[Q] Wifi problems with multiple router networks

[ice20978]

I seem to be having pretty severe wifi issues on networks that are composed of a large number of routers (i.e. campus/business networks) where going between routers will result in the phone believing it is connected, but not being able to send/receive data. This is evidenced both by the lack of notifications/apps working, as well as the wifi icon in the quick toggle panel being orange (which indicates no data being sent/recieved, I believe) despite having full signal. This means that without any external indication that anything is wrong, my phone essentially does not work anymore until I turn the wifi off and back on. Previous phones (galaxy nexus, droid) as well as computers did not have this issue on the same network.

Has anyone else noticed this problem, and if so, found any way to get around it other than remembering to reset the wifi power every time you move between areas?

 

[UncleMike]

It sounds like there are multiple WAPs all using the same SSID, and Android is not requesting a new IP address when it disconnects from one WAP and connects to another. You could probably work around the issue using Tasker, and have it toggle Wifi off and on again any time Wifi is disconnected. I you go that route I would recommend using the trial version available from the developer's site, or one of the many similar apps that are available in the Play Store for free.

There may be something more to this though. Hopefully someone else has another idea.

 

[motoxstu]

WiFi issues

I seem to be having pretty severe wifi issues on networks that are composed of a large number of routers (i.e. campus/business networks) where going between routers will result in the phone believing it is connected, but not being able to send/receive data. This is evidenced both by the lack of notifications/apps working, as well as the wifi icon in the quick toggle panel being orange (which indicates no data being sent/recieved, I believe) despite having full signal. This means that without any external indication that anything is wrong, my phone essentially does not work anymore until I turn the wifi off and back on. Previous phones (galaxy nexus, droid) as well as computers did not have this issue on the same network.

Has anyone else noticed this problem, and if so, found any way to get around it other than remembering to reset the wifi power every time you move between areas?

I'm having the same issues both out in public and at my home. This issue didn't seem to exist prior to 4.4 update. Now I'm constantly having to toggle my WiFi on and off or toggle airplane mode and also hitting the symbol down at the bottom left on my phone and on my router at the same time. If someone has any information to correct this would be great. Like I said I never had this problem prior to 4.4.

 

[ice20978]

It sounds like there are multiple WAPs all using the same SSID, and Android is not requesting a new IP address when it disconnects from one WAP and connects to another. You could probably work around the issue using Tasker, and have it toggle Wifi off and on again any time Wifi is disconnected. I you go that route I would recommend using the trial version available from the developer's site, or one of the many similar apps that are available in the Play Store for free.

There may be something more to this though. Hopefully someone else has another idea.

Thanks for the suggestion! One question though: does the wifi actually "disconnect" when there is a handover between two routers of the same network? Is a handover while constantly connected something tasker could detect?

 

[UncleMike]

Thanks for the suggestion! One question though: does the wifi actually "disconnect" when there is a handover between two routers of the same network? Is a handover while constantly connected something tasker could detect?

As far as I know, Android doesn't "roam" seamlessly from one AP to another even when the SSIDs are the same. I'm pretty sure Tasker would see this as Wifi being disconnected (albeit briefly). You could then tell Tasker to turn off Wifi for 5 seconds and then turn it back on again.

 

[ice20978]

As far as I know, Android doesn't "roam" seamlessly from one AP to another even when the SSIDs are the same. I'm pretty sure Tasker would see this as Wifi being disconnected (albeit briefly). You could then tell Tasker to turn off Wifi for 5 seconds and then turn it back on again.

I finally got around to making a tasker script to do this, and tried it out for a few days, but unfortunately it does not seem to detect the changing between the different routers on my institute network as having the wifi disconnected, and thus doesn't solve the issue. It was a good idea to try though!

I've cross-posted the issue at the link below in hope motorola will see this, but if anyone knows a better way to report this, please let me know.
https://forums.motorola.com/posts/68884aa31b