Related
I find that if I'm in a fringe 4G area, that my phone will often not connect to either 4G or 3G. At home my 4G signal is strong and I always connect to 4G 100% of the time. At work, when i'm in the middle of the building I often get no 3G or 4g signal. From my office I always got 3G with my D1. With my Charge about half of the time i get no signal unless I reboot. It seems like the phone gets confused if there is a weak 4G and a decent 3G. How is the Charge in a 3G only area?
I saw the EE4 release notes and it looked like it was meant to solve this problem. However, I'm seeing the same behavior. What is everyone else's experience.?
I should also add I'm using Juice Defender. I think I"m going to try disabling it to make sure that isn't causing a problem.
I'm going to guess that it could be JuiceDefender causing the problem, disabling data until a more reliable signal comes about. I have had times where I've lost 3G service, or 4G service, but it comes back on its own after a few seconds. I'm guessing that despite the improvement, there are still some bugs, which is to be expected with the new technology. I do notice that I loose my data connection much less often than before, and the improvement in battery life is worth any minor issues for me.
Get rid of Juice Defender, it will cause you many more problems than its worth. All it really does is enable/disable data when it doesn't think you need it to save battery, but you're much better off doing that yourself with the power widgets in the notification bar. I spoke with a VZW network engineer after confusing the various tech support reps because I actually have some idea of how their network operates (go figure), and he confirmed that something like that is not a great idea, especially on the new LTE network. It doesn't save much battery, since its always forcing data to re-sync when it thinks it should even when I don't need it, and sometimes turns it off when I do want it. Also, it seems to take much longer for it to sync or switch 3g/4g when JuiceDefender is running.
I completely uninstalled it, and when I pull my phone out, if I plan on using the internet, I turn on mobile data. If I'm putting it away for awhile, using media/apps/games on the phone that don't require data for some time, or planning on making a long phone call, I'll turn it off. It syncs up right away when I need it, so that works very well for me. In fact, if you keep your apps from auto-synching, it will idle most of the time its not being used anyway, meaning its not using much power anyway.
Just like auto task killers, juice defender seems to be one of those things that's an attempt to save battery power and improve performance, but is typically misunderstood and used improperly, actually hurting the things you want to improve. It seems that proper understanding of how Android works, and learning how to efficiently manage it yourself works better.
Cruiserdude said:
Get rid of Juice Defender, it will cause you many more problems than its worth.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You guys rock. I've uninstalled juice defender and have had zero issues for the last 3 hours. Still too soon to tell, but it looks promising.
I'm having issues with this the last few days. I've never had Juice Defender.
Especially tethering as the wife and I were driving around looking at houses. She likes to pull them up on the laptop while doing so. Before the EE4 update everything worked great, now it cut out enough to make it too aggravating to continue to use. And each time it cut out the phone had lost 4g and I had to toggle LTE in the network settings to get it to come back.
Anyone else had similar issues? I thought EE4 was supposed to fix these, not cause more!?
Well, my 4G has improved slightly since EE4.
I actually occasionally get 4 bars of 4G in my office at work, where I never had connection to 4G in the past. It still seems a little dicey with random hand-offs between 3G and 4G, though.
¿GotJazz? said:
Well, my 4G has improved slightly since EE4.
I actually occasionally get 4 bars of 4G in my office at work, where I never had connection to 4G in the past. It still seems a little dicey with random hand-offs between 3G and 4G, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I'd agree with that, better 4G when I have it, but very bad handoffs.
Update, not a single outage since removing Juice defender.
I just tried to make the switch from at&t to t-mobile. I had my sensation for about a week, and just returned it this morning.
Reasons I loved the sensation.
Decent battery life *(not as great as everyone made me expect.
Awesome Camera, especially outside- I really could see myself using this phone as a replacement for a cheap point and shoot.
The hardware was pretty much all around fantastic. Great feel in hand. A ton thinner than the evo 3d, especially around the edges. This phone has such a nice shape that it almost gets lost in my pocket. I actually found myself grabbing my pocket to make sure it hadn't fallen out.
The wifi-calling was a great value add.
The screen was fantastic. My next phone will have to have a qhd or better display (no sgsII for me). Say what you want about contrast ratios, but I rarely use my phone outside. Having the extra pixels however was absolutely awesome for browsing the web. The extra pixels also made living without a hardware keyboard a little bit easier to bare *(when in portrait mode).
The unlock page that came with sense 3.0. Other than that sense just seemed to get in my way.
FM radio. I'm the guy who wants to watch and listen to the tv-s at the gym.
Why I just couldn't risk spending 2 years with it.
I had no reception at my house or work on t-mo. This is really the biggest reason why I had to return my phone.
Because of the above the cell radio was draining the battery attempting to connect to the networks. I really don't want to spend two years having to remember to turn off the cell radio every time I get home.
T-mobile support was an exercise in frustration to deal with.
Will I still even get 3g/4g service in 2 years? This is debatable. AT&T will have to repurpose some of T-mo's spectrum from somewhere.
The built-in picasa upload is broken *(I use this all the time).
No way to jump to the galery app when in camera mode. This seems like a really obvious omission.
The speakephone volume over wifi calling really shouldn't be considered a speakerphone at all. I couldn't test speakerphone over t-mo because I never had reception when I wanted to make a call.
There was no setting to auto disable the cell radio when connected over wi-fi and wi-fi calling was enabled. I admit this is a nit-pick, but it really would have been nice.
I counted at least 3 backup apps all of which were trying to send my contacts to different parts of the world. Why do I need to backup any of my contacts? For me everything is in google, that's why I want an android phone. The killer part about this is that these apps will suck your battery dry.
Currently no way to remove all the crap-ware that t-mo stuffs it's phones with. There is a lot of it. I bet that is why there is so much discussion about the a performance problem between the sensation and the evo 3d screen rotate speed.
No NFC. Not really a deal-breaker, but it is disappointing.
So give me a non-bloatwared, boot-loader unlocked sensation, add NFC, put it on a carrier that gives me reception, and I'll have my next phone. As for now I'll have to live with my rooted/ cyanogen-modded G1 on AT&T.
--troll away!--
npoc said:
Why I just could risk spending 2 years with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you accidentally a conjunction in there
xnifex said:
I think you accidentally a conjunction in there
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lulz irony abounds, he missed a conjunction and you omitted a word from your sentence, pointing out his omitted conjunction @[email protected]
npoc said:
I just tried to make the switch from at&t to t-mobile. I had my sensation for about a week, and just returned it this morning.
Reasons I loved the sensation.
Decent battery life *(not as great as everyone made me expect.
Awesome Camera, especially outside- I really could see myself using this phone as a replacement for a cheap point and shoot.
The hardware was pretty much all around fantastic. Great feel in hand. A ton thinner than the evo 3d, especially around the edges. This phone has such a nice shape that it almost gets lost in my pocket. I actually found myself grabbing my pocket to make sure it hadn't fallen out.
The wifi-calling was a great value add.
The screen was fantastic. My next phone will have to have a qhd or better display (no sgsII for me). Say what you want about contrast ratios, but I rarely use my phone outside. Having the extra pixels however was absolutely awesome for browsing the web. The extra pixels also made living without a hardware keyboard a little bit easier to bare *(when in portrait mode).
The unlock page that came with sense 3.0. Other than that sense just seemed to get in my way.
FM radio. I'm the guy who wants to watch and listen to the tv-s at the gym.
Why I just could risk spending 2 years with it.
I had no reception at my house or work on t-mo. This is really the biggest reason why I had to return my phone.
Because of the above the cell radio was draining the battery attempting to connect to the networks. I really don't want to spend two years having to remember to turn off the cell radio every time I get home.
T-mobile support was an exercise in frustration to deal with.
Will I still even get 3g/4g service in 2 years? This is debatable. AT&T will have to repurpose some of T-mo's spectrum from somewhere.
The built-in picasa upload is broken *(I use this all the time).
No way to jump to the galery app when in camera mode. This seems like a really obvious omission.
The speakephone volume over wifi calling really shouldn't be considered a speakerphone at all. I couldn't test speakerphone over t-mo because I never had reception when I wanted to make a call.
There was no setting to auto disable the cell radio when connected over wi-fi and wi-fi calling was enabled. I admit this is a nit-pick, but it really would have been nice.
I counted at least 3 backup apps all of which were trying to send my contacts to different parts of the world. Why do I need to backup any of my contacts? For me everything is in google, that's why I want an android phone. The killer part about this is that these apps will suck your battery dry.
Currently no way to remove all the crap-ware that t-mo stuffs it's phones with. There is a lot of it. I bet that is why there is so much discussion about the a performance problem between the sensation and the evo 3d screen rotate speed.
No NFC. Not really a deal-breaker, but it is disappointing.
So give me a non-bloatwared, boot-loader unlocked sensation, add NFC, put it on a carrier that gives me reception, and I'll have my next phone. As for now I'll have to live with my rooted/ cyanogen-modded G1 on AT&T.
--troll away!--
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
- Also to the OP: A bunch of these problems are fixable with root, also there is a way to go to the gallery from the stock camera app... and even if there wasn't why wouldn't you just DL a camera app from market that would allow you to do what you wanted?
- Turn off the other contacts backup services... I did
- Why wouldn't you have 4g in 2 years? 4G will actually be much faster in two years and will be approaching "actual" 4G speeds.
- You couldnt do a one click disable of the cell radio while on wifi and wifi calling was enabled because that happens automatically.
- Speakerphone was too low on wifi calling? Wow, that's probably fixable as well.
- And if you have a smart phone YOU will need to learn how to manage its battery life. The Sensation actually does have preeettty good battery life for a smartphone.
Cheers, good luck on ATT we'll all probably be there next year anyway.
Thats def not a good experience; as you say it sounds mostly coverage related which is the case for most carriers. Tmo has always been good to me where ive lived (4g here where i work and around my home).
Every phone/network won't work for everyone. Although the NFC is something that initially gave me pause, but I really don't see that being something i won't be able to live without in just 2 years; it's barely rolled out; not to mention text transactions and CC soda machines are also on the rise.
I am personally a little annoyed with how sense handles (or doesn't) the picasa gallery (Why can't i make a slide show with my picasa stuff).
Enjoy your G1 even with cyanogen; not sure I could go back THAT far even if I had crappy service
I am missing my MIUI though, still running my N1 with MIUI latest and it's been getting amazingly robust the past few updates (5 way unlock specifically).
I believe the Cell Radios turn off when you activate WiFi calling. And I have a way to get to the gallery from my camera app...
A G1 though?! I'd rather take all the cons you listed than go all the way back to that poor thing, on EDGE no less. G1 was awesome back in the day, but now you're just torturing the poor thing.
npoc said:
So give me a non-bloatwared, boot-loader unlocked sensation, add NFC, put it on a carrier that gives me reception, and I'll have my next phone. As for now I'll have to live with my rooted/ cyanogen-modded G1 on AT&T.
--troll away!--
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless you buy an unlocked manufacturer phone from overseas your stuck with carrier bloatware and hardware/software changes. That or one of the Nexus series. And your only choice for NFC right now is Nexus. So I think we've found your next phone.
B3astofthe3ast said:
I believe the Cell Radios turn off when you activate WiFi calling. And I have a way to get to the gallery from my camera app...
A G1 though?! I'd rather take all the cons you listed than go all the way back to that poor thing, on EDGE no less. G1 was awesome back in the day, but now you're just torturing the poor thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure i had to manually disable the cell radios if I wanted them off when on wi-fi. It did however route my calls over wi-fi automatically. It did not automatically turn off my cell radio when wi-fi calling was enabled. When I was at work or at home, the power graph was pretty ugly with the cell radios on.
BonesRed said:
Lulz irony abounds, he missed a conjunction and you omitted a word from your sentence, pointing out his omitted conjunction @[email protected]
- Also to the OP: A bunch of these problems are fixable with root, also there is a way to go to the gallery from the stock camera app... and even if there wasn't why wouldn't you just DL a camera app from market that would allow you to do what you wanted?
- Turn off the other contacts backup services... I did
- Why wouldn't you have 4g in 2 years? 4G will actually be much faster in two years and will be approaching "actual" 4G speeds.
- You couldnt do a one click disable of the cell radio while on wifi and wifi calling was enabled because that happens automatically.
- Speakerphone was too low on wifi calling? Wow, that's probably fixable as well.
- And if you have a smart phone YOU will need to learn how to manage its battery life. The Sensation actually does have preeettty good battery life for a smartphone.
Cheers, good luck on ATT we'll all probably be there next year anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I said the big reason I had to return it was poor reception.
Being a t-mo customer you are not guaranteed anything over the next 2 years. AT&T is trying to acquire t-mo to repurpose some of t-mo's spectrum. What part of their owned spectrum is anyone's guess
I agree that all the firmware issues are fixable, but they are still annoyances that I shouldn't have to deal with. I don't know how long it will take for HTC to unlock the sensation's bootloader or for someone to get root on the phone, but I had 14 days to make a decision on whether I wanted to be stuck with a 2 year contract. The speakerphone is a firmware deal-breaker for me atm, as I do have to use my phone for conference calls.
As for me my current plan is to find a recent boot-loader unlocked AT&T *cough* 4g compatible phone on craigslist, and then sign a contract on ATT or VZ when the right phone comes up.
in settings, there is an option to what you want it to do...cell preferred, wi-fi preferred, or wifi only
woldy2 said:
in settings, there is an option to what you want it to do...cell preferred, wi-fi preferred, or wifi only
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You completely missed the point. Wi-fi was preferred, but it leaves the cell radio on which drains battery. Better luck next time.
npoc said:
I'm pretty sure i had to manually disable the cell radios if I wanted them off when on wi-fi. It did however route my calls over wi-fi automatically. It did not automatically turn off my cell radio when wi-fi calling was enabled. When I was at work or at home, the power graph was pretty ugly with the cell radios on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I get pretty good service even though I live in a basement (I was barely getting any bars on Sprint and Verizon before that). However, I still use WiFi calling to maximize my battery life (and it's working), and I use a Tasker profile to automate turning on wifi, turning off cell radio when it detect the cell towers by my house and my wifi ssid.
relic419 said:
I get pretty good service even though I live in a basement (I was barely getting any bars on Sprint and Verizon before that). However, I still use WiFi calling to maximize my battery life (and it's working), and I use a Tasker profile to automate turning on wifi, turning off cell radio when it detect the cell towers by my house and my wifi ssid.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good suggestion, I will have to use that if I ever go back to T-Mo. Still, T-Mo should have made that a setting in their app.
I am about to return mine after 4 days of use. I love the phone and will be exchanging it for a new one.
Mine has started randomly making calls while sitting on my desk charging, The unlock ring started bouncing around the screen when I unlocked it and I had to turn off phone to get it to stop, it can charge all night long and still only show 75%, and I am dropping calls. Not what I want from a $600 device. I hope my second one is up to par. I have never had to exchange a phone with Tmobile before for these reasons.
A few notes.
If you used WiFi calling you wouldn't have to (nor CAN you) turn off the radio. It doesn't drain the battery in WiFi calling mode, you know nothing about how it works.
I upload to Picasa no problem.
Speakerphone volume is always low, the speakerphone sucks.
AT&T support and/or customer service is horrible. If you are speaking with a regular T-Mobile rep (one that does NOT introduce themselves as Android or PDA support) for phone issues you are speaking to the WRONG representative.
I couldn't ever see my self going back to a G1, may as well get out the bag phone again
I'm coming from Sprint and switched to T-Mobile primarily because of WiFi-Calling, and secondly because of the HTC Sensation. Not a single carrier has signal inside my apartment unit. Sprint gave me an Airave which works well for about a year, but recently started giving me problem where I cannot hear the caller, but the caller can hear me most of the time. With T-Mobile's WiFi-Calling, it works all the time. The sound quality may not be the greatest, but acceptable enough that I can have a conversation using it over an hour. On a full charge, 0 bar signal, using WiFi-Calling for almost half an hour, I did not see a drop on my battery charge, not even 1%, last time I checked.
I'm sad to leave Sprint, but T-Mo's WiFi-Calling is unbeatable, specially when travelling overseas.
Ok, so I think I've figured out why my SR wouldn't go into Deep Sleep when WiFi is on. I think it stems from fact that there's a lot of multicast traffic (IPTV) on my network. I'm a U-Verse subscriber with fiber to the home (FTTH) and my entire house is connected via Ethernet, including the set to boxes (STB). No coax whatsoever is connected. As a result, my STBs share the same network as my non-STB devices (WiFI, Servers, PCs, etc). This causes the STB IPTV traffic to flood the network including the WiFi (my theory). I decided to test my theory by moving all my WiFi APs (3 of them) to a separate subnet, thereby eliminating multicast completely from the WiFi. And what do you know?...my SR goes into Deep Sleep when WiFi is on.
Hope this helps others with the same problem. Switches that are more intelligent can help with the filter multicast more dynamically. Look for something that is IGMP aware and that should help.
How did you get FTTH with U-Verse? It is typically FTTN.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
id10terrordfw said:
How did you get FTTH with U-Verse? It is typically FTTN.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it depends on your area. My friend lives in a brand new house about .25 miles from me and he has FTTH, while I can't even get FTTN because my neighborhood is 15 or so years old.
Some wi-fi routers are better than others for this issue.
I've attached a betterbattery screenshot of the wifi related kernel wakelocks I get. This is supposedly from the wi-fi router saying "are you there, are you there, are you there".
This thread talks about the issue and even recommends a router model that does not cause the problem.
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/16134-kernel-wakelock-wlan-rx-wake/
CZ Eddie said:
I've attached a betterbattery screenshot of the wifi related kernel wakelocks I get. This is supposedly from the wi-fi router saying "are you there, are you there, are you there".
This thread talks about the issue and even recommends a router model that does not cause the problem.
http://rootzwiki.com/topic/16134-kernel-wakelock-wlan-rx-wake/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The wakelock described in that article was essentially my theory, but for multicast. I noticed the lights on my APs blinking like crazy. I'm using the exact same three APs, just now separated by a router. I'm running DDWRT on three different types of APs as well (Netgear WNDR3300, Netgeard WNDR3400, and Linksys E2000).
As for FTTH, yes...there is a single strand of fiber going into an Alcatel-Lucent NID and then Cat5 to a 2Wire gateway that feeds the Ethernet to the rest of the house. Pretty killer setup. I've got GigE everywhere with 2 ports per room...even in the garage.
InstigatorX said:
The wakelock described in that article was essentially my theory, but for multicast. I noticed the lights on my APs blinking like crazy. I'm using the exact same three APs, just now separated by a router. I'm running DDWRT on three different types of APs as well (Netgear WNDR3300, Netgeard WNDR3400, and Linksys E2000).
As for FTTH, yes...there is a single strand of fiber going into an Alcatel-Lucent NID and then Cat5 to a 2Wire gateway that feeds the Ethernet to the rest of the house. Pretty killer setup. I've got GigE everywhere with 2 ports per room...even in the garage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh, nice. I've got FTTN, but the VRAD is like, less then 100 feet away, so they can easily provide me with higher then promised speeds (I have the 24/3 plan, I get 26/4).
InstigatorX said:
The wakelock described in that article was essentially my theory, but for multicast. I noticed the lights on my APs blinking like crazy. I'm using the exact same three APs, just now separated by a router. I'm running DDWRT on three different types of APs as well (Netgear WNDR3300, Netgeard WNDR3400, and Linksys E2000).
As for FTTH, yes...there is a single strand of fiber going into an Alcatel-Lucent NID and then Cat5 to a 2Wire gateway that feeds the Ethernet to the rest of the house. Pretty killer setup. I've got GigE everywhere with 2 ports per room...even in the garage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good to know they are finally doing that. Maybe eventually they can compete with FIOS on speed. Gotta love 44 down and 35 up.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda premium
I think my skyrocket is just defective
Well this doesn't appear to be the problem with my Skyrocket. I got home, took it to my friends house and connected to his wifi. (Not Uverse) Phone spent 95% of the time awake and 5% in deep sleep, and it was just sitting on the couch next to me with the screen off, I never touched it. So then I tethered it to my Galaxy Nexus, and the exact same thing happens. I thought maybe this would be the case, as my Galaxy Nexus has no issues going into deep sleep at home on my Uverse wifi setup. I really believe now that there is some defect in this phone, and will be returning it to AT&T for a new one. Or some other phone even.
I have this same problem on my FIOS home wifi. Plagued me for weeks. Looked for solutions, tried everything. The router just sends out too many ARP requests, which constantly wake the phone. Even on boneStocketeer with background sync disabled and no apps installed, not even signed in Google account, I'd still get like 15% wake locks from wlan. I've given up at this point I've tried everything on that router. And since ARP doesn't have a port, I can't block them.
If I set up a separate AP connected to my router with dd-wrt, I could filter multi cast stuff like that?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
supercluver said:
Well this doesn't appear to be the problem with my Skyrocket. I got home, took it to my friends house and connected to his wifi. (Not Uverse) Phone spent 95% of the time awake and 5% in deep sleep, and it was just sitting on the couch next to me with the screen off, I never touched it. So then I tethered it to my Galaxy Nexus, and the exact same thing happens. I thought maybe this would be the case, as my Galaxy Nexus has no issues going into deep sleep at home on my Uverse wifi setup. I really believe now that there is some defect in this phone, and will be returning it to AT&T for a new one. Or some other phone even.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't a simple solution to fix the wake lock caused by wifi be to change the wifi sleep settings so that the phone turns off wifi when the screen is also off?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727
1ubiquitous1 said:
Wouldn't a simple solution to fix the wake lock caused by wifi be to change the wifi sleep settings so that the phone turns off wifi when the screen is also off?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well yes, that is what I'm currently doing, but LTE is much more of a battery hog than Wifi. So I get about 12 hours on battery, with fairly light to maybe moderate usage, but better than nothing I guess. It is frustrating because otherwise this phone is just absolutely great. Super fast, and LTE is amazing here in Houston. I will get this figured out eventually.
I can get up to 17 hours with moderate use, I usually leave LTE on all day, and it is a huge drain when the screen is on. But it is better than nothing, better than what I was getting on my Inspire. I think the Wifi also has more to do with the ROM you use, when I was on stock I got better battery life when I used Wifi all day, rather than leave it off and have LTE on.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727
Well my skyrocket wouldn't take the update that I guess came out just a few days ago (probably because it was root and had CWM on it) but whatever. I was FED UP with this thing. So I downloaded the UCLA rooted ROM and Modem and wiped the whole blasted phone. Factory reset/wipe data, Formatted /system, wiped cache and Dalvik. There was nothing on the phone (except the internal and external SD card where my titanium and nandroid backups were at. Flashed that ROM and Modem. Set up phone, restored JUST my downloaded apps like games, etc. Froze AT&T bloat.
And I no longer have the sleep issue.
I solved restarting my router.
AUs
I just got this issue too.
Tracked it back to SX Virtual server and Dropbox, and now the wakelocks seems to be gone.
What I did was this:
Tried Shark - it showed that there was a lot of packets sent to and from local computers on my network. Nothing more useful info from that.
Tried Network Log, it showed the amounts of packets sent and receieved by Kernel. And most of them was sent to/from local computers, using specific UDP ports.
Used TCPview on the computers to see what it was. It informed that the ports was used by two programs: SX Virtual Server (identical to D-Link Shareport) and Dropbox.
I uninstalled SX Virtual Server/Shareport (it's useless anyway) and disabled Lan sync in Dropbox.
Now, the Kernel network activity is almost idle.
Hope this helps others with this issue.
Does anyone know how the Xoom can connect/switch to the strongest WIFI access point? Would be great if someone can help me with this.
Thanks in advance!
Wahoo - a chance to give back for all I've learned here! So here goes.
This is MY experience asking the very same question. There may be a better answer of course. So, here's what I think I know:
Background - I have a XOOM and smart phones all over the house. My signal sucked in one part of the house, so I set up a repeater. I wanted to connect to the repeater when near it - and connect to my home router, when near it. I knew this had to be good because my signal meter said it would be. But, when I cycled the wifi on/off, no matter where I was standing, it would connect to AAA, before BBB. Even if BBB signal was 10 times the AAA. As long as it could see it, it would connect. Nuts.
My learning: Your device seeks in alpha number order = 1 before A, A before Z. If you have a signal strength meter installed, open it, walk around. You'll see AAA is stronger than BBB. Then BBB is stronger than AAA, etc. How would your device know which to pick? There are places you can stand, where it will go back and forth. If you've been following the 3G/4G discussions at all, or going from a wifi area to no wifi area (and leaving wifi activated), you'll know these are real battery killers.
Net - I don't think it can be smartly done for these reasons. My solution? I have a signal widget and a selector widget. When I know I should be on BBB, I hit selector and pick it. If I'm in public area searching, I let the device search, look at all the signals and then pick the one that is best. If I know I'll be back to an area often, I pick the other signals and "ignore" them, so I'll hit the strong one when I come back.
Maybe not what you're looking for, the automated solution, but I think I've learned the device isn't smart enough to pick the best signal. You have to do it, and then train the device using tools that are out there. I've found apps that claim to do this, my experience with them is the switching issue, back and forth, and the battery impact. YMMV.
newskate9 said:
Wahoo - a chance to give back for all I've learned here! So here goes.
This is MY experience asking the very same question. There may be a better answer of course. So, here's what I think I know:
Background - I have a XOOM and smart phones all over the house. My signal sucked in one part of the house, so I set up a repeater. I wanted to connect to the repeater when near it - and connect to my home router, when near it. I knew this had to be good because my signal meter said it would be. But, when I cycled the wifi on/off, no matter where I was standing, it would connect to AAA, before BBB. Even if BBB signal was 10 times the AAA. As long as it could see it, it would connect. Nuts.
My learning: Your device seeks in alpha number order = 1 before A, A before Z. If you have a signal strength meter installed, open it, walk around. You'll see AAA is stronger than BBB. Then BBB is stronger than AAA, etc. How would your device know which to pick? There are places you can stand, where it will go back and forth. If you've been following the 3G/4G discussions at all, or going from a wifi area to no wifi area (and leaving wifi activated), you'll know these are real battery killers.
Net - I don't think it can be smartly done for these reasons. My solution? I have a signal widget and a selector widget. When I know I should be on BBB, I hit selector and pick it. If I'm in public area searching, I let the device search, look at all the signals and then pick the one that is best. If I know I'll be back to an area often, I pick the other signals and "ignore" them, so I'll hit the strong one when I come back.
Maybe not what you're looking for, the automated solution, but I think I've learned the device isn't smart enough to pick the best signal. You have to do it, and then train the device using tools that are out there. I've found apps that claim to do this, my experience with them is the switching issue, back and forth, and the battery impact. YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you...really good information, and very well presented.
From my experience, android will always try to (re)connect to the last wifi it was connected. For example, if you have 2 wifis at home and you are connected on wifi1, if you go out and come back it will try to connect to wifi1 even if wifi2 is better.
I installed an app from the Play store called "Best WIFI" seems to working well.
wifi
Park82 said:
I installed an app from the Play store called "Best WIFI" seems to working well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
good choice
I just got myself a Japanese Sharp Aquos Xx 203sh from SoftBank and so far pretty pleased with it but for one thing, location.
As long as I'm outside and have good GPS signal its very fast but as soon as I go into a big building its game over, likewise when I'm outside and disable GPS. I installed OpenSignal to see if I was seeing enough cell towers and most of the time I see at least 4 ot 5, around where I live often 8 or more. Also plenty of WiFi around.
Does anyone know of any software that I can use to check if the phone is having problems with location finding using WiFi and Cell Towers? My old iPhone finds me in seconds with GPS off so its not like its not possible. Also dont think its antenna as signal is strong and I can even watch 1SEG TV.
Look forward to any help I can get, have already spoken to their support and well.. you know how that goes, me explaining technology to them.