Help New Here, a Few Questions!

[ElusiveBreath]

Hi all, I'm new not only to the forum but to Android phones in general. I have been waffling for awhile between the Indulge and moving over to AT&T or Verizon for an iPhone. After some research, I decided on Android and bought the Indulge yesterday. So far, I really like the phone, although I'm not crazy about the bloatware. I don't trust myself yet to root the phone without messing it up, so for the meantime I'm just dealing with it. However, there is one issue that is kind of a dealbreaker for me, so I'm hoping to get some advice.

The issue is with the internet, or apps that use it. When I'm at home, the wifi connects to my network and everything is sunshine and puppies, but when I'm out somewhere, internet use is spotty at best. This is a big deal for me mainly because I work for the county and they are very strict about internet for personal use, even on breaks and lunch. I have a few people I keep up with in IMs throughout the day and other little things like Facebook, etc. If the internet on the phone is only going to work when I'm at home, well, it seems rather pointless and I could just go back to my Blackberry which, while slow, works everywhere.

So, my questions are: has anyone else had these issues (recently, I saw some old threads concerning Metro outages, but I don't think that's the case here)? If so, were you able to resolve them without replacing the phone (I imagine that this problem isn't phone-specific, so I don't see that being helpful, but I could be wrong lol)?

Thanks in advance!!

 

[lingming]

well since their not the best 4g network you might get in some places but not all 4g seem to be jump on and off its a prepaid network you kinda get what you pay for

 

[tiede]

I for one have not experienced a 4g outage in ages! So, I don't know...
What's your location? work? house?
You could try seeing what the 4g coverage for those locations looks like over at: Map of 4G LTE Coverage from MetroPCS.

And when you're at work, do you still have good signal? If so, and you are in a 4g area, then you SHOULD get 4g...

 

[fdbryant3]

Long as your in a MetroPCS area, you should always have an Internet connection. Now it may only be 1X which is slow but should be good enough for trading IM's.

 

[ElusiveBreath]

So, even if I'm not in a 4g coverage area, I should still be able to access the internet (even if it's slow?). That's what I thought, but so far, no go. I have 4g at the house, but not at work, not even 1x here, which is weird because it was fine on my Blackberry. Maybe I do need to go by the Metro store, lol.

Edit: Ok, I just followed the link and put in my work address and it's smack in the middle of a 4g coverage area, so I should definitely have some kind of signal. Thanks for the help, I'm gonna hit the Metro store after work and see what's up.

Editv2.0: Ok, I should just wait before hitting save on this, lol. ANYWAY, for the hell of it, I tried turning the phone off and then on again and boom, coverage. So yeah, I guess it's fixed? We'll see!

 

[fdbryant3]

If you still in your first 30 days, I'd have it looked at. I had a problem where I only had Internet coverage in certain areas. I actually had it fairly well mapped out I could tell where I would drop Internet coverage....even though my wife's phone wouldn't. Anyway I ended up taking it to a corporate store where I didn't have signal and they arranged to have it swapped for free because it was in the first 30 days.

PS - actually I'd take it to a corp store regardless for a warranty exchange, but if you within the first 30 day, I'd make sure to take it in before that time period is up.

 

[TRS-80]

EB,

Welcome to AF!

Before taking it back to the store, try to reboot. If that doesn't work, try a battery pull. If that doesn't work, come back here or go to IRC for help. Don't waste your time going to a Metro store until someone reputable here tells you to. You will find out quickly that is a last resort (most Metro reps are about as useless as teats on a bull)! Good luck!

 

[xflavia_thaisx]

**EB...

I bought my Indulge (and my husband's) about 20 days ago and have been having the same problem. Wi-fi works fine, but internet access is super spotty.. it comes and goes whenever it wants. Sometimes it will jump from 1x to 4G for a while, but then it's off again-- no internet access at all. If I turn it off and back on, it works for a while, then off AGAIN! I took it back to the store I bought it at (which does warranties also) and exchanged both phones, and had the same exact problem. They can't seem to find the problem. It's really annoying!!

Now that you mentioned that you had a blackberry-- (I had one also), I'm starting to think that it could have something to do with that. Maybe the old blackberry plan is conflicting with the new 4G plan? People in my same area aren't having this issue.. so it has to be something with the line, I guess..

I was thinking about closing the account, and opening up a new one completely..

my first post here by the way!!

 

[tiede]

welcome to the forums, xflavia_thaisx!
Sorry to hear about your problem. Have you tried the LTEETL shortcut and seen if that makes it better for you?

 

[xflavia_thaisx]

To tell you the truth Tiede, I don't even know what that shortcut is..

This weekend, I turned off my phone and since I turned it back on, the internet connection has been on.. but I noticed that the app "juice defender" is not on.. if i turn it on again, the internet goes off.. it's weird because it's not only my phone-- my husband's is doing the same exact thing!!

any suggetions?!

 

[confed]

To tell you the truth Tiede, I don't even know what that shortcut is..

This weekend, I turned off my phone and since I turned it back on, the internet connection has been on.. but I noticed that the app "juice defender" is not on.. if i turn it on again, the internet goes off.. it's weird because it's not only my phone-- my husband's is doing the same exact thing!!

any suggetions?!

i loathe juice defender. i use cputuner but it is for rooted phones. It works the best out of all the free ones i have tried. the one click root is really easy to do and you can always flash with odin if you mess something up. better to root when the phone is newer since it takes less time to back everything up. i highly encourage it.

 

[tiede]

I also don't use juice defender myself. So I can't help you there. To tell you the truth I donlt use any of those apps at all. I rely on the factory hidden short codes to do everything.
The 4g shortcut toggle I was talking about can be found by going to the dialer and typing in **583385##
There also a LTE functionality test shortcut accessible via BetterCut or AnyCut, or Launcher Pro's activities shortcut viewer. These are discussed in many threads around here. Just search for "how do I turn off 4g on the indulge"

You may also want to check out my thread, hidden goodies of the Samsung galaxy indulge.

 

[TRS-80]

I will go one further and say that Juice Defender may even be causing your problems. I seem to recall reading about people having problems with it before. You don't need it anyway, uninstall it.