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I'm confused about the whole connection thingy

S

shakushinnen

Well-Known Member
Hi,
As mentioned before, I recently inherited my wife's old LGK4. I'm very fluent with computers, but am finding the whole phone connection thingy someonewhat daunting. Presently I have no phone plan. (It was originally a Rogers phone. The SIM card was removed and put into her new phone). It will connect to the net though, so I can check emails, surf, Facebook, etc.; but I'm trying to find a way of connecting with my wife's phone or Ipad (when I'm away from home) without paying for a plan. Is there a difference between cell tower connections and Wifi?
This is a really nice phone, for an old phone.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
..... john
 
Cellular and WiFi connections are completely independent. Literally nothing to do with each other. You need a SIM to connect to a cellular network, whereas for WiFi you need the password for a WiFi network that's within range (e.g. your home router, an office network, or whatever).

Your phone is presumably connecting to the internet via WiFi, so to connect when away from home you therefore need to use another WiFi network.

If there is no WiFi where you are staying then you can use your wife's connection by turning on her phone's "hotspot". Of course you need to know the SSID and WiFi password for that (if she's never used it then she'll have to create a password). If the iPad is a cellular model then I expect it has a similar feature, but I've never used a cellular-equipped iPad. If it isn't then it is in the same position as your phone and will need to find a WiFi network it can connect to.
 
Hi Hadron,
Thanks for the primer. That clears up much of my confusion.
One other question. How far from a cellular tower does one have to be to connect with a cell phone, assuming one has a cell plan?
...... john
P.S. I haven't had kipper for years. I loved them when I was young, now, well too much salt, drives up my blood pressure.
 
shakushinnen said:
Hi Hadron,
Thanks for the primer. That clears up much of my confusion.
One other question. How far from a cellular tower does one have to be to connect with a cell phone, assuming one has a cell plan?
...... john
P.S. I haven't had kipper for years. I loved them when I was young, now, well too much salt, drives up my blood pressure.
Click to expand...
it will depend on the tech like 5G or 4G. true 5G signals are not very strong so you will need multiple cell towers with 5G to get good coverage. where as 4G can be more spread out.

who is your carrier? you can go to their website and they should have some kind of coverage map.

here is one for verizon:
https://www.verizon.com/coverage-ma...r_BW0NiBaaGnwBGqqXTnbUoCL22GWItcaAtGPEALw_wcB
 
shakushinnen said:
Hi Hadron,
Thanks for the primer. That clears up much of my confusion.
One other question. How far from a cellular tower does one have to be to connect with a cell phone, assuming one has a cell plan?
...... john
P.S. I haven't had kipper for years. I loved them when I was young, now, well too much salt, drives up my blood pressure.
Click to expand...
As @ocnbrze says, it depends on the technology and the environment (a single tower will reach further in open space than in a dense, built-up environment, but then a built-up environment will have more towers). The only case I know an absolute limit for is 2G GSM (a technology still I think used by ATT, but only for voice as it's hopeless for data) where 35km from a tower is the technical limit due to the time it takes signals to pass between tower and phone.

I have to admit that I don't actually like kippers myself! The slogan is (part of) the catch phrase of the character I use as an avatar ("Ace" Rimmer, an alternative universe version of the regular character Arnold Rimmer in the British Sci-Fi sitcom Red Dwarf. I went through a few avatars from that series about a decade ago and never got round to changing this one). A very niche joke, I'm afraid...
 
Hadron said:
As @ocnbrze The only case I know an absolute limit for is 2G GSM (a technology still I think used by ATT, but only for voice as it's hopeless for data) where 35km from a tower is the technical limit due to the time it takes signals to pass between tower and phone.

I have to admit that I don't actually like kippers myself! The slogan is (part of) the catch phrase of the character I use as an avatar ("Ace" Rimmer, an alternative universe version of the regular character Arnold Rimmer in the British Sci-Fi sitcom Red Dwarf. I went through a few avatars from that series about a decade ago and never got round to changing this one). A very niche joke, I'm afraid...
Click to expand...
Hi Hadron,
35 kms on 2G, that's impressive.
Yes, kippers is a good one. How about an illustration of an atomic particle, or something relating to the hadron ;< )?
..... john
 
Thanks!
I'm not sure it matters wrt the LG K4; it's 3G I believe; and if what I've read is true, 3G will be (and maybe already is) useless as far as phones are concerned. But I can still use it for limited WiFi. I've found that I can communicate with my wife through Facebook Messanger.
.... john
 
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shakushinnen said:
Hi Hadron,
35 kms on 2G, that's impressive.
Click to expand...
It's a time of flight limitation rather than signal strength - to do with the way 2G GSM uses time-multiplexing as I recall, but I no longer remember the exact details. It did mean that in the early days of mobile telephony some people got caught when on some parts of the English south coast their phone lost signal on their own network and connected to a French one across the Channel.
Yes, kippers is a good one. How about an illustration of an atomic particle, or something relating to the hadron ;< )?
Click to expand...
Speaking professionally, illustrating those things accurately is, erm, problematic ;).
 
Speaking professionally, illustrating those things accurately is, erm, problematic ;).[/QUOTE]
Yes, I guess it would be.
......... john
 
I've been trying to root this thing. I've tried Kingo and king roots; but I haven't succeeded. I've read about several people who have also tried to root it, but haven't heard of anyone succeeding.
...... john
 
shakushinnen said:
I've been trying to root this thing. I've tried Kingo and king roots; but I haven't succeeded. I've read about several people who have also tried to root it, but haven't heard of anyone succeeding.
...... john
Click to expand...
Why do you want to root the device? If you want to proceed, you might want to create a new thread to keep the info separate.
 
Hi ocnbrze,
Well, I'm hoping that rooting it will help to solve some of the 'minor' problems I have with the phone: I cannot get it to save my screen brightness setting; I cannot get the USB configuration to stay on any setting, except "charging"; I would like to do a full system backup; I would like to clock it higher; and others that I don't recall at the moment.
I will consider starting a new thread.
Thanks for helping.
...... john
 
Hi ocnbrze,
I've decided not to root it at this time. But I do have one other question .... You may recall that I have no phone plan, only WiFi. Can this phone be used as a beacon, if I get injured in the woods, and can't get out?
....... john
 
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