Droid X Wifi issues

[Droid4Prez]

I got my droid x about 4 months ago and i am fairly pleased with it. Its a great phone and powerful (although i hate the fact that it has a locked bootloader... thanks motorola). However, there is one issue that really irritates me and i am not sure if it ois only me experiencing this issue, but i want to know if it can be fixed...

When i turn on wifi, internet is fast for a few seconds, but suddenly it stops working, and i lose all my bars on the top right of the screen, and i have to turn wifi off and just use 3g. What could i do?

and thank god i have unlimited data lol because i checked my data usage, and in 14 days, i used almost 5 gigs of data. I even use 3g when im at home because as i said, wen i turn wifi on, i lose connection. Please Help!!!

 

[kevinkar]

You should not lose 3G bars simply because you've turned on WiFi. Both work at the same time though, when you are connected to a WiFi router/hotspot, any traffic that might have gone over 3G (apps such as browsers, the Android Market, etc.) now route through WiFi instead. You can see this when running the My Verizon app which tells you you are on WiFi and it won't connect over WiFi; you have to turn off WiFi and connect to My Verizon over 3G.

So, you might be a victim of the odd WiFi issue where the phone tries to connect to a WiFi signal but just connects/disconnects over and over. I solved this the first time by changing my router from Mixed b/g/n to g only and the second time by changing it back to Mixed! You should experiment with those settings to see if this fixes the issue. Granted it should connect either way but it is what it is.

Also, get a WiFi analyzer app like WiFi Analyzer (catchy name) and see what it tells you about the WiFi the phone sees.

Believe me, any connection to the Internet will be way faster over WiFi than 3G and you will not add to your data totals. Sure you HAVE an "unlimited" plan but I believe they actually ARE limited to some number we don't yet know!

Let us know what you find out.

 

[ctshiner]

I feel your pain. Unfortunately, there is no sure fix for that issue. The thing that worked best for me was changing my router to broadcast G only, and disabling all wireless security and only using MAC authentication. Even then my connection would last 20 minutes tops.

I eventually just got a replacement and wifi worked much better. My theory is Motorola shipped some batches with defective wifi antennas and has been trying to 'fix' them through hit and miss OTAs. The Verizon rep insisted they never hear wifi complaints which is complete denial bs. Good luck!

 

[Droid4Prez]

Aww. But I read something a while back and I don't even know what it means or if it applies to this lol. It said to change something from AES to TKIP or something like that lol. Does that apply to our problem?

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[ctshiner]

AES and TKIP are methods of wireless encrytion. It may or may not help but you can skip that game altogether by turning off wireless security on your router. You'll definitely want to enable MAC authentication/filtering though. You can find your phone's MAC address in the wifi settings menus and you will have to manually type it into your router's list of allowed wireless devices (as with any other computer you use wifi on)

 

[Droid4Prez]

I'm sorry for the trouble but can you both like give me a set of detailed instructions of what to do, cuz I am not really knowledgeable of all this wifi lingo u guys said lol. Please, sorry, and thank you.

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[Jale]

No security might be dangerous

AES and TKIP are methods of wireless encrytion. It may or may not help but you can skip that game altogether by turning off wireless security on your router. You'll definitely want to enable MAC authentication/filtering though. ...

The MAC control only prevents other devices to connect to the router. But removing AES/TKIP makes all transmissions between your Droid X and the router plain and unencrypted and can be intercepted by anyone in the vicinity, even when they are not connected to the router.

 

[PhishPhan]

Never mind leaving the connection unencrypted, but someone with wire-shark can nab your MAC ota and spoof it. Bam - they are now riding on your network and you would never know.

Just leave your wallet on the ground in your nearest Wal-Mart, no different than no security, or even WEP.

 

[turfdogfv]

About 3 months ago I got a Droid X, and have been more than satisfied except the wifi connection at home would not remain connected. I only had this issue @ home. Read all the forums and suspected the issue was more router than phone issue.

Seemed most folks had problems with NetGear. Few had problems with Cisco-Linksys. I considered switching routers, but opted for the cheap fix and connected instead using 3G.

I've since had to re-address the router issue, due to hardware changes. By changing my NetGear wireless settings from WPA2-PSK(AES) to WPA-PSK(TKIP)+WPA2-PSK(AES) in the Wireless Settings screen for my NetGear router and then re-setting network settings on my Droidx to my new home network settings, my phone now stays connected on wifi.

 

[Natey2]

Never mind leaving the connection unencrypted, but someone with wire-shark can nab your MAC ota and spoof it. Bam - they are now riding on your network and you would never know.

Encrypted or not, your MAC address is easily visible with many standard wifi discovery tools, including the Wifi Analyzer (Android) under list view.

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[PhishPhan]

That's true about the MAC.


As far as the Netgear issue, that's not the case for me, I CAN connect, and at N speeds to the router, its when I connect to the web at that point when my speeds drop like a rock.

I have 30 down and 10 up, yet no matter how or what I try the X never exceeds 5 either way.
For $-its and giggles I even applied the throttling patch, now this has improved my 3G speeds, not WiFi.

Here's a question then, can we list what make/model/firmware router/AP and connection speeds?

Netgear - WNR2000v2 - dd-wrt
Netgear - WNR3500U - dd-wrt
Netgear - WNR3500U - stock
Netgear - WN802Tv2 - stock
Netgear - WPN824v3 - stock
Linksys - WRT54g - stock
Linksys - WRT54g - dd-wrt
Linksys - BEFW11S4 - stock

Not once on any of them could I achieve speeds higher than 5/5.

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[PhishPhan]

So I finally had time to get to the store an pick up another router and test it.

Got a DLink DIR-601.

&##*$ works PERFECTLY! No drops, connecting at 20 down and 7 up.

So that's got to be the issue, some incompatability issue with the X and netgear/broadcom.

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[fifiknw]

This fixed my wifi: Topic: Droid X Gingerbread Wifi fix - Z4Cell Forums

 

[regkilla]

This fixed my wifi: Topic: Droid X Gingerbread Wifi fix - Z4Cell Forums

The putting pressure against sd card method worked