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Wifigate Part 2

Those of you that have been following me on twitter know recently I have been having issues with my IPhone 4 and WIFI. My Ipad using the same applications and access point downloading the same podcasts does not struggle whereas the IPhone 4 does. The files it really struggles with are the Phones Show chat and Video.

Recently I have stopped with a friend for a short break who gave me access to the Internet via his netgear router. I wasn't really expecting anything better than I currently had at home in terms of performance of the IPhone over WIFI but I was surprised - the phone just worked as it should do. I did some testing of the podcasts that has previously caused issues and it just worked.

I subsequently checked my friends settings and found they were all similar to mine and started to look around on the Internet for answers. From reading it began referring to threshold settings for the wifi and retransmit values to try but I found my router did not have this level of configuration.

I already have 2 wireless routers on my network set up as access points to ensure I am connected as I move throughout the house. These are not using the WDS (wireless distribution system) as they are not compatible. However I have found using both my netgear DG834PN and the supplied O2 wireless box III neither work well with the IPhone 4.

I decided to test a third router I had lying about - a Huawei DMR100 which us a 3g router. I configured this as an access point and to only use the DHCP server on my main router. This was then connected to my LAN using homeplug over a 11mb connection. To my surprise it is performing just as it did at my friends house and is downloading the podcasts with no issues at an acceptable speed. Whereas connecting direct to my main router or the wireless box when I used this both was very slow to the point of not usable.

So whilst I am lot happier to have found the issue and been able to get a workaround it does prove one thing - the IPhone 4 is certainly picky on what router it wants to connect to and after trying 5 I am glad to put this problem to bed. It also has the plus that I will now keep the phone for a little while longer.



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