Can't keep wifi connection active on home wifi network (Belkin), works fine elsewhere

The simple fact there is no real standard for "N " routers much that most people think there is and many new devices including the iPad and other tablets, phones plus gaming machines sometimes do not connect or connect and drop off without warning. The other issue is the security set up again it can cause problems I have replaced my clients routers and my own whom had problems with a N 600 or N300 net gear and all works great. In most cases the older modems worked fine with computers but in saying that we also found a couple ASUS new models were intermittent on Belkin modems 1 year old.

With security on a net gear modem routers/ routers, the recommended setting in *security options is wpa-ask+wpa2-psk.
The router i recommend is netgear N600 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router
And modem router. Netgear N300 WIRELESS ADSL +2 MODEM ROUTER
The above give fast performance which suits gaming as well as general downloads.
I do not recommend buying just any brand based on price as you will regret it in the long run. I totally understand there are other excellent brands available but understand where I am coming from is if it works all the time why rock the boat stay with what works.

Hi All,

I've had the same ongoing issue with my iPad dropping wifi while connected to my Belkin N+. I have the opportunity to test scenario's because I have an N+ at my home and one I installed at my parents home. I was experiencing the same issue at both places. The symptoms are that the connection times out unless I am actively browsing or doing something else to use the network which keeps the connection alive. For example, if I leave Pandora running, my connection stays alive indefinitely. The connection drops after about 3-5 minutes of inactivity. The only way I've found to reactivate the connection is by turning wifi off in Settings and then turn it immediately back on.

The issue seems directly related to the wifi security method. I had both routers set us to use WPA-2 with a passphrase (by the way, my 24" iMac has the same exact issue with dropping WPA-2 wifi connections). I changed the wifi back to WEP (128 bit) and haven't had an issue with dropping wifi since.

I've played with all the Belkin settings related to multi media, etc. The bottom line seems to be an incompatibility between the Apple and Belkin implementation of WPA-2. Who's right? Well, I can tell you that I have 4 PC's between the two locations running Windows 7 and XP Pro that never had issues dropping wifi with the Belkin N+ set to WPA-2.

I've been having the same exact problem. I have to turn the wifi connection off then on whenever I wake my iPad up from sleep mode. This only happens like everyone else said, on my home network. I'm not very pc savvy but I have re-set my wireless router several times and messed with the settings and still nothing. I have checked other forums and some people say that it's the router and others say that it is deff the iPad... I'm gonna try switching out my router but if that doesn't work I deff won't be buying a new one lol. Ne suggestions tho? I'm always open for trying new things.

Sent from my iPad using iPF

Have you try change channels? 1-6 or 11?

Strange as it may seem, some people think that using a 802.11n router will improve the performance of their network that has only 802.11b/g clients. It won't. 802.11n uses different technology, including MIMO, to achieve higher throughput.

Using a 802.11g client with an 11n router will get you a maximum link rate of 54 Mbps and around 22 Mbps of actual, usable throughput. Only an 802.11n client has what it takes to get higher throughput from a draft 11n router.

Using 802.11n won't improve your WLAN range, either. Take a look at the throughput vs. path loss (signal level) charts over here and note that they all tend to end at the same point. Draft 802.11n can provide higher throughput at a given location than 802.11b/g and in that way turn a borderline-usable location into a happy web-surfing spot. But it won't get you a signal in that hard-to-reach bedroom on the top floor any better than an 802.11g router will.

Don't Connect Draft 11n and 11b/g clients to the same router
An 802.11n router can also work with 802.11g and even 11b devices. But these much slower devices force the router to slow down to talk to them, which means a big throughput hit. Fortunately, the "legacy" mechanisms are pretty efficient and reduce throughput only when the slower devices are actively transmitting or receiving.
Don't Replace When Upgrading to 802.11n, mixing 11n and "legacy" clients can reduce throughput by 50 to 80%. So if you are mixing old and new devices, you could be shooting yourself in the (throughput) foot. Either upgrade to all 11n clients, or use a separate 802.11g router to handle your "legacy" stuff.

When it comes to home wireless, whether B,G,N, doesn't really matter, the IPad sucks. I've learned don't ever turn the thing off because you may never get connected or stay connected. However; if I simply leave it on, all is well....go figure. How a strictly wireless device is having such trouble is beyond me. 3 laptops and 2 workstations have NO issues connecting wirelessly....ever. So many excuses but it does not fly with me at all. Maybe the next OS will fix it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ipadeye

Have you try change channels? 1-6 or 11?

---

I have tried many different channels. None of them helped. I even used a wifi channel scan to find channels with lower traffic. No dice.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ipadeye

Strange as it may seem, some people think that using a 802.11n router will improve the performance of their network that has only 802.11b/g clients. It won't. 802.11n uses different technology, including MIMO, to achieve higher throughput.

---

Not sure if this is helpful here. The iPad definitely supports 802.11n, and all my other wifi devices do too. I guess if you're using the iPad on a network that has older devices, your suggestion is "don't"? Haven't heard that one before.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by col.bris

The simple fact there is no real standard for "N " routers much that most people think there is and many new devices including the iPad and other tablets, phones plus gaming machines sometimes do not connect or connect and drop off without warning. The other issue is the security set up again it can cause problems I have replaced my clients routers and my own whom had problems with a N 600 or N300 net gear and all works great. In most cases the older modems worked fine with computers but in saying that we also found a couple ASUS new models were intermittent on Belkin modems 1 year old.

---

I think this helps explain the problem other users and I are seeing. The imprementation of the 802.11n or WPA specification in the router and the iPad may be slightly different, in which case the two don't work well together. This would explain why some routers play nice with the iPad and some don't. It would also suggest that the blame lays with Apple, since they should be the ones to put robust protocols in their devices guaranteed to work with most major manufacturers of routers. It also makes the case for any solution other than buying a new router pretty hopeless.

Thanks for the tip!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by soppliger

The issue seems directly related to the wifi security method. I had both routers set us to use WPA-2 with a passphrase (by the way, my 24" iMac has the same exact issue with dropping WPA-2 wifi connections). I changed the wifi back to WEP (128 bit) and haven't had an issue with dropping wifi since.

---

Together with the comment from col.bris, I think this goes a long way to explain what's wrong here. Perhaps it's the implementation of the WPA protocol that differs in some incompatible way. So who should provide a firmware fix? Apple or Belkin? I really don't like the idea of putting my whole network on WEP (every website I read on the topic puts a huge DANGER sign on WEP). Maybe I'll try it and let you know if it works.