Difference in WiFi between devices

**lauriep05** · 02-04-2013, 04:42 PM

I keep WiFi turned on all the time with my iPad, ipodTouch and iPhone 5. When I get home at the end of the day, both the iPad and iPod connect to my home network while I am still in the driveway. The phone never does and ALWAYS has to be connected manually. It does this easily and it stays connected til I take it out of range, but what is the difference that makes it unable to connect automatically. Mildly annoying.

**Alli** · 02-04-2013, 04:52 PM

I also keep WiFi turned on all the time on my iPhone 5 and iPad Mini. Both connect as soon as I return home with no hiccups.

**linsiris** · 02-04-2013, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by lauriep05

I keep WiFi turned on all the time with my iPad, ipodTouch and iPhone 5. When I get home at the end of the day, both the iPad and iPod connect to my home network while I am still in the driveway. The phone never does and ALWAYS has to be connected manually. It does this easily and it stays connected til I take it out of range, but what is the difference that makes it unable to connect automatically. Mildly annoying.

Same thing happen to me with my 3 iDevices, iPhone has not near as good reception as iPad and iTouch always have to get closer to router for it to connect. It's a nightmare sometimes.

**SeanHRCC** · 02-05-2013, 08:55 AM

You may want to reset your network settings on the iPhone 5 and then make sure you have your home network as a "known" network so that it auto connects. I've never had that issue with any of my iPhone's.

**lauriep05** · 02-05-2013, 11:46 AM

I will check all of that and report back. Thanks!

**lauriep05** · 02-05-2013, 06:08 PM

Ok, I have compared all settings between iPad and iPhone and all are the same. The only difference I can find is a very small difference in the IP address. On the iPad, it is 192.168.1.54. On the phone, it is 192.168.1.3. Could that be it, or is it a difference in the device hardware?

**SeanHRCC** · 02-05-2013, 07:46 PM

Is any other computer or device using that IP on your network?

**lauriep05** · 02-05-2013, 10:35 PM

Hmmm, will check. I have a laptop, but never checked the IP address. Stay tuned...

**lauriep05** · 02-06-2013, 08:50 AM

Nope, that isn't it. When I go into settings on the phone and click on WiFi, it immediately identifies my network, and connects easily when I click on it. It just won't do it automatically.

**linsiris** · 02-06-2013, 09:58 AM

I know what your problem is, chances are your iPhone has the same problem as mine. Good for the people that don't have this problem, but like us there are thousands of others, check this apple forum, they describe all the known wifi issues with iPhone 5

**SeanHRCC** · 02-06-2013, 10:23 AM

laurie, your problem seems to certainly be something that might require a replacement device from Apple...and since it's still under warranty, and it's not working up to the standards you expect, bring it back, let them replace it (make sure you're backed up to the iCloud first though to save you some time).

**iandrewj** · 02-06-2013, 03:14 PM

Could be the different wifi router brands out there as well. Could range from an old router to new, cheap to quality device. I've mentioned this before and I'll mention it again; when I was in tech support I had more wifi connectivity issues with Apple devices than any other. The ISP I worked for covers half the country so it wasn't a localized issue, it was/is widespread. Most of the time it came down to a setting on the router call Auto-channel.

Log into your router and in the wifi settings (probably under Advanced, again, depends on the router menu structure) look for a setting call Auto Channel. Take it off Auto channel and select a hard-coded channel. I highly recommend ch. 11, 1 or 6 (in that order of testing) as those 3 channels will not over-lap each other. Not having the over-lap will reduce noise interference greatly. There is nothing you have to do on the iDevice side

Give it a shot and see if that works for you and good luck!

**lauriep05** · 03-06-2013, 10:54 PM

Just thought I would report in how I finally solved this. I had been matching the WiFi settings between the three devices an on the iPad and iPod Touch, the "Ask to join networks" setting was turned to off, so I left it off on the phone, too. Last weekend, while being frustrated with the problem again, I just by chance turned this setting to "on" and voila! The phone now joins my home network automatically just as the other two devices do. Why this setting needs to be on for the phone and is off on the others is beyond me, but I don't care. It is working! Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions!

**linsiris** · 03-07-2013, 10:18 PM

Well I had wifi differences in all my devices compared to ip5, so I decided to go back to my carrier and explain the problem and after 15 days of wait (yes 15) because a week after they got my phone the technician simply erased it and restored it (which I did a thousand times) and said he couldn't see the problem so they tried to give me the same faulty phone back! I just decided to show them the problem so I took my iPod touch and compared it side by side with iP5 (touch showed a couple of wifi signals while iPhone showed none) and he could see (and understand) what I meant.

Finally they just gave me a new phone and this one works good so far, haven't had the same wifi issues as with the first one.
So my advice is that if some of you are cracking your head trying to figure out why your iP5 has serious wifi issues just go to an apple store, this devices are supposed to work flawlessly out of the box! (Like the new one I got).