I have connections to two WiFi spots at work, the two being about 70 yards from each other. When I stay at one location, it will connect fine. However, when I move to the other location, the antenna will stay connected to the one at my first location. The signal is just strong enough to keep a connection, but not strong enough to transmit anything. I have to reset my WiFi so it finds the closer one.
I know its a minor bug. But is there a way to force the phone to automatically switch to whichever network is stronger?
juice defender has a built in wifi/location setup, unsure of how it would do with the spots so close and uses gps to determine location, searching the market you might find an app that switches based off signal strength
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The problem: At home, my 3G signal is very weak - occasionally it reaches 2 out of 4 bars, often it's only one and it frequently drops out altogether causing the phone to switch to EDGE. At work, however, I get a very good 3G signal, so it would be useful to use 3G.
Now, in theory the "Auto" band setting (auto between GSM and WCDMA) ought to cover this; but in practice the 3G signal at home is just strong enough that the phone keeps trying to switch into 3G mode (and thrashing the battery) but the actual data speed I get (even over HDSPA) doesn't seem much faster than EDGE, and every time it loses the HDSPA link and drops to EDGE there's a long pause before the data starts flowing again.
I've tried switching the phone's band setting between "GSM" and "Auto", using the GSM setting at home, and Auto elsewhere; but doing that plays havoc with "Microsoft Direct Push". Switching the phone band causes the data connection to drop, which switches Direct Push off; switching Direct Push back on again loses the more detailed settings I have set in ActiveSync (where I download email manually during work hours but automatically outside of work). In addition, because the data connection is lost, any application that's using it generally has to be shut down and restarted.
Is there some way of moving the phone between "Auto" and "2G only" mode without messing up the Direct Push setting and, if possible, without severing the data connection? While actually in "Auto" mode the phone happily switches between HDSPA and EDGE without any side-effects; so it seems like there ought to be a way to tell the phone "be in Auto mode but for the moment pretend that there is no 3G signal even if there actually is a weak one", and then use that setting in weak 3G areas, switching back to normal "Auto" behaviour when you know the 3G signal has improved. Or alternatively perhaps "Auto" mode could be made to not try to switch to 3G until you get a 3-bar signal, but, once switched, try and stay with 3G until it drops to 1 bar?
The underlying problem here is that the 3G signal in my house is quite weak, but not so weak that it is undetectable. If I leave my TP2's band setting set to "Auto" then it keeps trying to switch into 3G mode, then dropping back to 2G, with a delay every time it does it. (Drains the battery too). So I'd like to be able to quickly switch between 2G and 3G mode. (Obviously I could just leave it set to 2G all the time, but this is a waste when I'm at work or in some other place which actually has a good 3G signal).
My current solution is that I've got a start menu shortcut pointing to CMBandSwitching.exe in the Windows folder. (This is the same program that is launched if you go to the TouchFLO "settings" page, then hit Communications/Phone/Band). In here I can change the Network setting between "Auto", "GSM" and "WCDMA" which has the effect of turning 3G on and off.
But... there are horrible side-effects. Switching in this way causes the current data connection to get messed up, so that nothing can actually use it to access the Internet. Web browsers stop working, and I can't receive email. I've tried switching the data connection off and back on in Communications Manager, and this works sometimes; but even when it does, it messes up my ActiveSync schedule settings. And usually I simply can't get the data connection to turn back on. More often than not, when I change the Band setting I end up having to hit the reset button to get everything functioning normally again.
There must surely be a way of turning 3G on and off without disrupting the data connection and ActiveSync settings and requiring a reboot? The phone itself can do this in "Auto" mode if I'm moving between areas of good 3G signal and zero 3G signal. Is there perhaps a way to tweak the behaviour of "Auto" mode so that it needs a higher 3G strength signal to switch to 3G? Or is there any way to convince the phone (while in Auto mode) that there isn't really a 3G signal present (even though there is really a weak signal) so that it switches to 2G in a side-effect-free fashion?
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Hm. 136 views and no reply.
You might check into WMLonglife
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478519
I haven't tried it, but it may work for you. It functions more based on what you are doing with the phone as opposed to what bands are available.
mwelch16 said:
You might check into WMLonglife
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478519
I haven't tried it, but it may work for you. It functions more based on what you are doing with the phone as opposed to what bands are available.
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I'll check that out, thanks.
When I use my GPS with my wifi it shows my location 10 miles away from me.......
But of works fine on pocket-data........
Any one have the same problem??
How to fix?
for me its the opposite lol. wifi is accurate to 50 meters and with data its a few hundred off. are you enabling the internal GPS? put that on and leave it somewhere outdoors or near a window to get a lock.
Because you're on WiFi they're just locating you based on the SSID and what they have on record for that instead of the GPS chip. They just have bad data on the location of your WiFi router. They're likely getting a reading of the ISP substation or something of that sort.
Just turn on GPS and get a real lock. It'll likely then learn where your WiFi router actually is.
I've been suffering through bad wifi connections for so long I don't know if I can stand it anymore. I have my own wifi router and 2 neighbors' all set up on my phone and I spend time in all 3 houses. My phone is pretty much NEVER connected to the right access point and I can't use internet without backing out of what I'm doing and changing connections manually. There has to be a better way.
When I get home and pull in to the garage, it connects to my neighbor's router, deezmms. When I walk in to the house, it stays connected, 1 bar, but I can't do anything until I connect to my own. If I stay in the garage, it will eventually connect to the other neighbor, sparkx, again with 1 bar and a terrible connection to the internet. After connecting to my own, if I go to either neighbors I'm still stuck on my wifi, 1 bar, no internet. And it will NEVER connect to another until I'm COMPLETELY out of range of the the first.
I tried a few apps that didn't do anything at all. I've tried different settings in the advanced wifi settings that didn't help and in some cases gave me bigger problems. I had Tasker set up to turn my wifi off when I was in the car, which got me in to the house and connected to my own wifi in at least that one circumstance but raised a bunch of other headaches (losing connection to Gopro when I start the car at races, among others).
What can I do? I'm at my wits' end here.
qoncept said:
I've been suffering through bad wifi connections for so long I don't know if I can stand it anymore. I have my own wifi router and 2 neighbors' all set up on my phone and I spend time in all 3 houses. My phone is pretty much NEVER connected to the right access point and I can't use internet without backing out of what I'm doing and changing connections manually. There has to be a better way.
When I get home and pull in to the garage, it connects to my neighbor's router, deezmms. When I walk in to the house, it stays connected, 1 bar, but I can't do anything until I connect to my own. If I stay in the garage, it will eventually connect to the other neighbor, sparkx, again with 1 bar and a terrible connection to the internet. After connecting to my own, if I go to either neighbors I'm still stuck on my wifi, 1 bar, no internet. And it will NEVER connect to another until I'm COMPLETELY out of range of the the first.
I tried a few apps that didn't do anything at all. I've tried different settings in the advanced wifi settings that didn't help and in some cases gave me bigger problems. I had Tasker set up to turn my wifi off when I was in the car, which got me in to the house and connected to my own wifi in at least that one circumstance but raised a bunch of other headaches (losing connection to Gopro when I start the car at races, among others).
What can I do? I'm at my wits' end here.
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You could set up Tasker to connect to different wifi networks according to your location, but i guess the GPS battery drainage would become a problem then. And the locations are probably too close for cellular triangulation to work properly.
An easy solution that might work: Set the wifi networks to the same wifi channel. The interference should ensure that they cancel each other out and don't creep into the next house etc. Also make sure the routers are physically so far away from each other as possible.
Just saw this app which might help. I don't have any experience with it though: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goramart.wifijumper&hl=da
WarCow said:
You could set up Tasker to connect to different wifi networks according to your location, but i guess the GPS battery drainage would become a problem then. And the locations are probably too close for cellular triangulation to work properly.
An easy solution that might work: Set the wifi networks to the same wifi channel. The interference should ensure that they cancel each other out and don't creep into the next house etc. Also make sure the routers are physically so far away from each other as possible.
Just saw this app which might help. I don't have any experience with it though: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goramart.wifijumper&hl=da
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I'll try that app.. the houses are all close enough together that GPS probably isn't going to take care of it. I might play with the channels but that sounds like it might end up causing headaches, too.
Also, I did move and upgrade my router and added some big, higher gain antennas. I really think I should be getting better range out of it than I am, but I don't know what else to try.
qoncept said:
I'll try that app.. the houses are all close enough together that GPS probably isn't going to take care of it. I might play with the channels but that sounds like it might end up causing headaches, too.
Also, I did move and upgrade my router and added some big, higher gain antennas. I really think I should be getting better range out of it than I am, but I don't know what else to try.
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this seems more like a problem with the placement of your wifi router? i would check what your signals look like connected to your router througout the house. i would totally remove your neighbor's connections from your saved list so theres really no chance of connecting to their network. realistically your in house wifi should be the strongest signal lols..?
syaoran68 said:
this seems more like a problem with the placement of your wifi router? i would check what your signals look like connected to your router througout the house. i would totally remove your neighbor's connections from your saved list so theres really no chance of connecting to their network. realistically your in house wifi should be the strongest signal lols..?
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Our yards are pretty big and I spend a lot of time in all of them. I know my wifi is never going to reach to my neighbors fire pit. When I pull in to the garage their signal is stronger, and then I walk in to my house were obviously mine is stronger, but I'm stuck on the neighbors' unless I manually mess with it.
I have no idea how that Wifi Jumper app is supposed to work but it didn't do anything to help my situation. :\
qoncept said:
Our yards are pretty big and I spend a lot of time in all of them. I know my wifi is never going to reach to my neighbors fire pit. When I pull in to the garage their signal is stronger, and then I walk in to my house were obviously mine is stronger, but I'm stuck on the neighbors' unless I manually mess with it.
I have no idea how that Wifi Jumper app is supposed to work but it didn't do anything to help my situation. :\
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I had same problem but I reset the phone and when it promoted me about Wi-Fi optimization upon setup again I unchecked the box... I couldn't find this in the settings though. The only way was to reset
So my phone's data connection does stuff which I can only describe as retarded.
There are comcast wifi hotspots all over the place here. They can come in handy when the LTE signal is weak or nonexistent. But my phone, through the connection optimizer i assume, will connect to any comcast wifi hotspot no matter how weak the signal is even when there's a full strength LTE signal.
So very often I have a great data connection of LTE and my phone suddenly switches to a hotspot with barely one bar of signal. It even does this when i at home with my own wifi. There's a comcast hotspot near my house, but far enough away that the signal is pretty poor. If my phone happens to see the comcast hotspot as I'm driving home and it connects to that, it'll stay connected to that even though my own home wifi signal is at full strength.
Basically, this 'optimizer' is nothing of the sort. It's a pretty dumb application since all it seems to do is connect to any available wifi regardless of the signal strength of the hotspot or over the cell network - and it never bothers to check if there's a better connection once it's connected to something.
Is there any way to make this app even half way intelligent? Or an app i can replace it with?
merkk said:
So my phone's data connection does stuff which I can only describe as retarded.
There are comcast wifi hotspots all over the place here. They can come in handy when the LTE signal is weak or nonexistent. But my phone, through the connection optimizer i assume, will connect to any comcast wifi hotspot no matter how weak the signal is even when there's a full strength LTE signal.
So very often I have a great data connection of LTE and my phone suddenly switches to a hotspot with barely one bar of signal. It even does this when i at home with my own wifi. There's a comcast hotspot near my house, but far enough away that the signal is pretty poor. If my phone happens to see the comcast hotspot as I'm driving home and it connects to that, it'll stay connected to that even though my own home wifi signal is at full strength.
Basically, this 'optimizer' is nothing of the sort. It's a pretty dumb application since all it seems to do is connect to any available wifi regardless of the signal strength of the hotspot or over the cell network - and it never bothers to check if there's a better connection once it's connected to something.
Is there any way to make this app even half way intelligent? Or an app i can replace it with?
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You're right; it's retarded. Hint: only use it enabled when you want to connect to that Wi-Fi or the type of Wi-Fi that requires the agreement to terms each time you connect. The Optimizer has shown some convenience where a user may roam between that type of Wi-Fi hotspot and data connection.
Android seems smart enough to remember Wi-Fi with typical login. I was on a tire shop today and auto connected to Wi-Fi without looking into remembered Wi-Fi connections (I left Wi-Fi enabled when I left home; often enough, doesn't interfere with cell data when I need it). I freeze the Connections Optimizer and only thaw it when it seems logical.
Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk
merkk said:
So my phone's data connection does stuff which I can only describe as retarded.
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lol ?
You may want to disable Smart Network Switch in advanced wi-fi settings also.
catseyenu said:
You may want to disable Smart Network Switch in advanced wi-fi settings also.
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what does that feature do?
And does anyone know of an connection optimizer that is actually half way intelligent?
thanks
merkk said:
what does that feature do?
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What it's supposed to do and the user experience seem to be 2 different stories.
Every discussion I've read on it recommends killing it.
http://www.conanhughes.com/2014/01/how-to-disable-auto-network-switch-on.html
catseyenu said:
What it's supposed to do and the user experience seem to be 2 different stories.
Every discussion I've read on it recommends killing it.
http://www.conanhughes.com/2014/01/how-to-disable-auto-network-switch-on.html
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from the article there, it sounds like i am having the opposite problem - my phone isn't jumping from wifi to lte, it's jumping from lte to wifi even if the wifi signal is crap.