iPad 2 wifi glitches?

February 9, 2012 5:40 AM

iPad 2 has weak wifi?

Does anyone have problems with connecting to wifi on their iPad 2? My netbook and iPod touch will work fine on wifi but the iPad won't pick the same wifi up. Or it drops the connection. This happens on various wifi spots so I don't think it's a problem with a specific router. I've done some research online but it doesn't appear to be an acknowledged problem by Apple. Any help or insight would be appreciated. Thanks!

posted by grak88 to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

You're note insane. ipad2 has horrid wifi reception. So much so that I had to buy an extender for my house just so the darn thing would work. Don't know of any fixes but would be curious if anyone has suggestions.
posted by countrymod at 5:45 AM on February 9, 2012

Our router, an airport extreme (so a really good one) is in our basement and wifi is spotty on the second floor of our house. It was also the case with a cheap Belkin. No other device (macbook, lenovo, iphone) has this problem.
posted by michaelh at 6:04 AM on February 9, 2012

Best answer: What I *can* tell you, as a guy who has replaced broken iPad2 glass, is that the wifi antenna is just to the right of the home button, behind the glass. Given that the entire back is aluminum, keep that portion uncovered to get the best reception.
posted by Wild_Eep at 6:23 AM on February 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've noticed some cases can affect the wifi reception, but mine doesn't seem to have any weakr wifi than my other devices in the fringe zones where I work at.
posted by chrisfromthelc at 7:30 AM on February 9, 2012

This is no help at all, just an observation - I never had a problem with wifi on the iPad2 until I upgraded to i0S5 - even sitting next to the router it'll sometimes lose the connection.
posted by humph at 9:34 AM on February 9, 2012

Yeah, you're not crazy. The WiFi sometimes just stops working, even though it might show two bars. Sometimes cycling works for me, sometimes it does not. I haven't heard of any solution to this other than MOAR POWER from the access point, but i'll be watching this thread hoping something comes up.
posted by absalom at 10:24 AM on February 9, 2012

Yep, mine has poor reception compared with my MacBook Air (mid-2010), which is itself not great at picking up WiFi signals. My poor reception predates my upgrade to iOS5, which doesn't seem to have made a difference one way or the other (in this regard).
posted by brianogilvie at 12:28 PM on February 9, 2012

Well, I've never had any problems with mine. I have the iPad2 w/ 3G model which has a slightly different case and I run an Airport Extreme at home which is dual band.
posted by chairface at 8:21 AM on February 10, 2012