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When my iPhone is connected to my home wireless network, the internet is unusably slow. I installed the speedtest.net application; here are some results from tonight:

  • Down: 0.0kB/s, Up: 0.0kB/s, ping: 2230ms
  • Down: 2.5kB/s, Up: 40.5kB/s, ping: 2182ms
  • Down: 0.0kB/s, Up: 20.0kB/s, ping: 197ms

For comparison, here is the result from my iMac to the same server, which is on the same wireless network (and has no wired connection):

  • Down: 139kB/s, Up: 53.8kB/s, ping: 182ms

Neither my iMac nor the Dell laptop also on the network have experienced the wifi problems I get with my iPhone. On the other hand, I tried browsing a website on the wireless network at work with no problems.

EDIT: SpeedTest at work gives me 156kB/s down. EDIT2: Girlfriend (owner of the Dell) reports actually the internet is sometimes very slow. Perhaps there is more going on. No problems with my iMac.

My router is a ASUS WL-500g Premium V2 running OpenWrt Kamikaze with X-Wrt Extensions 8.09.

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    Where were you, when trying this ? I mean compared to your router. Do you experience same if sitting "next" to it ? Maybe you have weaker antenna in phone, simply, and it can't pass walls like others.
    – Gnoupi
    Aug 12, 2009 at 7:33
  • Just reran the speed test twice when about 2m away from router (no walls). First time 20kB/s each way, second time 2kB/s each way.
    – John Fouhy
    Aug 12, 2009 at 8:50
  • can you confirm that your iPhone is actually connecting to your router and not defaulting to one from someone nearby?
    – akf
    Aug 12, 2009 at 22:58
  • Yes, I can confirm that.
    – John Fouhy
    Aug 12, 2009 at 23:56

2 Answers 2

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Perhaps a last-resort solution, but have you tried restoring (or upgrading if you haven't) the OS?

I had the same problem when I first got the iPhone. Had slow connection and a weak signal even when I was sitting by the WiFi AP. Had some problems with weak carrier signal too.

I dropped by the store and moaned about it the nice chap there recommended that I restored the OS (using iTunes). I did, and it worked!

Edit

Reread the title and just notice the "weak WiFi at home" bit. Is you WiFi connection better when using a different access point? The answer might indicate if it's something to do with your phone of your AP.

Edit 2

You could also try changing try changing you AP settings to something that suits the iPhone better.

From: http://qelix.com/blog/2008/08/31/get-better-wifi-speeds-on-iphone-3g/

Channel ID: Channel 9 (2452 Mhz)

Protocol: 802.11 b (This is the most important bit. 802.11 b works better for iPhone, for some reason)

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  • I just did that the other day, when the 3.0.1 update failed. Maybe I'll try again if no one else comes up with an idea.
    – John Fouhy
    Aug 12, 2009 at 8:51
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This advice is not specific to the iPhone, but one of the first things I always do when people report one device being slower than others on a home network is turn off IPv6 everywhere:

  • Turn it off on your router
  • Turn it off on your Mac
  • Turn it off on your girlfriend's Dell
  • Turn it off on your iPhone, if that's possible

A mixed IPv4/IPv6 network with clients/routers that "kind-of" understand IPv6 can cause all sorts of problems.

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  • I don't think the Dell supports IPv6 but I know the mac does. I will look into this.
    – John Fouhy
    Aug 12, 2009 at 23:56

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