Guys, don't be misled by the size of the iPhone's antennas. I'm certain that the iPhone's 802.11 wireless radio strengths, both 2G and 3G, are very much equivalent to that of an ordinary notebook's Intel Wireless adapter. And by saying that, I mean it in a literal sense when I say if your laptop detects it, your phone should be no different.

In cases where you see any abnormalities in the iPhone's connectivity strengths, irregular connection drops even during use and even the inability to connect to a/an secured/unsecured WiFi-AP at any given time, your first shot would be to perform the "Reset All Network Settings" option as recommended by many others here. However if the problem persists, I have seen many such cases where it's usually linked to a corrupted or less-than-functional baseband. Re-Neutering it usually does the trick.

That's all I have for now. Hope it's helpful.

My apologize for not going into detail on this, mate. By "Re-Neutering" it, I'm referring to the use of BootNeuter, a second time. Basically you will need to install the 'BootNeuter.tar' payload into a custom IPSW using PwnageTool or WinPwn (whichever works for you), OR if you still have WiFi access on your phone you can look it up and install it from Cydia under 'Utilities'. Note that this method is targeted at 2.x users, as the current versions of BootNeuter only contain the 04.05.04_G files intended for 2.x phones.

NOTE : Only attempt this on 2G phones, as this will not function correctly on 3G phones until a soft-unlock is released.

Once you've done that, once you see 'BootNeuter' on your Springboard and are able to start it up, it will first try to determine your current bootloader and baseband status and settings. Once done, there are 4 options you can tinker with. The current settings should look like this.



**If you have fakeblank turned ON, I would strongly suggest opting for a non-fakeblank bootloader. I've ran into many unpleasant encounters with problematic fakeblanks. Just one man's opinion

Now, change your settings to the following, then tap on 'Flash'.



IMPORTANT : Once BootNeuter starts flashing, NEVER, understand any circumstances allow anything to interrupt the process, be it sleep mode, a low battery gauge or your potential impatience. Ensure that AUTO-LOCK is set to 'Never', and that your battery gauge is at least half-full. From my previous experiences, the baseband flashing process in particular has been known to take more than 1/2 an hour in bad cases, so just be patient and keep your distance, it will finish eventually. Most importantly, DO NOT reboot the phone until the last step below has been completed.

After it is done, revert the settings back to the first image above once again, and 'Flash'. What does this do? Basically this is one of the few techniques I've tried and tested which have succeeded at achieving a completely clean, fresh baseband. And this is important because the baseband is usually, and as a matter of fact ALWAYS behind cellular and WiFi connectivity issues. Once you're done with the final step, reboot the phone and you SHOULD have resolved any underlying WiFi issues.

Thanks.


NOTE : The instructions above are compiled from my personal experiences with baseband troubleshooting on both 1.1.x and 2.x which have attained successful complete recoveries of WiFi connectivity issues. However, I shall not be held liable for any potential corruption (not permanent 'damage') and/or ineffective outcomes of this procedure. I will, however, be glad to entertain any questions and requests for assistance on the matter.


UPDATE : Download the BootNeuter 2.1 payload HERE.

This post has been edited by Samanoske Akechi: Dec 2 2008, 04:03 PM

Unfortunately, yes. However I would consider this one of the many benefits of jailbreaking. Warranties can only do so much. In time, manual fixes like this will come in handy. But of course, since you're still on warranty, exchanging it for a new unit is of course THE most logical course of action right now.

This particular method isn't currently supported on the iPhone 3G because a baseband unlock has not been achieved in order to facilitate the flashing of the baseband. From your description of the problem, it could well be related to the baseband.

Though this may sound obvious, I assume that the WiFi-AP which you're currently connected to has been checked for a functional internet connection?

Thanks for pointing that out, mate. Noted and disclaimer added. However, BootNeuter is working flawlessly on 2.2 (2G). There's no reason to worry. The fundamental utilities working behind the scenes of BootNeuter have been the same since 1.0.2.

Yes, indeed. Every BootNeuter version update is only intended to add the additional, updated firmware basebands. Perhaps some bugfixes left and right, but fundamentally it is a mere GUI of ienew, ieraser, bbupdater in terms of the baseband flashing functions.