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Wi-Fi Woes

E

el-John-o

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 29, 2010
1,600
794
Missouri
Hey all,

Okay so previously, I could connect to my campus Wi-Fi with my iPhone 4 and iPad, now I cannot. It successfully 'connects', meaning my WEP Key is correct, but I can't get online.

Normally it requires a login (AFTER entering the WEP key... heh...), but when I open Safari (or Opera, or Skyfire, or Atomic Web), it gives me an error that it's not connected. No logon screen pops up. Here's the other funny thing, it actually changes the URL in the browser to secure.arubanetworks.com/blahblahblah, as expected, but before the logon screen comes up I get the "Safari cannot open the page because it is not connected"

I've cleared the cache, restarted the devices, enabled pop-ups, I'm gonna pull my hair out here!

-John
 
el-John-o said:
Hey all,

Okay so previously, I could connect to my campus Wi-Fi with my iPhone 4 and iPad, now I cannot. It successfully 'connects', meaning my WEP Key is correct, but I can't get online.

Normally it requires a login (AFTER entering the WEP key... heh...), but when I open Safari (or Opera, or Skyfire, or Atomic Web), it gives me an error that it's not connected. No logon screen pops up. Here's the other funny thing, it actually changes the URL in the browser to secure.arubanetworks.com/blahblahblah, as expected, but before the logon screen comes up I get the "Safari cannot open the page because it is not connected"

I've cleared the cache, restarted the devices, enabled pop-ups, I'm gonna pull my hair out here!

-John
Click to expand...

Something changed on the wifi network itself. Try deleting the wifi network in the Settings->Wifi and then reconnect with the WEP key.
 
whsbuss said:
Something changed on the wifi network itself. Try deleting the wifi network in the Settings->Wifi and then reconnect with the WEP key.
Click to expand...

No luck. I've done that before but I went ahead and did it again. I did notice that the guest network, which has no key, has options to "auto connect" and "auto login" which aren't options for the student network. (The guest network requires a temporary password from the front desk, so it's not like I can just use that.)

My iPhone is working on the Wi-Fi, I don't know why I said it wasn't, it is. Both 4.2.1. I don't get it at all. I actually, just to make sure (even though it doesn't make sense, it wouldn't 'connect' if the key had changed), but I forgot the network on my laptop and re-entered the same WEP key I had just entered on the iPad, connected just fine. Did the same with the iPhone, worked fine.

I cleared cache, history and cookies, restarted the iPad again, no idea why it won't connect. 3G just isn't fast enough deep inside the building, (it's still over 1mbps, but still, I have Wi-Fi my tuition is paying for, why use up my data allowance!!)

I appreciate the help ahead of time folks. I've been searching and searching without help. Later I'm gonna go down to the technology help desk on campus but I seriously doubt those guys will have ANY idea (especially since it's just students who are there working to fulfill scholarship obligations).

-John
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

Gryzor said:
WiFi on iPad is flaky at the best of times. iPad 2 will be much better.
Click to expand...

Well that's helpful.
 
Similar situation used to happen to me. I'm not sure this will work for your network, but disabling auto-fill allowed me to log on successfully.
 
JohnnyQuest said:
Similar situation used to happen to me. I'm not sure this will work for your network, but disabling auto-fill allowed me to log on successfully.
Click to expand...

See and I tried that too. It's driving me nuts, it worked for weeks and now all of the sudden it doesn't, but nothing has changed with my iPhone or Laptop. Ugh.
 
Gryzor said:
WiFi on iPad is flaky at the best of times. iPad 2 will be much better.
Click to expand...

What a crock! I've never had a WiFi problem with my iPad on any of the networks i've used.

You can also bet the poster's knowledge of the iPad 2 is NIL.
 
el-John-o said:
Okay so previously, I could connect to my campus Wi-Fi with my iPhone 4 and iPad, now I cannot. It successfully 'connects', meaning my WEP Key is correct, but I can't get online.
-John
Click to expand...

Have you talked to any of the IT people supporting the network?
 
jimHdk said:
What a crock! I've never had a WiFi problem with my iPad on any of the networks i've used.

You can also bet the poster's knowledge of the iPad 2 is NIL.
Click to expand...
Oh really? I might have made up the bit about iPad 2 being better, because that hasn't even released yet, but the iPad is widely known to have the odd issue with dropping the WiFi connection in some circumstances.
 
Gryzor said:
Oh really? I might have made up the bit about iPad 2 being better, because that hasn't even released yet, but the iPad is widely known to have the odd issue with dropping the WiFi connection in some circumstances.
Click to expand...

It would be best to comment on what you actually know not what you believe to be "widely known". My statement is based on actual experience - no problems whatsoever.
 
jimHdk said:
It would be best to comment on what you actually know not what you believe to be "widely known". My statement is based on actual experience - no problems whatsoever.
Click to expand...
It would be best to comment on what you actually know and what you have RESEARCHED to back things up. In my experience, my iPad has far weaker WiFi compared to my iPhone, and unlike my iPhone, the iPad often drops it for a moment. This behavior has been noted by multiple people I know with an iPad, and of course the numerous reports both on here and the web in general.

Nice try.
 
Gryzor said:
WiFi on iPad is flaky at the best of times. iPad 2 will be much better.
Click to expand...

I have no problems :confused:...... Well none that can't be sorted out with a little bit of knowledge of routers and networking anyway :p


The things that instantly jump to my mind are ip conflict - Shouldnt happen if you're using DHCP, but if you're using manual ip's might be a problem.

Would the network have had a whitelist applied to it for any reason?

Have you been in contact with the admin for the network?
 
jimHdk said:
What a crock! I've never had a WiFi problem with my iPad on any of the networks i've used.
Click to expand...
Just because you haven't experienced a problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just do a search of these forums and you'll find lots of people with WiFi problems.

I've not had good experiences with my iPad's WiFi although for me adjusting the angles of the antennae on my router fixed the problem. Before I did that my connection to my iPad was constantly stalling (every couple of minutes) and sometimes locking up completely while my other devices like laptop, iPhone 4 and Squeezebox never once dropped the connection.

Gryzor's comment on the iPad 2 is almost certain to be pure speculation but I hope it's right because I still don't completely trust the WiFi on my iPad even though it's been OK for a few months now.

- Julian
 
Couldn't agree more. In the house the wifi on my iPad frequently hangs (maybe once a day), and the only way I can get it reconnect is to switch the wifi off and back on again.

My iPhone 4, my wife's iPhone 4, my wee girl's iPod and my laptop all connect and stay connected just fine. Its only the iPad which you have to mess about with every now and again. There is certainly something not quite right with it.
 
Is the Wifi network 5 ghz or 2.4 ghz? The ipad has the capability of connecting to both, whereas theIP4 does not.
 
JulianL said:
Just because you haven't experienced a problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just do a search of these forums and you'll find lots of people with WiFi problems.
Click to expand...

Just because you have experienced a problem doesnt mean it doesnt exist. Search these forums and you'll find lots of people who haven't got the foggiest of how basic networking principles work.

Not directing that at you btw, but quite often computer issues can be traced back to the fact the user hasnt got a clue what they're doing. The only problem I've ever had was on public wifi, and the place just hadnt realised their internet connection was down.

The chances are the admins made a change to the network which is stopping some devices from connecting and they havent realised yet.
 
Gryzor said:
It would be best to comment on what you actually know and what you have RESEARCHED to back things up. In my experience, my iPad has far weaker WiFi compared to my iPhone, and unlike my iPhone, the iPad often drops it for a moment. This behavior has been noted by multiple people I know with an iPad, and of course the numerous reports both on here and the web in general.

Nice try.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can believe everything you read on the internet.
 
JulianL said:
Just because you haven't experienced a problem doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just do a search of these forums and you'll find lots of people with WiFi problems.

I've not had good experiences with my iPad's WiFi although for me adjusting the angles of the antennae on my router fixed the problem. Before I did that my connection to my iPad was constantly stalling (every couple of minutes) and sometimes locking up completely while my other devices like laptop, iPhone 4 and Squeezebox never once dropped the connection.

Gryzor's comment on the iPad 2 is almost certain to be pure speculation but I hope it's right because I still don't completely trust the WiFi on my iPad even though it's been OK for a few months now.

- Julian
Click to expand...

The WiFi problems reported here and elsewhere are anecdotal and often were corrected through router configuration changes, router firmware updates, router replacements, etc., and the occasional replacement of bad iPad hardware. Initial problem reports are easy to find but subsequent resolutions are few. There's a real incentive to report a problem but, if you find a solution (bad password, router reset, firmware update, ...), the incentive is gone and, often, the problem reporter is never heard from again. I've had no WiFi problems and no one I know with a iPad has had any either.

Note that it's quite possible for router firmware to have problems with a particular device while others appear to work. Not all devices use the same feature set of the IEEE 801.11 protocols and a new device may uncover a router firmware bug not seen before. This is particularly true of low-power devices.

There are all sorts of WiFi problems out there for all sorts of devices. Just look at the public forums for any router manufacturer. WiFi is a tricky area, there's a lot of bad router hardware and firmware out there as well as the occasional bad iPad.

The FCC filings for the iPad reveal no intrinsic problem with its WiFi coverage or sensitivity.
 
This is not an intermittent issue, or dropped connection, this is plain ol' won't work. It worked before, won't now.

Here's the problem with the theories so far. If it was a frequency the iPad didn't support, the iPad didn't see it. If I had the wrong WEP Key, it wouldn't connect, if it was an IP Conflict, well that could be the issue but constant renewal doesn't work, despite the fact that my iPhone AND Laptop connect with no problems.

As a reminder, it DOES connect to the Wi-Fi network, and when opening a browser the URL is changed to the URL for the logon, but before it has a chance to finish loading the logon page I get the network error.

I never have problems with my iPad Wi-Fi outside of this issue, at home it works fantastic. Thankfully I can use 3G like I am right now, but I'd rather use Wi-Fi!
-John
 
URL for the logon, but before it has a chance to finish loading the logon page I get the network error.
Click to expand...

Sounds like something on the login page (script etc) could be causing you problems.

have you tried clearing cache and cookies? Settings>Safari> Reset cache + Reset cookies.
 
can you connect with some other WIFI device as a test....otherwise you campus tech support is who you should be grilling.
 
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