Why did my iPhone's wifi range become terrible? Can it be fixed?

February 1, 2013 7:16 PM

Why did my iPhone's wifi range become terrible? Can it be fixed?

I woke up a week ago and found that overnight the wifi range of my iPhone 3GS had gone from acceptable to terrible. I have not changed anything on the phone for quite a while actually as I already have everything I need on there. OS is 5.1.1

If there is some trick to extending the range, I'd be glad to hear it.

posted by Winnemac to technology (7 answers total)

Your neighbors might have set up wifi on the same frequency. Try moving your wi-fi router to another channel, or download an app that shows the wifi signal strengths by channel to find one that is uncontested.
posted by anonymisc at 7:19 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Have you tried shutting down and rebooting it?
posted by alms at 8:50 PM on February 1

Try resetting your network settings?
posted by yb2006shasta at 8:52 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

I had the same thing happen to my 3gs, it turned out to be a broken wifi antenna in the phone.
posted by bottlebrushtree at 9:06 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Have you tested it on other wifi networks, to determine if it might be your wireless router and not the phone that's the problem?
posted by mumkin at 1:46 AM on February 2

Have you tested it on other wifi networks, to determine if it might be your wireless router and not the phone that's the problem?

Yes. It's definitely the phone with the problem. I also did the reboot and reset of network settings. Perhaps the wifi antenna was damaged when I dropped it or something. It is old after all. I will have to look into how to fix that unless there is some kind of "life-hacky" way of increasing the range I don't know about.
posted by Winnemac at 2:35 AM on February 2

This is a known issue with some 3GS phones. It's caused by weak connections on the wifi chip's soldering. It's possible to fix it by melting and reflowing the solder (either by baking the circuit in an oven or with a heat gun). However, it's obviously a risky repair. This has been an issue with my 3GS for over a year, but I've not got around to trying the fix - I'll probably just soldier on with it until I get a new one.
posted by Happy Dave at 4:26 AM on February 3