Solution for Android Wifi problem - connecting, but no Internet access

[rdcinhou]

Over the weekend I experienced an issue that appears to be common among Android devices (not just HTC)--you connect to a wireless access point via WiFi (that you may have successfully accessed before) and yet you cannot get internet access.

I found numerous references to this issue on the Internet, with all sorts of suggestions that had limited or no success, such as rebooting, battery removal for 10 minutes, resetting to factory condition (ouch!), deleting and re-adding the wireless network or running this app or the other that purports to fix the problem.

I had no success with any of the suggestions (I did NOT do a factory reset as that would mean reinstalling all apps, data, settings, etc.!).

Being a bit more technically-minded, I looked a bit deeper into the problem.

What appears to be happening is the Android device is "remembering" a previous IP address from another system and using it when there is the least bit of trouble. 

For example...the system that I was attempting to access at my mother-in-law's used an IP addressing scheme of 192.168.1.xxx, but when trying to connect--the phone would report that it had an IP address such as 169.172.25.76.

The SOLUTION...

I used a free APP from the Android Market called IPCONFIG which allows you to override DHCP addresses and implement a "fixed" IP address.

So...I configured for a fixed address that I knew what in the submet address range of the network, connected and it worked.

One thing to remember, though is to reconfigure for DHCP assigned-addressing instead of fixed addresses before you connect to your next network or you may have problems.  Ideally, you always want to use DHCP so there are no addressing conflicts.

So far, over-riding just once to gain a good connection and then resetting for DHCP has solved the problem.

I hope this post saves others the frustration and aggravation that I experienced.

[rdcinhou]

Replying to my own post so that it may be tagged as a SOLUTION.

[redpoint73 ACE - Wizard]

Don't have the Vivid, or issues with WiFi, but thanks for posting the solution you found, for the benefit of others.

[Kefmans]

Dear rdcinhou,

Im glad that I finally found a fix to this problem. I have had the same problem and I still have it. Now I am not as technically minded like you, but I would give this fix a try. Could you please send me a detailed description of how to use IPCONFIG (App).

I hope that you still read this message. Thanks in advance for helping me out!

Kevin Knops-