Data Usage Question

[Terry S]

I am new to smartphones so please excuse the noob questions. I got my phone on Sunday and both my kids loved them so much I got them both them on Friday. We have not left the house since Friday and both kids immediately turned on wireless when we got them. They of course have been on them non stop. My son is showing that he has used 0 of his data but my daughters is showing 93 MB. Like I said she is using it wirelessly only since we haven't left the house. Her signal strength is very strong as we have a really good router and I have told them to keep an eye on the wireless signal and make sure it is strong whenever they are using it. Does anyone have any idea why it would be using data? I called AT&T and the women I spoke with had no idea and told me someone would call me back in 24-48 hours.

Thanks for any suggestions you can give.

 

[Sledutah]

My understanding is by default the wifi turns off when the phone is in sleep mode, it then switches to 3g.

In the market, download "spare parts". Under "wifi sleep policy" you can set the wifi to never turn off.

 

[rrrrramos]

There may be an app or widget she is using that only works over the cellular network. 93mb would be a lot for just one though...

 

[dsjr2006]

My understanding is by default the wifi turns off when the phone is in sleep mode, it then switches to 3g.

In the market, download "spare parts". Under "wifi sleep policy" you can set the wifi to never turn off.

This is true. Wifi is off when the screen is off after a certain amount of time so anything going on in the background after that point will be over 3G unless it's set to not time-out.

 

[NewDruid]

No need to download 'spare parts' just to set sleep policy.

From 'Home' screen:
- menu -> settings -> wireless and networks -> wifi settings -> menu button -> advanced -> wifi sleep policy and set accordingly.

 

[Terry S]

My understanding is by default the wifi turns off when the phone is in sleep mode, it then switches to 3g.

In the market, download "spare parts". Under "wifi sleep policy" you can set the wifi to never turn off.

I set the wifi sleep mode to never the day she received the phone. So that is not the issue, any other thoughts?

 

[crt972]

That is strange. I was charging my Captivate from Friday night to Saturday morning while I slept and the phone was turned off. When I woke up I checked the data usage via *3283# and for some reason it had jumped from roughly 24MB to over 50MB. I was really surprised to see that, especially as the phone had been powered off the whole night.

I know that doesn't provide an answer to your question though.

 

[pinbak]

I've noticed that sometimes when I turn wifi on, it is showing both the wifi symbol and the 3g symbol. I do not see the 3g working, but I think it's still connected to 3g and not wifi even though wifi says it is connected. I have a program called android system information from the market, at the bottom it has network type if both symbols are showing it says mobile network..however if just wifi shows it says wifi and naturally if just 3 g shows it says mobile..could be that you see both wifi and 3g and thinking it's connected to wifi like I did until I got watchdog and bam it was going up!!