Best Router for Apple iPad
Firstly, congratulations on your purchase of a shiny new Apple iPad. To save you money (data charge rates of the UK mobile providers) and battery life of leaving 3G switched on, you're probably wanting to use the wireless connectivity on your iPad to connect to the internet whenever you're at home.
To do this you will require a wireless router. According to Apple, this should be a wireless N (802.11n) router. You can find a list of wireless routers and our ratings of them in our router reviews section. All of these routers are wireless N and will work with the iPad.
Problems with iPad Wi-Fi
There have been some reported problems with wireless network access on the Apple iPad, and Apple have recognised these and promised a fix. However, in the interim you can take the following steps to make the best of what you have.• Ensure your router firmware is up to date. Routers have software built into them that controls how they work. Sometimes router manufacturers release updates to this software to fix bugs or accommodate newer standards. You can normally find these updates and instructions on how to install them on the website of your router's manufacturer. See our list of router manufacturer websites.
• Use WPA or WPA2 security. Apple have acknowledged that using the older WEP security standard may cause drop-outs on your connection. Note: To do this you will need to change the security settings on your router, and all computers/devices that connect to it. See our section on wireless router security for more info.
• Adjust the screen brightness. This is really odd but does sometimes work, it suggests that the wifi antennae are in some way impacted by the brightness levels of the screen. Weird, but worth a try. Go to Settings and then Brightness and Wallpaper on your iPad to change this.
• Renew your IP address. Your router assigns an IP address (an identification) to your iPad for your own network. Sometimes this can get confused. You can get a new one which should be trouble free by going to Settings and then Wi-Fi on your iPad. Tap the network you are currently using and then tap Renew Lease.
• And finally the old IT classic, turn it off and turn it on again. Try turning the Wi-Fi off then on again first to see what happens. This may resolve some more obscure issues.
If you've completed all of these and are still having problems, then you will probably have to wait for Apple to update the software on your iPad. There is an automatic check for this so you should get the new software fairly quickly after it becomse available.
