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[International / GSM] 3G/Wifi Icons meaning?

JBNex

JBNex

Well-Known Member
Sometimes my wifi icon on the top status bar is grey, sometimes it's light blue with an up arrow, and my signal is someimes light blue and sometimes grey with arrows and the letter "H", what do those mean?
 
Any time the icon is grey, it means it doesn't have a secure connection to Google's servers. You probably still have at least some kind of data connection, it's just having trouble establishing its secure connection to Google.

The H means you're using the high-speed data connection (faster than 3G). The arrows on the connection are just indicating that it's either sending (arrow pointing up) or receiving (arrow pointing down) data. If you watch the arrows closely, you'll see that they'll turn on or off depending on what your device is doing... and sometimes they won't be there at all.
 
binary visions said:
Any time the icon is grey, it means it doesn't have a secure connection to Google's servers. You probably still have at least some kind of data connection, it's just having trouble establishing its secure connection to Google.

The H means you're using the high-speed data connection (faster than 3G). The arrows on the connection are just indicating that it's either sending (arrow pointing up) or receiving (arrow pointing down) data. If you watch the arrows closely, you'll see that they'll turn on or off depending on what your device is doing... and sometimes they won't be there at all.
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Okay I get it now. Are there any other signs?
 
binary visions said:
Any time the icon is grey, it means it doesn't have a secure connection to Google's servers. You probably still have at least some kind of data connection, it's just having trouble establishing its secure connection to Google.
Click to expand...


Not exactly. When the Wifi icon turns blue it means Google is syncing. When they are gray, it's not.
 
JBNex said:
But it's still blue, when I have sync turned off, and the signal bar being blue?
Click to expand...

Well, I think his comment was a distinction without a difference ;)

Petrah, correct me if I'm wrong here, but it actually doesn't mean anything is actively syncing. All it means is that it has the connection to Google's cloud servers, and thus is capable of syncing. Which is what I said, only I left out the specific reason why it creates the secure connection to the servers.
 
binary visions said:
Well, I think his comment was a distinction without a difference ;)

Petrah, correct me if I'm wrong here, but it actually doesn't mean anything is actively syncing. All it means is that it has the connection to Google's cloud servers, and thus is capable of syncing. Which is what I said, only I left out the specific reason why it creates the secure connection to the servers.
Click to expand...

Well I also have data off so it can't try to connect to Google's servers
 
binary visions said:
Well, I think his comment was a distinction without a difference ;)

Petrah, correct me if I'm wrong here, but it actually doesn't mean anything is actively syncing. All it means is that it has the connection to Google's cloud servers, and thus is capable of syncing. Which is what I said, only I left out the specific reason why it creates the secure connection to the servers.
Click to expand...

My apologies, yer right. Seems I was thinking back to Gingerbread (and previous?) when the 3G/Wifi indicators turned green when Google sync was taking place. It does not appear they've added any type of Google-data-sync condition indicators for Jelly Bean (was there any in ICS? Damned if I can remember!).

At any rate, sorry about that. :(
 
The one other thing you might want to know is that "E" stands for Edge network which is pre-3G (and quite slow compared to "H"). I find that a poor "H" connection is a lot better than even a full-strength "E" connection. Cheers, Jason.
 
G = GPRS or General Packet Radio Service is the slowest possible connection with theoretical speeds of 56-114 kbps

E = EDGE or Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution has theoretical speeds of up to 384 kbps

3G = HSPA or High Speed Packet Access has theoretical speeds of up to 14 mbps

H = HSPA+ or Evolved High Speed Packet Access is the fastest possible connection on a GSM network with theoretical speeds of up to 84 mbps

R = Roaming, which means you are connected to a network other than your provider, you may or may not have data access depending on your carrier's roaming agreements with the network you are currently connected to and/or your data plan
 
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