Apple Acknowledges iPad Wi-Fi Issues

A number of Apple customers groaned this week about their iPad’s erratic behavior when connecting to Wi-Fi, and Apple has issued a bulletin with a recommended solution.

Apple’s support forum contains several reports from users complaining about their iPad’s behavior with Wi-Fi networks, Macworld first noted. Some complain their iPad’s Wi-Fi signal is very weak, while others say they’re unable to join their network after waking iPads up from standby.

In a support bulletin, Apple on Monday acknowledged an issue specific to dual-band Wi-Fi routers — those that are compatible with both 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz spectrum bands.

“Under certain conditions, iPad may not automatically rejoin a known Wi-Fi network after restart or waking from sleep. This can occur with some third-party Wi-Fi routers that are dual-band capable when: Using the same network name for each network, [or] Using different security settings for each network,” Apple wrote.

Typically, dual-band routers transmit both the 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands as one network with the same name and password. Apple recommends splitting the bands into two separate networks, naming them differently and making sure that both networks use the same type of security (WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc).

If all else fails, Apple recommends resetting network settings in the iPad’s Settings app (Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings).

In the past, some Apple customers have complained about slow, unreliable Wi-Fi performance with Apple’s iPhone 3GS as well. Traditionally, Wi-Fi problems have been difficult to diagnose, as performance varies among different types of routers, and signal interference can be caused by a number of factors (such as a large number of Wi-Fi units in the area using the same channel, or turning on a microwave, among other causes). For a deep dive on the different types of Wi-Fi bands, see Glenn Fleishman’s article “Understanding Wi-Fi’s two spectrum bands.”