iPhone 1.0.1 Wi-Fi Problem

after updating to version 1.0.1 of the iphone software, everything seemed to work fine. the only problem is that since that update i have been unable to connect to my Wi-Fi network at home. which means that now i have to use EDGE at home, which really is not what i want to do...

i have been trying to re-establish the connectivity for a while now, but it simply does not work, in usual information-free apple jargon the iphone informs me that it is unable to join the network, giving no explanation whatsoever. i am using WEP encryption and a hex key, so i need to enter that hex key (apple products of course default to some apple-specific behavior, but at least provide support for falling back to standards-compliant behavior). i may be hallucinating, but i am pretty sure that when i last played around with the security settings for the iphone Wi-Fi configuration, there was an option to select between password and hex or ascii or something like that. this is gone now, and i am asking myself whether i am really hallucinating, or whether this essential option was actually removed with the software update. googling for it i found some evidence that this really existed (here and here and here, for example), but now it's gone.

is there anybody else having this problem? or anybody still running version 1.0 who could confirm that there was such an option in the Wi-Fi security settings? i would really appreciate to be able to get back on my Wi-Fi at home and away from the horribly slow EDGE...

one solution might be to switch from WEP to WPA, which security-wise would be a smart thing to do anyway, but i don't like the idea of having to make that switch right now only because apple decided to limit its WEP support to the apple universe.

(( update august 2: thanks for your comment, john . so it appears that i am not hallucinating and that the 1.0.1 software update indeed removed the option to make WEP-based Wi-Fi networks work when using hex keys. that sounds like a pretty major screw-up to me, but so far there has been surprisingly little news about that. ))

(( update august 17: it seems that apple so far has not addressed or even acknowledged the issue, but the growing number of hits on this blog and the threads on iphone discussion boards indicate that the update indeed screwed up hex or ascii WEP-based Wi-Fi networks. if anybody knows a solution, please let me know and i will post it here. thanks! ))

Comments

[John James]

I am experiencing the same issue since I upgraded. My wife is still on 1.0 and yes there is password box.

[mike]

I find it funny that on the commercials the youtube videos were so clear, but on the actual iphone the resolution is very blurry. Am I the only one with this problem?

[Dougie]

I just spoke with "Dave" from Apple. He's creating a support case. Apparently this is by design as the iPhone now checks the length of the text and determines if it should be text or hex. This doesn't work if your hex key is something like '11111111'.

[dret]

dougie: thanks so much for this information! this might explain why there are not more people having this problem. apple uses some pseudo-intelligence to guess something, and only the poor folks who have a numeric password (like me and probably you) then are being thrown out of the window. once again, i am stunned by apple's insistence to do "smart" things in a pretty dumb way, and then to simply accept that a number of users have no way of fixing things, because an additional option would have made the interface "look too complicated". well, at least know i now that i can try to change my digit-only hex key to a hex key containing letters, and then apple's pseudo-intelligence will hopefully work out.

[dret]

dougie: that was a nice theory and would have nicely fit into my world view of apple and its endless quest to remove user options, but i think it was not correct. i changed my wep password to two different hex keys both including letters (i had only numbers before), but it still did not work. so please keep in touch with "dave" and let him know that even if you are willing to change your key, things do not work.

and how on earth can you tell whether a string looking like a hex number (or just a number) is really this number, or just a string looking like the number? there is no way you can tell, so you either have to include a user option, or try joining the network with both variants. it did work without problems in 1.0.0 and i am really wondering who decided to break it and for what reason.

[Dougie]

Got a call back from a developer at Apple. He agreed that their code needs some work on that one. He did know of a workaround though (worked for me on three test networks and two production networks): Add a $ to the front of the key, that should force it to HEX. i.e. if your key is '1111111111' input '$1111111111'.

[DAVE]

ARE THEY GONNA FIX THIS?? LOL?? *SAME PROBLEM HERE*

[Joe]

I am using 1.0.2 and the problem is still there. I cannot join my secured network which uses hex encrypted WPA security.

[dret]

joe: are you sure you are using WPA? i thought the problem was only happening with WEP. if it also affects WPA, then switching to WPA (which i considered switching to, so that i would finally be able to connect to my Wi-Fi at home again) would not make any sense... well, maybe 1.0.3 will fix this mess...

[Christian]

I am having the same problem. I couldn't figure out where this hex/ASCII option existed until I realized they had just dumped it with an update. Using "$" before the hex key doesn't do anything for me. I've tried everything I have found online and nothing has worked. I don't think iPhone works with WEP any longer.

[Mrwhoopie]

Same problem with a ascii wepkey.

[Jonathan]

I've been having the exact same problem. I'm running my iPhone on v1.02 now and I can't even connect to an unsecured network. Please post a solution if you have one!

I also have the same issue - any further news?

[chris]

when are they gonna fix this? i'm on 1.1.2 and still no fix...?

i am using1.0.2 downgraded from 1.1.1 wifi connects and disconnects

[Lee]

I have the same problem. My iphone shows wifi signal and pretend to join my home network. But when I try to connect to Internet I got message "you are not connected". I phone Apple support, they can not help and told me it is problem of router, but when I told them that I am using Airport, the person transferred me to someone dealing with wireless who in turn told me he had no idea and can not help with iphone. Back to iphone support, who said contact, my Internet service provider. Well, my Internet service provider said it is problem with iphone. Once again back to iphone support, who simply refused to believe me and said iphone should join wi fi automatically and they cannot help. So much for apple support! Both my wife's and mine iphone 3G will not connect to wi fi.

Has anyone resolve this problem? Please post how you solve the problem.

Thanks