Unusual cell phone/wi-fi problem

[Sean Troy]

My wife has an Android phone that has problems connecting to the internet at home using wi-fi. She can turn off the wi-fi on the phone and use data with no problem connecting to the internet. Any ideas? Thanks, Sean

[Wade Lippman]

Good luck. The laptop I am using now loses it's wifi every two hours or so, for no apparent reason. I figure it is just a consequence of paying $200 for a computer.

[Leo Graywacz]

Need more info. What phone, what android OS, what router. How is the router encrypted. Have you turned the encryption off to see if it will hold the connection? There were certain routers that had some problems interfacing with certain android phones. Have you rebooted the router, sometimes that can clear up the problem.

[Matt Day]

Leo is right. Unfortunately there are a lot of things it could be.
For instance, we were having similar issues and it was because our baby monitor was causing interference. I changed the channel of router which has helped.

[Peter Stahl]

Wish I could remember exactly what I did but my wife's ipad had trouble connecting most of the time. I googled it and had to change a setting in the Modem. It was simple, used my laptop to connect to the Modem. If you can't do it by Wifi you might have to connect with a Ethernet cable. Google the Modem and cable/Internet provider to see if there is a fix.

[Sean Troy]

Phone is an LG with the latest Operating system update. Three other phones in the house have no problem connecting. 2 other android and an Iphone.

[Jim Matthews]

I suspect your router is set to alternate channels, or vary the output
depending on power management features.

The phone is new, and is likely not the culprit.

http://www.werockyourweb.com/your-wireless-connection-dropping/

[Leo Graywacz]

Well, like I said you need to be diagnostic about this.

1st thing to do is to pull the power on the modem and wait 30 seconds and power it back up. See how the phone reacts.

Change the channel on the router and see how the phone reacts. Don't use auto.

Reset the phones properties on how it connects to the router and see how the phone reacts.

Turn off the encryption of the router by setting it into an unsecure mode and see how the phone reacts.

One of those should get the phone to stay connected to the router. After you figure out which one works we can continue on with the problem solving.

[Sean Troy]

I'll try the mentioned suggestions. Thanks all for the help, Sean

[Peter Stahl]

What Leo & Jim said plus go to your Internet provider and see what they for settings and how to access your Modem to change the settings. Try the easiest like Leo suggested and restart the Modem first. Also go to a friends house and see if the Wifi works there ok.

How ironic, when I went to post this my Laptop wouldn't connect. Stopped/started my connection and it was fine. This happens every once in a great while.

[Eric DeSilva]

While I generally agree that you need to engage in a logical diagnosis--alter the communications path in a controlled way and see what makes a difference--you should also recognize that "wi-fi" isn't some on-off switch and there is a lot going on. To effectively perform, a radio link needs a link budget that meets certain criteria--the signal strength has to be sufficiently high and the noise sufficiently low. That can be impacted by the performance of your wi-fi access point--is it generating a signal of sufficient strength in the area you are trying to receive it--and the performance of the transceiver in your phone--is there a good antenna and is the radio front end well isolated from other noise in the phone and environment? What all this means is that because one wi-fi device works in an area doesn't mean all wi-fi devices will... You should test her phone with other marginal wi-fi signals to see how the wi-fi compares against other phones--if it consistently underperforms, there may be a design issue or a manufacturing defect. If it consistently performs like your other wi-fi devices, then the culprit is probably elsewhere...

[Stan Calow]

Sean our router seems to have a limit on number of devices it can have connected to it at any given time, and will "time out" any device that has been inactive after a while (like overnight). If I flick it off and then on in the morning, it will reconnect. Not smart enough to know why or how to fix.

[Myk Rian]

Try this app, or similar.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

A couple of things that come to mind from my experience …

Smaller antennas in phones - there are some spots in my house where the laptop works fine, but various phones don't.

Sometimes routers will broadcast on two bands, 5ghz and 2.5ghz- one will often work better than the other around walls or interference (microwaves, etc) , and sometimes you end up with one device that will only connect on one band and it won't be the ideal one…

[Sean Troy]

I suspect your router is set to alternate channels, or vary the output
depending on power management features.

The phone is new, and is likely not the culprit.

http://www.werockyourweb.com/your-wireless-connection-dropping/
I followed the suggestions mentioned in this link and it seems to have worked very well.

[Myk Rian]

Sometimes routers will broadcast on two bands, 5ghz and 2.5ghz- one will often work better than the other around walls or interference (microwaves, etc) , and sometimes you end up with one device that will only connect on one band and it won't be the ideal one…
I have found the 5ghz to be very limited in range.