Wifi or 3G question

Droidboy60 · Dec 30, 2009

Does the Eris switch to 3G when it picks up Wifi? Is it switchable....where are the settings/preferences if any?? Thanks

Jolest · Dec 31, 2009

Droidboy60 said:
Does the Eris switch to 3G when it picks up Wifi? Is it switchable....where are the settings/preferences if any?? Thanks

Your Q doesn't make sense. WiFi and 3G are two totally different wireless networking standards. WiFi is short range (max 300 feet from a wifi "hotspot", usually much less). 3G is supported by your wireless carrier and should work anywhere your carrier (probably Verizon for the Eris) has 3G coverage.

When you connect to a WiFi hotspot, if you have an existing 3G connection, the 3G temporarily goes to sleep until you loose the WiFi connection...

The settings are at: Home > Menu > Settings > Wireless controls. (Incidently, in there, 3G is called "Mobile Network".)

You can also put widgets on one of your home screens to quickly manually enable/disable any of the wireless systems (3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS). Having said that, I've ocassionally had problems with the wireless widgets, but going into the settings menu and turning it on/off there will usually fix the problem.

There's also an "Airplane mode" that disables all wireless features including your phone's cellphone (voice) connection.

Good enough? :cool:

erisuser1 · Dec 31, 2009

Droidboy60 said:
Does the Eris switch to 3G when it picks up Wifi? Is it switchable....where are the settings/preferences if any?? Thanks

I'll take a stab at answering what I think you were asking...

If you turn on both Mobile Network and WiFi, and the Eris connects to to a WiFi, it actually marks the (linux kernel) interface for the Mobile Network "down".

That is to say, it strongly prefers to use WiFi - and that is what you probably want as well, because the cellular radio will drain your battery faster and be slower than a WiFi connection as well.

You can verify this yourself by going by firing up the Mobile Net (with WiFi off), and visiting in your browser.

http://www.whatismyip.com

Then, switch on WiFi & verify you are connected (Settings -> Wireless Controls -> WiFi Settings), and reload the above URL. ( reloading a page in the browser isn't obvious - use Menu -> More -> History )

If you do the above experiment, you should notice that the web page gets served through the WiFi interface.

OR, If you want to verify this the really hard way, download the development toolkit, log into the device via the USB connection and "adb shell", and inspect the interface states with the linux commands "ifconfig" and "ip". If you do that, you'll note that this is not a matter of having multiple routes available: Android literally marks the Mobile Network "down", and no traffic will pass through it until the WiFi connection is lost - just like Jolest said

The short strokes are that the Eris definitely prefers to use the WiFi connection if both of them are available.

HTH

eu1

Droidboy60 · Dec 31, 2009

Jolest and Erisuser1 both provide great answers to my question which actually did makes sense and was fairly reasonable and at least relatively clear. The fact that they are different wireless standards is exactly why the question was posed. In my home both are available as is the case at some hotspots. That aside you both provided great explanations and for that I thank you both.

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Wifi or 3G question

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