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Wifi problems

Hi,
Could anyone tell me what's the rationale behind this:
When the device connects to the internet via 3G in order to receive mail or whatever, it will just stay connected until you bother to manually disconnect it. But when using wifi, which unlike 3G doesn't cost by the byte, it will disconnect as soon as the screen goes off?
Why on earth is that? Instead of running the hell away from cellular internet as soon as possible it does so with the free wifi? Is there any way to change this behavior? Or am I the only one who's bothered by this?
Besides that, more often than not, I'm having problems connecting to wifi... sometimes it would attempt to connect to a network and then give up and say it's unavailable (even though the signal is excellent and I'm right by the AP). other times, it appears connected but there's no internet... anyone else has these problems? Is my device defective?
Sorry if I'm ranting...
Thanks!

I think the behaviour is to save energy. When the screen goes off, the device "thinks" you don't use it anymore. Wifi drains your battery very fast, so the phone tries to reduce it.
For 3G it's the point, that there isn't much data transfer in order to stay connected. Maybe a few kb for the whole day (I don't know if there is any data transfer anyway, but when it's verly little). That's much cheaper than to pay for the full block (for example 100kb) everytime you disconnect. So staying connected saves money in most cases. That's why.
Connection problems: Do you use any encryption? Maybe that's the problem. So far I use wifi only for data transfers between my Macbook and the device. But I don't have any problems.

If you search hard enough you can find apps that might jus tkeep it on.
One such app is KaiserTweak which will keep that wifi on when screen goes off. problem with kaisertweak is that i have heard it can hard reset some peoples devvices, depending on what options you select.
i might give it a whirl because i hate it when my connection is lost, i end up using my data connection when i dont need to as it tries to take over when device wakes up!
edit: seems ok so far no hardreset yet!

Thanks, will try that.
I flashed a 6.1 rom and it seems to have made an improvement. Now it would connect fine to my home router every time and not just occasionally (it uses the most basic wep encryption). Still no luck at work though... just as before it appears connected but I can't reach anything inside or outside the lan. The encryption there is the more secure wpa-psk and there's no mac filtering.
Anyone successfully connected to a wpa wlan?

[Q] Wireless distance issues with Sharp IS03

I originally posted this in the IS03 sub-thread but received no replies.
Not root-related but since a little under a week ago, my IS03 has been having a real hard trouble with wifi when at home. If I move more than 4 meters or so away form the router, I cannot access anything.
When this happens, I'll disable/renable wifi (from 4-5 meters away or further) and one of two things will happen: 1. My network will not even show up or 2. My network will show up (with a 'good' or 'fair' wifi status) but when I try to connect, it will disconnect immediately.
What I noticed through the Wifi Analyzer app was that even when the Android wouldn't show my network on the network list, wifi analyzer still registered it about -70dbm.
I originally thought the router is to blame but both my wife's AU HTC Evo and my Amazon Kindle have no problems using wifi from the same distance.
I also thought that perhaps the cover I have for the phone may be collecting dust so I removed it to no avail.
Any ideas why the wifi in my phone is acting up?
Thanks.
UPDATE since original post: I moved my router (Linksys WRT160N V3) to a more central location and installed DD-WRT (TX Power power set to default 71) and the problem went away for about a week but now it has returned. Both my Kindle and my wife's Evo have no issues with accessing the internet through wifi from the other side of the apartment but the IS03 cannot.
If I try to connect to wifi and I am right next to the router, one of three things will happen: 1. It WILL connect but I cannot access the net. 2. The network will show up on the available network list but it won't automatically connect (will say the network is disabled. If I try to manually connect, it will immediately disconnect. 3. Network won't even show up.

issue: switching between access points in the same wifi network

i'm dealing with this weird issue,
i have set up a wifi network in my home consisting of a router and a repeater,and they have now eliminated the dead spots in my home.
I tested whether mobile devices can switch to the nearest access point when they are moved,while they are connected to the wifi network
laptops switched to the nearest access points as they were moved
unfortunately my arc was not able to...it depended on the same access point as it moved away, even if i keep it next to the repeater it would not pick it's signal.
this would happen the other way around as well if i connect via repeater and bring the phone near the router it would not pick router's signal
any work-a-rounds
HELP!!

Also running doom kernel i had to flash the wifi modules could this have affected in anyway
Sent from my LT15i using XDA

I know this post is a bit old...but a good solution for this issue is Best Wifi:
Description
Do you have a WiFi extender in your home or office, or even a second WiFi Access Point Name (APN)? You do? Then ‘Best WiFi’ is for you!
‘Best WiFi’ is a lightweight application that automatically switches between saved APNs based on their signal strengths. So if while you are pacing in the office or walking around at home, and the signal strength drops below the pre-set level, ‘Best WiFi’ will go through your saved APNs and automatically connect to the one with the best signal at the time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This app works well to switch between different saved SSIDs that are listed in Android and has eliminated the issue of losing connectivity on my home network due to my phone staying connected to a weak signal and losing its ip address/not surfing.

Thank you

Same problem here, but this app does not do make any difference

Useful app, you deserve a "thank you"

Stop Xoom from connecting to wifi that isn't mine....

Comcast is my ISP, and I have a netgear router for my wireless in my house.
However, it would seem that comcast has recently put up a new wifi hotspot near my house, or extended one of their current hotspots, and my xoom keeps picking it up.
The problem is the comcast signal is incredibly weak... like half a bar weak. Where as my netgear is full bars... and yet, the Xoom will try and connect to comcast's hotspot rather then the router that is a couple feet away.
If I go into SETTINGS and 'forget' comcast, it just finds it again.
Is there some setting, or app, that would make my Xoom only connect to MY router and not comcast's when I'm home???

For some reason it's not "Forgetting" that connection. Once you forget a connection it will no longer auto connect to it. It's always going to see the signal, but after forgetting it, it should not be auto connecting.
Connect to it again, which should save it, then long press on it until it pops up a menu that contains forget / modify and click forget. See if it forgets it properly that way.

WiFi Roaming between AP's

I've done some research on WiFi roaming between AP's with the same SSID and posted my findings on the Google Product Forums but I'm hitting brick wall.
Anyone who has any clues on how and why this doesn't work? Here is the link that contains all my finding:
https://productforums.google.com/d/topic/nexus/93GcQ8O75q8/discussion
Situation:
I'm standing next to my WiFi access point downstairs, I have full signal bars and perfect connection. I then move upstairs (2 stories up) and move next to the AP located upstairs.
Expected behaviour:
The phone should notice that the AP it is connected to has very weak signal, barely 1 bar left near -85/-90 db which is hardly usable. On the next background scan it should also find the second AP has much better signal, around -45db and decide to 'roam' to the other AP.
Actual behaviour:
The phone maintains a persistent connection with the AP downstairs for hours and does not 'roam' to the AP upstairs causing bad connection and battery drain.
Anyone any idea's? Can we maybe start a discussion about this issue and get some dev involved maybe who can shed some light on how this is supposed to work in Android?

I have the exact same problem. My 2 accesspoints are both Asus wireless router RT-AC68U. It's very frustrating. I know this is an old topic but maybe there is a solution available? Or is the problem solved with Lollipop?

You could test it and let us know, I no longer have 2 AP's mainly due to this issue.

Same happened to me and i found my fix on an app called Wifi Jumper. It might help you.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.goramart.wifijumper&hl=en
Doesn't matter the SSID, it will just scan for a better signal every interval you set it to in the settings.

Yeah apps like that will do the trick but this is a workaround for the actual issue. The apps are user space whilst wpa_supplicant should deal with this. It will drain more battery than a proper solution.
The solution is quite simple, wpa_supplicant can do this but android does not put the proper directive into the conf file. It will need a code change in the android framework.

I can confirm on the new android lollipop preview my phone jumps to the high WiFi signal in my house. I have Asus ac68u and a airport used a extender and my phone never gets stuck on one signal.

Is it in extender or AP mode? If in extender mode the device does not need to roam, only in AP mode with the same SSID the android needs to actually roam..

The airport is a ap. I just set it to bridge mode in the airport settings so it can pull ips from the main router. They're connected thru a DECA connection. DECA is like moca but using different frequencies on coax wires.

Sounds like the issue is fixed if it roams before fully loosing the signal.
If you have root you could check the wpa_supplicant.conf to see if they have now added a line for the bgscan module. This would complete the theory.

Out of interest, do you have "avoid poor connections" set in WiFi settings?
I do find mine does roam, but I'm not sure if it is down to losing signal completely or avoiding due to poor