Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Help understanding smartphone data usage

If Wi-Fi is turned on, it will automatically reconnect to any access point you've used before.

My phone is running Android 1.5, but in the settings there's a wireless section, and under that Wi-Fi. There I can scan for, add, or remove access points.

Thanks, Chris. I see the setting to turn Wi-Fi on, but doesn't it drain the battery faster? Do you guys choose your connection each time you connect to the internet, or do you just tap "internet" on the phone and you're set?

Sorry, it's all new to me.

Excellent choice of phone wheelz!

Settings -> Wireless and Network -> Wi-Fi Settings ...
Wi-Fi [On]
Network Notification [Off]

That's how mine is set up. Does not seem to affect battery use much at all.

When you want to surf I just tap "Internet". If it is connected to Wi-Fi it will use that, else it will use the 3G cell network. You should see the Wi-Fi symbol at the top if it is connected to a Wi-Fi access point.

Yeah, House, it's pretty sweet. I just hope I can use it as I didn't know the screen is sooooooo sensitive, i.e. it's easy to tap icons when you want to want to scroll or flip screens.

Thanks, Henry! Hey, have you upgraded to the new Froyo 2.2 firmware that was just released?

An aside - I couldn't get this phone directly from Bell, from Future Shop, or my nearest Bell store because they are on back order. I had to have one shipped from another Bell store to my local one. Reflective of the press reports of them selling like hot cakes.

Usually when I get a new gadget I hack it pretty soon, just for the fun of it. But I need to be able to reliably use it as a phone (gasp!) so I have not not done anything unofficial with this device yet.

xda-developers has everything, but you probably already knew that .

Every phone is different. Some automatically do this, others give you a choice. I checked with colleagues, and your phone should use WiFi as the default whenever it sees a network that has already been added. So you should be good.

However, they mentioned that somewhere in the WiFi or advanced settings there is a place where you can control when Wifi goes into sleep mode.

wi fi settings > menu button > advanced-> wi fi sleep policy

Some people have reported issues that if it is set for Wifi to sleep when the screen goes blank, it doesn't always reconnect to Wifi when you use the phone again. They recommend that if you have this issue you set it to never sleep. If you are mostly in Wifi areas, this actually doesn't deplete your battery much, if at all, as always searching for networks and connecting to 3G can be just as draining. In fact, he said many report improved battery life.

Hope this helps

Thanks, Murph! I literally just read that on another forum while I was looking for resolutions to the Wi-Fi constantly dropping, which is quite common.

This "fix" apparently works-

"Well the first thing that is all over on all forums,is Try disabling the security. If you change the security from WPA or WEP to none, then your wifi drop out time is likely to increase."

I went through the wireless settings numerous times and I can't find the security settings. I also don't know if it's a bad idea to change the security to "none".

You'd have to change the security setting in your router, not the phone. The phone will follow what ever the router is set to use.

I wouldn't disabled the security, though. Especially if you have neighbors which live close enough to pick up your Wi-Fi from their house.