Atrix 2 WiFi Problems [ Edited ]

[Ry_TechLead]

Have an A2 have interminttent wireless conections, ive had it since it came out. now i thought i was having problems with my router since it was kind of old, so i bought a new one. Now it still does the same thing, It will connect then about 3 to 5 min later drop signal but it still shows that its connected, if its on more than 20 min the wifi will shut off. I have checked all the settings and apps, there should be nothing causing this unless its a hardware problem, i have not had a resolve with CS with AT&T, would like to here from the community if any one else has had any of these problems, if so please state them below, i have also started a thread over at motorola owner forums about the A2 wifi problems.

Thanks guys

Sincerly 

Ryan

Lead Tech

P.S. Happy New Year

[edited for privacy]

[Dmmj22]

Purchased my Atrix 2 twenty days ago. The intermittent wifi issue started about a week ago and got worse each day. Now the phone's data will not work at all. It says I am connected to wifi and G but I cannot manage any data connections. Cannot find any setting issues. Will probably send phone back before grace period expires. It seems like a great phone. Hope this issue gets resolved. It's the primary reason I abandoned my Torch. Don

[cjsag94]

I'm having wi-fi troubles with my Atrix 2 and my wife's Atrix 4G.  I'm not sure if your's is the same issue, but what I am experiencing appears to be a fairly widespread issue that has to do with IP addresses.  Android doesn't do a good job of renew IP addresses...so once your address expires, you have the problem you see.

Go in to the wi-fi settings menu on your phone.  It will hang on the Obtaining IP address from "wireless network name"...

There are some fixes that work intermittently out there that talk about setting a static IP address...then removing it, but that hasn't worked for me.  

Anyway, thought I'd pass this on to help in your search for an answer...I don't have a solution to this problem yet.

Good luck,

Craig

[5th0f5]

I purchased my Atrix 2 on 12/29, and have experienced intermittent wifi issues for the last two days.  I know it is not my home wifi because my Ipad, laptop, and Samsung Infuse 4G have no problems.  It starts out saying 'Authenticating my wireless network', and after about 30 seconds it says it is disconnected and disabled.  Today I cannot connect at all.  I am ready to return the phone! 

[tafugate]

i've read a number of phones (perhaps all) have varying degrees of wifi connection problems.  and the predominate 'fix' being to filter your phone's mac address on your wireless router.  i've always done that anyway, so perhaps is why i've never had a wifi connection problem.  whenever i'm near a wifi hotspot, the little wavy lines always pop up on my atrix 2, showing i have a wifi connection.

[ldvg]

Same here, and I've seen some posts about this on the Motorola forums. 

It ocasionally drops, or the icon stays grey, but the thing that bothers me the most is that it won't auto connect to known wifi spots until I reboot it. 

[jacobliford]

I contacted AT&T warranty about my atrix 2 wifi problems.  I was advised that there was an update that motorla has authrozied at&t to send out to see if it helps the issue.  Sure enough I got a msg on my phone saying dm bootstrap new dm profile was added.  Has anyone heard anything like this?

[Ry_TechLead]

can u give me the exact number u called AT&amp;T Warranty. I have been told nothing nor herd nothing from Motorola or AT&amp;T. Today I went to the at&amp;t store and was told nothing can be done to fix this issue, unless I did an insurance claim on it and it would cost$150.00. This is not acceptable . at least when I had sprint they would exchange the device in store was found to be faulty. But to be told I have to pay for it is completely out of the question. If that is the case why is there a manufacturers warranty on the phone. Any insight in how you got the AT&amp;T rep to admit there was a update, or how to get this pushed to your phone<br><br>Thanks<br>sincerely.<br>Ryan<br>Lead Tech.

[jacobliford]

I called 1-800-801-1101 option number 3.  I started at around 12:00 p.m. Yesterday.  It was a lengthy process.  They sent me a dm file ota and told me to try that for 24 hours.  They called back this morning and asked me if the Atrix 2 was an android phone.  Made me reset the phone yet again and set a commitment to call me back in 2 hours.  3 hours went by with no returned call so I called them.  The lady I spoke with said there was degraded towers in my area and that could be causing my problem.  When I asked her how towers could cause my wifi to turn it's self off she told me to contact tech support. So she transferred me to tech and they said they wasn't sure why the warranty department sent me to them. However the tech lady was the most knowledgeable person I've talked to.  She said that even if there were degraded towers that it would not cause issues with wifi.  So she shipped me out a replacement phone.  Now I just wait to receive it and see if my problem is any better.

[Ry_TechLead]

really I was told by the Warranty Dept that they will not replace the device because the wifi is not under warranty it falls under software not hardware

[tafugate]

hmmm, i have to strongly disagree with the warranty dept's assessment.  yes, the wifi radio is controlled by software, but the wifi radio itself is a chip or part of a chip, which is hardware.  so the warranty dept is wrong.  that's like saying because the battery indicator in the toolbar on your notebook is dead, your notebook isn't covered by the warranty even if the battery dies.

i was just looking at the wifi settings on my atrix 2, are you absolutely sure you've gone in there and changed the settings back and forth, and the proper settings are saved? 

[Ry_TechLead]

i agree as well i have a BA in Computer Science, and am also A+,Net+CCNA Certified, Am also a MCP(Microsoft Certified Professional, he tried to tell me that there was no radio, that it was all controlled by software, and to some degree he is correct,but when i asked him why the need for a Mac address if there was no radio, he decided to say he couldn't answers my problem and wanted to know if there was something else i need, poor cs in my opinion, i should have stayed with sprint but got fed up paying for 4G when i don't live in a 4G city and also there data speeds are hopples, dial up is faster than there network speed.

[Ry_TechLead]

and also yes all me settings are correct on the device and router it has to be the device, it did it with my old router, so i bought a new one, then this one gave me problems then i upgraded my home internet and came with a motorola surfboardSBG6580 with a 4 port gateway/wireless router. so in turn im on number 3, all different manurfactures, all have no problems the problem is the device itself, i belive i have a faulty radio, but the warrant dept said this.....

AT&T: I do apologize but I cannot replace the phone under warranty for a Wifi issue.  The Wifi is not covered under the manufacturer's warranty.

ME:can you be more specific what does the warranty cover

AT&T: It covers hardware defects

ME: so then why does the wifi not fall into this, 

AT&T: Wifi is a software defect not a hardware defect

ME: so what your telling me is that the wifi is software not hardware

AT&T: Correct

ME: so then how can you account for a mac address if it is software. Is there not a radio that recives wireless signals?

AT&T: I can only tell you what the warranty says and it says that I cannot replace a wifi problem under the warranty.  Is there anything else I can help you with?

and that was that i told him i contacted moto and they did confirm that this falls under hardware warranty, and did not understand why AT&T Refused me a replacement.

[jacobliford]

I would def call back. Be persistent I can' t see why they would not replace the device.  I talked to about 6 diff people but finally they agreed to send me a replacement.  Maybe try tech support 800-331-0500 and select the option to take you to a tech support rep.  Explain to them what's going on.  When I talked to the warranty they kept saying it was a battery problem if the phone kept turning itself off.  I had to explain to them over and over that the phone was not powering off that the wifi was not working properly.  I guess I finally just got a hold of someone who had good cust. Service skills.

[tafugate]

the only other thing i can think of you might look at (then i'll leave you alone), when i have friends over that want to connect to my wifi, i have to turn the mac address filtering off on the router.  when everybody's gone, and i turn mac address filtering back on, the default is to BLOCK my previously ALLOWED devices!  very odd.  so after a couple of seconds of head scratching, i realize i have to change blocked to allowed on the linksys e3000 router, and everything returns to normal.

in changing routers in and out, do you think maybe you're blocking your mac addresses rather than allowing them? 

[jacobliford]

Well got my replacement phone today.  Will keep you posted and let ya know how this one works out.

[Calvini]

This may not fix the problem but it can help you to understand. Android is a Linux based OS and soho routers (Netgear, Linksys, etc) have some issues with devices using Linux as the OS. The symptom: the router kicks out your device; then the phone  has to renegotiate the connection which means that it needs to get an IP address. The problem is sometimes (in my experience) with the renegotiation handle in some Linux drivers , ( so it is also an issue in your phone) . What happen is that the router and phone cannot negotiate again.

How do you know if that is your problem? Simply disable the wireless network in your phone, then restart (do not reset) your wireless router by disconnecting from the electric outlet for a couple of minutes. The router should forget that it previously had your phone in its internal tables. If you phone can connect again with no problem, now you know that is the issue. But don't get too happy because the phone will have the problem again a few hours later.

If you are curious, you can also check the network status of your wireless router. You may notice that the table has information about iphones, windows or Macintosh machines addresses assignments, but Android no trace that it is connected to the network (from the router perspective)

In some of cases I resolved the issue by assigning a static IP address to the phone. You can do that by going to the network settings and configuring it there. Wireless & Networks --> Wi-Fi Settings then look for advanced settings IP settings. There you can configure your address, gateway, and netmask and DNS. But remember than before doing that you should know what local network configuration you have in your network. You also have to dedicate a range in your router local IP address pool for that assignment, so the router does not give that same address to another device (and then you'll have two problems with other device disconnecting)

I've seen this problem in several HTC models,and my Atrix 2 and my Linux laptops; and it only happens with old wireless routers. My windows machine never had issues with the old routers.  Maybe a software update in the router will solve the issue (it did not in my case). I have not problems with a newer (but enterprise) wireless router.

I hope this helps you and others.

[Calvini]

See my reply below if that workaround works for u.

[uBLeeMe]

It's wrong to suggest "fixing" the ap/router or hardcoding network settings as the solution especially when these symptoms follow you everywhere you go.  I might get away with that at home, but at work, no.

I have this same issue and it only affects my newly purchased atrix 2, my atrix 4g never had these issues.

With all the wifi/data settings configured to never turn off data services or put the wifi antenna to sleep, the thing should just stay on and connected until I turn off the antenna myself.

When the antenna is on and connected, there's no issues there, I get a good IP and all the appropriate DHCP settings and data serivces work fine so that suggests that the hardware and the software necessary for network negotiation is good.  The problem to me seems to be the software on the device deciding on its own when to disable data services and even turn off my wifi antenna when IT thinks its appropriate.

Wether it's the base software or something that I installed is at fault is not important.  I just want to know that something can be done to fix this issue.  Times like this I wish there was a way to just have some diagnostics software that I can turn on to capture the events that lead to my wifi antenna getting turned off.

[rb10101]

My WiFi would turn off every time the phone went into stand-by mode, despite the never sleep setting.  I read somewhere  to change the battery mode.  The "Maximum battery saver" setting was disconnecting WiFi each time.   Since changing to "Performance mode", my WiFi has stayed connected without a problem.   (Settings - Battery & data manager - Battery Mode)

Hope this helps someone!

[uBLeeMe]

Coming from the A4G, I'd already done all of that. Makes no difference.

What version of android are you on? I upgraded to 2.3.6 right when I got my phone so I don't have any usage time on 2.3.5.

[rb10101]

I am still using 2.3.5 and it appears to be working fine on this version with the changed battery mode settings.

[uBLeeMe]

I reverted my device back to 2.3.5 and the wifi on/off issues went away.  Some of the other problems listed here, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1423557, did not.

Over the weekend I exchanged my A2 for the SGS2.

[rb10101]

Thanks for the link. Guess I'll stay with the lower version - I prefer a working WiFi. Hopefully they'll work out some of the quirks!

Good luck with the SGS2! Really liked my old Impression,the only problem I had was when the time change occurred, twice a year my appointments would be off by one hour in the calendar.

[camattin]

Interesting... since the 2.3.6 update for the Atrix 4G "broke" its wifi.  2.3.4 on the Atrix 4G had a working wi-fi/data connection and since they sent out 2.3.6, numerous people are reporting problems.  Sounds like there's something in 2.3.6 that both versions of the Atrix don't like.

[heartis4u]

i have had my atrix now for almoat a year and never had wifi problems until the update. att exchanged my phone and still had problems. i called motorola they set it up for me to mail in my phone but thank god i did some reading online and found a article saying to change lease time on router and i did that and now no problems at all. i have a belkin router. hope this helps.

[MadMom2]

My daughter's HTC Inspire was stolen at college.  As a replacement we got the Atrix 2.  We purchased another for my other daughter, so we have two now.  The Inspire was having data usage around 80-90 MB because the WiFi access was working well.  Once we shipped the Atrix 2 off to college and got it going the trouble started.  The Artrix 2 has data usage in the mb range during the night while it is not being used.  In two weeks the phone has used 370 MB.  The data usage doesn't both me, but it falls of the wireless network and thus causes the 4G network be hit causing overage charges.  We have called Motorola and AT&T and it is still doing it.  My daughter took it into an AT&T store and 4 people looked at it and verified everything was set correctly.  We have put on the data saver (should not access any data in sleep mode) and still the phone access data updates in the middle of the night.  The other phone is doing the same thing, but the usage has been in the KB range so that phone has used 7 MB in the same time.    Another problem occurred with the replacement phone as a crack has developed in the screen (no it wasn't dropped).  No one will take it back now as it has physical damage.  I had to upgrade the data plan on the replacement phone until we can figure out what to do.  This phone has been used for about 2 1/2 weeks and was purchased Feb 20.  The AT&T store people said there is a bug in the android causing it to fall off WiFi in sleep mode.  I am not sure how to fix it.  Our router is older and we have little control over the routers at school.   Any suggestions would be wonderful!

[LSharpe69]

As absurd as this may sound, when I have lost my Wi-Fi connection at home on my Atrix-2 my Wi-Fi settings on phone show connected but my 'bars' on phone showing Wi-Fi signal are grayed out.  I have to go to phone settings and turn Wi-Fi 'off'.  Then turn Wi-Fi back 'on' again and bang.  Phone and router talk again.  For how long?  I do not sit there with a watch to find out.  I can only hope that phone is not transferring data from tower during Wi-Fi down time, thus eating up my data plan.  Is this a plot by AT&T?  One can only wonder.  Having your phone drop Wi-Fi connection while you are in your own home using an AT&T supplied wireless N router is suspicious at best. This is not the first time I have had problems with an Atrix-2 and AT&T supplied wireless router.  My last phone and router would not communicate at all. Any attempt to connect phone to router would re-boot router and kick all other devices (PCs, etc.) off the network.  Finally got a new phone, and... after many threats to change providers, a new wireless N router.  All was well until the new Android OS update. Now I have to watch my 'bars' (blue or gray) and change Wi-Fi settings accordingly.  This is a crock!!  I expect to see 'blue' bars showing Wi-Fi connectivity anytime while I am at home on an AT&T provided wireless network.  Loosing my Wi-Fi connection 'here' is not an option and not acceptible.  Using my 'away from home' data plan due to the ineptness of AT&T or 'planned subterfuge' is not acceptible. This may be my last contract with AT&T.