WiFi Connectivity Fix

[Creighton]

I'd like to propose a very simple solution to possibly fix WiFi connectivity issues that some users (like myself) have been facing with their Droid RAZR phones. This may also work on other Android phones that face a similar issue.

My setup:
Phone: Droid RAZR MAXX (Android v2.3.6, System v6.12.181.XT912.Verizon.en.US)
Router: Linksys WRT54G v8 running alternative firmware [DD-WRT v24-sp2 (08/12/10)] - SSID set to broadcast on channel 6, WPA2 Personal security with AES

The problem:
Upon turning on WiFi on the phone to connect to the internet using my home network, the RAZR would successfully do so (get an IP address, etc), however the icon on the top notification bar would stay white or switch between white and blue seemingly sporadically. My understanding of this is that white means it's connected to the access point, while blue means it is connected to the access point AND also connected to Google's servers (thus the data connection is available). Turning WiFi on also makes the 3G icon white, probably because the phone wants to at least attempt to route data through the WiFi connection. Unfortunately this doesn't happen while the WiFi icon is white and anything that needs to use the internet/network is rendered embarrassingly useless. Sometimes the icon will stay blue long enough to get what I need done, but more often than not it doesn't (we're talking blue icon for a minute at most, then back to white). Needless to stay this isn't how such a great piece of technology should work. So I searched around the web, tried various suggestions (even as far as to factory reset). Nothing worked.

The original solution:
The only way I found I could get the WiFi on the phone to stay connected and consistently send and receive data (blue icon) without ever returning to the white icon is to unplug or reboot my router and then reconnect on the phone once it's back up. The WiFi would then work flawlessly...that is until I disconnected. When reconnecting at a later time (or even immediately after sometimes), the issue would reappear. So I got one shot on my WiFi per router reboot.

The permanent fix:
After thorough testing yesterday and today I can say that I feel as though I have conquered my issue (and possibly others' similar issues) meaning the WiFi icon stays blue during the entire WiFi connection, and will consistently be able to reconnect at later times without having to reboot my router or deal with the insufferable consequences (the dreaded white icon).

My router was setup to use a mixed network mode (both B & G wireless connections were allowed). By simply changing this option in my router's settings to allow G ONLY, the issue disappeared. I haven't been able to reproduce the initial problem since changing this setting.

The end:
That's all I got. One little setting routers have to support older devices needs to be changed to support newer devices. Out with the old, in with the new. If you have experienced similar WiFi issues, I invite you to try this "fix" and see if it can't work for you as well as it did for me. Let me know how it goes, if so let's get this spread around so Google can figure out where they went wrong with wifi connectivity.

-Creighton Linza

 

[FoxKat]

Very nice. Thanks for the helpful tip!

Sent from my DROID RAZR MAXX using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2 with Google voice to text translation. Please excuse any minor spelling, punctuation, capitalization or grammatical errors.

 

[lovemyram4x4]

I actually have a similar setup but with a WNDR3700 running DD-WRT firmware(not sure which build but it's been a long time since I updated). Since I have dual radios I have one that's set at 5ghz N-only & the other is 2.4ghz B+G. Aside from the poor wifi antenna in the Razr the only issue I have is when my wireless B wifi remote is connected my internet speed is limited to 10mbs(this is common on some but not all other G devices). Although the Razr is spec'd to support N I've yet to even get to see my router if it's set as N only on 2.4ghz & it's never sees the 5ghz radio but I just assumed it didn't support it as many wifi radios don't.

I'm wondering if maybe we're using differnet encryption & that's why I have no isssues while you do on similar setups, but our hardware is also different so that could also be why.

 

[Creighton]

I actually have a similar setup but with a WNDR3700 running DD-WRT firmware(not sure which build but it's been a long time since I updated). Since I have dual radios I have one that's set at 5ghz N-only & the other is 2.4ghz B+G. Aside from the poor wifi antenna in the Razr the only issue I have is when my wireless B wifi remote is connected my internet speed is limited to 10mbs(this is common on some but not all other G devices). Although the Razr is spec'd to support N I've yet to even get to see my router if it's set as N only on 2.4ghz & it's never sees the 5ghz radio but I just assumed it didn't support it as many wifi radios don't.

I'm wondering if maybe we're using differnet encryption & that's why I have no isssues while you do on similar setups, but our hardware is also different so that could also be why.

The DD-WRT build that I have is the latest stable build (08/12/2010) as far as I know. The project hasn't really been going anywhere lately due to some internal issues it seems, so I wonder if running the official firmware for your router would actually benefit you more instead (except for DD-WRT's advanced settings). I have old hardware, you have new(er).

In my testing and attempts to solve this issue, I tried all other encryption settings (and no security as well) available on the router and each produced the same failure result - until I turned off Mixed B & G mode and set it to G-Only. I'm hesitant to mess with it any further, as I don't want to jinx it :biggrin: but I would venture to say that any security setting would work fine now, just as long as the wireless mode is set to G-Only.

 

[fekish]

we shouldnt be even thinking of messing with these things, because motorola made such a mistake!
Totally unacceptable from my part and huge negative for a company. Similar thing happened with Apple and the Iphones reception and all people started yelling at them...

 

[Creighton]

I don't know about it being a huge negative for the company themselves. The phone is an amazing piece of technology in and of itself, and certainly this hiccup with wireless mode support is to say the least - annoying. Possibly it will be fixed once they release the OTA ICS update, who knows.

 

[fekish]

I don't know about it being a huge negative for the company themselves. The phone is an amazing piece of technology in and of itself, and certainly this hiccup with wireless mode support is to say the least - annoying. Possibly it will be fixed once they release the OTA ICS update, who knows.

Yes correct, but coming from a 3 years old phone of Motorola which obviously had better wifi reception is very strange. I thought such things were of the past and only for IPhones

Sent from my Moto RAZR

 

[Sox]

I've been posting in various boards about my similar problem. Basically, my two phones connected with Wifi but could not transfer data or browse at all.

Update: I went to the Verizon store to get the problem checked and re-created so I could trade in my phones for replacements. Lo and behold a Motorola engineer stopped by (we were there past closing time) and he took pictures of my settings and seemed very interested. He said that the wifi connectivity drop thing was not a known issue and he was intrigued that 2 phones purchased from 2 different locations ended up with the same issue. I'm going to chalk it up to a bad batch since the only thing related about the phones was their make and time (not place) of purchase.

Anyways, I got my phones replaced and the wifi works fine for both phones (2 Razr Maxxs). In my opinion, if you are able to, just replace the phones as Motorola is not aware of the issue and there is no easy fix without getting into router configs and rooting.

 

[fekish]

Thanks
I got it off the internet so I am not sure where can I replace this...

Sent from my Moto RAZR

 

[Creighton]

Anyways, I got my phones replaced and the wifi works fine for both phones (2 Razr Maxxs). In my opinion, if you are able to, just replace the phones as Motorola is not aware of the issue and there is no easy fix without getting into router configs and rooting.

Hmm, this is only the the second week that I've owned the phone. When did you buy the ones that were problematic? I've seen elsewhere people saying they talked to Motorola support and they too claimed to not be aware of the issue. But it is very interesting that your new phones now work correctly. How long have you been using the new ones?