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iPhone 5 WiFi issues - Post your chip manufacture company

soya

soya

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 30, 2010
433
106
Many of the iPhone 5 owners got WiFi issues. Following a discussion on Apple Support Community forum (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4322714?start=1155&tstart=0), we believe that those issues only affect Apple branded WiFi chips. iPhone 5 with Intel chips are apparently not affected.

If you have no problems with your WiFi, please state that it is the case and if you are running on an Intel chip.

Hopefully, we will be able to check if Apple chips or their drivers are flawed.

You can check your WiFI chip manufacture company here: http://www.hwaddress.com/ (You only need the to enter the first four letters/numbers of your MAC Address. Where do you find your MAC Address? Go to Settings->General->About ->Wi-Fi Address

Thanks
 
Last edited:
soya

soya

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 30, 2010
433
106
Could you post the first 4 numbers of your MAC address please ?
 
soya

soya

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 30, 2010
433
106
If somebody has an Intel chip & has issues then maybe we can say that it is a software issue affecting only some Apple chips :)
 
R

richard371

macrumors 68040
Feb 1, 2008
3,609
1,802
Is there a ink to this Apple discussion thread. Apple here and no problems that I am aware of but not sure what i am looking for.
 
B

bencjedi

macrumors 6502
Apr 2, 2010
279
25
Apple and affected by the wifi low signal problem :(

I think it's a proximity\wifi strength deficiency. If those with no problem could go to the perimeter of their wifi range they would probably experience the slowness issue. I happen to have a crappy router (D-Link DIR-655) that has weak (noisy?) wifi and thus am affected. I ordered a new router (Asus RT-N66U) that I believe (based on testament) will solve my iPhone 5 wifi issue by broadcasting a very strong wifi signal throughout my house. Apple will hopefully tweak the code for the phone to sort through noisy\weaker signals to establish more reliable connections.

For those not experiencing it, here's a video I made showing my old iPhone 4 and new iPhone 5 side-by-side in the same location where wifi is weak in my house. You can see the iPhone 4 is more tolerant to weaker\noisy\wifi:

iPhone 4 VS iPhone 5 Wifi Speed Test Using Speedtest.net
 
kmichalec

kmichalec

macrumors 6502a
Aug 14, 2010
878
284
Apple. No issues.

I thought I heard the WiFi issue was related to whether you were using WPA2 or not? I thought if you went down to WEP, then it was fine.
 
M

Megalobyte

macrumors 6502a
Dec 30, 2007
690
119
Florida
bencjedi said:
Apple and affected by the wifi low signal problem :(

I think it's a proximity\wifi strength deficiency. If those with no problem could go to the perimeter of their wifi range they would probably experience the slowness issue. I happen to have a crappy router (D-Link DIR-655) that has weak (noisy?) wifi and thus am affected. I ordered a new router (Asus RT-N66U) that I believe (based on testament) will solve my iPhone 5 wifi issue by broadcasting a very strong wifi signal throughout my house. Apple will hopefully tweak the code for the phone to sort through noisy\weaker signals to establish more reliable connections.

For those not experiencing it, here's a video I made showing my old iPhone 4 and new iPhone 5 side-by-side in the same location where wifi is weak in my house. You can see the iPhone 4 is more tolerant to weaker\noisy\wifi:

iPhone 4 VS iPhone 5 Wifi Speed Test Using Speedtest.net
Click to expand...

Just hooked up the Asus router yesterday and it did totally solve my weak/erratic wifi issue at home, I'd bet good money it'll do the same for you.

Of course we shouldn't need to upgrade our routers, but I kind of wanted to anyway. :) And my wifi performance has improved noticeably on all our wireless devices.

One thing to note. The Asus will automatically have its 2.4 ghz channel width set to 20/40 MHz. Apples website recommends 20 MHz for the 2.4 and 20/40 for 5 ghz. (Which the Asus defaults to) Only need to adjust the 2.4. )
 
R

richard371

macrumors 68040
Feb 1, 2008
3,609
1,802
Seems like most people have the Apple chip. Based on the fact people are able to resolve some of the issues tweaker their router seems to point to an Apple driver/software issue. Hopefully Apple will release a fix soon so people don't have to tweak their routers etc or exchange their device If it is indeed a HW issue and Apple does nothing about it then there is going to be a lot of cherry picking.
 
M

Megalobyte

macrumors 6502a
Dec 30, 2007
690
119
Florida
I think there are two or possibly even more issues with Wi-Fi that are happening here, and perhaps being lumped together when they're not necessarily related.

One distinct issue appears to be some sort of encryption protocol incompatibility between some people's 5's and certain routers with certain types of encryption or connection protocols. Ie. Wap2/AES vs WEP etc.

Then I believe there's a separate issue, where some people's phones aren't having trouble connecting to a network, however they're experiencing weak or erratic Wi-Fi Performance characterized by limited range, and fluctuating signal and speeds, where previous iPhones did fine. I believe this one has something to do with the new phone having a dual band antenna, not properly taking advantage of some dual band routers. Seems it has something to do with the 5 MHz frequency, since from what I read, it's this frequency that has trouble penetrating obstacles which would explain why people are experiencing limited range, which would also cause erratic and slower speeds. It seems to me this is something that could very well be addressed with a software fix. Adjusting the way the phone switches back-and-forth between the two different frequencies, how much power to use for them etc., better using each frequency for its stated advantages, the 2.4 for penetrating obstacles and increasing range, and the five for less interference from other routers.

And of course I could be absolutely wrong, I'm just doing my best to try to figure out what's going on. All I can say is, once I upgraded my router, my problems completely went away. Take it for what it's worth.
 
dasx

dasx

macrumors 65816
Jun 18, 2012
1,107
18
Barcelona
Apple chip here. No problems. I actually think this i5 has more wifi coverage than my previous 4S. Can't tell at home as it's pretty small and I got a good router, but I see it in the university. I don't lose connection in places I can recall not having wifi with my previous iPhone. They might have added some new routers too, so who knows. :D
 
J

jls1986

macrumors member
Sep 24, 2012
53
0
Apple chip here. Using WPA2 at home and it seems to work fine on an old linksys wireless router.
 
rockyroad55

rockyroad55

macrumors 601
Jul 14, 2010
4,152
59
Phila, PA
Apple chip here, some wifi issues, but there's about 2 walls separating me and the router when I'm in my room.

The bluetooth, on the other hand, sucks. Occasional drops and skipping of my music in car. Don't know if that has anything to do with this.
 
Mercenary

Mercenary

macrumors 65816
Sep 17, 2012
1,241
626
Apple and working fine.

Some other info you may find useful.

I use a static ip. Speeds up initial connection

Linksys EA3500 dual band router with latest Cisco Connect Cloud firmware.

My iPhone uses the 5ghz band. While this has reduced range compared to 2.4ghz it gives better speed.

WPA2 encryption.

All settings as per Apples recommendation http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4199
 
mattopotamus

mattopotamus

macrumors G5
Jun 12, 2012
14,666
5,879
dasx said:
Apple chip here. No problems. I actually think this i5 has more wifi coverage than my previous 4S. Can't tell at home as it's pretty small and I got a good router, but I see it in the university. I don't lose connection in places I can recall not having wifi with my previous iPhone. They might have added some new routers too, so who knows. :D
Click to expand...

Same. I can be almost a full block away from my place and still be connected
 
NM08SRT8

NM08SRT8

macrumors 6502a
Jan 18, 2010
968
314
Earf
Apple here as well, no issues.

I think some of you are trying to blame Apple for everything..
 
D

dabigone

macrumors regular
Jul 8, 2008
114
2
68:96 Apple

Spotty wifi. I'd show full bars yet everything will hang. I'd have to go to wifi settings and see the network is disconnected. Reset network settings and reconnect then it'll work for a while and disconnect again. This is on an Airport Extreme.
Obviously for those of you that don't have a problem won't have any clue. Who's blaming anyone, we're trying to find out the problem.
 
P

parrot5

macrumors 6502
Aug 10, 2010
393
23
iPhone 5: 65 Mbps down :eek: WPA2, hidden SSID, and dynamic IP assigning too :eek: Tested using 5GHz band, but router is running both 5 and 2GHz simultaneously.

Router is Linksys WRT400N, which according to wiki it has a Atheros AR7161 chip. Stock firmware.

For reference, the best I had seen on the iPhone 4 was 20Mbps down.
 
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