I’ve got the WiFi on my Nexus one working pretty well. I just thought I’d write another tip for using wifi on a secured router.
As I stated in my previous post, my router uses PSK encryption and doesn’t broadcast its SSID. I have noticed that sometimes my nexus one will drop the wifi connection and will not automaticallly reconnect. In order to reconnect, I perform the following manual procedure:
1. Press the home button at the bottom of the screen(3rd button from the left) and then the menu button at the bottom of the screen (2nd button from the left)
2. Choose Settings
3. Choose Wireless & networks
4. Hold down your finger on Name_Of_Your_Router for a couple seconds then release
5. On the menu that pops up, select Change Password (you won’t actually be changing your password)
6. Select Security
7. Select the type of security you use (for example, I use WPA/WPA2 PSK)
8. Touch the save button. The nexus one should reconnect automatically.
As stated before, I have only noticed this issue on secured routers. Public hotspots seem to work just fine. I have three theories on this problem.
One is that it is caused by the lack of SSID broadcasting on my router, which forces me to give the router priority by arbitrarily changing a setting that doesn’t really matter.
The other is that it has to do with the Auto setting having problems determining the specific type of encryption used, although I didn’t have problems with this when initially setting up my connection.
My third theory is that it could be caused by a combination of the lack of SSID and the type of encryption used.
I’ll do another post on this once I’ve played around with it a little and figured out what causes the problem and what could solve it.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s working now!!! Is this setting described in the nexus one pdf manual by any chance??
By: spacedingo on March 2, 2010
at 10:34 pm
Thanks for your comment! I’m glad this could help someone. The Nexus One pdf manual discusses wifi settings on pages 66 and 305-306, but I didn’t see anything about the particular topic of manually reconnecting to a secured network when the connection is dropped.
By: artisticmathematician on March 3, 2010
at 7:57 am
Hi there and thx for your exceptionally clear and useful tip. I have one problem: i implemented your steps and understand them last night, but this morning, as i double checked everything, i discover that my N1 phone will NOT remember the WPA2 dropdown choice that i made!
That is, i did dropdown and chose WPA2 and clicked save, but even if i were to go immediately back to the same place (long press on my wireless router’s name in order to choose change password), the option that is shown as remembered or saved is still the “Auto” security, and NOT the WPA2 that i had just saved!
May I ask if anyone else is having trouble telling their N1 to do so?
I look forward to hearing about what to do next. Thank you.
fyi: my wireless router is the DLink 635. I was just about to go out and buy the Netgear WNDR3700, which is just about the best wireless router I can find by doing days of research. It appears to be stable, and very advanced with all the latest features. You great tip/article has opened me to this possibility but, somehow, my particular N1 doesn’t seem to want to save this security setting!
By: Dualmonitors on March 20, 2010
at 7:14 am
nice and very informative writeup keep it up.
By: eddie on March 17, 2010
at 10:18 pm
This is a response to Dualmonitors.
It doesn’t seem to save the setting. Whenever I have trouble connecting, I have to tell the Nexus One again what the security type is before it reconnects. It will then connect properly, but still not save the setting (despite selecting save), making it necessary to repeat this process whenever the connection is dropped. I’ll do another post if I figure out a way to get it to remember all the information.
By: artisticmathematician on March 20, 2010
at 11:26 am
Thx, artisticmath, for your continued vigilance in this matter
I’m very bothered by this as I have to manually ask my N1 to reconnect numerous times each and every day! It got a lot better after I made my router’s beaconing frequency more frequent going from the default of 100 ms to 20 ms, i.e. instead of having to do it maybe 10 or more times each day to maybe 5 times or more each day. I didn’t really keep track but certainly, i had to do it ALL the time whereas now, i have to do it several times a day, as it might automatically reconnect after i walk my dog, as one example.
By: Dualmonitors on March 20, 2010
at 4:56 pm
Hi there,
I tried all the above steps, except there was one difference (omission in the steps):
Between steps 3 and 4, it should have the following:
*****
Choose Wi-Fi Settings
*****
Unfortunately these steps have not worked for me.
My company is running WEP (I know it’s not very secure… but a number of the PCs on the wireless network do not support WPA, so we’re stuck with it).
In order to secure it a little, DHCP has been disabled. One specific IP has been assigned to me for use on my N1 (*.*.*.30). I’ve put in all the correct settings for the IP, netmask, Gateway, and DNS (we only have one DNS so no secondary DNS is entered).
Despite this, whenever I try to connect to the Network, under “Wi-Fi” the phone reads:
“Obtaining IP address from …”
then after a few seconds:
“Unsuccessful”
Under the Network I’m trying to connect to it reads:
“Obtaining address…”
then
“Remembered , secured with WEP” (as it displays “Unsuccessful” at the top.
Surely obtaining an address should not be required as I have specified one already?
I have an unlocked phone and I have NOT rooted it.
I’m running very low on remaining hair… most of it has been torn out.
If anyone can help me out with this it would be greatly appreciated.
-Jim
By: Jim on April 6, 2010
at 12:04 am
Great write up, totally what I needed. Thanks.
By: Mikhail on April 28, 2010
at 9:26 pm
[...] this link Another Nexus One Wifi Tip The Artistic Mathematician __________________ Nexus One:Root -Amon_RA Recovery 1.7.0 Cyan -CyanogenMod v5.0.6 [...]
By: Nexus One Interesting WiFi Problems - Page 2 - Nexus One Forum - Google Phone Forum on May 16, 2010
at 6:42 am
My problem is not loosing my wifi connection but not receiving my E-Mail notifications while connected to wifi. My text messages come in with no problems but just E-Mail. Both my G-Mail and Yahoo have same problem.
Thanks Vinny
By: vinny on July 15, 2010
at 4:45 am