Help Wifi Always On and Battery

[howarmat]

it works just fine

it uses the cell towers yes, so when you leave your house and drive to work or whatever it will shut wifi off. and back on if you have wifi at work and set it up the same. Its a great app

Better link
http://www.appbrain.com/app/pl.polidea.y5

 

[lexluthor]

It does sound perfect for what we are talking about in this thread.

If this app works for me, I don't have to do a thing and when I get home, I'm on wifi, saving battery / gaining speed vs VZW data network, whne I leave, the wifi radio gets turned off and when I get to work, wifi comes back on. Even if I go somewhere for lunch that has wifi, it'll automatically turn on the radio and connect there.

Amazing app if it does work like that. We can really optimize the times we are on wifi without doing any work.

My only concern is what if I'm walking around outside the house and out of wifi range. I presume I'll still be connected to the same cell tower though, so the wifi radio will stay on searching for a connection then, no? That could be a drain during those times. Or does the app turn off the radio if it can't connect after X seconds/minutes? If not, that sounds like it's something he could add.

 

[howarmat]

Even if I go somewhere for lunch that has wifi, it'll automatically turn on the radio and connect there.

no no, it wont automatically connect at random, you have to set up each location.

 

[lexluthor]

If you are replying to me, I think you missed my question.

If I'm at home and have set up wifi previously, what happens if I go outside and lose my wifi connection? Won't I still be connected to the same cell tower, so this program will keep wifi on searching for a connection, but I'm out of range.

How does it handle that situation?

 

[howarmat]

If you are replying to me, I think you missed my question.

If I'm at home and have set up wifi previously, what happens if I go outside and lose my wifi connection? Won't I still be connected to the same cell tower, so this program will keep wifi on searching for a connection, but I'm out of range.

How does it handle that situation?

yes it would until you leave the cell tower range

 

[lexluthor]

Ok. I could see that being a possible issue with this program, but I'll try it out and monitor.

I'd think the developer could put some code in to turn wifi off if it doesn't establish a connection after a set period of time, then try again after another set period of time.

 

[howarmat]

why is this such a big deal? do you spend hours ouside of the wifi range but still within the same cell tower range?

And by adding in the logic you want means the app must doing extra work which can eat battery. I am not sure how its coded now but my guess is it can just look for a change in tower. when it gets the tower change, check s the list of saved towers, if not found shuts wifi off and then hibernates until the next tower change and turn wifi on accordingly.

I have run this since the first week of having the phona and have ran smartwifi (bb equivalent) on my storm 2 for a long time. I have never had an issue either. if i go work on the car in the garage which is outside WIFI range, i just manually shut it off. No big deal to me.

 

[lexluthor]

I probably am worrying too much about that. I'll test out the app for a couple of days and see how it acts.

We can get this thread back on track with the original question because I don't think enough people realize the value in doing this. I certainly had no idea I could benefit from leaving WiFi always on.

 

[taylor6400]

why is this such a big deal? do you spend hours ouside of the wifi range but still within the same cell tower range?

And by adding in the logic you want means the app must doing extra work which can eat battery. I am not sure how its coded now but my guess is it can just look for a change in tower. when it gets the tower change, check s the list of saved towers, if not found shuts wifi off and then hibernates until the next tower change and turn wifi on accordingly.

I have run this since the first week of having the phona and have ran smartwifi (bb equivalent) on my storm 2 for a long time. I have never had an issue either. if i go work on the car in the garage which is outside WIFI range, i just manually shut it off. No big deal to me.

I have been watching this as well...and i am a newbie with a smartphone...but the app looks interesting for me. As i have good 3G at home and wifi...and bad 3G at work but still wifi. But, to answer your question...yes i spend a lot of time out of wifi range, but at the same tower. The big one for me would be doing work outside away from the house for hours at a time. Plus i live in a small town so if i go to a friends or my parents house just a couple miles away i would probably still be on the same tower. So, i like the app and may try it but im not sure its completely for my situation.

 

[jsjames]

I just downloaded this app to set up a time schedule for a variety of things.
Timeriffic - Android app on AppBrain

 

[denary]

One issue I have with this... I have a Yahoo email account and the DINC does not seem to play nice with receiving emails when connected wireless.

 

[kayst]

I set up my Yahoo account to use the htc mail function, but just decided that it wasn't worth it to turn off WiFi to check it, so am now using the mobile yahoo site to handle my yahoo email. It's pretty nice, and much easier to deal with. I just deleted the account in htc mail and don't even use that for anything.

 

[lexluthor]

I did read somewhere else about a dispute/bug between android/yahoo mail on wifi.

 

[amarryat]

I set up my Yahoo account to use the htc mail function, but just decided that it wasn't worth it to turn off WiFi to check it, so am now using the mobile yahoo site to handle my yahoo email. It's pretty nice, and much easier to deal with. I just deleted the account in htc mail and don't even use that for anything.

Good idea. I just set up a shortcut to get to the mobile ymail site. But I will keep the IMAP mail account for when I am on 3g.

 

[czm2000]

I get much better battery life with WiFi on.

 

[lexluthor]

So I've been using Wifi, always on at work and home for a couple of days now. Also using Y5-Battery Savery.

My phone is still new, so I'm playing with it so much, it's tough to get a read if battery is improved by being on wifi instead of 3g whenever possible, but I see enough people report wifi is better on the battery.

Y5 does appear to be working as advertised though. I get to work and wifi comes on, I leave, it goes off. I get home, it comes back on.

I do notice that the wifi widget icon does stay lit for a couple of minutes after I leave a wifi area, but the data network icon is on at that time, so it's not clear to me if wifi is actually off or searching at that point. Also, I do think I'll still need to watch out if I'm outside/down the block/etc and Y5 turns on the wifi search and drains the battery.

But, on the whole, it's amazing to not have to turn wifi on or off and have it connect when I'm in range of a known network.

Very happy with this solution, especially if I do ultimately confirm the better battery life.

 

[rsarno]

So I've been using Wifi, always on at work and home for a couple of days now. Also using Y5-Battery Savery.

My phone is still new, so I'm playing with it so much, it's tough to get a read if battery is improved by being on wifi instead of 3g whenever possible, but I see enough people report wifi is better on the battery.

Y5 does appear to be working as advertised though. I get to work and wifi comes on, I leave, it goes off. I get home, it comes back on.

I do notice that the wifi widget icon does stay lit for a couple of minutes after I leave a wifi area, but the data network icon is on at that time, so it's not clear to me if wifi is actually off or searching at that point. Also, I do think I'll still need to watch out if I'm outside/down the block/etc and Y5 turns on the wifi search and drains the battery.

But, on the whole, it's amazing to not have to turn wifi on or off and have it connect when I'm in range of a known network.

Very happy with this solution, especially if I do ultimately confirm the better battery life.

Y5 has no way to know the range of the WiFi it just knows your in the rough area of where a known wifi signal was learned so it turns wifi on, and yes it is searching for a signal.

If you sit 500ft from your wifi router for 6 hours, yes this will be bad. But in most case your only in that "out of range, but still in area" range for a short time while walking out of the house, or out of office, etc. If its just searching for a signal for 10-15min and then turning it off, thats no biggie.