IPhone and IPad wont connect to wi-fi

[Bionic]

I don't know if this is the right place to ask but I was wondering whether any of you knowledgeable fellows might have an idea as to what is going on here. For some reason my IPhone and Ipad as well as an old Iphone i've just tried wont connect to my router. The devices show the router is there and having reset the network settings I've got as far as entering in the password but then I just get a spinning circle and no wi-fi symbol appears at the top of the screen. The weird part is that my Windows laptop is fine and so are my wifes Iphone and Ipad. I've also tried connecting to the router at work and its the same problem. This started mid afternoon today, my current phone updated itself the night before last but my Ipad and older phone are showing that an update is ready to download but obviously cant without wi-fi.

Thanks in advance. James

[Bionic]

Update. Bizarrely, after 4 hours of not working they’re now all reconnected 🤔 . Not quite sure I understand that and I suppose I’ll just have to cross my fingers and toes and hope it stays that way

[MizBrown]

I've had to reboot my wifi router at times to get it reconnected to my repeater that serves the back rooms on the other side of the courtyard.   I suspect just leaving the circle to spin got in all the information the iPad and iPhones needed to get a connection set up and call home to the Apple servers and stuff.  I'd also check to see if there's some kind of security filtering on your router.  I have at times locked down my router to only accept certain MAC addresses.  I use Claro's router/modem only as a cable modem, and use routers I bought for wifi and ethernet (one serves as a repeater).  If your iPad and iPhone showed that they had an update waiting, they did connect some way to Apple's servers for that information.  Sometimes, cable connections here get saturated.  One person gave her router password to a young friend who spread it around the neighborhood and they had a lot of trouble with line speed until they noticed a group of kids with cell phones hanging out in front of their house.   A friend had neighbor kids come in and one got the password off the bottom of the router and her connection also slowed down quite a lot until a tech friend (not me) came in and reset the router to a new password.

 

My first suggestion to anyone having network difficulties is restart/reboot the router, and modem, too, if that's a separate device.   I turn off using data over the telephone connection because downloading programs and operating system upgrades can really eat through data plans.   Also log into the router if things are weird and see who is using it.  If friends have the password and have passed it around, you may need to lock down the router to your MAC addresses.   Nicaraguan cable has improved enough that I can stream videos on weekends, but used to not be able to do that.

 

I occasionally have phones just outside my front door trying to log onto my bluetooth connection, deliberately or automatically, dunno. 

[Bionic]

Thank you, if it happens again I’ll try that. Really appreciate you taking the time to help. 
Thanks again. James

[M.Chapman]

I forget the correct terminology, but my router sometimes "runs out of connections" and won't connect to anything "new", and has to be rebooted.

 

Mark