FP2 frequently disconnects from WiFi

[Constantinopolitana]

Dear all,

a year or two ago I already had the same problem - my FP2 disconnects from WiFi after some minutes and switches to 4G. Last time, the problem was resolved after updating to Fairphone OS 19.11.2.

But now it’s different - I can get it reconnected, but it doesn’t stay. Changing the WiFi parameters would not really help because we are 7 users at home, and I don’t know whose device works better with what.

Would there be another fix?

Best regards,

Eva

[anon9989719]

Do you know what wifi router and what bands are used. 5GHz and 2,4GHz are the two common frequencies. 5GHZ is faster so better for more connections, 2.4GHz is slower but has a longer range.

By the way 4G for phones does not equate to wifi frequencies.

If you router does both try and select just either 5 or 2.4 if possible to see if it can make any difference.

Dropping of a wifi signal can happen if either frequency gets overloaded or out of range, so there are four cases where the phone may switch to network signal.

[Constantinopolitana]

Hi Amoun, thanks a lot for the quick response. When I mentioned the WiFi parameters I meant the 2,4/ 5 GHz issue. Our router does both. It doesn’t really have a brand; I verified. It is a weird thing manufactured for the Belgian Internet provider Telenet; it’s called “don” (which means underpants in Turkish), and it’s produced by a company called CUNIPAL. And as I said, we are 7 persons to share the router, so I’m loth to reduce its coverage. I’ll still try and provide some feedback when I know more.
For all other users, however, the router works fine, and until 10 days ago, it also did for my phone. My children say: “Your telephone has your age; it’s normal that it doesn’t work anymore”.

I didn’t understand your remark concerning “4G for phones does not equate to wifi frequences”. Who said that? My phone switches to 4G when the wifi disconnects, that’s all.

[anon9989719]

@Constantinopolitana

My children say: “Your telephone has your age; it’s normal that it doesn’t work anymore”.

Say hi to your children

@Constantinopolitana

I didn’t understand your remark concerning “4G for phones does not equate to wifi frequences”. Who said that? My phone switches to 4G when the wifi disconnects, that’s all.

I wasn’t sure that you were aware of differences between network bands 2G, 4G etc and wifi bands, apologies for dumbing you down, so I wonder if the children know the difference. If not remind them, for me, that may be a symptom of their age

You may like to read this post.

FP2: Solving Wi-Fi connectivity problems with 5 GHz networks

Summary If you have these problems with the wi-fi (WLAN) on your FairPhone 2: If the network is 5 GHz only: you still see the network in the Wi-Fi menu, listed as “Saved”, but when you tell it to connect, nothing happens. Or maybe it shows “Scanning…” and “Connecting…” briefly and goes back to “Saved” without any error messages. If the network supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz: it connects on 5 GHz, then randomly loses connection after a while and reconnects on 2.4 GHz. You can see the band and …

[adrienneb]

Just an idea - what happens if you turn off mobile data?

[Constantinopolitana]

Hi Adrien and Amoun,

thanks again for your very quick feedback!

I just switched off mobile data - we will see what happens.

And concerning the WiFi: it doesn’t hop from 2,4 to 5 GHz or back, it simply turns itself off. Sometimes when I go to Parameters and connect again manually, it seems to anticipate what I intend to do, and switches itself on, sometimes I click on “connect”, and it connects, and sometimes it just indicates “saved”, and that’s all. So it’s a very haphazard behaviour, which I completely fail to comprehend.

Best regards,

Eva

[Constantinopolitana]

Dear all,
I just wanted to comment that the disconnection of 4G works - since I started disconnecting 4G when I’m at home or somewhere else with WiFi, WiFi connection went back to normal and stopped interrupting all the time.
Thanks for the tip!

Eva