Can An iPhone "Crash" My Wireless Network?

[JJ_]

I've never managed to crash my routers wireless even although I've successfully crashed others' by using the IP Scanner app.

Its odd that your networks are crashing after devices using ios 6.xx connect. Maybe there is something ios6 devices do that the routers fall over. To the poster above, Google your TP Link routers part number and DD-WRT for instructions on setting up DD-WRT on it. I'd like to see if you get the same issue

[AppleMakesMyRouterCrash]

Its odd that your networks are crashing after devices using ios 6.xx connect. Maybe there is something ios6 devices do that the routers fall over. To the poster above, Google your TP Link routers part number and DD-WRT for instructions on setting up DD-WRT on it. I'd like to see if you get the same issue

Thanks for the tip JJ_, but trying out DD-WRT will probably cause other problems / issues with my HW version of the WR1043ND which I'd like to prevent.

Also, please note that I'm experiencing the same thing on different locations, with different internet providers and with different brands (and base chipsets) of routers which all seem to work near perfectly with non-Apple devices. There's simply something going haywire with Apple products' wi-fi connectivity... just have a look at how many people post on the Apple Forums with all sorts of wi-fi connectivity drop issues. People try everything possible without any solution... while Apple stays completely silent for a few years already. It clearly has something to do how the Apple products connect (or stay connected) to routers. As said it seems to be especially problematic not when staying connected indoors for a longer time, but when returning or leaving the wi-fi area. (Only the iMac seems to be unable to keep a connection throughout the day... iPhones and iPads seem to stay pretty stable when they don't have to reconnect)

An additional note: sometimes my iPhones will drop the wi-fi connection spontaneously, defaulting back to 3G. After that my other devices still have a working data connection but the iPhone is unable to connect to the router anymore. (it does show up in the list of networks though...) Only way to get it back to work is to do a hard reboot of the phone, after which it connects perfectly again. This has been with all 6.x.x firmwares up to date.

My goal therefore would be to try to diagnose the problem and see if we can somehow narrow down the actual cause as that's my only current idea left after trying all sorts of trial-and-error component and firmware replacements.

Does someone have any idea what's worth to log and how to log it? (I'm no network protocol expert...)

[mwc]

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

You buy another 3rd party router, use your Actiontec MI424WR in bridge/modem mode, and then use the 3rd party router as your main...

I just noticed this is a old topic. Never mind.

[PamelaJD]

Old topic here, but I've been having the exact same issue for a long time now. I JUST made the association this week that it's our iPhones that are causing the problem. In fact if I switch off wifi on the iphones then the wireless starts working again on it's own within 5 minutes.

For months now, I have been unplugging the modem and replugging it again.

I'm still waiting for a solution that a novice can do. I find it amazing and frustrating that the iPhones are causing this problem. I don't want to have to use the iphones on 3G in my own home! In fact I had been yelling at my teenagers to make sure they are on wifi in the house, and now I'm yelling at them the opposite! They already thought I was nuts, and now they think they have proof. :wacko:

There MUST be a fix for this! Please! :(

btw, we are on 6.1.3 version on iphones.

[einsteinbqat]

Old topic here, but I've been having the exact same issue for a long time now. I JUST made the association this week that it's our iPhones that are causing the problem. In fact if I switch off wifi on the iphones then the wireless starts working again on it's own within 5 minutes.

(?)

Thanks for the tip JJ_, but trying out DD-WRT will probably cause other problems / issues with my HW version of the WR1043ND which I'd like to prevent.

(?)

I've never managed to crash my routers wireless even although I've successfully crashed others' by using the IP Scanner app.

(?)

Hi all,

Just created a Neowin account just to post my reaction here... as I'm frustrated as h!#ll since I'm searching for a solution for soooo long. This seems the only place where people have concluded (like me) by elimination trials that it simply HAS to be something to do with Apple product's Wi-Fi connectivity. I hope some of you might have some new insights and experiences to share!

(?)

*** Update (again) ***

:cry: We're back to mac-banning all iPhones. All iPhones are on iOS 6.1.2 and within 5 minutes on connection to the wireless network (does not matter from which access point) the modem/router crashes and reboots, causing network/internet failure for all computers and devices conected to that modem/router through various switches :angry: . (?)

Whew! I'm not crazy! I have been having the same issues as everyone else. What finally revealed the culprit was the other night when my daughter arrived home from work with her iPhone 5. My gaming rig is located above the garage and once she arrived home and the garage door went up the wifi/router/modem crashed. (?)

Weird experiences. I do not have any of those problems.

There is one dual-band (5 GHz band is N-dedicated, and the 2,4 GHz is G-dedicated) AirPort Extreme (firmware 7.6.3) running over here to which the following are connected :

1 AirPort Express (firmware 7.6.3) on 5 GHz

1 iMac (ML 10.8.3) on 5 GHz

1 Mac mini (ML 10.8.3) on 5 GHz

1 MacBook Pro (ML 10.8.3) on 5 GHz

1 Mac Pro (ML 10.8.3) on 5 GHz

1 Apple TV (1080p, 5.2.1) on 5 GHz

1 Windows PC on 5 GHz

1 iPad 2 (6.1.3) on 2,4 GHz

3 iPhones (6.1.3) on 2,4 GHz

1 iPod touch (6.1.3) on 2,4 GHz

1 Wii on 2,4 GHz

1 Printer on 2,4 GHz

1 Sharp Quattron Aquos on 2,4 GHz

1 Samsung Blu-Ray/DVD player on 2,4 GHz

This AirPort has been running flawlessly as far as I can remember. All of the devices can be connected at the same time without a problem.

[Rob van Walbeek]

After the router's wi-fi has 'crashed' all devices will default back to using 3G or LAN if available. (mostly LAN keeps working, sometimes all internet connectivity is gone...)

Is it just the router's wifi of the router itself that crashes? In our situation the modem/router starts to restart/reboot itself, hence loosing all internet connection during boot cycle. LAN connectivity is not lost, but internet connection through LAN is also lost on all connected devices.

Also, to confirm the experiences of others, I ONLY have this problem with Apple products. Every other platform or brand works seamlessly in combination with my router for a month or so.

In our situation we haven't had any problems over a year. The setup has not changed since 2009 and has had 1 iPhone in the network from the start. The problem started just over a year ago (have to look up my previous post for exact date, but not important). Only by elimination the problem was traced to Apple products. As stated before: all other devices work fine and as long as I keep my network free of Apples no interuption of the network will occur.

Thanks in advance! Hoping we can combine our knowledge to squash this thing once and for all. (or at least find the culprit... as the router manufacturer will point to Apple and Apple obviously points to the router manufacturer..)

second!

(P.S. My router is a TP-Link WR1043ND and its 'SYS' light stops blinking (either in On or in Off position) as soon as the Wi-Fi stops working, which seems to only occur when an Apple product has tried to logon or has connected a little while.)

Our modem router is a Thomson TG789vn and is connected Cisco 24port switch. Wifi is not established through the modem/router itself, but we have 2 accesspoints, Linksys and EnGenius, in the building (which makes it easy to identify the culprit). Upon failure the lights on the modem/router go out and the system lights start blinking, and after a minute or so other lights start comming on blinking or not. This is normal when the modem/router is booting, therfore I know for sure the modem/router is rebooting. Just try unplugging the router and plugging it in again. Are same lights blinking? It is booting...

The modem/router is already new, provided by the ISP. It was replaced because the previous modem (Siemens) was unstable. At that time the problem of Apple products was not yet identified and a new modem/router was places without succes.

Its odd that your networks are crashing after devices using ios 6.xx connect. Maybe there is something ios6 devices do that the routers fall over.

It is not just iOs 6, The iPhones were on 5.xxx when problems started. We have also tried with an iPad that was on iOs 4.xxx. Also caused the same trouble...

My goal therefore would be to try to diagnose the problem and see if we can somehow narrow down the actual cause as that's my only current idea left after trying all sorts of trial-and-error component and firmware replacements.

Does someone have any idea what's worth to log and how to log it? (I'm no network protocol expert...)

I hope we can resolve it. Mac filtering iPhones isn't exactly a solution, but not having our PC's loose internet connection has priority. Logging of the modem/router does not work on our end: because of the reboot, the log on the device has been deleted.

I just noticed this is a old topic. Never mind.

Since the problem still excist and we are not alone, the topic is still current.... Unfortunately.

In fact if I switch off wifi on the iphones then the wireless starts working again on it's own within 5 minutes.

If it is the same as with us, the time you mention is the reboot cycle, after which the internet comes back up. Not related to switching of WiFi on the phones. However, if you do not switch wifi off you are at risk of loosing connection again.

For months now, I have been unplugging the modem and replugging it again.

Since the modem was already rebooting on our end, it was just doing that already by itself. Just wait a couple of minutes and it comes online again.

Weird experiences. I do not have any of those problems.

There is one dual-band (5 GHz band is N-dedicated, and the 2,4 GHz is G-dedicated) AirPort Extreme (firmware 7.6.3) running over here to which the following are connected :

...

This AirPort has been running flawlessly as far as I can remember. All of the devices can be connected at the same time without a problem.

An AirPort is a dedicated Apple router, it would be strange if an Apple router crashes with Apple products. I assume that everybody that experiences "crashes" has a router from a different brand. Maybe it is a ploy by Apple to have everyone buy an AirPort Apple router, just to have Apple products connect to a network without interupting that network ;-)

[expphoto]

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.

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.

Completely agree. I've DD-WRT'd all the routers I've owned. Makes them more stable and adds tons of features.

I've seen more issues with stock Firmware than anything else. Try DD-WRT and see if it works for you. Also, with that, I stay away from routers that aren't Linksys (DD-WRT compatible models) and Buffalo (which come with DD-WRT). Belkin and Netgear are junk IMO.

[cleverclogs]

I believe they can. We use an Asus router/modem and it's publically accessible. Pretty much everytime an iDevice connects to it, it buggers up and has to be rebooted.

[martynhsmith1]

I'm struggling with the same issue

 

I was with talk talk and my router kept needed restarting

then I moved to plus net and used plusnet router and it needed restarting

Then I bought a link sys router - still had problems

Then after talking at work I thought I was 'over powering the router' I bought - Phicomm 150Mbps Wireless N WiFi Access Point

It still breaks down 

 

 

Then my Girlfriend moved in - At this point it became obvious she walks in the door and it dies

60% of the time it will just take out the AP - Can't ping it or HTTP to it

40% of the time it takes out the AP and my linksys router

 

I've tried setting her iphone to a fixed TCP/IP address (not in my DHCP scope and not used) and DNS server - still crashes

I've tried switching off facebook and and Google+ photo sync - still crashes

 

After I restart the access point and router with her phone in the house it works fine - her phone gets wireless connection too

If she switches off her phone after getting a connection and switches on again - it works fine

 

the access point is set to use WPA- Personal/ WPA2-Personal.

this morning I set the AP toonly work on 20MHz bandwidth  not 20/40MHz 

 

I'm kind of running out of things to try 

 

If the bandwidth thing doesn't work, I'm going to try

 

a) getting her to disable wifi, till she is stood next to it - possibly at a distance it transmits garbage

b) Go thru this doc - and check the settings on my AP

 

Unless anybody has better ideas!

 

I am growing to hate iphones even more than I did before!

 

M

[martynhsmith1]

Ok the 20mhz/40mhz thing didn't work

I've enabled MBSSID AP Isolation, which I think isolates wireless devices.

But it's still not working

About to work thru this

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4199

See what happens!