Settings and run Speed Test, browse the web or try any online based activity using the Wi-Fi connection. It should be noticeably faster.
Click to expand...
Better yet, do that on your wifi router so your entire home network will be faster.
 
sometimes happens to me when i come home and connect to my home wifi, its bogged down slow or doesnt work at all. everytime it happens, a reboot fixes it.
 
Starting to annoy a little now, this problem!

My router doesn't allow change of DNS (Sky, UK) but I'm now doing a reboot of the phone and giving Google's DNS a go. Don't know if it will work, think this is a software issue with certain routers.
 
alflavor said:
Starting to annoy a little now, this problem!

My router doesn't allow change of DNS (Sky, UK) but I'm now doing a reboot of the phone and giving Google's DNS a go. Don't know if it will work, think this is a software issue with certain routers.
Click to expand...

I'm also a Sky user (UK) and hence can't change DNS on the router. However, I had OpenDNS set on the phone and it made no difference. I'm not sure this is the issue I'm seeing.

I'm now convinced that the iPhone 5 (and not iOS 6 specifically, given that my iPad and wife's iPhone 4S is unaffected) has trouble with AES security. By default the Sky router is set to WPA/WPA2-PSK (Mixed Mode) with TKIP+AES WPA encryption. The other day I'd changed this to WPA2-PSK (AES) only. I've now changed it to WPA-PSK and will see how it goes...
 
Here is my wifi problem:

Today, I had Time Warner's cable Internet service installed. (Switching from Windstream.) After the switch, I cannot get the Apple TV, my iPhone 5, my wife's iPhone 5, or my son's ipad 2 to work. On the main settings screen, under wifi, it shows the name of my network, as if I am connected. When I tap my network name and it goes to the screen with the list of available networks, the little circle just spins indefinitely beside beside my network name. The wifi icon never shows up at the top of the phone, and I can only use the Internet over the cellular network. It started as soon as I switched to the new service, but I have an old iPhone 4S and a six year old iMac that both work just fine.
 
TimDaddy said:
Here is my wifi problem:

Today, I had Time Warner's cable Internet service installed. (Switching from Windstream.) After the switch, I cannot get the Apple TV, my iPhone 5, my wife's iPhone 5, or my son's ipad 2 to work. On the main settings screen, under wifi, it shows the name of my network, as if I am connected. When I tap my network name and it goes to the screen with the list of available networks, the little circle just spins indefinitely beside beside my network name. The wifi icon never shows up at the top of the phone, and I can only use the Internet over the cellular network. It started as soon as I switched to the new service, but I have an old iPhone 4S and a six year old iMac that both work just fine.
Click to expand...

Reset the network settings on all the iOS devices. Go into settings, reset network.
 
AndroidBlows said:
Reset the network settings on all the iOS devices. Go into settings, reset network.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I think I tried that, but I will try it again since things are acting very weird. I unplugged the airport and the cable modem, again, and powered them back on. My Apple TV and my iphone started working, but I lost the iMac and no changes to my wife's phone or the iPad. While I was out, my son fiddled around with the iMac and got it working again. I'm not sure how he did it, though. He just said he kept turning things off and on and resetting things. LOL. This is getting to be a pain, but the cable internet is downloading 5-9 times as fast as the dsl did.
 
Update: Since switching to TKIP only, things seem to be working perfectly. Incidentally I did have to forget the network and reconnect, but I haven't had any further issues. So I would say that the iPhone 5, even with iOS 6.0.1, still has problems with AES encryption.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back