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flenn

Newbie
Jul 10, 2010
15
5
I've been having wifi issues since I got my Dx but because the 3G speeds are so good, I haven't really been up to the challenge of dealing with it. I've been keeping track of some of the related posts and had tried a few things. The problem was that the Dx could easily connect to my home router but within 5 minutes or so (sometimes less than a minute), upload/download activity would just stop. Both the router and the Dx continued to show a connection, but no data would transfer. Actually, in a way, the problem was pretty easy to troubleshoot because it was so repeatable.

To make things as easy as possible, I located the Dx in the same room as the router and turned off all security settings on the router. I started with the Dx and tried every option in the wifi settings menu with no luck. The connection would always halt. I tried changing channels, transmission rates, channel width and more. The problem continued. The mode was set to "mixed g and n" which I couldn't imagine would be an issue. After all, the Dx supports n speeds but for kicks, I changed the router to "g only". The Dx has now been up for 3 hours on wifi with no problems. I even left my house briefly and the Dx had no problem switching back and forth automatically from wifi to 3G and back to wifi. Speedtest shows faster speeds than when the router was on "mixed g and n" so I'm not giving up anything there.

This solution may only work for me, but it's worth a try for others that are experiencing the same issues (I know there are more than a few). For what it's worth, I have a Trendnet 633GR router with the latest firmware. In my case, I only have one other device in the house that can take advantage of 802.11n speeds and it's rarely used. Everything else uses g. I have no problem leaving the router on "g only" until I either replace it or another firmware update comes out from Trendnet/Motorola. Good luck and post back your results.
 
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I've tried N only, G only, B only, NG mixed, GB mixed, NGB mixed. and they all have the same issue. connection constantly drops or speeds gets into the single digit kb range.

Finally changed the SSID to a different one and the encryption key to a different key and that seems to have made it better. (Still using the same WPA2-PSK encryption, and AES/TKIP mixed)

It is still slower than my D1 on the same wifi network. Speedtest.net benchs from my PC shows about 21mb down 5mb up, on the D1 it shows 14mb down 3mb up, and on the DX it shows 9mb down 1mb up. but it is much better than the single digit kb speeds and constant drops. it has been connected for the past 8 hours now without dropping.
 
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I've tried N only, G only, B only, NG mixed, GB mixed, NGB mixed. and they all have the same issue. connection constantly drops or speeds gets into the single digit kb range.

Finally changed the SSID to a different one and the encryption key to a different key and that seems to have made it better. (Still using the same WPA2-PSK encryption, and AES/TKIP mixed)

It is still slower than my D1 on the same wifi network. Speedtest.net benchs from my PC shows about 21mb down 5mb up, on the D1 it shows 14mb down 3mb up, and on the DX it shows 9mb down 1mb up. but it is much better than the single digit kb speeds and constant drops. it has been connected for the past 8 hours now without dropping.

It makes sense that my solution wouldn't work for you. There've been a variety of wifi issues and your symptoms were definitively different from mine. In your case, you would experience drops and slowdowns. I never experienced a drop. The connection was always maintained (verifiable at both the Dx and router) but the data flow would simply stop. Also, I had full speed whenever the connection allowed data flow, never any slowdowns. It was all or nothing. Hopefully your solution will help others with similar symptoms.
 
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One thing to note is that the Speedtest app and Speedtest.net use different methods to pick a server. Make sure you're connecting to the same server if you're comparing devices. The speedtest.net website seems to ping a few servers and pick the best one, wheras the speedtest app just picks the closest server based on GPS position. Big difference when I switched to the fastest server that I usually test with.
 
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So why would I use WiFi at home? Is it faster than 3G? And how does it affect the battery? I set up my X on my router when I got it, but I was curious why people use it if they have a good 3g signal at home (or wherever they use it). And I know some apps (e.g. Blockbuster) need to use it, but other than that.

Thanks in advace!
 
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So why would I use WiFi at home? Is it faster than 3G? And how does it affect the battery? I set up my X on my router when I got it, but I was curious why people use it if they have a good 3g signal at home (or wherever they use it). And I know some apps (e.g. Blockbuster) need to use it, but other than that.

Thanks in advace!

Depends on your connection speed. For me, at home, wifi is around... 30 times faster than 3G (1mbps vs 30mbps).
 
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So why would I use WiFi at home? Is it faster than 3G? And how does it affect the battery? I set up my X on my router when I got it, but I was curious why people use it if they have a good 3g signal at home (or wherever they use it). And I know some apps (e.g. Blockbuster) need to use it, but other than that.

Thanks in advace!

Depends on your connection speed. For me, at home, wifi is around... 30 times faster than 3G (1mbps vs 30mbps).

Wifi is also easier on your battery than 3G.
 
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Turn the wi-fi sleep off in the wi-fi settings of the phone. Then you must change your security from WEP to WPA2-PSK (AES) This will allow Wi-Fi devices to connect as well without issues, change to channel 11, and modes b & g only. Now reboot your pc, modem and router. That fixed ALLLLLL my issues, before i was auto mps instead of b & g, and i was WEP security for my laptop. By changing to WPA2-PSK i have dropped all myinternet freezing issues on my laptop as well, along with random network drops and seems to make things faster by a few seconds. Now my droid x is almost faster then my pos dell laptop hahah
 
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Turn the wi-fi sleep off in the wi-fi settings of the phone. Then you must change your security from WEP to WPA2-PSK (AES) This will allow Wi-Fi devices to connect as well without issues, change to channel 11, and modes b & g only. Now reboot your pc, modem and router. That fixed ALLLLLL my issues, before i was auto mps instead of b & g, and i was WEP security for my laptop. By changing to WPA2-PSK i have dropped all myinternet freezing issues on my laptop as well, along with random network drops and seems to make things faster by a few seconds. Now my droid x is almost faster then my pos dell laptop hahah

The use of channel 11 may not work for everyone. The problem is that most consumer grade AP's don't have a way of detecting channel number conflicts. If all of your neighbors have channel 11 set in their AP's then channel 11 becomes a very conjested channel. And that conjestion becomes a potential impediment to connecting successfully to WiFi.

Many consumer grade access points default to channel 6. I'd say avoid channel 6 if possible. There are also lots of home electronics that broadcast in the 2.4ghz band like cordless phones, microwave ovens, garage door openers, and baby monitors. For this reason it's usually best to try different channels till you find one that seems to be the most stable. That said there's no guarantee that you won't have to survey wireless channels 6 months down the road. Electronics change... as do neighbors... so periodically checking is likely a good idea.
 
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get a wifi scanner app and see what's around you. then use the least utilized channel. 1/6/11 are the only non-overlapping channels. pick one. without a scanner, there is no reliable way to say 'use this one'...it's just a guess.

also, wep vs wpa shouldn't have anything to do with stability of the connection, just security (wpa is better, wpa2 better still)...assuming properly implemented wifi software. which it seems pretty clear the X does not yet have.
 
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Turn the wi-fi sleep off in the wi-fi settings of the phone. Then you must change your security from WEP to WPA2-PSK (AES) This will allow Wi-Fi devices to connect as well without issues, change to channel 11, and modes b & g only. Now reboot your pc, modem and router. That fixed ALLLLLL my issues, before i was auto mps instead of b & g, and i was WEP security for my laptop. By changing to WPA2-PSK i have dropped all myinternet freezing issues on my laptop as well, along with random network drops and seems to make things faster by a few seconds. Now my droid x is almost faster then my pos dell laptop hahah

I had to switch to wep to get mine to work. Odd
 
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