Sometimes my AppleTV 2 mysteriously drops off my network.

Mark

Wifi issues are notoriously hard to pin down to one thing or another, especially in a domestic environment where there are a variety of devices sharing the same spectrum. In the case of the AppleTV I suspect the unit cost for Apple is so low a replacement program is cheaper than actually finding out what the problem is.

Wi-Fi problems are usually easy to pin down, it is an Apple product that generally causes the problem!

My iMac had to have an EFI update to get reliable wireless, our Mac mini as well, we've returned 5 iPhone 4 and 4S phones over the last 2 years with faulty Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (Wi-Fi range was under 1M).

.Well not quite. Apple don't make baby alarms, or wifi video senders, or wireless door bells or.. Dunno what it's like in Germany but over here the 2.4Ghz spectrum is incredibly noisy. I've been to places where I can't get a wifi signal with the laptop sat next to the router because of some rogue device like a cheap DECT phone jamming everything else. Of course there's always the 5Ghz band but technically you aren't legally allowed to use that in the UK.


Haven't we long established that Apple devices have some sort of collective allergy to you Dave?

.Well not quite. Apple don't make baby alarms, or wifi video senders, or wireless door bells or.. Dunno what it's like in Germany but over here the 2.4Ghz spectrum is incredibly noisy. I've been to places where I can't get a wifi signal with the laptop sat next to the router because of some rogue device like a cheap DECT phone jamming everything else. Of course there's always the 5Ghz band but technically you aren't legally allowed to use that in the UK.


Haven't we long established that Apple devices have some sort of collective allergy to you Dave?

In the building I am living in there are plenty of wifi signals about, So I can see 5 networks without any effort, and that does not count the DECT carriers as well. Then there is a huge steel core to the building which blocks the signals significantly.

Apart from faulty Apple kit, I've never had any reliability problems. The amount of steel in the concrete floors here does cause some problems with the speed we get upstairs, but the new router is much better.

We don't have many problems with the 2.4 spectrum here, but we are fairly rural and all phones have to be TÜV approved, before they can be sold, like the old BT green dot.

D - you are either incredibly unlucky or are doing something wrong!
I look after a mac network - approx 50 macs & mac servers - iPhones wifi etc and we have an incredibly low hardware failure rate.
The last 'substantial' issue was about 6 or 7 years ago - 3 intel c2d imacs that had video issues - that was down to sub standard capacitors on the main board
Didge

I get this too. But then, my base station is old, flaky and crashes almost every day now. I expect it’s due for replacing. It can hang off the RISC PC and provide wireless connectivity for that if needed.

I get that but I also live in a building with loads of steel and other at least 6 other wifi signals within range.

I've just bought a second-hand Mac mini and it doesn't connect at gigabit speeds to the network. A google has revealed that it is a very common issue, not that Apple will admit to it.

Got an iPhone 5 that is playing up now (my bosses and his 6th iPhone in 2 years). He is waiting for his new 5s to come, before we send the 5 back for repair - bluetooth only works intermittently and usually craps out in the middle of a call.

I think he is an extreme case and iPhones really aren't built for people like him - he talks for at least 4 hours a day over bluetooth on his iPhone. The batteries and the antenna/chipset just don't seem to be able to cope with such a use case.