Hi all. I hope my findings can point some developer/hacker in the right direction.

Some background on my iPhone:
It's an 8Gb 49 week, 1.1.2 4.6 OTB. When I bought it, there was no software unlock solution but the Turbosim that I used.

Later, 1.1.4 came out and I updated the iPhone and unlocked it with Ziphone. Right out of the sudden, my battery didn't last for even 24 hours. I had to recharge it every night and some in days, the phone was already dead when getting home late at night. At that point, wifi worked as usual.

After updating to 2.1 and unlocking with Winpwn, wifi stopped working.

Trying to solve the Wifi problem:
Reading a lot about that problem here in this forums and on Google searches, I decided to roll back to 1.1.4 and perform a baseband downgrade to 04.04.05G. I used Kiphone to downgrade the baseband.

Note: Kiphone only works on 1.1.4 iphones, so you need to roll back to 1.1.4 before using it. There are a bunch of tutorials in the net about it, the most annoying part is installing old versions of iTunes (7.5 in that case). Read more about it on the net before doing this.

That gave me a 1.1.4 iPhone with 04.04.05G baseband. Then I unlocked it with Ziphone 3.0, but I didn't try using Wifi (my bad, I know). Then I restored it back to 2.1 and unlocked with Winpwn.

My findings:
After that I tried to mess with some file permissions. At the end with no success, I made sure every file under /private/var/preferences/SystemConfiguration belonged to root:wheel (not sure this was the default permissions, if not, please tell me your settings).

Wifi started to work but very weird. It tries to connect to known networks BUT:
- DHCP assigns the damn 169 IPs;
- If I get to the wifi menu in time to still see the access point, I keep renewing the IP until DHCP gets the IP of my wifi's IP range.
- By doing this, wifi remains connected until I put the iPhone back to sleep.
- When opening the iPhone, sometimes I see the wifi bars for a couple of seconds, then they disappear. Sometimes I just can't find wifi any network. Not even mine. I believe the iPhone tries to connect to the access point when waking up but, due to this 169 IP, it gives up the connection.
- Everyday iPhone seems to behave different, it seems that finding the access points is becoming harder as time goes by.
- It seems to be easier to connect when the iPhone is "cold".

I believe:
1. If there's a way to prevent those 169 IPs to be assigned, the wifi will work.
2. If it's really a hardware problem as reported in other threads, I believe this can work around the problem.
3. There should be a way to log hardware failures and what Wifi is doing and its status.
4. Due to my last comment in My Findings, I believe some file should be being fed and some garbage collector is not doing its job. Maybe that explains different and degrading behavior along the time.

Admins, if this info is useless, pls delete this thread.

Thanks you all.

Oi pep_BR,

I have exactly the same problem!
Since 2.1 wifi's not working anymore, doesn't find networks or can't connect, 169 IPs...

Very sade

Sushi, what's your iPhone's week?

You can set static ip's on both the iphone and in most modem settings, the issue sounds like a modem issue, or a iPhone software issue. It seems like your wifi is still mostlly working so my guess is the baseband is fine. Try the static ip, if you still can't get it to work return to apple. Unlocking is messing with the baseband, sometimes things go wrong, sorry you seem to be unlucky. Try a dfu to 2.2 and use the unlock function in quickpwn to reflash your baseband, it could fix your issue.
Good luck

Originally Posted by gaz919

You can set static ip's on both the iphone and in most modem settings, the issue sounds like a modem issue, or a iPhone software issue. It seems like your wifi is still mostlly working so my guess is the baseband is fine. Try the static ip, if you still can't get it to work return to apple. Unlocking is messing with the baseband, sometimes things go wrong, sorry you seem to be unlucky. Try a dfu to 2.2 and use the unlock function in quickpwn to reflash your baseband, it could fix your issue.
Good luck

Thanks Gaz. Will try the 2.2 in a few days. Unfortunately I can't return it to Apple as I live in Brazil and the phone may have lost its warranty because it's not been activated and also jailbroken and unlocked.

I'm having the same problem I recently upgraded to 2.2 and still have no luck. I'm going to attempt to downgrade the baseband.

Originally Posted by pep_BR

Sushi, what's your iPhone's week?

Where can i find this info ?

Originally Posted by gaz919

You can set static ip's on both the iphone and in most modem settings, the issue sounds like a modem issue, or a iPhone software issue. It seems like your wifi is still mostlly working so my guess is the baseband is fine. Try the static ip, if you still can't get it to work return to apple. Unlocking is messing with the baseband, sometimes things go wrong, sorry you seem to be unlucky. Try a dfu to 2.2 and use the unlock function in quickpwn to reflash your baseband, it could fix your issue.

It doesn't look to be a IP (DHCP) problem because my router works very well with another devices (including other iPhones).

The iPhone doesn't see the wifi signal, it means that when I go to the wifi networks's setting, there is no network available at all 90% of the time, then sometime it will see some networks available but can't connect to anyone. When it happens to see my regular wifi network (but so rare), I try to connect but then it says that it "can't connect" or doesn't say anything, but doesn't connect. And sometime, like in 2% of time, it connects (I mean, no error messages), but then, no DHCP lease, no IP... And the disconnect.
Finally, since 2.2, I never had any wifi connection, in 2.1 I had it like 1 or 2 times (in 2.0 it was working almost well even if sometime connection was lost).
I did try to install custom firmwares with and without BootNeuter in PwnageTool, tryed also QuickPwn with original Apple's firmware, tryed almost all things (DFU...) since OS 2.1 (don't whant to go back to OS 2.0...).
But nothing works

Of course, before this, wifi was working very well, fast and strong... Everything begins with 2.1
It really looks like harware problem (like antenna) but it is not, because it begins exactly with software update.

And like Pep_BR, my iPhone comes from US grey market and it doesn't have any waranty...
Thanx, Sushi.

Originally Posted by Sushi

Where can i find this info ?

Look at the Serial #, the 4th and 5th digits are the week it's been made.

Originally Posted by Sushi

It doesn't look to be a IP (DHCP) problem because my router works very well with another devices (including other iPhones).

I meant the DHCP client, not the server.

Originally Posted by Sushi

The iPhone doesn't see the wifi signal, it means that when I go to the wifi networks's setting, there is no network available at all 90% of the time, then sometime it will see some networks available but can't connect to anyone. When it happens to see my regular wifi network (but so rare), I try to connect but then it says that it "can't connect" or doesn't say anything, but doesn't connect. And sometime, like in 2% of time, it connects (I mean, no error messages), but then, no DHCP lease, no IP... And the disconnect.
Finally, since 2.2, I never had any wifi connection, in 2.1 I had it like 1 or 2 times (in 2.0 it was working almost well even if sometime connection was lost).
I did try to install custom firmwares with and without BootNeuter in PwnageTool, tryed also QuickPwn with original Apple's firmware, tryed almost all things (DFU...) since OS 2.1 (don't whant to go back to OS 2.0...).
But nothing works

Of course, before this, wifi was working very well, fast and strong... Everything begins with 2.1
It really looks like harware problem (like antenna) but it is not, because it begins exactly with software update.

Yes, I have all symptoms too. Now, I can't see Wifi any more. I've been messing up with some plist files unsuccessfully. I think I have read somewhere that Ziphone (the 1st 1.1.2 unlock) may have burned some circuit (commboard) and that's why people claim to be a hardware problem.

I'll be on vacation in the 1st 2 weeks of the year. Will try to roll back to 1.1.2 and use my Turbosim to see how it goes. If someone is willing to try this before me, please post the results here.

Wifi should not work if it's a hardware problem.

Thanks

Originally Posted by Sushi

And like Pep_BR, my iPhone comes from US grey market and it doesn't have any waranty...
Thanx, Sushi.

Actually I bought it from the Apple website. Would that make me eligible to return it to Apple?

Messing up with the file:

\var\preferences\SystemConfiguration\OSThermalStat us.plist

I changed:

<key>OSThermalNotificationEnabled</key><true/>

to

<key>OSThermalNotificationEnabled</key><false/>

WIFI stopped working at all. When I turned it back to true, wifi tries to connect with no success, as usual.

I hope that something could wake up the Wifi, will keep looking into that. Please post your experiences too.

Thanks.