Strange network connection issue on Nexus

[MikeMyers]

I've been having a strange problem, and not only don't I know how to solve it, I can't find any write-up even on what might be going on. This is on a Google Samsung Galaxy Nexus, still on the original ICS.

At the top right of my phone, just to the left of the battery charge indicator, there are the vertical blue bars that indicate the strength of the network connection, and to the left of them are the "fan shaped" bars that indicate the strength of the Wi-Fi connection.

When everything is working well, these indicators are all a light blue color, same as the battery indicator and time. Every so often though, for no apparent reason, the color changes to white, at which time the Wi-Fi may not work properly even though the (white) bars indicate I'm still connected. Invariably, when this happens, turning Wi-Fi off and turning it back on again seems to fix everything.


First question - what do the different colors, 'blue' or 'white' mean on these indicators?

Second question - if in fact, they need to remain blue, for everything to work properly, how do I fix this?



(As a test, I switched 'airplane mode' on, and then off. These indicators both came on, one at a time, switching back and forth between white and blue coloring, and finally settled with blue. Not sure this means anything or not.)

 

[mogelijk]

When they bars are blue it means you are connected/synced with the Google servers; when the bars are white you have a connection but are not connected to Google.

It sounds as if you are having some type of issue between your phone and router that make them think they are still connected but have actually gotten out of sync, which is why you lose the connection to Google.

 

[Deleted User]

I've been having issues the past couple days where in the network status bars, there's an x through it. First time it's happened actually. Anyone else getting no connection to Verizon?

 

[MikeMyers]

When they bars are blue it means you are connected/synced with the Google servers; when the bars are white you have a connection but are not connected to Google.

It sounds as if you are having some type of issue between your phone and router that make them think they are still connected but have actually gotten out of sync, which is why you lose the connection to Google.

That makes sense, but why would BOTH the Wi-Fi and the wireless bars turn white at the same time? If only Wi-Fi turned white, that would fit your explanation..... On the other hand, if I turn Wi-Fi off, and back on again, both sets of bars come up blue.

Very confusing......

 

[mogelijk]

That makes sense, but why would BOTH the Wi-Fi and the wireless bars turn white at the same time? If only Wi-Fi turned white, that would fit your explanation..... On the other hand, if I turn Wi-Fi off, and back on again, both sets of bars come up blue.

Very confusing......

When you have a WiFi connection, the phone doesn't use the 3G data. Since the phone thinks the WiFi is working but it doesn't have a connection to Google, it turns both sets of bars off.

 

[heat57]

When you have a WiFi connection, the phone doesn't use the 3G data. Since the phone thinks the WiFi is working but it doesn't have a connection to Google, it turns both sets of bars off.

He is right - if WiFi is turned on it will override the 3/4G connection. For this reason I always leave WiFi running as it will hond-overto 3G automatically when it looses connection. I have also noticed a drop in connection over recent days and wonder if it is a problem on Googles side? Do others encounter the some/similiar issues? For example, over a couple of days my Gmail wouldn't get push mail for a while on my phone but my Outlook on my PC had no problem. Late yesterday, it went back to normal.

 

[MikeMyers]

He is right - if WiFi is turned on it will override the 3/4G connection. For this reason I always leave WiFi running as it will hond-overto 3G automatically when it looses connection. ......

That sounds very logical, but if that's what is happening, while the Wi-Fi is in use, shouldn't the bars for the other connection change to white instead of blue?

I can't find anything documented that says what the colors "white" and "blue" refer to - why is it one, and not the other?


I called the support line last night, and the tech told me to do the following:

Settings > Wi-Fi
click on "three dots" at bottom right of screen
click "Advanced"
select "Wi-Fi frequency band"
select "2.4 GHz only".

I don't yet know if this fixed the problem, but everything is still all blue, so so far, so good. He said if this doesn't fix it, I should return the phone to factory settings, and see if that corrects the problem.

 

[Petrah]

He is right - if WiFi is turned on it will override the 3/4G connection. For this reason I always leave WiFi running as it will hond-overto 3G automatically when it looses connection. I have also noticed a drop in connection over recent days and wonder if it is a problem on Googles side? Do others encounter the some/similiar issues? For example, over a couple of days my Gmail wouldn't get push mail for a while on my phone but my Outlook on my PC had no problem. Late yesterday, it went back to normal.

I was having issues with Google syncing up also. I dunno where my boyfriend found the information, but he had me remove the proxy and port settings from within the APN T-Mobile USA settings. Once I did that, no more Google sync issues. I was also having a problem sending MMS messages, and ended up changing the APN type also. This happened before I rooted the phone. Most of the custom roms I've been trying don't add the proxy or ports, so I've not noticed the issue any more.

 

[MikeMyers]

Petrah, thanks! Can you explain in a bit more detail what you did? Maybe that's one more thing I need to learn. I guess I should check this, in addition to the Wi-Fi settings.

I tried to search for what you described, and found two documents from T-Mobile on what the settings should be - I'll post the links here, but I'm not familiar with any of this....

Support: Verify the Access Point Name (APN) and internet data connection - T-Mobile myTouch 3G / myTouch 3G Slide / myTouch 4G

Support: Settings & operating system: T-Mobile G2x

Maybe this is what you set your phone to?

 

[trophynuts]

there is a known issue with Radio Handoff with the GNex. It basically gets hung up in a loop. It thinks there is wifi so disables 3G, vice versa.. just like the above people mentioned. It has been around since launch. Only affecting some people. It affects me on the daily ...and it sux. I usually toggle airplane and that fixes it.

 

[Petrah]

Petrah, thanks! Can you explain in a bit more detail what you did? Maybe that's one more thing I need to learn. I guess I should check this, in addition to the Wi-Fi settings.

I tried to search for what you described, and found two documents from T-Mobile on what the settings should be - I'll post the links here, but I'm not familiar with any of this....

Support: Verify the Access Point Name (APN) and internet data connection - T-Mobile myTouch 3G / myTouch 3G Slide / myTouch 4G

Support: Settings & operating system: T-Mobile G2x

Maybe this is what you set your phone to?

No idea if this will help you, or even if our Google sync issues are related. But it cannot hurt to check here in this thread. My post explains pretty much what I did (I also made a printed copy of my original APN settings just in case).

http://androidforums.com/t-mobile/583628-mms-t-mobile-not-working-galaxy-nexus.html

Yes, one of those links looks pretty much exactly what I did, except the APN Type on one looks different.

I wanna say that I think my boyfriend was right in that T-Mobile is having some issues with their proxy servers. He also had the same problem and had to change his APN settings.

 

[MikeMyers]

I certainly can't say that this is a "fix", but I haven't had the problem even once since doing what the Google guys suggested:

Settings > Wi-Fi
click on "three dots" at bottom right of screen
click "Advanced"
select "Wi-Fi frequency band"
select "2.4 GHz only".
​

I'm wondering if this might be the fix for what 'trophynuts' suggests is happening?