WiFi mystery

I currently use an Airport Extreme (AE) hooked up to a cable modem. My desktop is connected directly to the AE with no problems - it also picks up the wireless signal with no problem. We also own a MacBook Air that receives the wireless signal with no problems. However, the iTouch doesn't even see the signal - it picks up others in the neighborhood but not our own AE signal. I thought I tried everything. I have all the latest software updates. Any ideas?
GW

Hello, Welcome to discussions.
By any chance do you have your network running in 5.8GHZ mode 802.11 N only mode? iPod Touch can work on following
2.4GHZ
802.11 N (802.11 B/G Compatible) mode
802.11 B/G mode
802.11 G mode
802.11 B mode
*Also check and make sure you do not have a closed network on page 23
Page 3,7,11,19,23,& 31
http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/AirPortExtreme_802.11nUserGuide.pdf

Similar Messages

P205-6267 - WiFi mysteriously shuts off - Win 8.1 32-bit

I resurrected an old Satellite laptop my daughter was using for a long time as a 'desktop.' Monitor wasn't working. Once I got her a desktop PC, I managed to repair the display, install a new hard drive and install Win 8.1 32-bit on it.
It has been working well for a few months (wicked fast with Verizon FIOS - 35mbps!) but now I'm having a mysterious problem with the internal WiFi adapter mysteriously shutting off for no apparent reason. Sometimes the troubleshooter can turn it back on, sometimes not and I have to reboot. Lately even rebooting doesn't help - it comes up turned off.
I recently had an overheating problem, solved with an air cleaner spray can. I worry the overheating may have damaged something.
I don't know if the adapter is going bad or if it's a Win 8.1 compatibility issue. I could go back to Win 7 32 bit if necessary, but I'd prefer to fix this first, if possible.
Details:
P205-6267
Windows 8.1 32-bit
3GB RAM
Network Adapters:
Intel(r) Wireless WifFi Link 4965AGN
Driver Date 10/7/2010 Version 13.4.0.139
Digital Signer Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility Layer
"Update Driver" says the best dirver is already installed.
Device Manager says "The Device is working properly."
I don't mind downgrading to Win7 but I don't want to do all that only to find it's a hardware problem. Any install I do will be a clean install - I don't have or want the Toshiba disks.
Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts regarding:
Running Win 8.1 on a p205
Troubleshooting a possible hardware failure on the WiFi adapter
Buying / Installing a replacement WiFi unit if it IS a hardware failure
Upgrading the CPU to run 64-bit Windows (that last is extra)
Thanks in advance...
Barry

Just to let everyone know, I downgraded to Windows 7 32-bit and everything seems stable and fine. My guess is there was some incompatibility or insufficiency in the WiFi driver that made it unreliable in Windows 8.

The Ipod Touch wifi mystery

Ok sometimes I catch the internet sometimes I don't. Sometimes it says I'm conneced and then Safari says I'm not. Is there a way to unlock the mystery Networks? Are there free networks via satellite(just a guess) I'd even be willing to pay for it but does such a thing exist? Don't need wifi at home I use the PC but when out and about I could really use it. Is the fact I'm supposed to get internet access just a tease! Sometimes when connected by the time a page downloads I'm off again. Has anybody got answers! AAAAAGGGH help! sorry I needed that.

no. you can only access wi-fi networks when you are in range of a wi-fi hotspot (either public, or un-secured private networks). there are more and more of these public hotspots popping up all over the world, sometimes they are free, sometimes they aren't (usually for the paid ones it will load up a page in safari that will allow you to put in credit card details to pay for a certain amount of time.)
google wi-fi hotspots to find ones local to you.
Message was edited by: Anna Sandham

Big wifi mystery!

Since yesterday, *both* my wifi networks fail most of the time. One is Virgin, connected via cable, one is BT, adsl.
I can still use the cable line and router via ethernet (same box as the wifi), so it's not the Net connection as such. But whenever I try to connect to either of them by wifi, an iPad says "can't connect", and a Mac times out. No password prompt even.
And much of the time the devices can't even *see* either of the networks.
I had the Virgin one working for a couple hours last night, without me having changed anything. But now it's gone again.
Rebooting the routers doesn't work. What can this be??

Try the following:
1. Reboot your router. Turn router off for 30 seconds and on again
2. Settings>WiFi>Network name>Forget this network.
3. Settings>General>Reset>Reset Network Settings.
4. Reset your iPad. Hold the Sleep and Home button down for about 10 seconds until you see the Apple logo. Ignore the red slider.

IPhone 4S Battery Life: Best solutions and procedures for 1st time user: 1-Do you have a battery life issue (learn first what the usage time spec is about) 2-What can you try to remedy the situation without reading 500 pages of posts

What follows is a grouping of some of the most fruitful procedures - from what I've seen in the biggest battery life issue thread - and some background information and discussion for solving or improving the battery life with the iPhone 4S and may be applicable also to devices on which iOS 5.0/5.0.1 has been applied. Credit goes to the respective users who contributed this information to the forum and they should be commended for doing so. This is not a final listing. The goal here is to provide a first stop sort of knowledge base document for newcomers instead of having them perusing the never ending threads where the wheel is reinvented on every page...
Please don't post your questions, usage screenshots, or claims that it worked or not for you or anything here except PROCEDURES/DEBUG STEPS/SOLUTIONS or improvements to the procedures already listed here. Try to use point form and to be as concise and clear as possible. Hope all this helps.
Thank you and good luck!
General info and specs
First, take a look Apple's battery tips, info and specs(obligatory reading for all Iphone 4S users - read it once and for all):
http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
... you didn't read it? loll Always remember this i.e. the definition of "usage":
Usage: Amount of time iPhone has been awake and in use since the last full charge. The phone is awake when you’re on a call, using email, listening to music, browsing the web, or sending and receiving text messages, or during certain background tasks such as auto-checking email.
I'm still not convinced you read the links so here's what Apple has to say in terms of fine tuning your battery life:
Optimize your settings
Depending on how they are configured, a few features may decrease your iPhone battery life. For example, the frequency with which you retrieve email and the number of email accounts you auto-check can both affect battery life. The tips below apply to an iPhone running iOS 5.0 or later and may help extend your battery life.
Minimize use of location services: Applications that actively use location services such as Maps may reduce battery life. To disable location services, go to Settings > General > Location Services or use location services only when needed.
Turn off push notifications: Some applications from the App Store use the Apple Push Notification service to alert you of new data. Applications that extensively rely on push notifications (such as instant messaging applications) may impact battery life. To disable push notifications, go to Settings > Notifications and set Notifications to Off. Note that this does not prevent new data from being received when the application is opened. Also, the Notifications setting will not be visible if you do not have any applications installed that support push notifications.
Fetch new data less frequently: Applications such as Mail can be set to fetch data wirelessly at specific intervals. The more frequently email or other data is fetched, the quicker your battery may drain. To fetch new data manually, from the Home screen choose Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Manually. To increase the fetch interval, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Hourly. Note that this is a global setting and applies to all applications that do not support push services.
Turn off push mail: If you have a push mail account such as Yahoo! or Microsoft Exchange, turn off push when you don’t need it. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off. Messages sent to your push email accounts will now be received on your phone based on the global Fetch setting rather than as they arrive.
Auto-check fewer email accounts: You can save power by checking fewer email accounts. This can be accomplished by turning off an email account or by deleting it. To turn off an account, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, choose an email account, and set Account to Off. To remove an account, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars, choose an email account, and tap Delete Account.
Turn off Wi-Fi: If you rarely use Wi-Fi, you can turn it off to save power. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and set Wi-Fi to Off. Note that if you frequently use your iPhone to browse the web, battery life may be improved by using Wi-Fi instead of cellular data networks.
Turn off Bluetooth: If you rarely use a Bluetooth headset or car kit, you can turn off Bluetooth to save power. Go to Settings > General > Bluetooth and set Bluetooth to Off.
Use Airplane Mode in low- or no-coverage areas: Because your iPhone always tries to maintain a connection with the cellular network, it may use more power in low- or no-coverage areas. Turning on Airplane Mode can increase battery life in these situations; however, you will be unable to make or receive calls. To turn on Airplane Mode, go to Settings and set Airplane Mode to On.
Adjust brightness: Dimming the screen is another way to extend battery life. Go to Settings > Brightness and drag the slider to the left to lower the default screen brightness. In addition, turning on Auto-Brightness allows the screen to adjust its brightness based on current lighting conditions. Go to Settings > Brightness and set Auto-Brightness to On.
Turn off EQ: Applying an equalizer setting to song playback on your iPhone can decrease battery life. To turn EQ off, go to Settings > iPod > EQ and tap Off. Note that if you’ve added EQ to songs directly in iTunes, you’ll need to set EQ on iPhone to Flat in order to have the same effect as Off because iPhone keeps your iTunes settings intact. Go to Settings > iPod > EQ and tap Flat.
Usage specs for the 4S - http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html:
Talk time: Up to 8 hours (12.5% per hour drain) on 3G, up to 14 hours (7.1% per hour drain) on 2G (GSM)
Standby time: Up to 200 hours (0.5% per hour drain)
Internet use: Up to 6 hours on 3G (16.6% per hour drain), up to 9 hours (11.1% per hour drain) on Wi-Fi
Video playback: Up to 10 hours (10% per hour drain)
Audio playback: Up to 40 hours (2.5% per hour drain)
So a scenario of normal usage could be for example: 4 heavy hours of 3G internet browsing (66.4%), with one hour of call on 3G (12.5%) and 22 hours of standby (11%) = 100%
A battery life issue is a problem where the drain is really out of spec either during usage or standby or both. For example, multi-% per minute drain during usage or a 10% drain per hour during standby is problematic. Browsing the internet on 3G during one hour and losing 16-17% is not.
Apple's test methodology for claiming the specs:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/battery.html
Procedures
davidch tips (reset+full discharge recharge):
Go through these steps to address the battery after updating to iOS 5.0.1:
1. Reset all settings (settings app-> general-> reset)
2. Go through initial setup steps (lang, wifi, siri, enable location, etc) and choose setup as new phone (don't worry your apps, data, contacts, mail will still be there). Do NOT restore from iCloud or iTunes (It can copy back corrupt settings)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
4. Fully discharge battery (tilll it shuts off with the spinning wheel)
5. Fully recharge battery (overnight if possible)
In my experience this improves the Standby battery drain issue significantly in most cases. It reduces drain from 2-4% or more per hr to 0.5% or less. It has worked for many, many users now. If it does not work after a few try's you may have a real battery or hardware issue and should contact Apple. Good Luck!
ram130's variant of davidch i.e. additional steps:
Now using davidch original steps and attaching the tweaks I made to get me more usage. As shown on page 29.
Go through these steps to address the battery after updating to iOS 5.0.1:
1. Reset all settings (settings app-> general-> reset)
2. Go through initial setup steps (lang, wifi, siri, enable location, etc) and choose setup as new phone (don't worry your apps, data, contacts, mail will still be there). Do NOT restore from iCloud or iTunes (It can copy back corrupt settings)
3. Turn off system location services timezone and iAd
4. Fully discharge battery (till it shuts off with the spinning wheel)
5. Fully recharge battery (overnight if possible)
6. Disable Siri 'Raise To Speak' and REBOOT *( if possible use another camera to verify the                 infrared is off after the reboot).
7. Set emails, icloud and calendars to fetch. ** test. Mines on hourly.
8. If your in a no signal and your phone is saying "Searching..." even after 10mins, reboot while in that area and after 1-2min it should say "No Service". This mainly applies to Verizon customers and improve battery life in these areas.
9. *optional* Goto Settings > General > Network and you will see "Hotspot.." loading something, wait a few seconds and it should say "setup personal hotspot" then exit out.
* I notice a great improvement after disabling this and rebooting. This increased my "screen on" usage or at least helped it. Make the change.
** I have not tested push yet to narrow down the drain but I had this change on my phone. I believe exchange push is responsible for some stand by drain. As for icloud, haven't notice much of a difference. Just try it for a day. My email still came in fast most times. Again still testing, will report back on these..
buxbuster tips(wifi sync, iCloud):
These are my own tested workarounds that worked for my iPhone 4S and seemed to have worked for others as well :
Workaround number 1. Deselect wifi-sync in iTunes and press sync.
If that doesn't work try :
Workaround number 2 : Remove iCloud, reset network settings. ( I guess this won't work for you since you don't have it enabled ).
If both workarounds fail, you can always try to completely wipe your phone. That also solved some of the cases out there.
rolandomerida tips - i.e. buxbuster and additional steps:
Finally, I solved the syncing error loop. My contacts are syncing flawessly again between my devices and iCloud, and yes, the battery stopped draining, which is the main topic here.
I followed instructions from buxbuster (check his workaround a few pages up!) and an additional BIG step to restore contacts and syncing, as seen in a MacRumors forum.
This is what I did:
1. Make a backup of your Address Book, using the vCard option (or both, it doesn't hurt). Save it for later.
2. In your iPhone, delete iCloud account. When it asks, accept both: delete AND delete from my iPhone.
3. Reset network settings. The iPhone will restart, then will ask you to unlock the SIM card.
4.Turn Wi-Fi on.
5. Add the iCloud account again.
That's for Buxbuster's workaround. For some, it might work just like that. My iPhone repopulated from iCloud after step 5, but I still had that "server error" on iCloud. I had to do some extra steps, since my Mac was not syncing to iCloud and couldn't edit anything on my Mac or iCloud. Syncing back had to be fixed, too. If not, the syncing loop would continue from my iPhone, and the battery would drain awfully again.
1. In System Preferences -> iCloud, I turned Contacts off. I chose "keep on My Mac" those contacts, but I got an empty Address Book after a while. And a few minutes later, iCloud contacts were empty and my iPhone also. It is scary at first! Now, before importing that vCard backup...
2. Turn Wi-Fi off. This is important, since your contact-empty iCloud will attempt to wipe your Address Book from your Mac in seconds after importing.
3. Import your vCard backup to Address Book. Just drag it to your blank Address Book window; it asks if you want to import "x" number of cards. Of course, say yes.
4. Turn Wi-Fi on, and then iCloud contacts on again (System Preferences -> iCloud). It will offer to merge your newly populated Address Book with iCloud (which is empty at this point). It should upload every single contact to iCloud, and then to your iDevices. If not, a fifth step would be to import the vCard file to iCloud, but it shouldn't be necessary.
So, with iCloud syncing working correctly, there is no battery draining! Again, that was my particular issue.
I can't tell if this is the single answer to the widely spread battery draining problem, but it sure can be fixed with these workarounds, and yes, Apple should address the problem with a future update, for we affected customers don't need workarounds in the first place
This is the MacRumors discussion:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1256807
And dont' forget to check buxbuster's fix, video, and THANK him!
Miless tips (full 800mb release of 5.0.1 and sanitizing a restore):
As for 4S battery life. Try doing this,
1. Settings>Location Service ... disable all location services you do not need. In particularly Facebook because it drains the battery a lot.
Scroll down to the bottom at Settings>Location services>System Services ... Disable Setting Time zone, location based iAds, Diagnostic & Usage.
2. Settings>Notification>Calendar ... turn off the Notification Centre.
3. Settings>General>Reset ... do Reset All Settings. Doing this will not wipe out your iPhone. It will just Reset the network settings, location warning, keyboard dictionary, etc... but it will clear up some corrupted data there. Generally this will help.
Try these 3 steps first... if it still drains a lot, try the following,
4. Drain your battery down to 1%. Then charge it up using USB from PC ... not the charger. The charger output 1.0 A ( x 5V from USB ... you get 5W power). From PC, output is only 0.5A x 5V = 2.5W power. Charging is slower but trickle charge 4S helps the battery retain its charge better. I think it takes about 3-3.5 hours to charge full from USB/PC compared to slightly below 2 hours using iPhone charger.
If after doing the above still could not solve your battery issues (mine with iOS 5.0 was ok up to step 4, but not iOS 5.0.1).... plug you iPhone to a charger (any charger), from iPhone, access your iCloud ... set it up if you havent. Back up your iPhone data to iCloud. if you do not have enough storage (only 5GB is free), go to details and select the apps you need its data backup, choose only those you really need and leave those unnecessary ones out. Back up your camera roll to your PC/Mac manually as it could be too big to backup to iCloud.... once you have it setup, make sure you are on Wifi ... tap backup to iCloud from your iPhone. It will take a while if the file is huge.
Once backup to iCloud is completed, plug your iPhone to PC/Mac and launch iTunes 10.5.1 (make sure you have 10.5.1)
Click Restore. It will automatically initiate a download of iOS 5.0.1 ipsw for iPhone 4S. Wait for the whole process to finish, ie. download, restore software/firmware.
Once its done, do not set up your iPhone from iTunes. Set it up on your iPhone. Go through the selection. When prompted, select restore from iCloud (from your iphone backup earlier). Keep your iphone plugged into iTunes while restoring backup from iCloud. Because while restoring from iClouds, some data will be synced from iTunes if you plug in, e.g. music, video, etc... unless you bought these content from iTunes store. Apps will be downloaded from App Store from the cloud.
Once it's all done restored. Turn off your iPhone,.. and turn it on again.
Now, hopefully your battery wont be draining so fast anymore. Usually it wont after this. But you need to charge your battery at least 4-5 cycles to stabilize the charge on the battery. I dont know why... but battery life seems to get better and better for me after a few charge cycles after all the above work.
Good luck. Let us know if it works for you.
W. Raider tips (Sirii):
Bottom line for me of things that helped battery life are:
1. Turing off Siri and Rebooting the phone by holding the Home button and Top button down, ignoring the slider, until the phone shut down. (turn off Siri, reboot, and check top front of iPhone 4S against a lesser camera like the front-facing camera on an iPad2 - making sure the IR sensor is off)
2. Fully draining the battery, meaning using the phone until it shuts itself off from a drained battery and then recharging it to 100% about 4, maybe 5 times. I charged it both with a Mac and a wall charger.
Hope this is helpful!
Comments
jmm514 remarks (Twitter):
I may have found something. I had Twitter disabled in my notifications, but got a tweet today that popped up on my home screen. Didn't know I had this enabled. At the bottom of the Twitter notification settings is the home scrren toggle. Since disabling this, battery life seems better. Considering there is no setting for frequency of checking for tweets, it appears the phone is continually connecting to wifi to check for new tweets.
tmksnyder comments (notifications, corrupt data in iCloud):
For me, I found my iphone on wifi mysteriously connecting to my mac. I eventually narrowed it down to the Apple Move Trailers app which keeps a file in iCloud. The phone was trying to sync the file with the mac in the background even when the Movie Trailers app was closed (hitting the red x). Based on my macosx logs the iCloud process that was trying to sync was working directly between the phone and the mac without using itunes by connecting to an https address hosted on the phone. It was connecting every 3 minutes and failing (while phone was awake or awake during during a notification). I also found that iCloud control panel on OSX would error if I tried to delete the file. I fixed it by removing the App and doing a hard reset which stopped the sync. I probably could have turned off iCloud document sync in the phone but didn't think of that. My battery life has greatly improved while at home on wifi.    I am now at 28 hrs standby, 2 hrs 20 minutes of usage, and 68% battery. It was ok before where I could get 20-30 hrs standby and 6 -8 hrs usage. My usage today was phone calls, 3g surfing, and music via bluetooth in the car.
I also found even with Itunes iMatch, if I mass updated tages, art work etc, it would hit the phone on wifi even in standby. I was amazed.   Granted if I am not doing updates, Match won't hot the phone so this was a once in awhile event. I could drop my percentage by 5-10% in a matter of minutes when doing updates.   I think a lot of our problems are background processes, associated with iCloud, notification, and apps. More features means more battery.   I think the key thing is to keep track of what has recently been added or changed if battery life gets worse all of a sudden.   It may be an app that was recently installed and if possible you may want to completely remove it and not just quit it.
With twitter, i think it uses push notifications so it doesn't need to be running and actively poll on the phone. For instance , if i quit the mail app, i still will get mail notifications and can swipe the message and load mail. Apple Push Notifications servics maintain the connection to the phone and there are likely pings or connection checks that occur for the service on an os level not an app level. This minimizes the load so there arent a bunch of apps all runing and constantly checking. The notification service , if it is contacted from twitter or another service with data, will check the settings you have registered to the with the apple push service and send the notification to your phone. No matter what, there is a drain with notifications. M hunch is once one application is configured to receive notifications, connection checking occurs betwen the push service and the phone so it knows where it is on the network. If it is implemented correctly, these checks arent frequent if you are still and more frequent as you move. The other drain is for when the noification hits and is processsed. If i get 9 emails over night, my screen just popped up for 20 seconds or so to process each message using battery. I would even think that just go from low power to turning n the screen uses more juice than if the device was already on and i get the message. On nights I get no notifications, I see a 3 or 4 percent drop. On nights with a number of notifications, i have seen up to a 10 percent drop. Besides notifications, wifi sync and icloud will poll on the local network and use up battery if the host computer is on and running itunes or trying to sync a data file that is corrupt (which i had with the apple movie trailers app causing my phone to drain). For me turning off wifi sync and remving a corrupt file in icloud solved my battery issues and I get over 24 hrs of standby with 6 to 9 hrs of use and this is with all the normal location services and push serivices turned on.
See http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/ipad/#documentation/NetworkingInternet/Co nceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/ApplePushService/ApplePushService.html for more info. I think it has a good overview of how the notifications work.

Well seems like that rumor of iOS 5.0.1 is finally gone the way of the dogs since developers got a beta of 5.1. So as stated earlier in the master discussion-> I suspect if you are filling up this thread with false post or creating a master set of links to various post that are unreliable you are wasting your time. Press is not going to touch the story due to poor or inaccurate sources which may be links from the master thread. This can include inaccurate information, combination of conflicting post or postings from users which may not own the device. Reputable press organizations have policies that require discloser and strict rules about what is a reliable source for a story. It is clear that many of the post in the master thread, which are links presented here are questionable.
Sorry to say that postings taken without any analysis of their totality have been propagated via various sites, for example sites such as http://www.2012federalbudget(dot)com. (Do not visit but I suspect that this is not the 2012 federal-budget site you would expect based on analysis of the records. There are plenty of sites like http://www.2012federalbudget(dot)com propagating questionable post in these threads.) One site for example in the discussion thread used a self signed certificate, the site had a log in to allow users to enter their OpenID. Seems many of these sites are pop and drop drupel configurations.
So remember this is how the really bad rumor of iOS 5.0.2 got started, the 5.1 memory leak issue, iCloud Issues, call quality, address book, etc.
Some of the postings have been very comical, I think the latest now is a dropbox issue. Seems that the length of the previous thread has resulted in various app engines of some proxy servers/tools reaching their limits.
So I would make sure to know the source of any information you link to. Make sure you avoid entering any information to outside links such as OpenID or Apple ID, these are big prize items for anyone with malicious intent. If you have issues and are a valid user contact APPLE CARE. (Note link is using McAfee Secure Short URL Service, and is https.)
http://mcaf.ee/ricdt
The original solution still represents a high level of success for users having any battery issues.
Install 5.0.1 on your iPhone 4s. Some users posting they are still using older versions, bad fake serial numbers, etc.
Make sure your device can run iOS 5.0.1 and is not altered.
Make sure you use a new Sim, not some cut down version which many users admit to doing. (Again, worth confirming what people are posting.)
Reset the device doing a hard reset and software reset.
Let battery drain and then charge for the full cycle, which is 24 hours.
I think you will find you will get the battery usage that APPLE has stated for the device.
Best of luck, stay safe and thanks

The Mystery Of Free Public WiFi

Almost everywhere I travel, I see a Computer-to-Computer network listed call 'Free Public Wi-Fi'. Clearly that's not what it is (oh, and I can see it now, in some hotel in the armpit of Ohio), so I guess it must be some bizarre PC phenomenon that has lots of Windows users broadcasting an ad hoc network called "Free Public Wi-Fi". So, I'm just curious... does anybody know exactly what's behind this madness?

SeaBeast,
I assume your answer is well intentioned, so thank you for trying to be helpful.
In all my time of traveling, I have not seen a genuine wi-fi network called 'Free Public Wi-Fi'. Free networks in hotels tend to have some other name. The one I am using right now is called "hhonors4", for example - it's in a Hilton hotel. The "Free Public WiFI" I am talking about appears in the Mac's list of Computer-to-Computer networks, indicating is not an wireless access point at all, but another computer, and is therefore very unlikely to be a form of wireless access.
I've done some digging around, and it seems this is some kind of attack intended to dupe people into creating a computer to computer network, thinking they are getting free Wi-Fi access. On PCs, it's harder to spot that this is not a wireless access point (I understand Windows calls these 'ad hoc' networks and uses icons to distinguish them from WAPs). Given how many of these I have been seeing, there may be a virus at work, infecting PCs in a way that has them trying to create wireless networks called 'Free Public WiFi' without their users realizing it, for what purpose and at what risk I do not know.
There's an article that talks about this at:
http://www.scmagazine.com.au/feature/3233,airports--a-threat-to-identity-securit y.aspx
It makes a big deal about airports, but I have also seen these networks in other places (like this hotel), which makes me think it is not a deliberate act of the PC owner, but rather something that results from an infection. The article is not terribly conclusive.
This is different, but related to, honeypot attacks where wireless access points are set up, often at airports, with the deliberate intention of getting IDs and other data from unaware users. More about these at:
http://www.netstumbler.com/2004/02/16/wirelesshoneypottrickery/
So, I'm still trying to figure this out, and would love some definitive information from somebody who knows, but I'm pretty sure no one should follow SeaBeast's (presumably well intentioned) advice and actually connect to one of these networks. (I suspect PC users are the ones at risk, as few people bother to code virus for the less common Mac, but that's a risky assumption.)
Oh, and by the way, if you do connect one time, just to see what happens, your Mac will remember it and 'helpfully connect' you every time it sees 'Free Public WiFi' forever more, and without telling you. To solve that problem, you need to change your Network Preferences.
I'll keep researching away, but would be delighted if anybody who already has this mystery solved could post their findings.

My IPhone 3gs keeps giving two mysterious notification alarms, and then disconnects from the Wifi connection. To restore I have to turn wifi off and on. Why?

My iPhone 3GS has begun receiving mysterious alarms, similar to push notification alarms -but I've turned all the notifications off. When these two alarms go off my phone cuts its connection to the wifi. In order to reconnect I have to turn the wifi connection off then back on again. It's irritating! Any ideas why and what I can do to correct it.

Hello imsupermigoy,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties you're experiencing with your iPhone 3GS. I highly recommend going through the troubleshooting in this article to help resolve your issues:
iPhone: Hardware troubleshooting
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts2802
Take care,
Alex H.

Why did carefully over heating my 4s restore the wifi function? This, after 2 months of mysteriously grey out wifi buttons, loads of time trying to resolve issue with apple tech only to be told I must pay $199 to repair the problem. I'm disillusioned now

Why did carefully over heating my 4s restore the wifi function? This, after 2 months of mysteriously grey out wifi buttons, loads of time trying to resolve issue with apple tech only to be told I must pay $199 to repair the problem. I'm disillusioned now

Is the Wi-Fi button greyed out? Try this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1559
Also, make a backup to iTunes of the device. Then restore it as a new device. If you still have wi-fi greyed out, then contact Apple again, and explain that you believe you have a hardware issue. They may still ask for a $19 deposit, but if it is actually hardware related, then you won't be charged the $19. Only if it is software related do you get charged that $19.

The mystery of 5800 and WiFi

My previous phone was a Nokia 6110 Navigator. I was satisfied with it but WifI became necessary. I decided to buy a Nokia 5800 Xpress Music. Everything seems fine, except the WiFi.
At home my 2 computers and other smartphones can see several WiFi in the neighborhood, but the 5800 only see few of them. In particular with my private WiFi, only sometimes the 5800 can see discover it. Which seems weird it is that the 5800 can see the Wifi at night, but during the morning it is quite impossible!!! I tried several times to discover networks, and after hundreds of trials, 5800 finally detects my private Wifi and the other missing networks in the neighborhood!
I tried several things: soft reset, hard reset, firmware update, router reset (DLink), closer to the router, far from the router, advanced setting in the wireless configuration... whatever.
The last option is to return the Nokia to the shop (since it is in the 30 days). Maybe exchange by a HTC or something similar.
Any suggestion??

For starters the WIFI on your phone is obviously gonna be much weaker and less range then your PC's , as for not detecting them at night it hink its as mentioned above just too much interference during the day...
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Mysteriously unable to connect to unprotected wifi network

I recently moved into a new apartment with a wifi network already in place, which I'm currently having trouble connecting to using my 2009 MacBook Pro 15" (OS X 10.6.8).
Everything worked fine for about a week and a half, but last weekend the connection gave out and I haven't been able to reconnect since. However, what's really baffling to me is that I can still connect with my phone, and my roommate can still connect with his phone and laptop as always. What's more, I've tried 3 or 4 other wireless networks at friends' apartments or at work and have been able to connect to all of them just fine.
The inconvenient part is that the network is shared with our upstairs neighbors, so I haven't really been able to troubleshoot the modem much other than asking them to restart it once, but I did take my laptop up into their apartment and still was unable to connect to the router, even while standing right over the modem.
My airport card is able to detect the network just fine (it shows as 3-4/5 bars), but when I try to connect it just times out. I should also mention that it's an open network, so there's no way it could be a password related issue.
So to summarize, this problem only affects my device, and only when I try to connect to my home network. Any Ideas?

Try the following:
Open System Preferences (gear icon on the dock)
Open Network
Click on AirPort
Click Advanced at the lower right
Locate the name of the open network and click on it it highlight it, then click the - (minus) button at the bottom of the list to delete it
Do the same for any other networks that you no longer need
Click OK, then click Apply
Close the window
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilitites > KeyChain Access
Click on the Kind filter at the top of the area on the right of the window
Look for any listing with the name of the open wireless network
If you find it, click on it to highlight it, then click Delete on your Mac
Close the KeyChain Access windows
Restart your Mac
Try to log on on
What happens?

All of he email messages on my Iphone 4 and my wifes Iphone 3gs mysteriously were deleted this morning. Why?

When I checked email this morning, 4/18/2011, all of my saved email messages were gone. I checked my wifes 3GS this evening, and the same thing had happened. We both use Comcast email. Any idea why this happened?

What is the account type - POP or IMAP?
Sounds like the account is a POP accout is the sent messages are not available.
If so, what is the account setting with the email client used on your computer for accessing the account for removing messages from the server after being downloaded by the email client?
If the email client on your computer is removing messages from the server after being downloaded, the messages will be removed from your iPhone as well since the messages are no longer available on the server.
Although it is possible to access a POP account with more than one email client, a POP account is designed to be accessed with a single email client only.

WiFi choked by mysterious uploads on Droid Maxx

When connected to WiFi, my Droid Maxx is always uploading something. It prevents me from doing anything like checking email or browsing the web. How can I find out what the log jam is?

If you are using some sort of cloud backup, it's more than likely it trying to push everything you have to the cloud.
Most Internet providers only give 1-4 Mbps. so if you have Gigabytes of pics and music to upload you're going to be there a LONG time. 8GB of pictures is 64,000 Megabits of data. At 1 Mbps upload it will take at least 64,000 seconds (17+ HOURS) (longer because of overhead) to do a backup.

Why do I have mysterious cellular data usage (Verizon) every 6 hours on all 3 of my iphone 5's?

I have recently uncovered mysterious cellular usage on three different iPhones. I am a Verizon customer and discovered this by examining the cellular data use logs. What I found are a long series of mysterious data usage logs. I have visited the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store 3 times now to log notes and discuss the issue. It is being escalated.
The characterstics are as follows:
All my family phones have the appropriate IOS and hardware updates (verified by the GeniusBar at my local Apple Store).
This is occuring across three phones, which happen to all be iphone 5. Two are 5 and the other a new 5s. We do have one iphone 4 in the family but the issue (so far as I can tell), is not happening on it.
One iphone 5 has IOS 7, the other IOS 6. The new 5s has of course IOS 7.
Mysterious data use happens even while connected to wifi.
Each mysterious data use log entry is exactly 6 hours apart. For example: 2:18 AM, 8:18 AM, 2:18 PM, 8:18 PM, 2:18 AM ... etc. It cycles AM and PM, same times, for a day to many days until some condition causes it to change (evolve).
The times evolve. One day it could be cycling through at one time series, then it changes to another time sequence and continues until the next condition.
The data usage is anywhere from a few K to many MB. The largest I've seen is over 100 MB.
The logs clearly show these usages are not due to human interaction. It is a program.
If cellular connection is used frequently (by the owner), the pattern is hard to pick out. Luckily, my family member is very good about only using wifi whenever possible, so these mysterious use patterns are easy to pick out.
Verizon allows access to 90 days worth of data logs, so I downloaded and analyzed them. This has been happening for at least 90 days. I have found 298 instances of mysterious use out of 500 total connections to cellular. A total of 3.5 GB of mysterious cellular data has been recorded as used in that 90 days by this phone alone. Only .6 GB of the total cellular data use is legitimate, meaning by the person.
This issue is occuring across three different phones. Two are iPhone 5, and the third is a recently purchased iPhone 5s. The 5s I have not touched beyone the basic startup. I have left it alone on a desk for 3 days, and looking at the logs, the mysterious data use in the same pattern is occuring.
So ... I am speaking to both sides, Verizon and Apple to get answers. Verizon puts their wall up at data usage. It doesn't matter how it is being used, you simply need to pay for it. Yes, the evidence I have gathered is getting closer to someting on Verizon's end.
Before pressing in that direction, I am hoping someone reading this may recognize this issue as a possible iPhone 5 issue ... OR ... you, right now, go look at your data usage logs available through your carrier's web account, and see if you can pick out a pattern of mysterious use. Look especially at the early morning instances when you are most likely sleeping.
I am hoping this is a simple issue that has a quick resolution. I'm looking for the "ooohhh, I see that now ..." But I am starting to think this might be much bigger, but the fact is, most customers rarely or never look at their data usage details, much less discover mysterious use patterns.
The final interesting (maybe frightening part) thing about all this is that I discovered while talking to Verizon ... they do not divulge which direction the data is going. This goes for any use, mysterious or legitimate. Is cellular data coming to your phone, or leaving it? Is something pulling data from your phone? We know that it is possible to build malware apps, but the catch with my issue is that it is also happening on a brand new iphone 5s with nothing downloaded to it.
Thanks for your time

Thanks for the replies. It took a while not hearing anything so thought I was alone. I have done many of the suggestions already. The key here is that it occurs on both phones with apps, and phones still packaged in a box.
A Genius Bar supervisor also checked his Verizon data usage log and found the same 6 hour incremental use. Suprisingly, he did not express much intrigue over that. Maybe he did, but did not show it.
I think the 6 hour incremental usage is the main issue here. I spoke with Verizon (again) and they confirmed that all they do is log exactly when the phone connected to the tower and used data. The time it records is when the usage started. I also found out that the time recorded is GMT.
What is using data, unsolicited, every 6 hours?
Why does it change?
Why does it only happen on the iPhone 5 series and not the 4?
Since no one from Apple seems to be chiming in on this, and I have not received the promised calls from Apple tech support that the Genius Bar staff said I was suppose to receive, it is starting to feel like something is being swept under the rug.
I woke up the other day with another thought ... What application would use such large amounts of data? Well ... music, video, sound and pictures of course. Well ... what would someone set automatically that is of any use to them? hmmm ... video, pictures, sound. Is the iPhone 5 succeptible to snooping? Can an app be buried in the IOS that automatically turns on video and sound recording, and send it somewhere ... every 6 hours? Chilling. I noted that the smallest data usage is during the night when nothing is going on, then it peaks during the day. The Genius Bar tech and I looked at each other when I drew this sine wave graph on the log print outs during an appointment ...

Mysterious Data Usage

Hello,
My wife owns an HTC Thunderbolt. We are experiencing mysterious data usage.
The data log shows data usage during hours and at times when the phone is not being used. We have tried closing all apps and resetting the phone.
Still, these nickel and dime data used entries are adding up fast and bring us to the brink of our our plan which we have already extended.
We do not stream video, we do not listen to Pandora.... The phone is used strictly for texts, emails, and phone calls.
Any advice? Thank you for your help.

Same here - very similar.Times are close but not like yours.
I've deleted the email accounts and re-added them to see if there was a looping email send issue that I've read about.
Funny though, when I review the data use on the phone, "photo" is the app indicating using the most data. So I've turned off and uninstalled everything I can think is tied to that.

"The Mystery of the Deck", or, "Is SAP a Nondeterministic Automaton?"

Please note:
1) There is a serious question embedded within this post;
2) The post is not meant as a criticism of the subscription stack - I know what I fool I am for trying to run it under VM on a 4-year old Dell 8200 with 1G overall RAM.
That being said ...
Some of you low-lifes out there (Chris S?) have probably played a hand or two of Hollywood Gin (Rummy) for money stakes such as "straight half", "quarter-nickel-quarter", "world, solarsystem, universe", etc. So you know that each hand starts with both players being dealt 10 cards, while the remaining 32 are placed between the two players in a face-down "stack" or "deck" (except for one that is placed face up next to the "deck".)
And therefore, it is safe to conclude that at least some of you low-lifes have probably asked the same question that generations of "gin" players have asked:
Does the order of the cards in the "deck" change after it is has been placed face-down on the table?
Since no one knows the answer to this "for sure", and in fact, cannot know the answer to this for sure, this mystery is known as "the mystery of the deck".
Why am I bothering to tell you this?
Well, I've spent the last seaveral days trying to get the NW7 subscription stack to run in 750M of a VM on my old Dell 8200 with just 1 gig of RAM overall.
And as you would expect, the WDA application DEMO_TABLE kept on timing out.
So I set timeout and proctimeout to -1 in the startup profile and changed max_wprun_time dynamically in RZ11 and chose a simpler demo application (DEMO_SIMPLE_MAIN).
Well, after a few minutes, the window for this app finally popped.
But here's the funny thing.
Since I knew everything was actually working as it should, I figured I'd try "DEMO_TABLE" one more time.
It popped in about 30 seconds.
So unless one of you "least-recently-used-page-gurus" knows why this happened, I will have to conclude that:
a) SAP, or at least the NW7 subscription stack, is really a non-deterministic automaton (intentionally or unintentionally);
b) yes, the order of the cards does change in the deck after the hand of gin has been dealt.
djh
Edited by: Rich Heilman on May 1, 2008 2:38 PM
Edited by: Rich Heilman on May 2, 2008 9:44 AM

Hey Rich -
Yeah - that sounds reasonable - thanks very much for taking the time to mention it.
But one puzzle - the Basis guy who was helping me out for the install says that for the regular ABAP stuff (not the WDA) stuff, the compiles "persist" across a server down/up. Meaning that when something compiles for the first time, it doesn't have to be recompiled after a server down/up.
Is this true for the regular stuff (non-WDA)?
And if so, why not for the WDA as well? Why would stuff have to recompile each time the server is brought up?
Also, the Basis guy thought it might also have something to do with SAP being smart enough not to keep swapping stuff in/out that's never used - so eventually, the amount of "thrashing" decreases and the machine gets to do some actual work.
Glad you're not too busy with your new responsibilities to post here occasionally.
Have your wife and kids told you yet that you gotta find a job that gets you out of the house?
Best
djh

WiFi mystery

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