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iOS 11 Will Prevent Your iPhone From Automatically Connecting To Unreliable Wi-Fi Networks (trustedreviews.com)
A new feature spotted in iOS 11 beta 2 intelligently manages wireless networks based on their reliability, learning to ignore those that are too far away to provide a consistent experience. TrustedReviews reports: It follows the company's Wi-Fi Assist feature which meant handsets would switch to a data connection when Wi-Fi networks became too slow. Naturally, users weren't thrilled with the resulting data usage issues, and it seems Apple is looking to do better this time around. This new feature will disable "Auto join" for any network which suffers from low speed issues or is deemed to be generally unreliable. Users will, of course, still be able to join these networks manually, but the change should prevent the frustration that comes from iPhones automatically joining networks users know to be inadequate. At this point, there's no way to know how well the feature will work, and there will undoubtedly be issues when it eventually arrives in iOS 11.
Of course, it is a well known fact, corporations always know better than the customer, especially with regards to their needs.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
There's actually a very recent XKCD post about reliability of WiFi versus cellular: https://xkcd.com/1865/
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Nothing there suggests that users still won't get bumped to a cellular network should the wireless one be deemed to be slow / unreliable (what is "slow"? Is that configurable?) just that you have to force the connection as it has been flagged. Will the forced connection remain even if it is "unreliable"?
How about just a notification on the icon (like a ! ) to easily let the user know the connection isn't up to snuff for whatever reason? Then the _user_ can decide if they want to go on a (potentially metered) cellular network. This can have an configuration option (default off) that automatically does this should the user be on an unmetered plan.
Given the options of "pay and get the content (probably an add) quicker" or "I can wait a few more seconds for free" even iPhone users would probably choose the latter.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
Stop it. Not allowed. We're stopping you. We think that's a bad thing and you're a bad person for doing it. Stop it.
Soon you will need to have iRouters and iAcceePoints if you want to use apple devices.
so it won't work with most hotel wifi?
"Of course it will very very much.
Please enjoy here shopping and banking online."
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Shut up and give us your money.
- Apple.
Well given that there's a public beta and your website is called TrustedReviews, how about you do your job, install the beta, and review how it works? Or are you just going to regurgitate information you found on the web? Because that's not a review I trust.
"At this point, there's no way to know how well the feature will work, and there will undoubtedly be issues when it eventually arrives in iOS 11."
Will it also be an issue if the feature is not there when iOS launches?
Will it also be an issue the only people who don't have a more reliable and secure experience are those that want an Apple branded Android device?
Will it also be an issue if you have to pay for feaures that other platforms give for free after providing absolutely no indication that those features would ever be free on the platform?
The Apple hate is stupid. It's no secret how they manage their garden.
When traveling, I often join a local WiFi network for an hour or a day. When I am leaving the area, I don't always remember to go into iOS wifi settings and saying to "forget this network". Once the network is out of range, I don't know of a way to tell iOS to forget about it. I know that this increases my threat envelope somewhat, because iOS will keep looking for that network (or one with the same SSID).
So: does anyone know of a way to get iOS to list all the WiFi networks it has remembered, so that they can be selectively deleted? does someone produce an app for that? OS X has had this ability since...well...forever. Why doesn't iOS have it?
Let me guess, it would check the MAC Address of the WiFi AP.
00-1B-63 (hex) Apple Inc.
if the MAC address doesn't match, the network is "unreliable".
Or, if some proprietary "apple handshake" fails, the network is unreliable.
Basically, if it's not apple branded hardware, it's unreliable.
what really is intriguing is the evaluation of the network bandwidth since apple can not even set the captive portal detection server they run to send HTTP headers correctly to no-cache... I'd like to see their workings and I'm sure the network administrators who control the MDM systems would as well...
Apple has quite an investment in the enterprise space and a change to networking would be quite a change...
regards
John Jones
Submitter seems to focus on a tiny feature, when the big new iOS11 feature is surely the tablet friendly multi-window. Much much easier to create split screens, the apps history groups screens not apps, and a mass of touch friendly drag drops between apps. You could do it before, but now its a damn site more intuitive.
Very impressive. I'm stuck with Android since I'm using a lot of Android code, but it's very very impressive. On Android we'll probably get stuck with a piss poor WIMP interface from Chrome.
You won't find a 12 inch+ Android device with the kind of usability features you see in iOS11.
It's nice to see Apple finally taking a lead with features, its been playing catch up for quite a while now, and as a result, Google has been rudderless with Android.
just another feature android has had for ages. shouldnt even be news
Android has had this for years. Hopefully they patented it and can sue Apple over it.
But when will the OS be able to bypass a stingray device?
What happens when one is in an area where there is no cellular signal, and the only connection available is a slow WiFi connection? I am frequently at the lake on the weekends, and there is no cellular reception on my boat dock. There are plenty of WiFi connections, but the speed is always slow. In this case I would rather connect to a slow WiFi than have no internet at all.
Yes, but will iOS 11 still violate 802.11 QoS standards to ensure that iThingys get traffic before any device that adheres to the standards in good faith?
Timmy, stop second guessing me. Do what you're told.
I have this same problem on my Android phone. Both my cellular and my home internet ISPs have hotspots all over the place that I can use for "free" (read included with my plans). They really do have heavy coverage which is handy if you are in a business or public venue or whatever and can connect to their "free" wifi. The problem is, I may walk into a business that is a few doors down from one with a hotspot, and my phone will happily connect to the SSID at -85 dBm. This is not a particularly useable signal, and I end up having to disable wifi so I can have a proper connection on LTE, then remember to enable it again when I leave.
If I could just have a setting that says "Don't connect to any wifi below (insert signal strength here, I'd probably go with about -60 to -65 dBm)", problem solved. Yes I know SNR matters too, but the above would probably take care of the vast majority of cases that cause me issues.
And how long before blocking malware/adware/marketing at the router level considered "unreliable"?
I believe Android has had this feature since at least the 4.0 days. It definitely seems like a must. Apple is too focused on shiny toys to attract their baby-like fans instead of actual technical solutions people need. Oh well, glad they've finally gotten it.
My Android devices have been doing this as well lately, especially my Pixel C, and I get it. The problem is that I realize that the network has some reliability issues when I choose to connect to it but it's what's available without using up my cellular data allowances. All the available WiFi in the area is about the same as far as reliability goes. My choices are to tolerate it, or go to my home or office for a "reliable" connection.
At home when storms roll through my crappy cable internet can die on my but the Wi-Fi signal will still be strong. My iPhone will keep hammering away at the Wi-Fi because it sees a signal but it goes no where. If I disable the Wi-Fi and use the cellular network instead then I can go back to my e-mail, surf the web, or whatever. If the iPhone was smart enough to switch to cellular data when the Wi-Fi internet connection dies on me then that would be convenient. When the Wi-Fi internet comes back, because the cable company finally got their act together, then I'd like the iPhone to switch back automatically without me having to remember to re-enable Wi-Fi.
I'd want some indication on the screen that a Wi-Fi connection is available but deemed "unworthy" so I can look into why it failed. This is also so I can be aware I'm using my limited cell data instead of an unlimited Wi-Fi. I have certain apps disabled from using cellular data to keep me from going too far on grabbing data but even so I have to watch myself. For instance I had web browsing disabled on the cellular network to keep me from watching YouTube and using up all my data, but then I found that this also kept me from comparing prices online as I shopped. Some finer grained control might be handy here as well.
I will say that the Wi-Fi calling feature sure it nice. As I sit in my basement office I'll sometimes have a marginal cell signal. With Wi-Fi calling it's not a worry, at least until storms knock out my cable internet again. It was also nice to see that I could still make phone calls even in a basement lecture hall. No cell signal there but the campus Wi-Fi worked.
It seems this preference for Wi-Fi is now becoming a problem and it's nice to see Apple working on it.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
My Nexus6 wont connect to wifi in China if the phone is connected .... why? because Google considers a network to be seriously broken if you can't access Google's servers .... so Google thinks your expensive roaming connection is the only valid connection you have
You can get around this by doing the counter intuitive going into flight mode and then tuirning on wifi
While it's arguable that the connection IS broken it's still useful (wechat works for example) even if you're stuck with bing
Perhaps the phone should only automatically connect to networks the user has requested it do so.
Like on my laptop, there is a "Connect automatically" checkbox.