Can An iPhone "Crash" My Wireless Network?

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

So as the thread title states, would it be possible for my iPhone to somehow knock out my entire Wireless Network?

Not sure if it is a coincidence or not, but 2 times now in the past 4 days when I have come home from work, my Wireless Network goes down pretty much as soon as I walk in the door. I know this as my wife works from home, and her work laptop is connected to a VPN through my Wireless Network.

I do more often than not leave my iPhone WiFi on, so basically when I get home it just auto connects to my WiFi Network.

So is this actually possible? Or is it just a mere coincidence?

I should add that last night, my laptop actually got booted off my network as well. I was able to connect to my alternate WiFi network I have setup and then I was immediately able to connect back to my main WiFi network. As far as my alternate network, it is an access point in my upstairs that was originally going to be a repeater, but I decided to just set it up as a compositely different Wireless N network. When I remember to I switch to it upstairs with my iPhone/iPad. It has been setup like this for about 5 months now, so if it is somehow it causing the issue, it is weird it took all this time to do so.

So back to the main issue, if my iPhone is somehow causing my entire Wireless Network to crash for a few seconds when I enter my home, is there anything I can do to fix it? I did just reset my router completely, so will see how that makes out, but literally this is a pretty serious issue as my wife's work completely relies on the VPN connection, and she always loses data every-time this happens.

TIA for any help.

DL

[Scorbing]

I am going to tell you something very funny that is happening to me right now and has been happening to me. My iMac is connected to my modem/router wirelessly and so is my laptop and my Apple TV. For some strange reason, I cannot use my iMac, Apple TV and iPhone on the internet at the same time!!!!!!

If I have my iMac "on" and connected and I turn on my Apple TV, the iMac disconnects from the internet. Same thing if I try to connect my iPhone to the wireless, my iMac or Apple TV gets disconnected or my iPhone won't connect at all. I can't explain it. It is super weird. If anyone has an explanation for this, please fell free to let me know!!!

[Shadrack]

DD-WRT if possible. I highly recommend installing a reliable 3rd party firmware like DD-WRT on yoru router if it is supported.

I had random issues with my Wireless-N Linksys router that were just driving me mad. I mean like rebooting it multiple times a day and IP conflicts and you name it. At one point the Wireless just stopped working altogether and I thought the router was dead. Took a chance and installed DD-WRT, and the thing works extremely well now. I think i've rebooted it twice since installing DD-WRT and the level of customization you can do with DD-WRT is amazing. Love it. Highly recommend it.

to somehow knock out my entire Wireless Network

How do you recover from this? Reset the router? Once reset can your iPhone connect along with your other devices just fine? It could be purely coincidental...i dunno.

P.S. If you go with DD-WRT, setting up IP address reservations for each of your devices would be a good thing to do IMHO. I setup all my families devices in the 192.168.1.2xx range and all others default to the 1xx range. This makes it easy to quickly look at my list of connections and spot any unusual activity and it also means a lot less IP conflicts. Between all of our computers, smartphones, and devices (xbox, directv, vonage), I think we are pushing about 20 wired and wireless connections. Before DD-WRT it seems one of the kiddoes would be asking me "why does this say I have a conflicting IP address?" all the damn time, lol.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I am going to tell you something very funny that is happening to me right now and has been happening to me. My iMac is connected to my modem/router wirelessly and so is my laptop and my Apple TV. For some strange reason, I cannot use my iMac, Apple TV and iPhone on the internet at the same time!!!!!!

If I have my iMac "on" and connected and I turn on my Apple TV, the iMac disconnects from the internet. Same thing if I try to connect my iPhone to the wireless, my iMac or Apple TV gets disconnected or my iPhone won't connect at all. I can't explain it. It is super weird. If anyone has an explanation for this, please fell free to let me know!!!

That is incredibly weird, definitely. But I cannot help but notice a common thread here. Both of us are having issues with Apple products. And IIRC, I believe they just did a Software Update for the Airport card in my Macbook. That is the laptop that got booted.

DD-WRT if possible. I highly recommend installing a reliable 3rd party firmware like DD-WRT on yoru router if it is supported.

I had random issues with my Wireless-N Linksys router that were just driving me mad. I mean like rebooting it multiple times a day and IP conflicts and you name it. At one point the Wireless just stopped working altogether and I thought the router was dead. Took a chance and installed DD-WRT, and the thing works extremely well now. I think i've rebooted it twice since installing DD-WRT and the level of customization you can do with DD-WRT is amazing. Love it. Highly recommend it.

How do you recover from this? Reset the router? Once reset can your iPhone connect along with your other devices just fine? It could be purely coincidental...i dunno.

3rd party firmware is not an option. Verizon FIOS is my ISP and (unfortunately) they provide their own router. An Actiontec MI424WR (Rev E).

If I could I would install it, as when I had a different ISP, I had the Hyper DD-WRT firmware on my Linksys WRT54G back in the day and did really like it.

And I do not have to reset the router, it just comes back up on it's own. That is why I changed the title to crash, as that is what happens, it is like the WiFi Network crashes, and then just boots up on it's own.

Really is bothering the hell out of me. I have literally had zero issues with my Network up until this past week and I have had the same router for over 3 years now. No new hardware on my network either. It just seems as if it is my iPhone that is the culprit as that is technically the only device that is on when I walk in the door. My Macbook is always powered down so it is not connecting.

[sc302 Veteran]

put in a router or wap behind the verizon pos actiontek to handle your wireless.

[Shadrack]

put in a router or wap behind the verizon pos actiontek to handle your wireless.

This (Y).

I'd just connect the actiontec to the "Internet port" on a decent router that I knew supported dd-wrt well. Then treat the actiontec as a modem (turn off the wireless and set your 1 connection, your real router, in the demilitarized zone.)

[+virtorio MVC]

Whenever I'm at my mothers house my iPad crashes her Belkin router every 4/5 times. The whole thing just freezes and all connected computers are immediately disconnected.

I've not yet managed to ever have my MacBook Pro and iPad on that router at the same time successfully.

My Windows laptop and Android phone (+ her Windows laptop) don't cause any problems with it.

[Scorbing]

I think Dirty Larry is right. There seems to be something weird going on with the Apple products not being able to all connect at the same time on the same wireless. I have had customers that call with the same issue and my GF has the same problem too. Very strange indeed.

[sc302 Veteran]

i have an ipad connected to my network with my bb, my computer, and my laptop and nothing drops for me. I think it is a crappy wireless.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

i have an ipad connected to my network with my bb, my computer, and my laptop and nothing drops for me. I think it is a crappy wireless.

Okay. Up until this past week when I started experiencing issues, I have...

2 iPads, 3 laptops (1 Macbook OS X 10.7.3, 1 Windows 7, 1 Windows XP), 2 iPhones, 1 iMac, 2 iPod Touches & 1 Printer, all connected via WiFi. That is 11 concurrent connections. If my math is correct, that is about 6 more things then you have. I have literally had this setup, or something very similar (in fact at one point more things connected via WiFi), for almost 4 years.

I also have 2 PS3's, my audio receiver, my TV, my Windows Based Gaming PC, my XBox 360, My Wii, 2 Printers, all connected via hard wire.

So Yes, Actiontec is not the best routers out there, but I really do not see how it is "crappy wireless" if it has not given me ZERO issues up until this point for literally the past 4 years. I can forward ports like any other routers. Set up DNS. Whatever the case may be. So yeah, really do not see how it is crappy. The best? Absolutely not. But 4 years it has been rock solid, so I hardly call that crappy.

But yeah, thanks for the constructive feedback.

I really do not see the need to install another router when this router has been perfectly fine for me all this time. I can do everything anyone else can do on other routers with it. I know this as prior to this I had other routers.

I really am trying to find out why in the past week it has been all of a sudden crapping out. If anyone can possibly provide a reason as to why it is happening, I appreciate it. Otherwise I already have the suggestion about adding another router. If the problem persists perhaps I will look into that, but I would rather fix the problem.

Also, just so people understand, apparently if I do go ahead and make the supplied modem from Verizon into a modem, I lose all my On Demand capabilities and also any ability to connect to Verizon's servers for my DVR, etc. This router also is the cable connection itself. It is what it is, so making it a modem, not an option. So again, I prefer to try and troubleshoot the issue itself.

[UndergroundWire]

No issues with my iPad 2, iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Player 5, Chromebook, Two Wired Desktop Computers running Windows 7 Ultimate Edition and one laptop running Windows 7 Professional.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

No issues with my iPad 2, iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Player 5, Chromebook, Two Wired Desktop Computers running Windows 7 Ultimate Edition and one laptop running Windows 7 Professional.

Again, as I stated, I have not had any issues in the past 4 years until this past week.

But thanks for sharing you are not having issues with your home network. That helps me troubleshoot the issue I am now having.

[UndergroundWire]

Again, as I stated, I have not had any issues in the past 4 years until this past week.

But thanks for sharing you are not having issues with your home network. That helps me troubleshoot the issue I am now having.

I should have also stated that I too have FiOS however, I turned off the wireless on the Actiontec Router and bought a more reliable Wireless router (Belkin).

[YouWhat]

Short answer is yes, there is known (by apple) issues that cause routers to crash, Facetime being the main culprit for this on the 4s, it seems to happen to quite a lot of users out there me included, and it supposed to be fixed in iOS 5.1 when they release it, till then there is nothing you can do to stop this from what I have been told and have read as the idevice sends the occasional rouge thing to router which causes the crash, so I am assuming it is something in the uPnP (although I could be wrong on this)

[majortom1981]

That is incredibly weird, definitely. But I cannot help but notice a common thread here. Both of us are having issues with Apple products. And IIRC, I believe they just did a Software Update for the Airport card in my Macbook. That is the laptop that got booted.

3rd party firmware is not an option. Verizon FIOS is my ISP and (unfortunately) they provide their own router. An Actiontec MI424WR (Rev E).

If I could I would install it, as when I had a different ISP, I had the Hyper DD-WRT firmware on my Linksys WRT54G back in the day and did really like it.

And I do not have to reset the router, it just comes back up on it's own. That is why I changed the title to crash, as that is what happens, it is like the WiFi Network crashes, and then just boots up on it's own.

Really is bothering the hell out of me. I have literally had zero issues with my Network up until this past week and I have had the same router for over 3 years now. No new hardware on my network either. It just seems as if it is my iPhone that is the culprit as that is technically the only device that is on when I walk in the door. My Macbook is always powered down so it is not connecting.

YEs it is. The deli i visit every day has a verizon fios router and i cannot use wifi in the area of his router at all. I cannot even use another access point. I wonder if its the router and not your iphone since it happens to me with a fios router also.

[DirtyLarry Veteran]

I should have also stated that I too have FiOS however, I turned off the wireless on the Actiontec Router and bought a more reliable Wireless router (Belkin).

Indeed, that little bit of information about also having FIOS helps tremendously. I was thinking to myself "thanks for sharing, but how is that relevant to me." :laugh:

Short answer is yes, there is known (by apple) issues that cause routers to crash, Facetime being the main culprit for this on the 4s, it seems to happen to quite a lot of users out there me included, and it supposed to be fixed in iOS 5.1 when they release it, till then there is nothing you can do to stop this from what I have been told and have read as the idevice sends the occasional rouge thing to router which causes the crash, so I am assuming it is something in the uPnP (although I could be wrong on this)

YEs it is. The deli i visit every day has a verizon fios router and i cannot use wifi in the area of his router at all. I cannot even use another access point. I wonder if its the router and not your iphone since it happens to me with a fios router also.

Okay thanks for the replies. I am leaning towards the fact that something happened with the iPhone itself recently that is causing it. Because as I shared, zero issues up until this past week. So history is telling me it is not the router if I did not have issues in the past. So I think some kind of App Update, or some kind of iOS Software Update, or something along those lines that is the culprit. Just to many Apple users in this thread alone saying they have issues with WiFi and their Apple devices. So I am going to try disabling some services on my iPhone and take it from there.

Thanks All. (Y)

[+BudMan MVC]

"so I am assuming it is something in the uPnP"

I would turn this off as first option on router - this in theory could be interacting with your router that could in theory cause it grief in malformed requests, etc. But shouldn't take the whole router down -- maybe causes upnp not to function.

Might be dhcp as well -- some sort of malformed request or something the router just doesn't like.. So you could try setting IP to static on devices vs dhcp. But this shouldn't crash the whole router - it should at worse crash the dhcp server on the router.

Next thing is I guess a bad dns query could cause the dns service on the router to crash the thing.. Point to different dns than your router. Again should only crash that services -- which maybe it is? What exactly happens when this happens? Can you not access the routers gui, can you not ping anything by IP.. What are the symptoms in detail vs it doesn't work ;)

I do find it hard to believe that device is crashing the AP -- having issue with using it, ok -- but crash the whole thing so nobody can use it.. This seems like buggy code on the router side. Even if sending messed up packets, shouldn't crash the router.. This would clearly be a FUN exploit... Crashing all the open AP ;) hehehe j/k

If you really want to get to the bottom of it -- I would say you should fire up wireless sniffing and take a look at exactly when the thing crashes on what packets were sent.

If anyone has any links to info about apple products crashing wireless routers I would be interested in links.

[Astra.Xtreme]

I'm not sure if this would make a difference or not, but you could try to change the wireless channel. It could just be simple interference that's causing the network to stutter.

[Shadrack]

Okay. Up until this past week when I started experiencing issues, I have...

2 iPads, 3 laptops (1 Macbook OS X 10.7.3, 1 Windows 7, 1 Windows XP), 2 iPhones, 1 iMac, 2 iPod Touches & 1 Printer, all connected via WiFi. That is 11 concurrent connections. If my math is correct, that is about 6 more things then you have. I have literally had this setup, or something very similar (in fact at one point more things connected via WiFi), for almost 4 years.

I also have 2 PS3's, my audio receiver, my TV, my Windows Based Gaming PC, my XBox 360, My Wii, 2 Printers, all connected via hard wire.

So Yes, Actiontec is not the best routers out there, but I really do not see how it is "crappy wireless" if it has not given me ZERO issues up until this point for literally the past 4 years. I can forward ports like any other routers. Set up DNS. Whatever the case may be. So yeah, really do not see how it is crappy. The best? Absolutely not. But 4 years it has been rock solid, so I hardly call that crappy.

But yeah, thanks for the constructive feedback.

I really do not see the need to install another router when this router has been perfectly fine for me all this time. I can do everything anyone else can do on other routers with it. I know this as prior to this I had other routers.

I really am trying to find out why in the past week it has been all of a sudden crapping out. If anyone can possibly provide a reason as to why it is happening, I appreciate it. Otherwise I already have the suggestion about adding another router. If the problem persists perhaps I will look into that, but I would rather fix the problem.

Also, just so people understand, apparently if I do go ahead and make the supplied modem from Verizon into a modem, I lose all my On Demand capabilities and also any ability to connect to Verizon's servers for my DVR, etc. This router also is the cable connection itself. It is what it is, so making it a modem, not an option. So again, I prefer to try and troubleshoot the issue itself.

I've had wireless routers start acting up on me in 3-4 years time. To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me if the router wasn't working as well today as it did when it was brand new. Some routers have the "reset" button on the back with special instructions on how to REALLY reset the router. Like Linksys routers you hold reset for 30 seconds, unplug for 30 seconds, plug back in for 30 seconds (all while holding reset), and release the reset. This completely resets the software which I've found works in most cases of routers acting up.

That being said, all WiFi sends signals over the air at the same frequency. It is possible that Apple products may interact with WiFi in such a way that the signals coming from other devices can't compete and then drop off the network (I'm just guessing).

Changing the channel is a good idea. Are you surrounded by a bunch of other APs from neighbors?

Again, as someone who has been through several wireless routers at home all my problems went away with a DD-WRT setup.

[shockz]

I've noticed whenever my brother comes home with his Mac every few months, the network craps out and the router needs rebooted. The router never needs rebooting until the Mac comes home lol.

[LaP]

I am going to tell you something very funny that is happening to me right now and has been happening to me. My iMac is connected to my modem/router wirelessly and so is my laptop and my Apple TV. For some strange reason, I cannot use my iMac, Apple TV and iPhone on the internet at the same time!!!!!!

If I have my iMac "on" and connected and I turn on my Apple TV, the iMac disconnects from the internet. Same thing if I try to connect my iPhone to the wireless, my iMac or Apple TV gets disconnected or my iPhone won't connect at all. I can't explain it. It is super weird. If anyone has an explanation for this, please fell free to let me know!!!

They are all set to use the same static IP adress ?

[2xSilverKnight]

Another reason why I don't like Apple products and never bought one. I just won an iPod touch once ....

My father has a problem at work with his iPhone, nobody can connect to the network with their own iPhones ... but all other devices are fine (Android), including the iPad they use to monitor the machinery when they have to step away from the control center.

[LaP]

I personally never had any problem connecting to a network using my ipod. On my personal wifi home network, at the job on the train or hotels.

[winrez]

Also, just so people understand, apparently if I do go ahead and make the supplied modem from Verizon into a modem, I lose all my On Demand capabilities and also any ability to connect to Verizon's servers for my DVR, etc. This router also is the cable connection itself. It is what it is, so making it a modem, not an option. So again, I prefer to try and troubleshoot the issue itself.

Might be a pain but maybe a reset on the iPad as maybe a background app is causing the crash or check if there were any updates to any apps over the last 4 weeks.

[2xSilverKnight]

I personally never had any problem connecting to a network using my ipod. On my personal wifi home network, at the job on the train or hotels.

Are you using IOS 5 ?