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Root Don't delete Easy WiFi yet!

G

g27radio

Lurker
Sorry for the quick message but I wanted to get a warning out before bed. Someone mentioned in another thread that removing MetroPCS Easy Wifi seemed to disable their 4G data. I have replicated the same problem.

Last night, I used Titanium Backup to freeze Easy Wifi and my house wifi worked just fine afterwards. But, today I was out for a walk and tried to get on 4G but no luck. I checked the OpenSignal app and there was no tower connected. It just kept scanning. The 4G notification icon was there and looked like it was communicating, but no connection, just scanning in OpenSignal.

So I decided to defrost Easy Wifi. As soon as I did it I started receiving a signal in OpenSignal. Then the phone just flat out froze. I held the power button down until the phone shut off and then restarted it. I was still about a mile from home and still no 4G data access even with the signal and Easy Wifi running after the phone rebooted.

When I finally got back to the house and connected to my home Wifi I tried again and suddenly OpenSignal showed a connection to a tower. I turned off my Wifi connectivity (leaving the Easy WiFi app running) and finally the 4G data was working again.

I'm new to Android phones, so hopefully someone else can check my findings. AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, freezing or removing MetroPCS WiFi will prevent you from using 4G for data, even if it shows the 4G icon with activity in the notification bar.

Hope this helps someone from losing their 4G! Please prove me wrong if I'm mistaken, I won't feel bad.
 
g27radio said:
Sorry for the quick message but I wanted to get a warning out before bed. Someone mentioned in another thread that removing MetroPCS Easy Wifi seemed to disable their 4G data. I have replicated the same problem.

Last night, I used Titanium Backup to freeze Easy Wifi and my house wifi worked just fine afterwards. But, today I was out for a walk and tried to get on 4G but no luck. I checked the OpenSignal app and there was no tower connected. It just kept scanning. The 4G notification icon was there and looked like it was communicating, but no connection, just scanning in OpenSignal.

So I decided to defrost Easy Wifi. As soon as I did it I started receiving a signal in OpenSignal. Then the phone just flat out froze. I held the power button down until the phone shut off and then restarted it. I was still about a mile from home and still no 4G data access even with the signal and Easy Wifi running after the phone rebooted.

When I finally got back to the house and connected to my home Wifi I tried again and suddenly OpenSignal showed a connection to a tower. I turned off my Wifi connectivity (leaving the Easy WiFi app running) and finally the 4G data was working again.

I'm new to Android phones, so hopefully someone else can check my findings. AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, freezing or removing MetroPCS WiFi will prevent you from using 4G for data, even if it shows the 4G icon with activity in the notification bar.

Hope this helps someone from losing their 4G! Please prove me wrong if I'm mistaken, I won't feel bad.
Click to expand...

Thats not true. I deleted easy wifi and my 4G works perfectly
 
Shouldn't someone post a sticky showing what apps to safely remove? I know someone posted one in another thread however it was for removing app from the Optimus M and having rooted my Esteem there seemed to be different apps between the two phones.
 
Prime85 said:
Thats not true. I deleted easy wifi and my 4G works perfectly
Click to expand...

I'm not sure why it happened, but that's how it happened for me. If anyone has similar side-effects from freezing MetroPCS Easy Wifi, I defrosted it and rebooted my phone to get it working again.
 
g27radio said:
Sorry for the quick message but I wanted to get a warning out before bed. Someone mentioned in another thread that removing MetroPCS Easy Wifi seemed to disable their 4G data. I have replicated the same problem.

Last night, I used Titanium Backup to freeze Easy Wifi and my house wifi worked just fine afterwards. But, today I was out for a walk and tried to get on 4G but no luck. I checked the OpenSignal app and there was no tower connected. It just kept scanning. The 4G notification icon was there and looked like it was communicating, but no connection, just scanning in OpenSignal.

So I decided to defrost Easy Wifi. As soon as I did it I started receiving a signal in OpenSignal. Then the phone just flat out froze. I held the power button down until the phone shut off and then restarted it. I was still about a mile from home and still no 4G data access even with the signal and Easy Wifi running after the phone rebooted.

When I finally got back to the house and connected to my home Wifi I tried again and suddenly OpenSignal showed a connection to a tower. I turned off my Wifi connectivity (leaving the Easy WiFi app running) and finally the 4G data was working again.

I'm new to Android phones, so hopefully someone else can check my findings. AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, freezing or removing MetroPCS WiFi will prevent you from using 4G for data, even if it shows the 4G icon with activity in the notification bar.

Hope this helps someone from losing their 4G! Please prove me wrong if I'm mistaken, I won't feel bad.
Click to expand...

EasyWiFi was one of the first apps I removed, that and MyExtras, and I haven't seen any problems with 4G since removing it, so I don't think removing EasyWiFi breaks your 4G. Question for ya, has your phone gotten the LG firmware update? You can check by going to Settings -> About Phone -> scroll down to SW Version, if you have the update it should read MS910ZVB. If it reads MS910VZA you haven't gotten the update and one of the reasons for the update is some phone kept losing 4G connectivity. That could be your issue right there.
 
zman7 said:
EasyWiFi was one of the first apps I removed, that and MyExtras, and I haven't seen any problems with 4G since removing it, so I don't think removing EasyWiFi breaks your 4G. Question for ya, has your phone gotten the LG firmware update? You can check by going to Settings -> About Phone -> scroll down to SW Version, if you have the update it should read MS910ZVB. If it reads MS910VZA you haven't gotten the update and one of the reasons for the update is some phone kept losing 4G connectivity. That could be your issue right there.
Click to expand...

It's MS910ZVA.
 
g27radio said:
It's MS910ZVA.
Click to expand...

Try updating your Firmware, you can find the directions to do a manual update under FOTA.

The first time i turned my phone on and after i updated i did notice it took about 20 minutes to connect to the 4g towers. I had a white 4g and signal bar. after about 20 minutes it connected. Like i said this was the first time i turned it on and directly after the firmware update. This might have been what happened to you but since it happened directly after deleting Easywifi you correlated it with that.

Try to update the firmware delete easy wifi. This time wait about 20 minutes to a half hour for it to try to connect to the 4g towers and see what happens. I know it sounds strange but this is how it happened for me.

Make sure its not on wifi for those 20-30 minutes though

i know it sounds strange but thats what happened to my phone and now it connects within seconds of leaving my wifi range without having easywifi on the phone.

after updating it will be MS910ZVB
 
Prime85 said:
Try updating your Firmware, you can find the directions to do a manual update under FOTA.

The first time i turned my phone on and after i updated i did notice it took about 20 minutes to connect to the 4g towers. I had a white 4g and signal bar. after about 20 minutes it connected. Like i said this was the first time i turned it on and directly after the firmware update. This might have been what happened to you but since it happened directly after deleting Easywifi you correlated it with that.

Try to update the firmware delete easy wifi. This time wait about 20 minutes to a half hour for it to try to connect to the 4g towers and see what happens. I know it sounds strange but this is how it happened for me.

Make sure its not on wifi for those 20-30 minutes though

i know it sounds strange but thats what happened to my phone and now it connects within seconds of leaving my wifi range without having easywifi on the phone.

after updating it will be MS910ZVB
Click to expand...

The white and green signal bars really have nothing to do with 4G connectivity, if you notice WiFi does the same thing. White signal/WiFi indicates you are connected to a network source (ie: MetroPCS or your router). Green signal bars indicated your device has authorized with Google's sync servers. So, while you have white indicators you should be able to connect to the web, but Market, Gmail, Youtube and things like that may not connect until the bars are green.

The update may require that your phone reconnects to the Google servers afterwards, which could take some time depending on traffic. Once registered the process should be much faster, each time 4G is re-established from that point forward.

zud
 
Z.O.D, in my case I had no data at all through the web without the green bars for 4G LTE, nor any data for any other service. I had to call Metro and actually DEMAND they re-check my connection, and it wasn't after that, that the white/grey 4G icon seemed to be gone, even after using Wi-Fi.

Not sure if it's permanent, but it's been 2 days now, just my 2 cents.

Zip code: 33463 West Palm Beach Florida @ 1.5Mbps.
 
Prime85 said:
Try updating your Firmware, you can find the directions to do a manual update under FOTA.

The first time i turned my phone on and after i updated i did notice it took about 20 minutes to connect to the 4g towers. I had a white 4g and signal bar. after about 20 minutes it connected. Like i said this was the first time i turned it on and directly after the firmware update. This might have been what happened to you but since it happened directly after deleting Easywifi you correlated it with that.
Click to expand...

I'll give it a try again with the new firmware. But I'll add a little more detail to my experience just in case anyone is interested.

I had frozen Easywifi about 12 hours before I noticed my 4G data wasn't working. I just didn't notice until after I left the house the next day. Before I left the house I turned off WiFi and made a phone call. Then I walked down the beach for about 30 minutes while I was on the phone.

Once I got off the phone I tried starting up Pandora and that's when I noticed I couldn't get any data. OpenSignal was showing 0% signal and scanning, but I think that might have been because it was unable to look up tower data without a working data connection. I'm pretty sure the 4G notification icon was white and not green during this entire time.

So I defrosted Easywifi and started the 30 minute walk back home. I should point out that immediately after the defrost OpenSignal started showing a signal, but then the entire phone froze. The display was still on, but frozen and the only thing I could do was hold down the power button until it shut off. I powered it back on everything worked fine, but still no data over 4G.

When I got back home a half hour later I still wasn't getting any data over 4G and OpenSignal wasn't showing me connected to any towers. At this point I enabled my WiFi and almost immediately OpenSignal showed me connected to a tower again. So I disabled my WiFi connection and sure enough 4G was working again.

Like @daydreamingby, I am also on the east coast of Florida and getting similar rates over 4G, maybe a little slower here in Jax Beach (32250).
 
daydreamingby said:
Z.O.D, in my case I had no data at all through the web without the green bars for 4G LTE, nor any data for any other service. I had to call Metro and actually DEMAND they re-check my connection, and it wasn't after that, that the white/grey 4G icon seemed to be gone, even after using Wi-Fi.

Not sure if it's permanent, but it's been 2 days now, just my 2 cents.

Zip code: 33463 West Palm Beach Florida @ 1.5Mbps.
Click to expand...

It may have been a MetroPCS programming issue that you were experiencing, but the color of the signal icons only pertains to your connection to Google servers. It's a built in feature of Gingerbread and this info is straight from Google.

zud
 
Z.U.D. said:
It may have been a MetroPCS programming issue that you were experiencing, but the color of the signal icons only pertains to your connection to Google servers. It's a built in feature of Gingerbread and this info is straight from Google.

zud
Click to expand...


Thank you, it's always useful to note all these information no matter who the user is so others may benefit from it.

It'd be so useful too if everybody posted their zip code and connection speed as well, just in case others may be curious.


33463 @ West Palm Beach Florida @ 1.5Mbps (varies), on stock, no root, no PRL update yet.
 
i have the new firmwire and froze all the bloatware...i always have 4g in orlando..and have had no ill effects to service or data..
 
You can remove Easy Wi-Fi if you want, but it's actually a very useful app. A lot of the other stuff Metro sticks on there is pure bloatware designed to make them money, but Easy Wi-Fi helps YOU not them.

It gives you free automatic access to a network of over 500,000 hotspots. Yeah, some of them you could log into yourself MANUALLY (while it does it automatically as you are walking by), but there's others the Easy Wi-Fi company has agreements with that you would NOT be able to log into on your own -- or only after you had MANUALLY registered for an account and agreed to terms.

Easy Wi-Fi saves a LOT of hassle, gives you access to all these wi-fit hotspots that are FASTER than Metro's LTE. You get your email and other data faster by having it on your phone. No, it does not interfere with your home wi-fi or with Metro's 4G LTE signal. It's just an app to give you MORE access to to wi-fi hotspots.

People who urge deleting it are uninformed. But yes, you can remove it if you wish, it's your phone.
 
ChazzMatt said:
You can remove Easy Wi-Fi if you want, but it's actually a very useful app. A lot of the other stuff Metro sticks on there is pure bloatware designed to make them money, but Easy Wi-Fi helps YOU not them.

It gives you free automatic access to a network of over 500,000 hotspots. Yeah, some of them you could log into yourself MANUALLY (while it does it automatically as you are walking by), but there's others the Easy Wi-Fi company has agreements with that you would NOT be able to log into on your own -- or only after you had MANUALLY registered for an account and agreed to terms.

Easy Wi-Fi saves a LOT of hassle, gives you access to all these wi-fit hotspots that are FASTER than Metro's LTE. You get your email and other data faster by having it on your phone. No, it does not interfere with your home wi-fi or with Metro's 4G LTE signal. It's just an app to give you MORE access to to wi-fi hotspots.

People who urge deleting it are uninformed. But yes, you can remove it if you wish, it's your phone.
Click to expand...


It could be useful. I wouldnt call it bloatware but for me i think it cutters up my notification bar. Also i prefer the stock WiFi on the phone. Only WiFi i need to connect to is home and on campus. 4g is fast enough for my purposes and since i have the entended battery i can leave it on all day.

Some people find it useful some dont its all up to the person.
 
ChazzMatt said:
You can remove Easy Wi-Fi if you want, but it's actually a very useful app. A lot of the other stuff Metro sticks on there is pure bloatware designed to make them money, but Easy Wi-Fi helps YOU not them.

It gives you free automatic access to a network of over 500,000 hotspots. Yeah, some of them you could log into yourself MANUALLY (while it does it automatically as you are walking by), but there's others the Easy Wi-Fi company has agreements with that you would NOT be able to log into on your own -- or only after you had MANUALLY registered for an account and agreed to terms.

Easy Wi-Fi saves a LOT of hassle, gives you access to all these wi-fit hotspots that are FASTER than Metro's LTE. You get your email and other data faster by having it on your phone. No, it does not interfere with your home wi-fi or with Metro's 4G LTE signal. It's just an app to give you MORE access to to wi-fi hotspots.

People who urge deleting it are uninformed. But yes, you can remove it if you wish, it's your phone.
Click to expand...

This app would be useful if it didn't eat memory at an alarming rate. On my Optimus I realized I kept running out of memory, then I realized that EasyWiFi was using 19MBs for data. So I cleared the data and within 30 minutes it had already climbed back up to 12MBs! On a 4G phone this is pointless, plus if you turn WiFi on in Android it will pick up just about every free WiFi anyway. Also keep in mind that if EasyWiFi logs your home WiFi you are now a part of their network and are potentially sharing your WiFi with millions of people... screw that.

zud
 
ChazzMatt said:
....but there's others the Easy Wi-Fi company has agreements with that you would NOT be able to log into on your own....
Click to expand...

That's the most interesting part to me. Which hotspot networks (that are not accessible to everyone) does Metro have an agreement with?
 
ctyt said:
That's the most interesting part to me. Which hotspot networks (that are not accessible to everyone) does Metro have an agreement with?
Click to expand...


Here is an article on Devicescape Easy Wi-Fi and Metro's partnership:
Devicescape helps MetroPCS offload data traffic to Wi-Fi networks | VentureBeat

Here is there main page to check hotspots in your area:
Easy WiFi - Home

Are they great hotspots? I have no idea, and I think they are partnered with others to provide the hotspots.
 
It is interesting, maybe its all the residential wi-fi's that aren't locked down lol. Wardriving FTW!
 
Z.U.D. said:
This app would be useful if it didn't eat memory at an alarming rate. On my Optimus I realized I kept running out of memory, then I realized that EasyWiFi was using 19MBs for data. So I cleared the data and within 30 minutes it had already climbed back up to 12MBs! On a 4G phone this is pointless, plus if you turn WiFi on in Android it will pick up just about every free WiFi anyway. Also keep in mind that if EasyWiFi logs your home WiFi you are now a part of their network and are potentially sharing your WiFi with millions of people... screw that.

zud
Click to expand...

Hey ZUD, so this means that by using EasyWiFi, hidden somewhere in the fine print user agreement EasyWiFi logs your home WiFi and therefore you become part of their network automatically and potentially sharing your WiFi with everyone? Is this even legal???

According to the link that NUKED posted, Easy WiFi - Home , many of the of the hotspots on the Easy WiFi site seem to be residential addresses. Even if these are all just 'open hotspots', why would EasyWiFi claim them as their own on their website? This is somewhat disturbing!

Hotspot Map:
Easy WiFi - Home

Correct me if I am wrong, but if this is true, this is enough reason for anyone to delete this bloatware. And yes it is "Bloatware" by definition; "generally use more system resources than necessary, while offering little or no benefit to its users."
 
LatinHeat said:
Hey ZUD, so this means that by using EasyWiFi, hidden somewhere in the fine print user agreement EasyWiFi logs your home WiFi and therefore you become part of their network automatically and potentially sharing your WiFi with everyone? Is this even legal???
Click to expand...

Wow, that scared me! I checked that map again but it doesn't show my wi-fi listed on the map, thats good!
 
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