Connecting to wifi with no Internet

[Warren H]

Phone Galaxy Halo, provider is cricket
I am on a boat. I need to connect to the boats wifi to use various devices, but the boats wifi which does not have internet access.

I need to connect to the wifi, and have the phone accept that it is a local network without internet, use the phones lte connection for internet, but route lan data over wifi.

Instead, after connecting to the wifi, i get an error that internet might not be available, and wifi then cycles off the back on every few seconds. I can't seem to stop this bouncing, even though i can connect to my devices few the few seconds wifi is on.

 

[svim]

You need to enable hotspot on your phone, essentially turning it into a very low-end WiFi router, so you can connect whatever WiFi devices to it. But the bottom line is you'll be using your Cricket cellular service to provide Internet access, and that could add up to a lot of MBs getting transferred so hopefully you have an unlimited plan. That's all based on if your plan allows you to set up a hotspot.
https://www.cricketwireless.com/hotspot
Yet another issue to account for is this boat you refer to. If it's on a river in a more urban area you might be within the coverage range of your Cricket cellular service (or technically as Cricket is owned by AT&T, within range of AT&T's coverage) so you might get a usable signal. If you're in a more rural area, that could be a problem. If you're out in an ocean, than that's going to be a major problem. Even major cruise line ships have to rely on satellite connectivity, which will vary in bandwidth considerably and total drop-outs are not uncommon.
So there's a lot of variables involved, please provide more details about this boat and where it's located.

 

[Warren H]

You need to enable hotspot on your phone, essentially turning it into a very low-end WiFi router, so you can connect whatever WiFi devices to it. But the bottom line is you'll be using your Cricket cellular service to provide Internet access, and that could add up to a lot of MBs getting transferred so hopefully you have an unlimited plan. That's all based on if your plan allows you to set up a hotspot.
https://www.cricketwireless.com/hotspot
Yet another issue to account for is this boat you refer to. If it's on a river in a more urban area you might be within the coverage range of your Cricket cellular service (or technically as Cricket is owned by AT&T, within range of AT&T's coverage) so you might get a usable signal. If you're in a more rural area, that could be a problem. If you're out in an ocean, than that's going to be a major problem. Even major cruise line ships have to rely on satellite connectivity, which will vary in bandwidth considerably and total drop-outs are not uncommon.
So there's a lot of variables involved, please provide more details about this boat and where it's located.

Thank you. You missed the point. I don't want or need Internet access. I need to access devices on the boats Lan. My phone complains about no Internet, and turns off the wifi.

Incidently, one of the devices is a satellite modem (Iriduim go) which _can_ provide internet, but i first need to connect to it with its app and dial the connection. But given the high cost of satellite data, it will rarely be connected, and when it is a firewall blocks everything except downloading weather gribs.

It worked fine with my older Android phone, but this one i got yesterday complains and turns off wifi.

 

[svim]

OK got a better understanding now, your references to Cricket and using its LTE connectivity were misleading to me as to just what's going on. Not sure why WiFi is getting disabled though, haven't encountered this before (do a lot of LAN-only file transfers via ssh and/or the AirDroid app).
-- Try restarting your phone into its Safe Mode and see if it's just some third-party app that's messing with Android's basic Wi-Fi service and causing it to turn off.
-- If your Galaxy Halo (and the other device) has NFC, an option that might work out is Samsung's S-Beam. It uses NFC to connect two devices over Wi-Fi Direct.
https://www.samsung.com/in/support/mobile-devices/what-is-s-beam-in-samsung-smartphones/
-- If you enable your phone's Developer Options there are some Wi-Fi options that might be relevant.
https://community.cisco.com/t5/smal...roid-devices-do-not-roam-on-wifi/td-p/2681921
But I have to wonder if there's some added in Samsung- or Cricket-related utility that's causing this. Try double-checking your Settings menu again to see if there's some network relevant option buried in some 'Advanced' menu or some other nested, sub-menu.

 

[Warren H]

Short of the story, I returned the phone and got an iPhone It's a shame as I have had Samsung phones for years and always liked them. But I need something that works out of the box. I just sailed from SF to Hawaii, and am about to leave for Samoa. I really don't have time for it.

After posting I found the issue was with any wifi network, not just the network on my boat with no internet. Weirdest thing. On the wifi settings screen, I could literally watch the switch turn off, then back on. Every 20 seconds or so. It even did it if I wasn't connected to any network. This was right out of the box, no apps installed. Performing settings resets etc. didn't help. Some googling and it seems there is a bug that others have encountered the same on recent Samsung phones. So, Iphone.