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Help Texting over wifi unreliable

jtrory

Newbie
Jan 23, 2012
21
3
This is only a problem I've found since I upgraded from an S2 to an S4 recently. It seems as though receiving and sending texts over wifi is very unreliable, I have had trouble sending texts and have missed texts that were sent to me that only came through when I switched to 4G. I have a very strong wifi signal at home so I know it's not that. Anyone have any ideas?
 
Texts, both SMS and MMS, must be sent over your Carrier's network. The SMS's are sent over 1G just like a phone call and MMS's require a data connection. The data connection for the MMS messages must be carrier not wifi. MMS messages are not counted against your data usage, but they do count against your message limit, if you have one. Your phone is supposed to be able to "referee" the connections when you are on WiFi to make this work seamlessly. I do know that if you turn off your 3/4G capability in settings while on WiFi this will cause issues with MMS messages but not with SMS messages. Also, there is a AV package from Kaspersky, that changes the settings on your WiFi connection and the changes that it makes cause MMS's to not send. I know there are no answers in this, but maybe some of the info will give you a direction to look. I have only had issues associated with the Kaspersky thing, they are aware of it and are working on a fix, but I just set my WiFi settings back to normal and rectified the situation.
 
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I know that sending MMS over wifi is impossible, however I never had an issue on my S2 sending SMS I assume because the phone was routing the texts through the mobile carrier connection even though I was on wifi. Apparently the S4 struggles more with this, I have tried setting the phone to "switch" between mobile and wifi when it needs to in the hopes that helps.

I don't really understand why wifi texting is not something a phone can technically do. What's the point of even having wifi if I have to constantly switch between the two to browse the internet and send simple texts? I guess I just won't use wifi anymore and will have to incur more data costs! Which I'm sure makes tmobile very happy, like they and other carriers aren't gouging our wallets enough already.
 
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I don't really understand why wifi texting is not something a phone can technically do. What's the point of even having wifi if I have to constantly switch between the two to browse the internet and send simple texts? I guess I just won't use wifi anymore and will have to incur more data costs! Which I'm sure makes tmobile very happy, like they and other carriers aren't gouging our wallets enough already.


Me thinkst you just answered your own question. That's why you pay your carrier for texting. They wouldn't make any money off us if we used wifi to text.

Maybe you should look into WhatsApp. You can text over wifi using that as long as both parties are on wifi and are signed up with the app. My wife and I used that when we were in Mexico - saved us some $$$.
 
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I really think you are getting confused between the carrier network and wifi. Phones (S4 included) do not switch between the two. If you are connected to wifi, TCP/IP traffic will go over wifi, SMS/MMS/voice will be routed over 3G. There isn't any switching involved and the fact that you are connected to wifi has no bearing on your ability to send SMS/MMS.

If you are unable to send SMS, it's entirely because of your carrier network and nothing to do with wifi. Perhaps you just have a poor signal where you are using wifi but the two are not connected.
 
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I am on WiFi all day at the office and I send SMS and MMS messages frequently from the office and they send fine. I did go through a patch when MMS messages would not send with WiFi on and found that the AV software that I had installed on my phone was doing something with the Data/WiFi connection and not allowing MMS to be sent when WiFi was available. I contacted the AV company and they said it was a known issue with no resolution at the time. So I just uninstalled it. Since Google now provides location/lock/wipe services now, I really don't have a need for the AV package. The AV package was Kaspersky. If you have it installed, it is probably the reason that you have MMS issues over WiFi. Remember Group Texts are sent as MMS, not SMS.
 
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