Forum Discussion

dooog911's avatar
dooog911
Network Novice
3 years ago

i-pad drops internet

Just installed t-mobile gateway a couple weeks ago worked fine, now my wife’s iPad drops wifi periodically all our other devices do not have an issue including my iPad .

Not to techie not sure what to do

  • We are having the very same issue. It happen several times a day with my wife’s ipad, and maybe once or twice a day with mine. But it seems not to be the T-Mobile cellular signal, but its built in wifi router. I.e., I added another router to the T-Mobile cellular device and connected both ipads to that router and not the T-Mobile wifi signal. Lo and behold, the problem has gone away. So it appears it’s the T-Mobile wifi signal that is the problem, and not the T-Mobile cellular internet connection. BTW, before I switched to a new wifi router we got around the problem by turning wifi off then on again on the ipad. 

     

  • With the prior generation wireless adapters (pre 802.11ax) it might have something to do with the way the gateway handles band steering which is one of the features of 802.11ax which is a bit different in operation than 802.11ac. I cannot say for sure as I am not a wireless expert. I have some knowledge of wireless but not enough to pull that apart. Anyway if the router added is not 802.11ax but an 802.11ac router then that might explain why the various Apple devices are happy with that as they probably are not 802.11ax possibly. I do not know when Apple started actually pushing the 802.11ax adapters out in the various product lines. I am just going to guess that the problem has more to do with the gateway firmware rather than the adapters in the Apple devices as the newer protocol tech should still allow backward compatibility. The Nokia I have does not give me grief about my older devices. Ok sure printers that only like 2.4 GHz yes indeed but most clients even older ones do work. 

    Maybe it is the authentication type on the three radios are not equivalent? Check that the 2.4 GHz, the 5Ghz low band and 5Ghz high band radios have WPA/WPA2/WPA3. If the client’s connection changes frequency and the authentication type it was needing is not there on the other radio it might cause the failure. It is one thing that can be checked just to know and be sure.

  • Ipad does the same thing. Constantly disconnecting from wifi. Very irritating. Iphone is fine. Ipad is up to date. 

  • Rishey's avatar
    Rishey
    Newbie Caller

    Same issue here. Very frustrating.  Replaced iPad with a new one. Same issue. 9th gen iPad. 

  • DaveH's avatar
    DaveH
    Roaming Rookie

    I talked to T-Mobile support.  They are aware of this “ipad” issue and are trying to come up with a fix.  Replacing ipads won’t make any difference.  The decent thing for them to do would be to send out a broadcast e-mail to customers so folks won’t waste money and time buying new ipads.

     

    But I guess they are just gutless cowards.

  • Mm44mm44's avatar
    Mm44mm44
    Roaming Rookie

    That’s great. Thx for the info. Unfortunately I may be forced to run back to Spectrum. 
     

    my T-Mobile wifi is just not great. 
     

     

  • If the problem does not appear to be location specific then other things to check. If the drops tend to happen in a particular location in the home then maybe the signal is not consistent & that iPad is just a bit more sensitive to the drop in signal strength. At any rate please look below & check a few things out. Hopefully something here helps. If not maybe some other user has seen similar problems & has a solid line on it. I have several iPads in our home and they seem to hold really well. 

    Check the Software Version & compare it to another in the house. If the age of the iPads are similar and have the same software version one would think they would behave in a similar manner. If it needs a software update, or it is pending installation then update it and see if it improves. 

    Settings > General Info > About (to check the current software version)

    Settings > General Info > Software Update (to know it is up to date) [15.4.1 is the most recent 15]

    You can check the WIFI settings on hers & compare them to another iPad that is working fine.

    If you are not technical then you could take it to an Apple store and have an “expert” check it out. Of course make a reservation to avoid wasting more time. 

    -OR- Give it a try with the fixes listed in the article. 

    https://appletoolbox.com/ipad-wi-fi-problems-comprehensive-list-of-fixes/

  • Mm44mm44's avatar
    Mm44mm44
    Roaming Rookie

    I have the same issue. T-Mobile and Apple pass the buck. 
     

    I don’t understand how 2 new 9th gen iPads have the same connectivity issues with T-Mobile gateway and all other Apple devices are fine. 
    I am sure someone knows something. 
     

    I don’t want to have to get Charter back in my house. Help!

  • Mm44mm44's avatar
    Mm44mm44
    Roaming Rookie

    This is the 2nd new iPad. While the old one works perfectly. Still.