# Ipad2 any help would be greatly appreciated



## dollcrazy (Jan 12, 2009)

I really love my ipad but I am having a wifi connection problem at work. I have researched this problem but most solutions that I have found require resetting a home router or changing security settings on your router. Which of course doesn't help me since I can't access this router. In order to connect to my work router there is a terms of use box that pops up to check and then it will log you on. However it does not pop up on my ipad. It does on my iphone but does not on the ipad, or I should say it did one day and worked but never did again. I have repeatedly turned off the wifi, told it to forget that network and tried again, I renewed the lease, I have tried everything I can think of but nothing is working. It always finds the network but won't pop up the log on box. I really hope some one has had this problem and knows of a simple fix since I spend half my life at work and would love to be able to use my ipad. I would greatly appreciate any help or ideas you can offer.


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## Eeyore (Jul 16, 2009)

Sorry dollcrazy, but I have an iPad 1. Assuming the iPad2 works in a similar fashion, you need to see what type of security setting your employer has his Wifi set-up as.

There are 4 different security settings for Wifi. There is unsecured, then WEP, then WPA, and the last is WPA2. Unsecured means anyone can get in to use your wifi signal. The WEP, WPA, and WPA2 are locked signals and require a password in order to use your Wifi signal. The most secure signal is WPA2.

From what I have read on different forum boards, the iPad has some problems staying locked on to a Wifi router that uses the WEP security setting or is broadcasting on the "n" band. WPA2 and "n" band routers are found on the most recent new routers. Older routers, depending on age, will have WEP and/or WPA/WPA2 security settings and/or broadcast on "b" and/or "g" band. (Whew!) I have a router that uses WPA2 and switched on to "g" band and have not had any problems.

Have you reached the point in the "settings" box where you can enter the company's Wifi password? You may need to get that from your IT person. Double check to make sure it is entered correctly, because "1" can look like "l" and "0" can look like "o", which is what a strong company security password would use. If the company uses n-band or WEP security you may be in deep Bantha poo-doo, because the iPad will let you see the Wifi but not log-in, or just not stay connected at all.

Perhaps someone with more experience with the iPad2 can chime in here...

All the best.


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## dollcrazy (Jan 12, 2009)

I really appreciate you trying to help. I really don't know what setting their router is using. i do know we have 3 locked networks and the 1 public one. The only thing required to get onto the public one is to check the box that is supposed to pop up agreeing to the terms. There is no password. I have no problem connecting on my phone but the ipad is a whole other matter. This is so frustrating since I debated for months on whether I should buy the 3g or wifi only and went the cheaper route since I knew we had the network at work. I have had no problems anywhere else I have gone. It automatically connects with no problem. I guess I will have to resign myself to doing without my ipad at lunch. boo hoo.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

How's the signal strength?  The only problem I have with my iPad 2 (and my girlfriends and her iPad 1 before it) is that the wifi antenna's aren't the greatest.  They'll drop in and out when my laptop or other wifi device stays connected sometimes in coffeeshops or airports etc. as it doesn't pick up the signal as strongly.


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## J.R.Mooneyham (Mar 14, 2011)

We've got both iPad1 and iPad2s here, plus various Mac laptops and an iMac, some of which leave and return again at times. We also use an Apple Airport Express for our wireless switch.

Everything was fine until I decided we needed to have some security turned on in the Apple Airport Express, such as an access password and signal encryption. Boy, was that a mistake! After that, I had to reboot the entire LAN (there's a lot of wired stuff in addition to the wireless) every time one of the iPads or Macs came back after being gone a day or two. It made no difference if they'd been on before or not (having the password etc.). This is VERY annoying.

So I followed Apple's instructions to reset the Airport Express back to its default settings. But that accomplished nothing.

When I get the chance, I plan now to manually turn off all the security encryption schemes on the Airport, since I read online that using any of that tends to cause connection problems with Apple gear (so what the freaking good is it, then?).

All this is made lots more complicated by the fact that accessing the Airport via the iMac to change its settings forces you to wade through tons of software glitches, with Mac OS X reporting all sorts of errors, while the Airport itself gives the everything's OK signal, according to its factory paperwork (and so with all this conflicting feedback, you often wonder if anything's working properly at all).

But it's not just Apple networking gear that gives people fits: apparently it's industry wide. I was researching possibly different and better wireless methods about a year ago, and found that pretty much ALL the wireless gear out there is causing problems for somebody; some is just a bit less hellish than others. Not a single brand stood very far out from the pack on ease of use and reliability. So it's basically the luck of the draw on how well your own wireless stuff works, day by day.


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## Neo (Mar 30, 2009)

It may be completely something else, but I've had the same issue trying to connect to a certain wifi network while traveling with my iPad. The solution was so simple, I would have never thought of it myself, lol   (also, I'm just not good with IT stuff, just at using it  ). In your settings, make sure that you allow pop-ups. The default on iPad 2, is that it doesn't, and then that checkbox just never appears...

Under settings, go to Safari. Ensure that "Block Pop-ups" tabs is marked as OFF.

Hope this helps! Please let us know how it goes!


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## louiseb (Mar 2, 2009)

I sometimes have this problem at my work, usually if I open Safari then I'll get the screen.


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## dollcrazy (Jan 12, 2009)

Thanks for all the help. Neo I'm so excited to give your advice a try tomorrow when I go to work. I never even thought of that.. I'll let you all know if that is a simple fix for my problem. Cross your fingers for me.


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## Neo (Mar 30, 2009)

Fingers crossed dollcrazy!!!!! And I know, I would never have thought of it myself either! 

Oh, and of course, you will need to open safari and try to connect to a random page after having enabled pop-ups and having checked the network you want to attach to. Then, before the page you requested opens, the magic checkbox should appear  

Can't wait to hear from you tomorrow!!!!!


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## dollcrazy (Jan 12, 2009)

Although I had high hopes for the pop up blocker fix, it didn't work. I'm so frustrated and have no ideas what to try next. Anyone have any other ideas?


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

J.R.Mooneyham said:


> We've got both iPad1 and iPad2s here, plus various Mac laptops and an iMac, some of which leave and return again at times. We also use an Apple Airport Express for our wireless switch.
> 
> Everything was fine until I decided we needed to have some security turned on in the Apple Airport Express, such as an access password and signal encryption. Boy, was that a mistake! After that, I had to reboot the entire LAN (there's a lot of wired stuff in addition to the wireless) every time one of the iPads or Macs came back after being gone a day or two. It made no difference if they'd been on before or not (having the password etc.). This is VERY annoying.
> 
> ...


While I totally empathize with you--our new Airport Extreme took me over seven hours to set up, and it still doesn't play nice with the Xbox--you really don't want to go with an unsecured network in this day and age. Not only are you opening yourself up to hackers stealing your personal info, but people have been arrested for things like downloading child porn...when it turns out that someone used their unsecured network in a drive by do do it. Bottom line--find someone who knows what they're doing and enlist their help. Even if you have to pay for it.

And no, one brand of router isn't necessarily better than another, though until this most recent event, I would have recommended Apple over the others. Our previous Airport Extreme worked like a champ, no issues. This new Time Capsule model though... And Apple's actual Knowledge Base was worse than useless. I found the answers I needs by scouring other Mac forums. It SO shouldn't be that way, but there you go!

For dollcrazy--I may have missed it, but did you check with your IT dept? Maybe someone there can help. Although given that you say there's no password, again, I strongly recommend not using it. Stealing people's info over a public wifi network nowadays is just too darn easy--you might as well just write your passwords on a piece of paper and hand it to a total stranger for all the security you have on one.


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## J.R.Mooneyham (Mar 14, 2011)

Victoria, I agree that everyone should have secure wifi networks (unless they're actually WANTING to give away free net access to strangers). That's why I turned it on in the first place. BUT...most of Apple's security features seem to work by knocking its owners/authorized users offline, too!

As for getting someone more knowledgeable or experienced on the case, yes, that's what I'd often recommend to folks too for such problems. Unfortunately, I AM one of those guys you're referring to there. I've served as a corporate IT chief and computer consultant, provided tech support for DARPA projects, developed Apple Mac software myself, and written user manuals for quite a few applications. I was one of the million geeks who got Americans off AOL and onto the world wide web in the early 1990s, by putting together custom kits of software, and instructions for non-geeks about how to tweak it, when the major OS players like Apple didn't yet consider the internet to be sufficiently important to update their software for.

I've also written an online guide to how to fix Mac OS X when it breaks. About the only people better than me on this stuff are certain Apple tech support guys/gals, and one out of a few thousand teen Mac gurus (and, of course, anyone who just happens to be luckier than me on a given day).

It's really tough to find those particular tech support individuals, or teen gurus: almost every time I've sought them out, I ended up with folks who knew less about possible solutions than I did.

Many of the problems come from a simple lack of quality control on the part of Apple and other gear makers: they rush products to market with way too little debugging, depending upon feedback from customers to take care of that for them. That way the company makes bigger profits, upon the backs of millions of suffering users. And we customers let them get away with it.

But this is just part of a growing problem in America: we're all of us increasingly on our own: it's every man (or woman) for themselves.


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