Wifi worked before, now doesn't

[Scripsit]

Got my Droid the first day, November 6. It's my first smartphone, and has been really great. I've had a few problems, like not really being able to use my primary email (it's a Charter account, and while the Droid gets some of the emails, it seems to delete them randomly). But the inconvenience has been far outweighed by the convenience and all the things it will do. I especially like the navigation.

But now I have a bigger issue. I've happily used the Droid on my home wifi for weeks. Now, returning after a weekend away, it will not connect. It sees the network, states that the strength is excellent, but when it tries to connect, it always comes up 'connection unsuccessful'. I stress that it was working fine before, and there are two laptops in the house that are working fine on the network now. I tried hitting the reset button on the router, tried powering down the phone, removed the battery, but no luck.

Any ideas about how to fix this? I like using the phone to surf the web, even at home, and do not want to be doing it over the Verizon network and eating into my data plan allowance.

I know there are similar problems in other threads, but I have not been able to find the identical problem. Thanks!

 

[brucin]

Try powering down the router. That is better than the reset button.

 

[dezymond]

power down the router.

if that doesn't work, set up the connection to the router again on the phone.

Why would you worry about it eating into your data plan? Don't you have the unlimited plan when you got the phone?

 

[windstrings]

chances are you just need to delete the connection and "forget" it so there is no trace... .then re-establish the connection with the droid.

Many people are reporting faster connections now... it could be there are some subtile settings you router needs to renegotiate with.

 

[Scripsit]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried having the Droid forget my network, then log on again, but that didn't work. Will try powering down the router. My only concern is that it's a newish router, and it took forever to get it to work. After hours on the phone with Cisco tech support they gave me one final instruction: on no account, they said, should I let the router power down. It might lose the settings that it had taken them so long to find. So I'm a bit wary.

I'll be delighted if the data plan is unlimited. I've been using it a lot -- traveling with navigation running, and listening to streaming radio. Just figured out how to stream radio in the car. It's really great. I'm using the A Online Radio app. No need for XM/Sirius!

I have a Verizon USB modem. It's $60 a month and you get 5g per month. After that you are charged some outrageous amount. I originally assumed the Droid's was the same, and I think I've heard others say this, but I understand now that this is apparently not the case. That's great news, thanks.

 

[Scripsit]

Powered down router, and it worked great. All is well. Thanks.

 

[windstrings]

After hours on the phone with Cisco tech support they gave me one final instruction: on no account, they said, should I let the router power down. It might lose the settings that it had taken them so long to find. So I'm a bit wary.

I don't mean to get your feathers ruffled any further, but any router you cannot power down and back up without losing settings needs to be tossed... go buy a 29 or 39.00 one at staples that will outdo that piece of ____.

If a tech has been tweaking things to get it to work... that could explain alot.

 

[cecco77]

On a related note. I've noticed the wifi dropping on my droid about once a week or so, and this will also happen to other devices on the wireless network, although not simultaneously. Is this a router issue, because powering it down does indeed work. Does this have to do with the router trying to renew the security settings automatically for the wireless netowork and failing? Just trying to get an idea of exactly why this happens.

 

[windstrings]

On a related note. I've noticed the wifi dropping on my droid about once a week or so, and this will also happen to other devices on the wireless network, although not simultaneously. Is this a router issue, because powering it down does indeed work. Does this have to do with the router trying to renew the security settings automatically for the wireless netowork and failing? Just trying to get an idea of exactly why this happens.

That can be allot of issues.. if your signal is marginal or you ever have competition with a 2.4Gig handset cordless phone that could choke the signal enough for them to temporarily drop out too....

The CTS ratio "Clear to send" ration could be set too high in your router... lower the better.. that gives it permission to send even when the signal drops.

If your running Vista, this opens up a whole different bag of worms... make sure you have vista set to keep the signal connection even if the signal drops so it doesn't try to find another signal to lock onto just to have it drop too.
Wifi signal drops allot.... download the app for your droid called 'wifi analyzer" its quite interesting.. you can see all 14 channels at once and look at graphs of existing signals and watch thier fluctuations.

But all you can do is go into your settings and look around... even when you have everything set perfect.... licenses time out and IP addresses get renewed.

Occasional dropouts happen on all networks from time to time..even if for a few seconds.... its the nature of the beast. There are just too many links in the chain.

Its not so much things drop out.. but signal drops and something lets go.. then it has to handshake again and renegotiate to get back on again.