Gallo17

I'm a total newbie with an original Droid and I have 3 questions for the experts on the board. Ive been searching and I saw a bunch of different answers so I figured I better just ask and see if somebody could help me out.

1. The first question is a fairly simple question and is the least of my concerns. I'm not signed up on Verizon at this moment. I'm just using the Droid over WiFi for now. So when I restart my phone there is a screen that comes up asking me to activate through Verizon. Its not a big deal but if anyone knows a trick I could do to get rid of that screen for good I'd appreciate it.

2. Now to the very important question. My droid shows an excellent connection and has all the bars but once or twice a day it stops being able to browse despite the phone saying I'm fully connected. If I power cycle the phone or toggle the WiFi setting in the Droid on and off I'm able to browse again. I don't know if that is giving me a new DHCP lease or what but I'm concerned that the phone might stall at a bad time so I would really like to get that fixed. I'm hopeful there is a setting on the phone or my router that I can change to stop that from happening every day. I'm running 2.2.2 android service. I'm using a Belkin n300 router. I have tried changing the router setting from N and G to just G but that didn't stop the connection issue. I tried changing the router from auto to a few different channels but that didn't stop the issue either. I read that if you disable the security that might fix the issue but that doesn't seem like a good way to go.


3. Sometimes my droid says an update is waiting to be installed but when I go to install it I get that exclamation point error screen. I'm wondering if that is because I'm not connected to Verizon and I have data turned off. Is there some way to force the update by using a usb cord to the computer?

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

johnlgalt

1) Tap the screens on the phone (the black area of the screen, not down where it asks you to press buttons) in a counter clockwise manner starting from the top left hand side.

2) It might be that you're actually filling up the cache on the browser and it simply is unable to do anything - or it might be another issue. Does anything work over WiFi, or does everything die? Have you tried this with another router (say at a friend or relative's house) to see if it happens there as well? That would help determine if it is actually your phone or your router....

3) Yeah, I believe to actually get the update you need to be connected to VZW. Ignore it for now.

__________________

Files for the Motorola® DROID® BIONIC®:
Motorola USB drivers v5.5.0- 32bit | Motorola USB drivers v5.5.0- 64bit | Motorola RSD Lite v5.7

Gallo17

Thanks so much for the reply.

1. I will try that trick. I had read about it previously but didnt know it should be counterclockwise. Thanks for the tip.

2. My cache is usually empty. When it shows connected but loses connectivity nothing wifi related works including voip.

3. My phone says fully updated so its strange that it tried that update twice.

johnlgalt

Lol whoops - I was typing faster than I was thinking - it is clockwise not counterclockwise.

Sorry about that.

Gallo17

Thanks for the clarification. I use my phone for VOIP so it alarms me when I have those connectivity issues. I'm just messing with my Belkin router settings to see if I can find some that cure the issue.

johnlgalt

Did you buy this used? it's possible that the Radio is slightly bad / dying - after all it is a 2 year old phone now. It could also be that it is not actually at stock, and if it is running a Gingerbread ROM that could be a factor as well.

Gallo17

The phone is actually only 4 months old. It was a Verizon replacement phone. It is stock. I'm playing with my various router settings to see if I can get it to stay right. When it goes bad I only have to toggle the wifi radio button to get it good again but not knowing when it will stop kind of alarms me.

I may try another router. I also read today that some isp's that are dynamic (like mine) only allow the same ip to be used for so long before they renew the dhcp lease. I'm wondering if that could cause the connectivity issue once a day or so.

allanlaw

The Droid connection to wifi will sometimes get giddy if the router is set to NOT broadcast the SSID with WPA2. You can watch the signal strength using WiFi Analyzer go up and almost off in a cycle if SSID is not broadcasting. Give it a try.

Gallo17

Hi Allan. Thanks for the help. Most the time my signal is fine and the phone works but 1-3 times a day it just stops working. I have watched that meter. It stays in 45dbm usually but sometimes goes as high as 60dbm.

I'm using a Belkin N300 router. This is the 2nd Belkin I have tried. I'm considering trying a cisco or dlink router. My belkin has the following options. Which would you recommend for steady voip?

Security mode:
1. Disabled
2. 64 bit wep
3. 128 bit wep
4. wpa/wpa2-personal (psk)

Authentication:
1. wpa-psk
2. wpa2-psk
3. wpa-psk+wpa2-psk

allanlaw

I'm using the N-router that comes with FIOS, and I use wpa2 (psk), mac address filtering and compatibility mode since the Droid is G wireless only. I would love to use SSID broadcast blocked, but like I said, that seems to be problematic with the Droid since a few updates ago.

Gallo17

I usually use wpa psk as well. Im not sure what mac filtering is. Could you explain? Do you type your phones mac address in to your routers registry?

Do you have your router set to g only or g and N?

I tried having SSID blocked and I couldnt log on so I have ssid broadcast now.

Any idea if we will have another update to fix that?

What update version are you on? I think I'm on 2.2.2

allanlaw

MAC address filtering allows you to enter into the router the MAC addresses of all of your devices, and then ONLY THOSE are allowed on the network. Just another level of security for the network. Some routers apply the filtering to all connections to the network, most only to the wireless connections.

johnlgalt

Hmmm, if the router is from your ISP, find out if you can log into it and check the settings - you may be right, the DHCP reservation period might be something ridiculously low. Although, that should not matter if the only the ISP's DHCP reservation is low because that would only affect your ability to browse temporarily as the modem acquired a new address. The DHCP reservation for your phone should not change under those circumstances - but who knows how some ISPs may configure routers that they sell with their packages?

Glad to see you're still around, Allan. Yeah, I think I remember you trying to test that in the past - I never blocked my SSID with my DROID, but I should try and see if I can do it with my BIONIC now....

2.2.2 is the stock FroYo (FRG83G) - there is a new update that should roll out to you soon - 2.2.3 (FRKXXY) that is a security only update.

If you can gain access to the router itself and assign a permanent DHCP reservation for your phone, that will help tremendously. It's how I set my router up - permanent DHCP reservation and MAC address filtering - and my DROID only dropped the connection every once i a blue moon. usually because it was being stupid ( because all other devices were still connected, so it pointed to my phone).

allanlaw

Yup John, still kicking. The Droid has been fairly well behaved until very recently, so I had nothing much to say on here. Lately (maybe since FRG83G, not sure) the app tray contents seem to disappear for a few minutes after some browser action, and other things seem to be much slower, but it's hard to quantify. Spontaneous reboots about once a month - and I've taken to power shutdowns every few days just to keep it clean. However, I'm going to keep the Droid until it dies since a new Verizon contract would cost me my current (apparently) grandfathered unlimited data plan.

Cheers

johnlgalt

Ummm, it should not. I upgraded to the BIONIC and kept my grandfathered unlimited data - and it now includes both unlimited 3G and 4G (which basically means that anything under 5GB and they leave me alone, anything over that and they raise their eyebrows, and I think after 6 I start getting throttled - which is the same as it was before, only they were pretty lenient until after 10 GB)

allanlaw

By George, you've straightened me out again! I did some digging, and from a Verizon spokesperson on the changes:

"This only affects new customers with phones that use data plans," Weaver said. "If you have Verizon and you have an unlimited data plan, you can keep it. Customers can even keep their unlimited data plans when they get a new phone if they want to, or they can chose a new plan if they want to, at any time, without penalty."

This news may wind up costing me extra Christmas money . . . but for myself, so it's all good!

But what to get? You like the Bionic? Thoughts on the Razr?

johnlgalt

I am not going to lie - I like my BIONIC, but I'm itching for the Galaxy Nexus b/c it's vanilla and has ICS.

However, the Galaxus has no SDCard port - only has 32 GB of internal memory, splitting that between ROM, App Storage and SDCard.

The RAZR has a non-removable battery - and is too thin for my tastes.

More than a few have looked at the Rezound by HTC as a viable replacement.

Both the BIONIC and RAZR have had their share of connectivity issues, among other things, I haven't really paid attention to the RAZR scuttlebutt, but I'm actively paying attention to the VZW scuttlebutt both here (Motorola Droid Bionic - Android Forums) and at the Motorola User Forums (https://supportforums.motorola.com/community/google-android/droid_bionic?view=discussions&start=0). My own phone has exhibited almost none of the symptoms - it's been going very very strong.

Plus, if you can, get it from CostCo - currently, their BIONIC bundle is $199, and that includes $160 worth of accessories, including an external battery charger, spare battery, leather case, car mount dock and desktop dock.

If you decide on another phone, still look at CostCo - the Wireless Associates kiosk is an authorized VZW agent and can handle everything for you so you walk out of there with a fully functional activated phone - and they have these types of low cost bundles on all the VZW phones they sell.

johnlgalt

Also, for reference: Grand Fathered 4G?

johnlgalt

@OP - another thing you can look at is this app: WiFi Advanced Configuration Editior - Market Link