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Have I been bitten by the Wi-Fi bug?

Sun, Oct 14, 2007 | by Fortune Elkins

Firmware, iPhone News

madagascar hissing cockroach courtesy Univ. of Ga.

As I reported here previously, the upgrade to firmware 1.1.1 seemed flawless once I finally got connected and re-activated. But in the last 3 or 4 days I’ve begun to have a problem connecting and staying connected to home Wi-Fi networks, particuarly (I think!) dlink and linksys routers.

The Wi-Fi at Starbucks, the Apple store in SoHo, and the local public library (as I wander past) seem great. No problem there. I mean, I would expect the Mothership to fine-tune the Wi-Fi for Apple and Starbucks locations. Obviously.

But this home Wi-Fi is really beginning to bug me. I wandered over to iPhone Atlas, where I saw other people reporting the same basic problem. However, rebooting iPhone doesn’t solve this issue for me; in fact, it seems to get worse now by the day suddenly.

Before iPhone would take a long time to connect to home Wi-Fi, but then stay connected. Last week, it kept connecting slowly and then it started suddenly switching to EDGE within moments, even tho’ I hadn’t moved from the spot.

As of today, iPhone goes through the motions of connecting to Wi-Fi, but the EDGE icon never leaves the top bar. It’s on EDGE and it’s staying on EDGE. iPhone refuses to use the Wi-Fi, period, even tho’ it says it’s connected to Wi-Fi and properly shows the Wi-Fi settings such as IP.

I tell ya, it’s enough to make a woman weep. 1.1.2, which is reported to be on its way if not already in existence, will address this and other identified bugs, I hope.

14 Comments For This Post

  1. Stephane Says:

    I run on version 1.0.2 and I have the same problem at home.

    I also have a linksys router though…

  2. frelkins Says:

    Hmm. I wonder if it’s something about the linksys itself? What firmware version do you have for your router? Do you think iPhone could just be allergic to linksys?

  3. Greg Says:

    I have 1.1.1, and I am constantly losing wi-fi info at home, and I have an airport extreme with 3 airport express stations linked to it. So it is all apple. The network is hidden, so I thought that could be a problem, but it did not start happening until this last update.

  4. S Gupta Says:

    i have 2 iphones. One connects to the home wifi whereas the 2nd one refuses to get connected to wifi from the same spot. I really cannot figure out the problem.
    S Gupta

  5. frelkins Says:

    Wow S. Gupta, that’s wild. You didn’t jailbreak one or anything — they are both virgin phones, right?

    What kind of router do you have? Linksys, dlink, netgear? I do hope 1.1.2 fixes this or I’m going to the Apple Store to see a Genius!

  6. lfom Says:

    I am using 1.0.2 and I have the same problem, and I have AirPort Express. My MacBook Pro works fine, but the iPhone gets a very low signal when it’s not far away from the AP, and eventually disconnects… =/

  7. Phil Says:

    I had this problem a few weeks ago. Rebooting the router (turning it off and on) seemed to solve my problem.

  8. frelkins Says:

    Hi Phil, out of curiosity, what kind of router is it?

  9. Stephane Says:

    I also had to reboot my linksys router three times in the last few weeks because the iPhone and the laptop couldn’t connect to the Wi-Fi Network.

    Prior to using the iPhone Wi-Fi feature on my home network, I never had to reboot the router.

    I did a firmware upgrade (linksys) last night to see if this solves the problem or not. So far, so good…

  10. Ni Says:

    maybe they have a built in fire wall in the routers.. i know my little netgear wouldn’t let the psp through until i changed the Dns to open.. and shut off the built in firewall.

  11. Paul Hiller Says:

    I have had this problem all along and no update helps. I have the router that came with Verizon FIOS and I went so far as to take the password off. It works 75% of the time. When it doesn’t I look in settings and it does not see the dns setting. If I do nothing it eventually works. If I need it to work right away I reboot the router. My kids have laptops and never have a problem.

  12. Nick Says:

    I have this problem on my ipod touch. It was working perfectly until i took it to the park today and connected to a public wifi point (i live in japan) and then when I got home it started having a hard time staying connected to my linksys.

  13. Phil Says:

    Frelkins-

    It’s the comcast Linksys router. I just had to do it again this morning. It worked though.

  14. xqs2fly Says:

    I have the same problem as S. Gupta. Two iPhones and a Linksys Router. One iPhone works great and stays connected. The other cycled between connection and no connection. Now I can’t get it to work at all. Very strange! It has to be a glitch in the iPhone firmware.

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