Help Wifi issue with HTC Desire and Router

[Thais]

Hi,

I have a ZyXEL P-2602HW-D1A Router with the following settings:

- SSID hidden: No
- Channel: 6
- Security: Static 128-bit WEP
- Firmware: V3.40(AJQ.4) | 07/14/2008

These settings are defined my the company I work for.

My router works fine with both desktop and labtop computers however my various mobile phones are the WIFI issue. I've tried to use both a Samsung i8910 and a HTC Desire where I experience that the phones can connect and many download data for a short while. But here after the connection is very slow, the lag time is up to many minutes or the phone and router just disconnects.

But when I use my mobile phones with all other WIFI routers they work fine!!!

Please help...


Kind regards, T

 

[nx1977]

PC's have better error handling than the chips in mobiles/PDAs.

If you have checked you are broadcasting the correct band, on a channel not used or close to one used by another router near you, then not much you can do.

The Samsung proves it's not a phone issue.

 

[HTC_Desire]

They might well be able to dictate a minimum level of security (ie the WEP), but they cannot dictate the channel you are to use, as where you are may not be suitable for that channel. Try using one of the others a bit further away from 6 and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Timelord]

Yesterday I read somewhere that you have to set your router to AUTO.

 

[miasma]

Re. router channel changing/interference etc, there's a free app in the Market called (iirc) Wifi Analy[s/z]er. It'll give you an idea of signal strengths of all the networks the phone can see, and even recommend better channels to switch your router to for less interference.

Not sure from your original post whether you are able to change the channel or whether other people are just assuming that, but some evidence would at least enable you to go to the people who can change it and make the request!

I would agree with nx1977 about the reason - the fact two different phones are exhibiting the behaviour would seem to indicate difference in wifi radio featureset, size of antenna or interference of other radios in close proximity in phone (GSM, Bluetooth etc)

 

[nx1977]

Dont forget DECT phones too! Should keep them more than 2 feet from the router - 3+ is better.

 

[PJD]

I was wondering why the wifi signal from my home wireless router to the desire seems so weak if I am roughly 10 yds away in another room then no problem but if I go into the garden with no real obstructions say some 50yds the signal get weaker I can only assume that laptop PC's are better equiped at connecting to WiFi as apposed to mobile phones etc maybe someone could tell me if they also have experienced this problem have not tried one of these public Hot Spots for a connection but if this is anything to go by then it will be difficult to obtain a signal

 

[nx1977]

Aye the chips in mobile devices is really cut down, and has little to no error handling.

PC's use hardware (chip is usually 2-3 time bigger than a mobile) and software to deal with the clutter.

It was only using my N95 that alerted me to the channel issue at home. Changed the channel and the PC was much quicker at downloading, and no lag on the N95.

Just recently had to fiddle with the channels again, as all of a sudden every man and his dog near me has a BT hub and openzone enabled!

 

[Thais]

Thanks to everybody for your replies....

I have now tried almost everything! I've got 'permission' to remove security on my WiFi, moved all Bluetooth transmitters away from the router, and found the best channel via WiFi Analyzer. But still my Desire have issues using my WiFi connection.

It seems that the biggest issue is when using the phone browser (Android or Opera), but seems more stable when downloading bigger files on e.g. Google Listen???

More good ideas out there?


Kind regards,

Thais

 

[vkukuruzovic]

Thanks to everybody for your replies....

I have now tried almost everything! I've got 'permission' to remove security on my WiFi, moved all Bluetooth transmitters away from the router, and found the best channel via WiFi Analyzer. But still my Desire have issues using my WiFi connection.

It seems that the biggest issue is when using the phone browser (Android or Opera), but seems more stable when downloading bigger files on e.g. Google Listen???

More good ideas out there?


Kind regards,

Thais

not that much of idea, but I have the same problem with the same phone. I am looking at ping time which varies greatly during internet activity on the phone

64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=641 ttl=64 time=2821 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=642 ttl=64 time=1822 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=643 ttl=64 time=822 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=644 ttl=64 time=2.53 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=645 ttl=64 time=2684 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=646 ttl=64 time=1683 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=647 ttl=64 time=682 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=648 ttl=64 time=144 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=649 ttl=64 time=2685 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=650 ttl=64 time=1686 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=651 ttl=64 time=686 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=652 ttl=64 time=2766 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=653 ttl=64 time=1771 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=654 ttl=64 time=772 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=655 ttl=64 time=1468 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.37: icmp_seq=656 ttl=64 time=468 ms

while computers on the same wifi have consistent ping

 

[vkukuruzovic]

while computers on the same wifi have consistent ping

64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=222 ttl=128 time=114 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=223 ttl=128 time=0.975 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=224 ttl=128 time=1.64 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=225 ttl=128 time=1.13 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=226 ttl=128 time=1.15 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=227 ttl=128 time=1.10 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=228 ttl=128 time=2.14 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=229 ttl=128 time=1.21 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=230 ttl=128 time=1.02 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=231 ttl=128 time=0.988 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=232 ttl=128 time=0.990 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=233 ttl=128 time=1.12 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=234 ttl=128 time=1.93 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=235 ttl=128 time=1.14 ms
64 bytes from 10.0.0.38: icmp_seq=236 ttl=128 time=1.04 ms

and this is ping time of a computer connected to the same WIFI

 

[Timelord]

It's a wonderful world out there.
All tries to get wifi didn't succeed and
out of nowhere, suddenly I have wifi connection !.


When trying to connect, disable all your protections and see to get
connecction first. So you know it's not the protection who kills you.

 

[vkukuruzovic]

It's a wonderful world out there.
All tries to get wifi didn't succeed and
out of nowhere, suddenly I have wifi connection !.


When trying to connect, disable all your protections and see to get
connecction first. So you know it's not the protection who kills you.

Tried that as well, did not help

Connection in all cases works, but poorly.

 

[gogol]

I had this kind of WiFi issue in the past. The WiFi worked intermittently.
Most of the times, my connection was died after couple of minutes, sometimes was stable.

It turned out that I used another WiFi router as a network bridge/switch (there is a switch in the router to turn it into a "bridge") which advertise DHCP. But ... I was sure that I set that router as a "bridge" and it has different SSID from my main wiFi router (double and tripple checked this!!!).

However, the weird thing was that my phone (HTC Kaiser at that time), picked the SSID of my main WiFi router correctly, but it got DHCP address from that bridge!

I could not find any clue how this can happen. This should not happen! Because the phone got SSID from may main router. Why on earth it got IP address from the network bridge. Double checked, tripple checked, I could not have any clue.

I checked the network bridge (which was originally a WiFi router turned to a bridge via its switch) configuration, and it was cumbersome interface, I could not find any clue to completely turn off the DHCP / WiFi broadcast.

And I dont want to spend more time fixing this.

So, I bought a 15 euro "real" network switch", removed that bridge from the network and VOILA! No problem on WiFi whatsoever

Even at -80 signal rate (very bad), I could get 2Mbits WiFi speed download (tested using SpeedTest app). Fantastic!

That's my story. I dont know if that helps ... but when you read my story, something weird happened. The phone was connected to the "correct" SSID, but it got DHCP address from other network device. It was working though, but slow or dead.

UPDATE:
Note that my main WiFi router also advertise DHCP service. Probably the phone just picked the fastest DHCP server which response to its DHCP request. In this case, the network bridge was faster.

As I said, when the phone got DHCP address from the bridge, the internet access was OK, but slow ... then slower ... then dead.

 

[vkukuruzovic]

I had this kind of WiFi issue in the past. The WiFi worked intermittently.
Most of the times, my connection was died after couple of minutes, sometimes was stable.

It turned out that I used another WiFi router as a network bridge/switch (there is a switch in the router to turn it into a "bridge") which advertise DHCP. But ... I was sure that I set that router as a "bridge" and it has different SSID from my main wiFi router (double and tripple checked this!!!).

However, the weird thing was that my phone (HTC Kaiser at that time), picked the SSID of my main WiFi router correctly, but it got DHCP address from that bridge!

I could not find any clue how this can happen. This should not happen! Because the phone got SSID from may main router. Why on earth it got IP address from the network bridge. Double checked, tripple checked, I could not have any clue.

I checked the network bridge (which was originally a WiFi router turned to a bridge via its switch) configuration, and it was cumbersome interface, I could not find any clue to completely turn off the DHCP / WiFi broadcast.

And I dont want to spend more time fixing this.

So, I bought a 15 euro "real" network switch", removed that bridge from the network and VOILA! No problem on WiFi whatsoever

Even at -80 signal rate (very bad), I could get 2Mbits WiFi speed download (tested using SpeedTest app). Fantastic!

That's my story. I dont know if that helps ... but when you read my story, something weird happened. The phone was connected to the "correct" SSID, but it got DHCP address from other network device. It was working though, but slow or dead.

UPDATE:
Note that my main WiFi router also advertise DHCP service. Probably the phone just picked the fastest DHCP server which response to its DHCP request. In this case, the network bridge was faster.

As I said, when the phone got DHCP address from the bridge, the internet access was OK, but slow ... then slower ... then dead.

Well, I have tried reconfiguring wifi router to have wifi on separate segment (not bridged with lan) and it did not help Worked OK for a while, and then went back to a crawl

 

[vkukuruzovic]

Well, I have tried reconfiguring wifi router to have wifi on separate segment (not bridged with lan) and it did not help Worked OK for a while, and then went back to a crawl

Ok, problem solved.

The router in question was pfsense 1.2.2 based. I tried upgrading to 1.2.3 but that was not straight forward, so I decided to change operating system on router completely, and installed latest openwrt. After some configuring (to acheive the same configuration as before) all started to work OK

 

[kpapik]

nx1977 is wrong. this issue has nothing to do with the strength of the wi-fi signal. i have Zyxel too, I'm not able to use i8910 nor HTC Desire. I have full signal, the phone says its connected, but I can't browse. etc.

any udea what the problem?