Hello,
Maybe a little off topic, but I just had a automotive body shop owner return 6 iPads after having them for a few days. He had called me to set up his wireless network. He has 3 locations, all with multiple wifi hotspots (in ceiling). The iPads would NOT connect reliably. It didn't matter if there was NO security, WEP, or WPA.. sometimes it would connect, most of the time it would not. If it did connect, then it would randomly drop the connection, or not work at all... says it was connected, but no data transfer. Sometimes the iPad wouldn't even show the hotspot in the list. His Apple G5 system works fine, his Dell box and laptops work fine as well.
Bashing iPads is not my intention here, but he just wanted to do some Exchange server stuff (Which the iPad handles) for his business, and have his employees walk to the lot with customer, look at a busted car and take notes, do the quote, etc. Can't do it if you can't get on the network.
In closing, we tried 3 of the 6 iPads (Thought maybe the first two we opened were defective). I don't understand why the iPads were having such a hard time, it's not like Apple made a "Special" wifi chip, they buy the chip from someone else (Cisco, Broadcom, Atheros).. which leads me to believe there is a bit more work to be done in that area (Software, or PCB revision).
Have any of you guys/gals experienced this problem? I would find it hard to believe that we opened three bad iPads in a row! Googling iPad Wireless problems came up with this..
"According to Apple, the iPad might not automatically rejoin known WiFi networks using third-party routers that are dual-band capable (802.11 b/g and 802.11 n) when each band’s network uses the same name or use different security settings."
So apple's answer is to buy Non-Third Party routers, and change your entire network to suit the iPad. I protest when Apple doesn't want to follow standards, and tells me that a Cisco wireless router is not good enough.
Sincerely,
