iPhone Can’t Find Wifi, Oh No!

Tonight I spent some quality time uncovering a bit of information I couldn’t find referenced anywhere else on the web. Not that this solution hasn’t already been written somewhere else, but among the many, many discussions about why an iPhone can’t access ANY wifi networks (apparently there are some hardware AND software issues with some iPhones) it was impossible to find what I needed.

First, the situation.

We have a working wifi network that was set up by someone else. We know it’s working because there are two laptops successfully connected. The network has no security enabled and is set up in combination mode (n/g/b). The router is made by Belkin.

We have three iPhones, all of which spend a great deal of time connected to wifi, none of which can access this network.

Now the solution. Remove spaces from the network name in the router settings. No, seriously… Go do it, it works.

Apparently our laptops (XP and Vista) had no problems working with the spaces, but the iPhones just weren’t getting it done. Hopefully this helps someone in the future, but to summarize: iPhones do not recognize wireless networks with spaces in their names.