iPhone SSID Check is Unreliable

Question

My application requires the user's iPhone to be connected to a 3rd party hardware device which broadcasts an SSID containing the Product Name (always the same) followed by a Unit Number (i.e. ProductName_123); essentially a Captive Network. Before allowing users to interact with my application, I ensure that the iPhone is currently connected to an appropriate SSID. I do so with the following method (I have obfuscated the product name for privacy reasons):

- (BOOL) connectedToHardwareDevice
{

    /* Retrieve Interface Information */
    CFArrayRef myArray = CNCopySupportedInterfaces();
    CFDictionaryRef captiveNtwrkDict = CNCopyCurrentNetworkInfo(CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(myArray, 0));

    /* Put network information into an iterable dictionary */
    NSDictionary *dict = ( NSDictionary*) captiveNtwrkDict;
    NSString* ssid = [dict objectForKey:@"SSID"];

    /* Look for the Hardware Device name in the SSID */
    rangeOfString:@"ProductName"].location == NSNotFound || ssid == NULL)
    {      
        return false;
    }
   else
    {        
        return true;
    }    
}

In my iPhone Wireless Network settings, I have declared a static IP for my testing device, which hastens the connection procedure as DHCP is avoided. However, often times I will open the application and be prompted with my "Not Connected" alert, which is triggered by the aforementioned method returning false. I find this exceptionally strange, considering I update a text field in a view with the current SSID, which will usually be correct despite the alert being shown.

My questions are as follows: Is there a more reliable means to achieve my goal? Am I going about this incorrectly? Is there some part of my method I could change in order to have more reliable results?

Thank you! If any additional information is required, please don't hesitate to ask!

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 14 '12 at 23:14

My solution is to run the method again until a counter hits 20. If the counter hits 20 and the SSID is still not a match, then assume the user isn't connected to the hardware device and enter the "wait for WiFi connection" loop. This may not be the most graceful, but it works.

iPhone SSID Check is Unreliable

1 Answers1