Painfully slow WiFi on new iPhone 5

[Gewch]

Looks like some over at the Apple Support Forums (start at pg. 75) have linked Wifi problems to the Wifi chip set. Apparently the chip sets are manufactured either by Apple or Intel. It seems that most problems are stemming from the Apple manufactured chip set (ironic). They outline how to check which chip set is in the phone. I have the Apple chip set and have been having erratic Wifi and cellular behavior. Now it's just a matter of whether there's an actual hardware problem or if iOS 6 has better drivers for the Intel chip than it does for the Apple manufactured chip (again, ironic).

Just checked my phone - 20:c9 - Apple WiFi chip. Girlfriends I5 is a 98:FE - Apple chip also.

I'm having a terrible time with Wifi. At home, no other devices are having problems. Wifi signal on the I5 is abysmal (one wifi bar) in places I used to have full signal. I can eventually get it to work, but have to be sitting in the same room as the router.

At work - I sit in the server room next to the AP and can't get my phone to connect to the wifi network at all. Cycling wifi on/off shows the AP, but sits with the spinning wheel forever. No problems with any other devices on the network.

Already had a genius bar appointment for battery. Perhaps this Wifi issue has contributed to my battery drain. Now I know what to look for with the replacement wifi chip.

 

[kobyh15]

Just checked my phone - 20:c9 - Apple WiFi chip. Girlfriends I5 is a 98:FE - Apple chip also.

I'm having a terrible time with Wifi. At home, no other devices are having problems. Wifi signal on the I5 is abysmal (one wifi bar) in places I used to have full signal. I can eventually get it to work, but have to be sitting in the same room as the router.

At work - I sit in the server room next to the AP and can't get my phone to connect to the wifi network at all. Cycling wifi on/off shows the AP, but sits with the spinning wheel forever. No problems with any other devices on the network.

Already had a genius bar appointment for battery. Perhaps this Wifi issue has contributed to my battery drain. Now I know what to look for with the replacement wifi chip.

I bet the battery issue does have to do with the Wifi issue. I wish Apple would just say, "Yeah, we know our chip set drivers are crap for the Apple Wifi chip. We're working on a fix, no need to exchange your phone."

 

[Gewch]

I bet the battery issue does have to do with the Wifi issue. I wish Apple would just say, "Yeah, we know our chip set drivers are crap for the Apple Wifi chip. We're working on a fix, no need to exchange your phone."

We have both been seeing very poor battery life - even set them both up as new instead of restoring. I swapped my girlfriends phone last night at the Apple store, but the replacement is no better than the one before.

The wifi issue still persisted through the swap. I'm headed in to the store for my appointment tonight. I agree with you kobyh15, I wish they would acknowledge the issue. I might be more inclined to hang on to my phone than try to exchange it already...especially seeing all the threads about scuffs, leaks, etc..I'm happy with the one I have

 

[kobyh15]

We have both been seeing very poor battery life - even set them both up as new instead of restoring. I swapped my girlfriends phone last night at the Apple store, but the replacement is no better than the one before.

The wifi issue still persisted through the swap. I'm headed in to the store for my appointment tonight. I agree with you kobyh15, I wish they would acknowledge the issue. I might be more inclined to hang on to my phone than try to exchange it already...especially seeing all the threads about scuffs, leaks, etc..I'm happy with the one I have

Same situation here. Cosmetically great phone with no screen problems. I'm hesitant to enter the black/slate iPhone 5 lottery if it's just a software problem that will be fixed soon. See if you can get any info at the Apple store tonight and report back.

 

[Shaddow825]

We have both been seeing very poor battery life - even set them both up as new instead of restoring. I swapped my girlfriends phone last night at the Apple store, but the replacement is no better than the one before.

The wifi issue still persisted through the swap. I'm headed in to the store for my appointment tonight. I agree with you kobyh15, I wish they would acknowledge the issue. I might be more inclined to hang on to my phone than try to exchange it already...especially seeing all the threads about scuffs, leaks, etc..I'm happy with the one I have

See this is why I don't think there is any rhyme or reason to the mac address thing. You are having probs on 98:FE my wife's is perfect while mine 98:B8 has probs

 

[MrXiro]

I lose Wifi in my master bedroom bathroom on my iPhone 5, it pops over to LTE. But my iPad has like 2 of the 3 bars...

 

[Oppressed]

See this is why I don't think there is any rhyme or reason to the mac address thing. You are having probs on 98:FE my wife's is perfect while mine 98:B8 has probs

Both 98:FE here and have issues. This should be polled.

 

[Mechinyun]

Having to buy a new router for the iphone 5 is completely retarded!!!

I can't believe some of you people and the lengths that you go to defend apple's crap product.

 

[darster]

Having to buy a new router for the iphone 5 is completely retarded!!!

I can't believe some of you people and the lengths that you go to defend apple's crap product.

Could it possibly be that some, or even many manufacturers have not updated their routers for the apple wifi chip? Seems like these companies roll out updates every time a new Apple product is released. Just guessing.

 

[lookn4wifi]

I'm trying to figure this one out. My home network consists of an AT&T router (WPA) and a Time Capsule (WPA2). I use the TC as my connection point. My iP5 has varied clocked speed downloads on my home WiFi network. The best I can currently get is about 11 Mbps down on any of my devices.

Most of my iP5 down load speeds are in the neighborhood of 4-5 Mbps down, which is less than half of what I should be getting. When I try something new, from time to time, I get the expected 11 Mbps download, but then it reverts back to about 4 (sometimes less) download speed. By trying something new I mean:

1) Change DNS to Google's 8.8.8.8
2) Connect to the AT&T router instead of the Time Capsule and visa versa

Again, these workarounds only increase speed for a bit.

Right now my Mac is getting 9.05 and my iP5 is getting 3.85 on the Time Capsule and currently none of the workarounds will bump up my phone's WiFi speed.

 

[Shaddow825]

Could it possibly be that some, or even many manufacturers have not updated their routers for the apple wifi chip? Seems like these companies roll out updates every time a new Apple product is released. Just guessing.

Maybe, but I am running dd-wrt (which is open source and Ive never seen an update related to anything apple talked about) and at work I have no probs, but at home I do. The one at work is an older version actually.

Also, most of these routers have Broadcom chipsets in em, same as the phone!

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

My launch iPhone 5 had WiFi issues. Could only get about 1-2 Mbps down. Interesting enough, my upload speed seemed normal... about 4-6 Mbps up.

Today I got a replacement from the Genius Bar that seems a lot better. Look:

From my iMac:

From my iPhone 5:

Oh... and I only pay $29.99 per month for these speeds to Centurylink.





-------------

 

[Oppressed]

My launch iPhone 5 had WiFi issues. Could only get about 1-2 Mbps down. Interesting enough, my upload speed seemed normal... about 4-6 Mbps up.

Today I got a replacement from the Genius Bar that seems a lot better. Look:

From my iMac:
Image

From my iPhone 5:
Image

Oh... and I only pay $29.99 per month for these speeds to Centurylink.





-------------

Please post an update if your issue returns. Also what is the beginning part of your new phone's wifi address?

 

[erixip]

Great outcome. Please do post which chip you have.

----------

I wish Apple would just say, "Yeah, we know our chip set drivers are crap for the Apple Wifi chip. We're working on a fix, no need to exchange your phone."

Ding Ding!! Seems such the right thing to do, and potentially could save them quite a bit. 17 more days and counting...

 

[Gewch]

Same situation here. Cosmetically great phone with no screen problems. I'm hesitant to enter the black/slate iPhone 5 lottery if it's just a software problem that will be fixed soon. See if you can get any info at the Apple store tonight and report back.

So...just got back from my Genius Bar appointment. A couple points to note before I get too far into this...

At work, I administrate a Barracuda NG Firewall (F301). For security, we use WPA2 with AES in counter mode with CBC-MAC (CCMP). I sit literally right next to the AP and my phone would not connect. Checking my iPhone Settings, I watched my Wifi network go from "Company" - 2 seconds later to "Not Connected" and immediately cycle back to "Company". It continued in this loop all day - again, might explain my battery. Wifi status indicator NEVER shows up in status bar.

Went in to Genius and told him what was wrong. They had no AES secured networks to test with, but showed him my wonderful battery life and he agreed to swap it. Opened the first one - scuff on the plastic by the screen and chips on the aluminum around headset jack. Genius politely offered to open another. This one was had fading around the edges...at this point I started feeling bad so decided to accept the first one. Before I left I had remorse and ended up getting him to open a third replacement unit. Finally a perfect one...but all 3 had the Apple chip for wifi. Ended up settling with a Wifi MAC 54:26 (which is still Apple).

Still having poor performance on home Wifi, so I'm guessing I will just have to gut it out until they figure something out. Girlfriends phone is having the same wifi issues, but seem to be impacting her worse. Phones side by side, hers wont even pull the network name...Maybe some chipsets are better than others.

Sidenote - I did the Unlock_Fusion service on my original iP5. Genius told me that the unlock should follow to the new device since they updated my IMEI at the Apple store - haven't done a restore to verify yet, but will also report back on that.



TL : DR - Went to Genius Bar. Went through three black iPhones before finding one physically acceptable to me. All 3 had Apple chipset. Still hasn't completely resolved Wifi connection issues for me. Settled with Apple Chip 54:26.

 

[cwosigns]

I've got two usage scenarios:

• Home: I use an Airport Express. I was getting slow speeds when I had it set to Wireless N (a/b/g compatible). I switched it to Wireless N only and it fixed it.
• Work: Connecting thru security certificate (not WPA2) and speeds are what I got on my iPhone 4s (very fast).

If all of your devices are compatible with 802.11n, you may want to adjust your settings.

Just a suggestion.

 

[Gewch]

Ding Ding!! Seems such the right thing to do, and potentially could save them quite a bit. 17 more days and counting...

Take it for face value, but see this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4339516?start=120&tstart=0

Specifically the comment from ronaldomenezes...

Hopefully it's legit.

 

[Oppressed]

Post from Apple support thread...

Ok Folks! UPS just dropped off my new replacement iPhone5 and I have an update for you: The new replacement works BEAUTIFUL with my WPA2 network and I did not change a thing. I got the new phone, restored my backup and I was able to connect and hold the Wifi connection.

The problem with the WPA2-AES connection issue IT IS HARDWARE RELATED! Here is my explanation given the fact that my new replacment works very well.

The iPhone5 with WPA2-AES issues has a MAC Address that starts with 98:B8 (Apple Manufactured)
The iPhone5 with NO WPA2-AES issues has a MAC Address that starts with 88:53 (Intel Manufactured)

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

I'm glad that this nightmare is over for me. I strongly encorauge you replace your phones NOW!. Do not wait for an update since you more likely need a new WiFI Chip that has not be manufactured only by APPLE and ensure that INTEL is the one on your phone.

Next time, you go to the Genius bar, you can check this and get the proper replacement that you need. Just stay away from any Wi-Fi chip with a MAC address that starts with 98:B8

If you have any questions or would like to check settings against my phone configuration, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be more than happy to help. As soon as I finish this post, I am calling Apple to let them know my finding and see if they finally can acknowledge the defective Wi-Fi chips on some iPhone5.

P.S: My only complaint now is that the new phone came with some scuffs

Regards,
C4RLOCO
Durham, NC USA

 

[Shaddow825]

Sidenote - I did the Unlock_Fusion service on my original iP5. Genius told me that the unlock should follow to the new device since they updated my IMEI at the Apple store - haven't done a restore to verify yet, but will also report back on that.

Yea I was wondering that as well. Funny thing is, I don't seem to remember having *any* wifi problems before I did a restore. Did you? My wifes phone that is fine has been unlocked but not restored. Sometimes Apple devices that are new ship with a slightly different version of an OS than whats generally available and gets merged after the first dot release, maybe the restore did something?

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

please post an update if your issue returns. Also what is the beginning part of your new phone's wifi address?

98:b8 here and I am able to get 31 Mbps down on WiFi...

 

[jmxp69]

No speed issues here. AirPort Extreme on the 5ghz band.

 

[kobyh15]

98:b8 here and I am able to get 31 Mbps down on WiFi...

I have 98:B8 as well. What speed do you pay for? I pay for 18 but consistently get 10 or so. I get around 17 with all other iOS 6 devices on the same network. It's weird.

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

I have 98:B8 as well. What speed do you pay for? I pay for 18 but consistently get 10 or so. I get around 17 with all other iOS 6 devices on the same network. It's weird.

I pay for 40Mbps... consistantly get 36-37 Mbps on my iMac... wired to router...

I have always seemed to lose speed when on WiFi on any device.

But... the 25 - 32 I am getting on my replacement iPhone is a lot better than the 1-2Mbps I got before.

 

[erixip]

Take it for face value, but see this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4339516?start=120&tstart=0

Specifically the comment from ronaldomenezes...

Hopefully it's legit.

Lets hope! Amazing how wildly different everyone's experiences are with calls to apple. My take on this is that only an above board public response is the real indicator of an actual recall. If they know they have faulty units in service, its in their best interest to get the effected units back and swapped.

The only negative would be that one would have to think this increases the changes of getting a refurb as a measure for them to limit cost the mishap. Careful what you wish for, eh?

 

[mcdj]

Post from Apple support thread...

I don't know how much credence I'd give this. I pay for a 50mb connection. My 98:FE Apple chip iPhone 5 connects at about 15-20mb down. But so does my Apple chip iPad 3. I've connected slowly (compared to my MacBook) to my AEBS with the iPad since the day I got it. The iPhone shows the same behavior. Pretty sure my 4S did too. I suspect software.