Off Damn WiFi, Off I Say!

[Mike Temporale]

One of the main features I wanted in my next Smartphone was WiFi. So when the i-mate SP5m became available last October, I jumped at the chance to own a Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone with WiFi. I mean, what could be cooler than super fast internet access using WiFi when I'm at home or in the office combined with the latest version of Windows Mobile? Nothing (or so I thought). <br /><br />The problem is that the OS doesn't seem to understand remember that I've turned the WiFi off and it's getting to be extremely frustrating. Lately I've bee playing with stream some content over WiFi to my device. When I'm done, I go and kill the WiFi via the Comm Manager. I always wait for the antenna to turn grey and show the "x" before I exit and lock my phone. Next time I pick the phone up and press the joystick to wake up the device, I see the WiFi symbol pop up in the status bar and start to acquire a signal. I turned it off right? I didn't ask for it to take a 5 minute recess or anything! Now I'm forced to return to the Comm Manager and turn off WiFi once again. <br /><br />This is a horribly broken experience. If I've turned it off, it should stay off. There's no logical reason it should be attempting to connect yet again. Imagine turning your phone off, physically. However, 5 minutes later you notice that the phone is back on and looking for a cell tower. I really love having WiFi, but this is driving me crazy. :evil:

[Frequency]

Well, I bought an SP5m to use with T-Mobile here in the States. At first, I was excitied about all the "cool" tweaks I could perform to make my phone "better". As I read more and more horror stories, I don't think I'll update my ROM, or mess with the registry.

I'm not sure if I have ever turned WiFi on, but now I'm afraid to! 8O

[Jerry Raia]

Hmmmm, my 2125 doesn't seem to have this problem. Anyone elses 2125 do this? :lol:

[Bushrod]

Classic!

Hmmmm, my 2125 doesn't seem to have this problem. Anyone elses 2125 do this? :lol:

[jacklf]

reminds me of an old Sony Ericsson phone I used to use.. it would just randomly turn itself on and off. So I can actually relate to your hypothetical analogy :)

[Jason Dunn]

I've never seen this problem to date because I rarely, if ever, turn on WiFi...not sure why, but it seems faster to me to use GPRS than to go into the connection manager and turn on WiFi. :-)

[Mike Temporale]

Hmmmm, my 2125 doesn't seem to have this problem. Anyone elses 2125 do this? :lol:

There are a lot of problems your 2125 won't have. :lol: ;)

[Mike Temporale]

I've never seen this problem to date because I rarely, if ever, turn on WiFi...not sure why, but it seems faster to me to use GPRS than to go into the connection manager and turn on WiFi. :-)

Really? I turn it on regularly. It's great especially when you're hanging around the house and want to do a little surfing or what have you.

It's really a great feature, but frustrating beyond belief. Perhaps if I could get some reasonable speeds on GPRS I wouldn't feel the same way. :?

[Jerry Raia]

Hmmmm, my 2125 doesn't seem to have this problem. Anyone elses 2125 do this? :lol:

There are a lot of problems your 2125 won't have. :lol: ;)

That hurt Mike! :cry: :cry: :P

[oturn]

I've never seen this problem to date because I rarely, if ever, turn on WiFi...not sure why, but it seems faster to me to use GPRS than to go into the connection manager and turn on WiFi. :-)

GPRS faster? Wow, you must have a great connection, and unlimited data!! Wi-Fi on my SP5 is smokin fast, and is indispensable for checking CNN on Pocket IE, reading RSS feeds on NewsBreak, checking my security camera at home, etc. For me, it's the best thing since sliced bread! I don't think I'll ever buy a phone without it. But hey, that's just me.

So Mike, I think you're in luck. This problem has bugged me ever since I got my SP5. It existed in the old ROM, and it persists in the new ROM. I saw a thread on either howardforums or modaco where the writer claimed he solved this problem by disabling the Wi-Fi power management settings. I decided to try this myself...and it works! No more Wi-Fi when I've already turned it off!

I think the original poster unchecked both "Auto turn off WLAN if not connected for:", and "Auto turn of WLAN if no WLAN or user activities...". However, the problem goes away on my SP5 after unchecking only the second option. These settings are in Settings, Connections, Wi-Fi Settings, Power Mode. I haven’t tried unchecking only the first option.

The slight risk you take in accidentally depleting your battery is a small price to pay for getting rid of this annoyance. If you are careful to always turn off your Wi-FI, then you have no worries.

Now for the real question...does anyone at HTC or i-mate use their own phones? Between this glaring bug and the millimeter square contact / incoming call photos, it really makes you wonder.

[Jason Dunn]

GPRS faster? Wow, you must have a great connection, and unlimited data!

No no, that's not what I meant. ;-) I mean that the time it takes to:

1) Go into connection manager
2) Turn on WiFi
3) Wait for it to connect
4) EXIT from connection manager
5) Fire up Inbox or whatever it was I was going to use the WiFi for...

All that compared with me just using GPRS? GPRS gets the job done faster. I don't do much on my Smartphone that needs a lot of bandwidth - 99% of my Smartphone use is Exchange ActiveSync, email, and checking Thoughts Media threads. So for that, GPRS works quite well.

And yes, I am fortunate enough to have flat-rate GPRS from Fido (http://www.fido.ca).

[Mike Temporale]

This problem has bugged me ever since I got my SP5. It existed in the old ROM, and it persists in the new ROM.

Oh yeah, it's been there since day one. It's just finally pushed me to the breaking point. ;)

I saw a thread on either howardforums or modaco where the writer claimed he solved this problem by disabling the Wi-Fi power management settings. I decided to try this myself...and it works! No more Wi-Fi when I've already turned it off!

Interesting. I'll have to try this tonight. I'll post back on how it turns out. :D

Between this glaring bug and the millimeter square contact / incoming call photos, it really makes you wonder.

Not sure if you've read our post on that. It fully explains the situation, but not why i-mate didn't do something about it. Here's the thread:

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,9849

[Rocco Augusto]

my girlfriends new SDA has a similar problem. It either will not connect to a network, even if its an unsecure network with no other networks around, or it will just turn on AND off at will.

personally i think microsoft needs to seriously fix the wifi connection manager before they release WM5SE. :(

[Kris Kumar]

I hope it is not because any time the Smartphone wants to check email, it remembers that it used WiFi last and tries to use that connection. :?

I know that Windows Mobile (definitely WM2003 SE and below) has this problem, where you put the phone in the flight mode, and the Inbox tries to connect to download the mail. :evil: WiFi re-connections seems to me like a similar problem.

I wonder if there is a way to tell which is the preferred connection method? And which should be attempted first always?

[Kris Kumar]

Hmmmm, my 2125 doesn't seem to have this problem. Anyone elses 2125 do this? :lol:

There are a lot of problems your 2125 won't have. :lol: ;)

Sometime less is better. ;-) Our hump-enabled 2125 is just right.

[encece]

Never noticed the problem....now I have to keep an eye out for it.

[Mike Temporale]

Never noticed the problem....now I have to keep an eye out for it.

What are your power settings set at? (Settings/Connections/WiFi/Power Mode).

[dh]

I very rarely use WiFi on my SP5. Sometimes it works, sometimes it just won't connect, sometimes it connects but doesn't seem to locate web sites.

Generally, I'm another that just uses the regular GPRS/Edge. While the WiFi speed is faster (when it works) for most times it's just not worth the buggering about.

david

[encece]

both checked and at 10 minutes and 30 seconds respectively.

[Mike Temporale]

both checked and at 10 minutes and 30 seconds respectively.

Funny, those are the same as what I had.

I made the change that oturn suggested above - turning off the second one, and everything seems to be working as expected now. It's really silly that we have to even talk about this. I'm not sure who is responsible for this part of the device (i-mate or Microsoft) but someone needs to teach them off means off. :evil:

Where's the QA department in all of this too? :roll:

[encece]

testing their ever so slightly more advanced next model.

[Wireless]

Hmmmm, my 2125 doesn't seem to have this problem. Anyone elses 2125 do this? :lol:

There are a lot of problems your 2125 won't have. :lol: ;)

That hurt Mike! :cry: :cry: :P

I was smart, I placed a special order and had my 2125 specially built withOUT WiFi. I also had them modify the Power ON/Off button to act completely different then it looks like it should (now only I can turn it on easily!) Sometimes special orders can be worth it. I was going to take a picture for you, but I grabbed the wrong camera, it's my special order SONY Mavica without the LENS. NEVER have a bad picture again!

[cease0828]

One of the main features I wanted in my next Smartphone was WiFi. So when the i-mate SP5m became available last October, I jumped at the chance to own a Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone with WiFi. I mean, what could be cooler than super fast internet access using WiFi when I'm at home or in the office combined with the latest version of Windows Mobile? Nothing (or so I thought).

The problem is that the OS doesn't seem to understand remember that I've turned the WiFi off and it's getting to be extremely frustrating. Lately I've bee playing with stream some content over WiFi to my device. When I'm done, I go and kill the WiFi via the Comm Manager. I always wait for the antenna to turn grey and show the "x" before I exit and lock my phone. Next time I pick the phone up and press the joystick to wake up the device, I see the WiFi symbol pop up in the status bar and start to acquire a signal. I turned it off right? I didn't ask for it to take a 5 minute recess or anything! Now I'm forced to return to the Comm Manager and turn off WiFi once again.

This is a horribly broken experience. If I've turned it off, it should stay off. There's no logical reason it should be attempting to connect yet again. Imagine turning your phone off, physically. However, 5 minutes later you notice that the phone is back on and looking for a cell tower. I really love having WiFi, but this is driving me crazy. :evil:
Sounds like a major problem with your device/OS. I have a QTEK 8300, same unit as the SP5m, different OS, but the WiFi stays off if I don't turn it on. I even updated/flashed the device with the latest ROM O/S for the SP5m; all works fine. I'd suggest you try a cold reboot of yoru SP5m first and if that doesn't work, download the new SP5m ROM upgrade from Imate. They have a great site.

[ufkydpnr]

T-Mobile SDA here, never had this problem. I just turn off WiFi and it is OFF. Never to be seen in sight again. I guess it turns off from hardware.

My only concern is the GPRS connection takes long to disconnect, but that's fine.

[Mark Larson]

I hate the wifi on my SDA. It takes too long to connect to my WEP-enabled AP, and defaults to any Tom Dick or Harry unencrypted AP it finds. HELLO, I don't want to browse over an insecure connection! Its a classic example of how much easier things are with a mouse/tap UI - the wifi on my Axim is totally transparent and easy to use (compared to this - it still defaults to unencrypted networks first.)

Then my wifi and GPRS have a beef - the GPRS uses a proxy, and the wifi doesn't, so I have to delete the proxy every time I want to connect to wifi and have connected via wifi. Its a right pain in the ass, and I have a good mind to either switch off my data or never use my wifi again.

[ufkydpnr]

Mark, I don't know about your set up, but my sda never does that. Since it only supports DHCP there is no way of telling SDA to use a certain IP therefore to avoid other APs.

But my GPRS and WiFi get along pretty well, whenever I am on wifi it just used wifi. Just make sure you change your settings from Auto to Internet or work oro WAP or whatever you have set if you want to force it.

My WiFi takes about a minute to connect but gives me a very good performance once connected, I am also on WEP.