A co-worker was having difficulty getting his iPod Touch connecting via WiFi. He said searched all over Google, Apple’s website and even brought it to the Boston Apple store after making an appointment with the Genius Bar who wanted to replace it with another unit or a repair estimate for a fee plus shipping and handling and a diagnostic fee not to exceed $100 since it was no longer covered by the warranty, an AppleCare Protection Plan, or another Apple repair program.

He said he would think about it.  He sent me an email of the details, which was emailed by the gentleman he spoke to at the Genius Bar:

Apple may charge you a diagnostic fee, including shipping charges, of no more than one hundred ($100) dollars US, plus applicable tax, if Apple inspects your product and determines based on the inspection that the product does not require service. If Apple determines, while inspecting your product, that service is needed due to the failure of parts that are neither supplied by Apple nor Apple-branded, Apple may return the product to you without servicing it, and may charge you the diagnostic fee plus applicable sales tax.

You are entitled to a written estimate of the cost of repairs. The estimate must include all costs for parts and labor. Apple will not charge for work done or parts supplied in excess of the estimate unless you, the customer, approve the additional charge. This estimate of repair charges is valid for 30 days from the date of estimate. You must notify Apple if you claim a tax exemption and provide Apple with a tax exemption number at the time you receive this estimate. The cost of shipping is included in the estimate.

Well he decided to send it in and received this message a few days after sending it in a box and shipping label provided by Apple:

Our technicians have performed full diagnostic checks on your IPOD TOUCH and have been unable to reproduce the symptom(s) you reported when you requested the repair. As a result of our tests, we can confirm that your product meets Apple specifications for performance, usability, and functionality.

As a part of our assessment and test procedures, your product has had the latest software and firmware updates installed. It is now being returned to you, and you should expect to receive it within two business days along with a letter that provides details about our assessment as well as useful troubleshooting tips.

Well his problem still wasn’t solved, but he also wasn’t charged $100 either- just $37.50 mostly for shipping and handling of his iPod Touch, which he was ticked off about since they didn’t do anything. He looked around the Internet some more hoping to find a solution to his dilemma, but couldn’t find a solution for his problem and asked if I could take a look at it before attempting to Jailbreak it.

I do own a few Apple products (although none were purchased), but this was my first time using the iPod Touch besides some brief time with the iPhone and iPhone 3G, I didn’t have much experience with it. So like any other newb I took to the interweb looking for a solution to this problem hoping it would be something simple my coworker couldn’t find and was shocked that a lot of people had the same issue, yet none of the solutions given solved the problem of having not being able to resolve an IP address on the iTouch. Most solutions pointed to the fact that it was a problem with the router- I have 5 different routers in our house and all were seen, but couldn’t connect to the iPod Touch. The iPod Touch could see Access Points no problem, but wouldn’t connect even if a static IP address was entered. Most solutions wanted people to flash and update their routers, which people should do anyway and wouldn’t really solve the problem. All my routers were up to date with their respective firmware.

I tried several of the suggestions on the Internet of entering in a DNS, resetting the Network settings, resetting the device back to factory defaults wiping all settings and content from the device (I did backup the content via some third party software).  Still the even with all IP information entered in the WiFi settings, the iPod Touch wouldn’t resolve an IP address.

My last resort was to use iTunes and perform a backup and restore. I had already backedup and reinstalled the music and figured why not. So I installed iTunes on a virtual image (so it would be a fresh install) and not needed if you already have iTunes installed) and went ahead with the restore. After the restore it work fine and was able to connect to the myriad of Access Points around my domicile.

I was surprised to find that YouTube didn’t work and it came up with a "Must be activated by iTunes that has an internet connection or something like that. I hooked it back up to iTunes several times and still the problem wasn’t solved. I couldn’t find a way to activate YouTube in iTunes and figured it must be looking to see if you have an active iTunes account. I then proceeded to create an iTunes account and canceled out of it once it asked me for my credit card information. I then ejected the iPod Touch started up YouTube and it worked. Go Figure.

I had the same problem trying to applications installed from the Apple Applications store, even the free ones. So I found this step by step online at the Apple site and I found another way to create an iTunes account without entering a credit card number and even get some free iTunes out of it as well.

When creating an account for the iTunes Store, you can also use the  Gift Certificate Redeem feature which allows you to redeem a Gift Certificate or gift card you bought at a store,pharmacy, etc. or gifted to you. In doing a quick Google search I found that there are lots of websites online that offers iTunes Store Redeem codes in exchange for user registration, signing up for email blasts/spam or some other offer. (Facebook has group called Apple Students when joined gives a code).

The best website I found was Tunecore, which gives you a redeem code without doing anything except for clicking a button to generate the code, (who knows how long this will last). So, follow the steps below to create your iTunes Store account without providing a credit card:

1. 1. Open the iTunes Store and scroll down to the bottom of the page. (verify you are using the United States iTunes Store). The redeem code from Tunecore will only work with the US iTunes Store.

1. 2.Scroll back to the top and click on the “Redeem” and enter the code you got from Tunecore and click on the redeem button.

1. 3.iTunes will then ask you to login, choose to create an account, Continue and accept the TOS.

1. 4.Enter in your account information, it can be real or made up, but this may not follow the TOS if you use false information.

1. 5.Continue to the payment information and choose at the bottom left none.

After doing this I was able to download Apple Applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Back to the original problem. I was using Safari  for quite a bit throughout the day, but would have instances of the WiFi dropping out and reconnecting for no reason, so I am thinking that either the software version of the iPod Touch has issues of throttling back the power delivered to the iTouch or it does have some hardware issues. Anyway my co-worker was happy to get his iPod Touch back with WiFi.

I am just shocked that this is such a common problem with no common answer given by Apple or the community. So hopefully this will help others with this same problem. Reading the comments from others and my own experience left me very frustrated and I could see many people returning it due to this frustration and purchasing something else. Playing around with the Safari browser some more on the iPod Touch was a pleasant experience except for times where it would just lock up and shut down especially when opening up more than 3 tabs. I don’t know if it was due to memory issues or what and I needed to back out to the home screen and restart. I really liked the experience of using the iPod Touch, but didn’t like the fact that some screens had some trouble rendering properly and required manual resizing and scrolling left and right to read. Still I think Safari is the best mobile browser out there for a handheld unit with Opera Mobile coming in a close second neck- in-neck with Skyfire.

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