Precisely why I have it set up to "never" sleep wifi. Gmail push and google voice. Seeing as how much of my day is spent around "home" networks, I'd rather use them than 3g, as signal is guaranteed and I wanna figure out how much data I'm using before risking hitting that 5 gig "unlimited data" limit. I work rapid response, and often have 2 hour + drives with pandora/etc. going hooked up to car stereo, so I try to minimize my non-on-the-road 3g.
The phone itself ISN'T reconnecting automatically, when it's not even supposed to be disconnecting, let alone requiring reconnection. My real issue is that I still am somewhat concerned that the wifi is that unreliable when I've got it set up in a way that's directly accessable through the settings.
I know I can still use 3g for it, but it's the principle at this point
Gotcha.
The reason that WiFi sucks as badly as it does can be squarely laid at the feet of the complexity of the 802.11(abgn) protocols, not to mention everything that rides on top of it (802.11x Authentication modes, etc). I've had exactly the same type of experience as you describe - with different combinations of devices (that is,
not involving the Eris as the client station).
In some cases I was able to solve those problems by changing stuff which is just stupid (in terms of obscurity of a particular parameter like power management strategies on PCs, or beacon intervals on the AP... all sorts of obscure stuff.)
Since there are honestly very few "knobs" you can turn on the Eris, I'd suggest that you take an experimental approach, and try to reduce the complexity of the behaviors that the router engages in.
Is it set up to support all B, G, & N devices? Choose one.
Is it set up to auto-negotiate channel speed? Fix it to something low (just slightly faster than your DSL/Cable upstream connection), and see if that changes things.
Are there other AP's nearby on the same channel? (Use the free app "Wifi Analyzer (farproc) with Menu -> View -> Channel Graph). Move your AP/router to a clear channel.
Does it automatically reconfigure it's channel to avoid congestion? Turn that feature off.
Does it use a short DHCP lease interval? Lengthen it.
Did you turn off AP beacons? Turn em' back on.
Are you using complicated WiFi security modes (Radius Servers, EAP/LEAP/TLS, etc)? Try some thing which is plenty safe... but simple (not WEP, but WPA personal and no Authentication).
Does the router support multiple security protocols simultaneously (e.g. WPA-AES vs WPA-TKIP)? Fix it to only one - whatever the Eris is set for - as a test, and see if that changes things.
Are you using "Mac Address" filtering? It provides almost no measurable security benefit - turn it off.
Are you using QoS on the Router to support a VoIP appliance? Turn it off temporarily to see if that is causing trouble.
That's a couple of different suggestions - the basic idea is to (experimentally) make the environment the Eris operates in simpler - so there is less chance of an unusual combination between the router (software & state) and the Eris (software & state) to cause a bug to express itself.
Hope this helps.
BTW, I am using an Eris with WiFi (G), and WPA-Personal (TKIP). I think I fixed the Wireless data rate to something moderate - maybe 11 Mbps - because I don't really do anything else besides connect to the Internet, and my crappy DSL poops out at 3.6 Mbps.
No problems at all with WiFi - either in "Never sleep" or "Sleep with screen" modes.
eu1
