fix iOS 8’s Wi-Fi performance issues Using WiFried

A couple of days ago we reported to you that a tweak will hit Cydia store very soon to fix iOS 8- iOS 8.1 Wifi issues that many people faced it after updating. However, developer Mario Ciabarra, the guy behind many popular tweaks like MyWi and My3G is back with a brand new tweak that claims to do some great things for people experiencing Wi-Fi issues on iOS 8.

WiFried is the name of his new tweak, and its purpose is to fix the persistent Wi-Fi issues that occur for a lot of iOS 8 users. That sounds good and all, but the question is, will it work?

WiFried allows users to enable and disable AWDL/AirDrop support using a simple toggle. According to Ciabarra, Apple’s choice to use Bonjour over AWDL for AirDrop and AirPlay is the likely cause of the Wi-Fi performance issues. He explains:

I’ve narrowed down the issue to the use of Apple’s Wireless Direct Link (AWDL) that is used for AirDrop, AirPlay, and Gaming connections.
I’ll go out on a limb and say the WiFi issues are because of Apple’s choice of using Bonjour over AWDL and that, given the constraints of the WiFi hardware, this will be difficult to get right.

Interestingly enough, OS X Yosemite users experience similar Wi-Fi network performance issues as well. These issues, like the iOS 8 issues, are related to AWDL. While there’s no specific tweak like WiFried to quickly enable and disable AWDL, users can simply type the following terminal commands in to fix the issue on the desktop:

sudo ifconfig awdl0 down

To reenable AWDL, use the following:

sudo ifconfig awdl0 up

I’ll be sure to report back with my findings. In the meantime, I highly recommend that you read Mario’s uber-detailed post on the issue, where he explains how he came up with this solution.