Is there a setting on the ZTE to preserve power on wifi? Or to make it "more efficient"? If there is, and you've enabled it, disable it. "More efficient" means "turn the wifi radio off if it hasn't been used in a while". That can drop a connection.

 

I don't have any problem with WiFi--been connected without any issue for the last several days now. As Rukbat stated, are you sure that your phone is properly setup to keep WiFi connected when it goes to sleep? You can check and enable by:

[Menu] > System settings > Wi-Fi > [Menu] > Advanced > Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep > Always

 

I have the same problem but only when it has been a sleep for a while. The problem I am more concerned about is the fact that it is always looking for wifi connections even though I have wifi off. To make it worse if my phone connects my computer loses connection.

 

this has happened to me since day one. no clue. would be interested in finding a fix or maybe just a simple change in settings. *shrugs*

 

I haven't had any problem leaving my phone running in sleep mode overnight, and there's no WiFi connection issue whatsoever when I wake it each morning.

If you're concerned, you might try switching off or disabling the 'Connections Optimizer' feature:

[Menu] > System settings > Mobile networks > Connection Optimizer > [uncheck box]

I'd also enabled the following setting:

[Menu] > System settings > Wi-Fi > [Menu] > Advanced > Avoid no internet connections > [check box]

This sounds more like an issue with your WiFi router and/or its DHCP server...

Power saving apps are notorious for disabling WiFi while in sleep mode...

 

Based on your descriptions of the problem, it sounded like a DHCP issue so I did some digging and found this:

Android 2.1 - 4.1.1 Allows DHCP Lease to Expire, Keeps Using IP Address

Not sure if it's applicable but FYI...

[Edit] The reason why I might not be affected by this issue is that I set my WiFi router to use static IPs for each of the clients on my network. [/Edit]

 

I usually like to start debugging with the obvious first...

Static setting on the phone won't work since the WiFi router could've reassigned the phone's 'static' IP to another client after its lease expired. Don't make one static entry for just the phone, all clients on the network will need their own static IP assignments or their own dynamic IP range. Otherwise, collisions and conflicts could still occur... FYI.

 

I think you're on the right track...

The other trick is to set an exorbitantly long lease time (e.g., years)...

Good luck!

[Edit] BTW, after making the static IP assignments, make sure to cycle the power to the router and all your network clients so that all devices could start fresh with their newly assigned IPs. [/Edit]

 

The problem with my wifi seems to be with the usb adapter. When wifi is on my phone my computer losses signal and says there are no connections even though there are about 10 different routers in my area. Some how the phone blocks the signal.

 

Followed your steps and tried multiple times, but I just couldn't reproduce the problem as described. Upon each attempt, with varying sleep durations, the WiFi Internet connection stayed accessible without any issue after waking out of the sleep mode. Sorry I can't be of any further help...

I checked the settings on my WiFi router which is running DD-WRT firmware v24-sp2 mini. I'd simply configured static IPs for each of my WiFi network clients through the 'Services' tab, and under the 'Static Leases' section. I'd left the 'Client Lease Time' field blanked for each of the designated static IP entries.

From my laptop, its WiFi connection status indicates:

Lease Obtained 12/4/2013 9:33:55 AM
Lease Expires 1/18/2038 10:14:07 PM

FYI...

 

I have this same issue, and turning off those settings does indeed resolve it.

Happy for this temporary fix, hopefully eventually we'll have a solution that doesnt require these settings being disabled since it does mess with google maps' ability to locate you if they are off.

 

I think I finally understand all the issues - they are very hardware-depended quality issues and less likely to be software. I usually get my mother a new phone every year around holiday time to replace hers on the prepaid account. This year, I went with the ZTE Awe. While I think the phone's performance, design and pricing are very attractive, ZTE Awe is plagued with a large range of manufacturing and quality issues that aren't so common these days. I work in consumer electronics, and it's shocking to me how poor the qualities have been, by today's standard.

I've exchanged the phone for at least 7 times that I can remember of and here are the major issues on each phone, in some combinations:

1) WiFi randomly dropping connection - this issue occurs on specific batch of devices, with stock and updated system software. I had 3 phones that are in the similar range of ESN and they ALL have WiFi issue. The tell-tale sign is the initial WiFi setup seems to take a long time to get an IP address. I sniffed the traffic and the phone suddenly stops sending frames or sending partial frames. It has nothing to do with GPS or Google Location services as other have suggested. This issue is so severe that it renders the phone useless on WiFi. Phone from an un-effective ESN range has NO issues whatsoever, as many have reported.

2) Ambient light sensor defective or crazily over-sensitive - I have had 3 phones with such problem that the sensor is probably putting out very jumpy/non-smooth values and very rapidly, so the brightness algorithm attempts to change brightness way too frequently, which causes a very visible flickering on the phone. I talked to a friend that develops such algorithm and the sensor values are either running average or weighted before the brightness is changed. To get this kind of flickering effect, it means the sensor spits out values all over the places and the normal algorithm is not able to smooth the values out.

3) Buttons on some phones, in similar ESN range, do not have enough travel and/or is very sticky and can get stuck. This is particularly true for the top on/off button and side camera button. There appears to be 2 makes of button switch used, they are either great or majorly sucks. You will get either a button with perfect travel and tactile response (snappy click sound), without any specific finger positioning, or you will get a mushy button with uneven and very little travel. In the case of latter, a slight wrong positioning of your finger tip can lead to no response, or stucked response (calling up the reboot/shutoff menu), or a response with no tactile feedback. To me, this is one of the worst critical issue, given the on/off button is the most used button. I am shocked at the horrid state they can be.


Overall, it really shows me ZTE's quality control is horrendous. These 3 issues appear in some combination depend on the ESN number range, which indicate a poor quality control or they substitute parts during manufacturing without fully qualify those components. I am doing one more exchange and would give up after that, if I still cannot get a phone without any of the 3 issues.

 

4. Random phone reboots Handful of threads on this forum discussing that, and had to exchange my girlfriend's phone due to it.