Problems connecting iPhone to Pods with XB8 Router

[Birdman325]

I used to have the Rogers XB7 modem as the gateway connected on the main floor with a pod in the front of the house, 1 upstairs and 1 downstairs. While all my devices connected well and I did not have any problems connecting devices or weak signals my pods would occasionally (sometimes frequently) drop their signal and start flashing white.
On Friday Rogers came to the house and gave me a new XB8 modem and 3 new pods. Since then my home wifi has been a nightmare. I have reset and reconnected the modem, the pods, moved their placement etc.
While my iPhone (and family iPhones) connect to the gateway without an issue they have a terrible time connecting to any of the pods. I can “see” the network on my phone, signal to the pod is strong but my iPhone says “can’t connect to network”. Laptops seem to connect fine to the pods but not iPhones and if i stand in front of the gateway, phones connect fine.
I never had this problem with the pods connected to the XB7.
Could there be some kind of conflict issue ?

*Added Labels*

[57]

Have you tried "forgetting" the network in the Phone's settings and re-logging in?  Also, turn the phones off completely and reboot.  As you walk around the house the connection should be "seamless."

PS. the pods should be placed roughly half way between the Gateway and the furthest device.  If the Laptops work, then it sounds like an issue with the phones which may be fixed with the "reboot and forget."  

[Birdman325]

Thx for this. “Seamlessly transition was the case previously with the pods connected to the XB7 but no longer. Every time I walk away from the main router my phone drops its wifi connection and goes back to “5G” then sometimes will connect again to a pod but often it won’t and just stays on 5G and when I try to re connect to the home network I get the “ can’t connect” error

Yes, I have forgotten the network, reconnected, reset the phones etc. no change

[57]

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@Birdman325 wrote:
...Every time I walk away from the main router my phone drops its wifi connection and goes back to “5G” ...

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What happens when you temporarily turn off Cellular Data?  There may be other phone settings, like WiFi Assist that create issues when you have a strong cellular signal? See my post in the following thread:

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Apple/Why-Do-I-See-Cellular-Data-Usage-Even-Though-I-Have-My-i...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/102228

[Birdman325]

Thx. Will check that out.

[Birdman325]

Made no difference. Still cannot connect to the pods on a regular basis and some will not connect at all. I can be standing right in front of the pod and it won’t connect. I also periodically receive this error message which prior to switching the upgraded modem I had never seen before.
Unable to join the network. This network is operating on wifi channels in use by several other nearby networks. Referring your wireless router may allow it to automatically choose the best channels to use and may resolve this problem.
I have restarted everything several times. None of it has made a difference and it has not resolved the problem.

[Birdman325]

Had Rogers restart the modem and “update” it from their end. Still no difference. Cannot connect to wifi on the second floor standing 5 feet from the pod. I have a service tech coming out on Monday but this is nuts

[-G-]

If you go to your Pod's location and unplug it, can you still get a fairly strong connection to your XB8 gateway with your iPhone?  If not, you will need to relocate your Pod, or move your Gateway.  (Imagine a straight line between your Gateway and your Pod.  If there is anything behind the walls (plumbing, ductwork), mirrored closet doors, mesh underlay under ceramic tile, etc. on that path that could impede the Wi-Fi signal, you will need to work around that.)

[Birdman325]

Yes I can. Pod location is not the problem. My pods are in the exact same spot they were in when I had the XB7 and I never had any coverage issues.

[-G-]

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@Birdman325 wrote:
Yes I can. Pod location is not the problem. My pods are in the exact same spot they were in when I had the XB7 and I never had any coverage issues.

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Maybe I misunderstood.  It sounded like your Pods were also experiencing connectivity issues.

If the only problem is that devices are not connecting to Pods, it could simply be that the XB8 is the better connectivity option.

Both the Gen 1 (dual radio) and Gen 2 (tri-radio) Pods are Wi-Fi 5 devices.  Any devices connected to the Pods will share a the Wi-Fi uplink to the Gateway, which will max out at around 500 Mb/s on the 5 GHz band, and only half that bandwidth is available on the Gen 1 Pods.  A Wi-Fi 6 device might attain 900 Mb/s when directly connected to the gateway making it the better option.  Also, when a Pod has too many active connections, some devices could also get steered to the Gateway for better overall Wi-Fi performance.

[Birdman325]

Ok. I did something that may have worked but still testing it. I found a bunch of posts on some Apple forums with issues with iPhone 16 connecting to wifi routers. I saw a suggestion about turning off wifi 6E setting. I connected to the cable modem and turned off the 6E setting on my iPhone. I then “forgot the network”. I moved away from the cable modem and stood next to one of the pods and reconnected to the home wifi. So far when I move around the house in and out of range of the cable modem the wifi seems to be holding. For now. Will continue to check it but there seems to be some compatibility issue with the iPhone and the pods

[Birdman325]

But wifi 6E now jumps back on!

[Chriswise]

Where are you at on this? I am having the exact same issue right now with 2 iPhones and a new MacBook. Have rogers in three times, two new modems and new pods.
Still no resolution yet. Rogers office of the president has reached out and we have tried disabling wifi 6 as well on the gateway. Did you get anywhere or resolve this?

[Chriswise]

Also what model iPhone you have? My iPhone 13 connects through the gateway and the pods but the two iPhones 15 pro max’s I have have to forget the network on a daily basis or more when in the area of the house where the Pod is.

[-G-]

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@Chriswise wrote:
Also what model iPhone you have? My iPhone 13 connects through the gateway and the pods but the two iPhones 15 pro max’s I have have to forget the network on a daily basis or more when in the area of the house where the Pod is.

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A few years ago, there was an issue with some iPhones not being able to connect to Wi-Fi when customers changed/upgraded their Wi-Fi routers.  Not sure why.  Maybe to guard against connecting to a rogue access point?

The fix for that was to: Go into your iPhone Settings

Go to "Privacy and Security" / "Location Services" -- enable Location Services

On the "Location Services" page, scroll down and select "System Services" -- disable "Networking & Wireless"

Next, forget your local Wi-Fi network, then try reconnecting to Wi-Fi.

If that works and you can get connected to your local Wi-Fi, go back to "Settings / Privacy and Security / Location Services" and re-enable "Networking & Wireless"

[Chriswise]

So I went into my gateway and disabled the wifi6 and it worked I could roam through out my house perfectly. However this morning it enabled itself and I am back to square one

[RogersMoin]

Hello, @Birdman325 & @Chriswise.

We want to track this oddity and flag it to our backend teams. Kindly send CommunityHelps a private message so we can gather the required info. In this blog, we provide more detailed information about our private messaging. 

Regards,

RogersMoin