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[Q] Best Wi-Fi performance

Been playing around a bit with my phone and came across this option wondering what exactly does it do. First I'm assuming it's an HTC only option because I'm not seeing it on other manufactures forums (so if it turns out to be worth it I know I've got to stick with HTCs). Second by enabling the option in increasing performance is it more tailored for receiving data from the AP only or if the phone is AP (tethered, hotspot) would I get any performance gains (range, speed)? Lastly while tethered does the manner matter? If I've enabled tethering by any means would it make any difference. Is it the kernel, wifi antenna, or app have anything to do with it. Does it need to be written to specifically take advantage of the feature? Basically even if enabling it does anything what's the point if I'm just going to be wasting battery at the end of the day because it's an HTC only feature that no one is coding for.

I was wondering this too on my mytouch 4g!
Sent from my myTouch 4G using XDA App

I enabled it on my phone and the ping/jitter goes down considerably when I ping my phone from my Desktop, versus having the option unticked..
interesting...
EVO3D GSM

Does the wifi on phones have a cap on data speeds? At school, we have a 700 down and 500 up connection and when I hook my phone up with wifi, it goes to like 27 down and about 20 up at the most. Not that I need that type of speed but something that I found interesting and was curious about.

ix sik pro xi said:
Does the wifi on phones have a cap on data speeds? At school, we have a 700 down and 500 up connection and when I hook my phone up with wifi, it goes to like 27 down and about 20 up at the most. Not that I need that type of speed but something that I found interesting and was curious about.
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It is most likely due to alot of people using the same connection at once.

zelendel said:
It is most likely due to alot of people using the same connection at once.
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What happened was, I did a speedtest on my laptop and got the high results and right after did it on my phone. I did a couple tests, not just one and they were all around the same, and there were no anomalies.

I found one thing it does, on my mytouch 4g slide, if the screen was off, wifi would barely work. Skype, iheartradio, etc would stop streaming until I turned it on. I have no idea what it actually does though. Eg. if wifi was even slowed down to 1mbps, streaming should still work, so they are doing something crazy. PS my wifi is set to always on. Weird.

wing_addict_usa said:
I found one thing it does, on my mytouch 4g slide, if the screen was off, wifi would barely work. Skype, iheartradio, etc would stop streaming until I turned it on. I have no idea what it actually does though. Eg. if wifi was even slowed down to 1mbps, streaming should still work, so they are doing something crazy. PS my wifi is set to always on. Weird.
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very old thread, unrelated phone. When the phone goes in sleep or screen is off, most downclock the cpu to save energy, this will reduce network transfer speeds. Depending on settings, some will actually disconnect during screen off.

Juice Defender, Green Power faulty

I've purchased both Juice Defender and Green Power, and though I've gotten better battery life when I use the respective apps, they both suffer from the same problem. When the lockscreen is on for an extended period of time, the mobile network will not refresh. The only way to get 3G or 4G back is to restart the phone.
Some have said that toggling airplane mode will fix the problem, but that causes one of two things to happen for me: 1) the entire cell network shuts off and the mobile network remains dormant 2) the only way to fix the mobile network is to keep airplane mode ON (which makes zero sense, since airplane mode should shut down all networks).
The latest version of Green Power supposedly fixed the api mobile networks switch, but I don't see any change. This problem has been mentioned for more than a year in various forums, but it never seems to get fixed. Without being able to auto-toggle the mobile networks, these apps are materially worthless.
Does anyone have a solution?
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

you could manually turn the wifi and data off yourself?

I had the same problem and found no solution. I just uninstalled them.
Sent from my Droid Charge running GummyFroyo 1.9.1

Here's a screen cap... Airplane mode on, but wifi also stays on. Same occurs with mobile networks. Makes no sense.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

Sort of defeats the purpose. I want automation so i don't have to think about it. Don't understand why it randomly won't reconnect.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

well until they figure out how to control it on our 4G phones Im not sure...If had JD work for moments while on 4G only...then it wont re engage if it needs to switch to a 3G mode...I then tried it forced to 3G only and same sometimes it does and other times it doesnt..eventually it will get fixed Im sure...but in the mean time just use either for wifi control only or go straight manual control

It's a shame this doesn't work yet. I found it made all the difference in the world for battery power on my fascinate. Mainly because I work in a building with poor reception. JD made the issue moot.
Now I have to remember to turn data off and on as needed throughout the day. If I forget, my battery's dead in 8 hours. If I remember, I can get 20+ hours out of it. No wifi option at work, btw.
Even better would be if this could be tweaked in the kernel somehow. I understand not all phones suffer this battery drain with a weak signal. Wonder what the difference is.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

bgorrell said:
It's a shame this doesn't work yet. I found it made all the difference in the world for battery power on my fascinate. Mainly because I work in a building with poor reception. JD made the issue moot.
Now I have to remember to turn data off and on as needed throughout the day. If I forget, my battery's dead in 8 hours. If I remember, I can get 20+ hours out of it. No wifi option at work, btw.
Even better would be if this could be tweaked in the kernel somehow. I understand not all phones suffer this battery drain with a weak signal. Wonder what the difference is.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
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I wonder why juice defender and green power both screw up airplane mode. My phone's settings say airplane mode is off, but the toggle switch says it's on and it turns off my cell signal. I can't figure out how to get airplane mode to completely shut off without restarting. The fact that both Juice Defender and Green Power have the same issue controlling the mobile network leads me to believe it's an OS issue, not an app issue. If this is the case, we're not likely to see a fix anytime in the near future.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

Bump. Does anyone have a fix yet?

I think this issue could possibly go deeper than this. Over the last two days, I have had issues with going from full bars in a known coverage area to Searching for Service. Eventually, it will reconnect to the network, but mobile data never comes back. It seems to be worse when I have GPS toggled on, but I can't seem to single out the root cause. I don't use JD or Green Power or any other "battery saver" so something deeper is going on I believe. It's worth exploring anyway and I thought it may help track down a solution.

constant data switching

Is this normal on the HTC one s?
My phone is switching from H to 3g to G. I don't know if its a phone display thing or if my phone is really toggling between the three. Anyways my battery has been terrible and I'm wondering if this is the cause...

obutto said:
Is this normal on the HTC one s?
My phone is switching from H to 3g to G. I don't know if its a phone display thing or if my phone is really toggling between the three. Anyways my battery has been terrible and I'm wondering if this is the cause...
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I think yesterday I have seen the thread similar to yours. I do have the same thing, but only when my phone gets data to and from the phone. Normally it stays at 3G, but when checks for email or I surf the web, then it changes to H. Restart you phone and give it a couple of days, maybe your cell phone company has some data issues that it jumps. To make battery last 20 hours longer, I switch my phone to GSM only with Edge mobile data signal, but when I need faster internet, I just enable it again in the settings, under mobile data.

It will go to faster modes as needed when it uses data, and go to other modes like 3G and G when more idle to save battery. That said it should not switch between modes in a way that affects data speeds or stops transfers

Nexus 5 on 3 UK with Home Signal Box

Received my 32GB Nexus 5 the other day and thought it was broke as I wasn't getting any mobile data in the house at all.
I've finally worked out that this seems to be an issue with the Home Signal Box that plugs into my broadband connection as I need one due to having no signal at all downstairs and a very weak signal upstairs.
The Nexus 5 connects to the box fine and I get full signal but no H on phone at all. If I want data I have to switch wifi on.
This is the only time I've ever seen this and i've tried my sim card in quite a few phones and in every other phone apart from this Nexus 5 I get both calls and data fine.
Does anyone else have both a Nexus 5 and Home Signal box and getting this issue?

chipxtreme said:
Received my 32GB Nexus 5 the other day and thought it was broke as I wasn't getting any mobile data in the house at all.
I've finally worked out that this seems to be an issue with the Home Signal Box that plugs into my broadband connection as I need one due to having no signal at all downstairs and a very weak signal upstairs.
The Nexus 5 connects to the box fine and I get full signal but no H on phone at all. If I want data I have to switch wifi on.
This is the only time I've ever seen this and i've tried my sim card in quite a few phones and in every other phone apart from this Nexus 5 I get both calls and data fine.
Does anyone else have both a Nexus 5 and Home Signal box and getting this issue?
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I had a similar problem with my iPhone 5. Data didn't work without Wi-Fi or at best, was patchy. Three even specify on their site that Wi-Fi should still be used for data.

I have noticed the exact same behaviour on my Nexus 5 with the Home Signal box. My Nexus 4 (now used by my wife), daughter's Samsung S4 and son's Sony Xperia Z all work with voice and data.
There is another symptom of the Nexus 5 and Home Signal box I have just noticed, it's killing my battery! The Phone application is continuously causing a wakelock when the Nexus 5 is connected to the Home Signal box, if I unplug the Home Signal the wakelock stops and battery lasts a lot longer.
Hope Three are aware of this and can provide a fix.

I left a message on the 3 facebook site and their response was just to switch my wifi on when I'm in house. Well I do that whenever I intend to use any amount of data but when my phone is just sat there waiting for something to do i'd prefer it to be only using battery on phone signal and not wireless as well.

I've devised a workaround using Tasker to switch on Wi-Fi and switch off Mobile Data while at home and vice versa when I leave. Battery life is back to normal. Phone app isn't even showing on battery usage screen and having Wi-Fi on all the time I'm at home isn't using as much battery as the Phone app was with Mobile Data on even though there was no data connection. I think the problem is that the Home Signal box is not allowing the phone to establish a data connection and the Phone app continuously keeps trying thus running the battery down. I'll work with this for now but I do hope Three come up with a fix.

My Nexus 5 arrived today, seems to be working happily with our Home Signal box. Weird. Potential defect or something?

chipxtreme said:
I left a message on the 3 facebook site and their response was just to switch my wifi on when I'm in house. Well I do that whenever I intend to use any amount of data but when my phone is just sat there waiting for something to do i'd prefer it to be only using battery on phone signal and not wireless as well.
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So you turn your mobile data off in the house too? Because the WiFi battery use replaces the mobile data battery use... and should actually use less.
Voice Radio uses batttery, then mobile data uses further battery on top of that. So unless you're turning off mobile data completely, you should find that WiFi on all the time is a better solution.
This isn't really relevant to the thread though, so sorry about that.

chipxtreme said:
Received my 32GB Nexus 5 the other day and thought it was broke as I wasn't getting any mobile data in the house at all.
I've finally worked out that this seems to be an issue with the Home Signal Box that plugs into my broadband connection as I need one due to having no signal at all downstairs and a very weak signal upstairs.
The Nexus 5 connects to the box fine and I get full signal but no H on phone at all. If I want data I have to switch wifi on.
This is the only time I've ever seen this and i've tried my sim card in quite a few phones and in every other phone apart from this Nexus 5 I get both calls and data fine.
Does anyone else have both a Nexus 5 and Home Signal box and getting this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same issue with a white Nexus 5, Baseband version M8974A-1.0.25.0.17 and the 3UK black home signal box.
Feels like that whilst 'Data enabled' is ticked in 'Mobile network settings', the phone keeps reattempting the data connection, even though i have WiFi enabled.. ??
The same SIM does NOT have any issue in my GalaxyNexus.
1st and 3rd line tech support at 3UK have confirmed that data is getting though the SIM thus the handset itself is seemingly the issue. 3UK are recommending that I take this up with Google...

Same problem here, N5 + Black Home Signal = No data. Works fine on my other phones and iPad. Also when used with a Vodafone Sure Signal my Nexus gets data fine.
esskayy said:
I had a similar problem with my iPhone 5. Data didn't work without Wi-Fi or at best, was patchy. Three even specify on their site that Wi-Fi should still be used for data.
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Means no mms though.
rootSU said:
So you turn your mobile data off in the house too? Because the WiFi battery use replaces the mobile data battery use... and should actually use less.
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Wifi uses much more power than data.
awilson3000 said:
I'm having the same issue with a white Nexus 5, Baseband version M8974A-1.0.25.0.17 and the 3UK black home signal box.
Feels like that whilst 'Data enabled' is ticked in 'Mobile network settings', the phone keeps reattempting the data connection, even though i have WiFi enabled.. ??
The same SIM does NOT have any issue in my GalaxyNexus.
1st and 3rd line tech support at 3UK have confirmed that data is getting though the SIM thus the handset itself is seemingly the issue. 3UK are recommending that I take this up with Google...
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Click to collapse
£5 says they're lying.

noodles2k said:
Wifi uses much more power than data.
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This is not usually the case (edit: In my experience). Unless the Nexus 5 has some special radio hardware I am not yet aware of? The additional fluctuation in signal strength makes that even less true IMO
There are arguments on both sides of the fence if you google it, but I sit on the "WiFi is better" side.

rootSU said:
This is not usually the case (edit: In my experience). Unless the Nexus 5 has some special radio hardware I am not yet aware of? The additional fluctuation in signal strength makes that even less true IMO
There are arguments on both sides of the fence if you google it, but I sit on the "WiFi is better" side.
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Just install JuiceDefender and it sorts this out for you, or seems to for me anyway. It disables data if you have a wifi connection i.e. whilst you are in the house. Upshot is good battery life and I don't need to do anything to the phone - juicedefender does it for you.

rootSU said:
This is not usually the case (edit: In my experience). Unless the Nexus 5 has some special radio hardware I am not yet aware of? The additional fluctuation in signal strength makes that even less true IMO
There are arguments on both sides of the fence if you google it, but I sit on the "WiFi is better" side.
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Click to collapse
Sorry, I didn't mean that as a generalisation. When using femtocells for data my battery lasts longer than with wifi.

noodles2k said:
Sorry, I didn't mean that as a generalisation. When using femtocells for data my battery lasts longer than with wifi.
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Ah ok. I stand corrected. I have no experience of that. I took your comment generally

Has anyone spoken to Three about this since?
This is very annoying.

I just sent my Nexus 5 back and got a Note 3, I'd prefer the Nexus 5 though. If its fixed I might get another one. My home signal box hasn't worked since yesterday either so no signal in my house

Seems to be fixed now. I am now getting a data connection through my Home Signal box. I have not changed anything on my Nexus 5 so can only assume that Three have made some change in the background to how the Home Signal works with the Nexus 5.

Why is Bluetooth tethering so slow?

I use my Galaxy S6 to tether off the S8+ via bluetoth. The phone is less than a feet away and yet, the speedtest.net result is a consistent 1.6Mbit/s on the download and less than 1Mbit/s on the upload? Doesn't bluetooth have much higher speeds than this? There is nothing wrong with the connection as I can easily pull 60Mbit/s on the S8+.

Compare that speed to that of a wifi hotspot between the S6 and the S8+, just to exclude other factors than the connection method.
BTW, I always prefer connecting through a wifi hotspot.

Wifi is fine but uses much more battery compared to Bluetooth.

Anyway I couldn't find any significant battery drain when using wifi over bluetooth tethering.
I can only point out that S8 has BT v.5 while S6 has BT v.4.1 but the max data transfer speed should be similar for these 2 BT versions.
Tested tethering with another smartphone or tablet than with the S6?

anewday said:
I use my Galaxy S6 to tether off the S8+ via bluetoth. The phone is less than a feet away and yet, the speedtest.net result is a consistent 1.6Mbit/s on the download and less than 1Mbit/s on the upload? Doesn't bluetooth have much higher speeds than this? There is nothing wrong with the connection as I can easily pull 60Mbit/s on the S8+.
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My initial answer after reading the subject was simply "because its bluetooth". I stand by that. It isnt made for lots of data, wifi is.

anewday said:
I use my Galaxy S6 to tether off the S8+ via bluetoth. The phone is less than a feet away and yet, the speedtest.net result is a consistent 1.6Mbit/s on the download and less than 1Mbit/s on the upload? Doesn't bluetooth have much higher speeds than this? There is nothing wrong with the connection as I can easily pull 60Mbit/s on the S8+.
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Why not tether via usb ? its much faster that way.. Also what bluetooth card have you got on your desktop/laptop ? i mean whats the specs is it ? is it bluetooth 5 ?

ewokuk said:
My initial answer after reading the subject was simply "because its bluetooth". I stand by that. It isnt made for lots of data, wifi is.
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Then why do they tout the high speed data transfer of it?
N1NJATH3ORY said:
Why not tether via usb ? its much faster that way.. Also what bluetooth card have you got on your desktop/laptop ? i mean whats the specs is it ? is it bluetooth 5 ?
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I'm tethering to another phone, not desktop/laptop.

I see Wi-Fi tether is much faster then Bluetooth tether.. Have you tried Wi-Fi tether ? what phone are you tethering too...

I always use wi-fi tether. Thought about saving some battery by using bluetooth instead but was shocked to see such low speeds. Tethering to a S6.