Pay attention to which name you use for your WLAN. A researcher has identified a specific string of characters that, when used for a Wi-Fi network name, completely disables your iPhone’s ability to connect to the internet. The reveal comes a few weeks after another similar Wi-Fi name was revealed that can trigger the bizarre bug. However, this latest error is more annoying as there is currently no solution to the Wi-Fi disabling error.
In fact, the same researcher discovered both Wi-FI network names. Both of these completely destroy your iPhone’s ability to connect to the internet. After connecting to the network, your iPhone will restart immediately. When it is turned back on, the Wi-Fi switch will be toggled “off” in the settings menu and you will not be able to turn it back on.
Tapping the symbol works for a second – before it immediately returns to the “off” position.
Not only will you be limited to mobile internet, but with your Wi-Fi turned off, you will lose a number of useful iPhone features including AirDrop and AirPlay.
Security researcher Carl Schou shared his discovery on Twitter and posted that when an iPhone was called within range of a Wi-Fi network. comes % secretclub% power, you lose the ability to connect to Wi-Fi, stream music via AirPlay, and more. Worse, the latest bug is even more damaging than Schou’s previous discovery.
While the first WiFi name, % p% s% s% s% s% n, caused the iPhone to reboot and let it not connect to the internet … resetting network settings usually fixed the error. This is of course an annoying process.
Resetting the network settings means entering all of the Wi-Fi network passwords again.
But the latest Wi-Fi network name -% secretclub% power – cannot be fixed by resetting your network settings. Ouch.
“Seriously, I still have no WiFi,” tweeted researcher Carl Schou about the new bug.
Unless you live with the kind of prankster who thinks this would be a fun thing … it seems unlikely you will come across it that much. We’re sure Apple will work on a solution to this problem, but in the meantime, it’s worth dodging any Wi-Fi networks with% symbols in their name.
