WiFi connected, no internet access

[tugger]

Probably makes no difference at all but I'm currently in Italy at a short-term rental apartment just outside of Rome. On this trip I have a MacBook Pro (late 2013), iPhone 5 and an iPad 3.

The apartment owner gave me the login to connect to the in-house WiFi. The router uses WPA/WPA2 security, and has the standard 192.168.1.1 router address, 255.255.255.0 subnet mask, and DNS 192.168.1.1. The MacBook Pro connects just fine and the internet access is pretty speedy. Here's the problem: the iPhone and the iPad see and connect just fine to the network, and I can ping each of them from the other and both of them from the MacBook. However I cannot get to the internet on either iOS device (both running 7.04). Neither Safari or Chrome works. In Safari I get the error message: "Safari cannot open the page because it could not connect to the server," and Chrome essentially reports the same error for whatever URL I try (e.g., Apple, Google, Amazon).

I've read at least 25 threads about this problem here and elsewhere and have tried the following suggested fixes on both iOS devices:

Reset the iOS devices
Reset the iOS devices' Network Settings
Changed the DHCP connection to Static (did this on the MacBook and it works)
Changed the DNS server to 208.67.220.220, 4.2.2.4, 8.8.8.8 (I also changed the DNS server on the MacBook to OpenDNS and it works just fine)

The one thing I can't do is restart the router because it's locked up in a cabinet, so I'm out of luck there. Don't even know what kind of equipment there is.

BTW, I just came from Barcelona where I was in a similar apartment situation and I had no problem at all with internet access on all 3 devices.

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[matttye]

Are you able to login to the router admin page by navigating to 192.168.1.1 in a browser? You can often restart the router that way rather than needing physical access to it.

My router, at least, supports this. While you're there you could check some other things as well, e.g. making sure there's no IP address conflict for the connected devices. I would make sure none of your iOS devices are using a static IP address and let the router assign them an address.

 

[tugger]

Yes, I can reach the router in a browser, but can't log-in because I don't have admin access.

Whether connected to the network via DHCP or a Static IP there is no internet access on the iOS devices. I doubt the problem is related to whether the iOS device's IP is assigned or fixed.

But, I appreciate your reply.

 

[matttye]

Yes, I can reach the router in a browser, but can't log-in because I don't have admin access.

Whether connected to the network via DHCP or a Static IP there is no internet access on the iOS devices. I doubt the problem is related to whether the iOS device's IP is assigned or fixed.

But, I appreciate your reply.

It's going to be very difficult to diagnose if you can't get into the admin page on the router. No way the owner will let you take a look or have a look himself?

Usually if you're not the admin of a network the advice would be "go to the admin" !

Could try a restore on both devices and see if that does anything.

 

[tugger]

Some people with the same problem have had success by rebooting the router, but without admin access there may be no solution. The owner is unreachable at the moment. It's just so odd that the Macbook has no issues but both iOS devices are definitely on the network and simply can't get through the router to the internet. While lots of people have had this issue, I've traveled all over the world and this is the first time I've encountered it.

A restore of both iOS devices is probably going to be my next thing to try, but I'm not hopeful this will work simply because both devices are affected. I think it would be extremely rare for identical iOS corruption to occur simultaneously on both the iPad and iPhone.

Thanks again, matttye.

 

[luckydcxx]

Yes, I can reach the router in a browser, but can't log-in because I don't have admin access.

Whether connected to the network via DHCP or a Static IP there is no internet access on the iOS devices. I doubt the problem is related to whether the iOS device's IP is assigned or fixed.

But, I appreciate your reply.

when you reach the login page, what kind of router does it tell you it is?

once you get the name of it try searching the web for the master password. A lot of times is "admin" for user name and "admin" for password or even sometimes you leave the password blank and just hit enter.

 

[tugger]

when you reach the login page, what kind of router does it tell you it is?

It's a Thomson Gateway, no way to tell the model number. I've learned that by default some Thomson models use the particular unit's S/N as its default password. So, no joy there, either.

Also, so far I can't find anything on the net related to this brand having any issues with iOS devices and internet connectivity.

Thanks.

 

[PNutts]

I assume you have, but did you confirm that you cannot ping a public IP address? How about a trace route to confirm that you're being blocked at the router?

 

[tugger]

I assume you have, but did you confirm that you cannot ping a public IP address? How about a trace route to confirm that you're being blocked at the router?

Great suggestion. Just tried, and I can successfully ping and traceroute the OpenDNS server 208.67.220.220 on the iPhone. So this means there's no blockage at the router. Is the problem then likely with DNS?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Coupz]

What IP address do you get on your iDevices?
Have you tried to disable wifi on your MBP and try to connect with one ios device?
Could be that the DHCP range is full.

 

[nebo1ss]

What IP address do you get on your iDevices?
Have you tried to disable wifi on your MBP and try to connect with one ios device?
Could be that the DHCP range is full.

He is getting an IP address that is obviously not the problem. The router need to be restarted. If you cannot locate it and power it off and on you are out of luck.

 

[tugger]

What IP address do you get on your iDevices?
Have you tried to disable wifi on your MBP and try to connect with one ios device?
Could be that the DHCP range is full.

Assigned IP addresses are typically in the range .5 to .21. But, if the DHCP range were full wouldn't that prevent connection to the network? I have network connections on both iDevices and can ping and traceroute from both.

----------

The router need to be restarted. If you cannot locate it and power it off and on you are out of luck.

Are you certain about this? If ping and traceroute pointed at public IP addresses are working, doesn't this suggest the problem is with DNS resolution? And if DNS is working properly on the MBP, why isn't it working with this wifi connection on the iDevices?

 

[HEK]

If you can cut power, plug, fuse, whole apartment, then turn back on. That should reboot the router. I had same issue once adding new device. Restarting fixed it. Good luck ! Oh, leave power off like three minutes. And have all your iOS devices on and wifi enabled when you restore power to the router. Everything should refresh.

 

[tugger]

Solution

The day I checked-out of the apartment the owner came by and offered to print my next round of boarding passes. I emailed them to him from the MBP and yet, like me, he was getting a connection to the network but his laptop would simply not connect to his mail account. I suggested he reboot his router, and after that I was able to get internet connectivity on my iDevices and he was able to get his laptop connected to his email.

So the bottom line is that this was not an issue specific to iOS devices, but some kind of weird issue with his router which was solved by rebooting it.

Thanks for everyone who contributed to the thread.