Help Troubles with Wi-Fi

[Thomas Smith]

So this is a bit baffling and I've come here after not having a ton of success with Samsung's live chat support.

I recently got a Samsung Galaxy Mega. Had my previous phone for 9 years, got a new one for free as a replacement via the cell phone plan. I was excited for the internet access.

So I set it up like the booklet says - I find my network, there's no password, I connect, it says I've connected. I try opening the browser, google.ca times out.

So I go into the advanced settings to see what's up. I notice IP Address is greyed out and reads "IP Address - Unavailable".

I power phone down, remove battery. Load it up again, nothing. Reset router and modem - nothing. I get told in the support function that my phone (he didn't get the model number from me so I'm still not sure how he knows this) doesn't support 5ghz and I need to set router to 2.4 ghz (pretty sure that was the number he gave).

So after messing with the router and temporarily blowing my own internet up before resetting it to factory settings, I finally check the samsung tech specs on the website for the Galaxy Mega. I note the following:

"802.11a/b/g/n/ac 2.4+5GHz dualband available"

Now I have a router that notes on a sticker on its front that it is a 802.11b 2.4GHz router. So I have no idea why it's not working. But I noted that those specs were from the uk version of the Samsung website. I go to the original page and try to find the galaxy mega, which sends me to the Canadian site. I'd post the URLs but it wouldn't let me when I tried to preview this. The paragraph below hopefully removes the need to post them for clarification.

Now the Canadian page, in tech specs, does not have "Wi-Fi Direct available" and my phone lists this as an option when I'm in the wi fi settings. I therefore assume that it is at least not the phone offered in the Canadian mobile phone Galaxy Mega page, because I have a feature not listed on its tech specs. This doesn't mean it's the one that's listed in the UK page I was on, but given that I am pretty sure the tech support guy on the Samsung live chat feature said 2.4GHz was what I needed, I am assuming it's likely got this as a requirement.

So I have a router that, in its settings, only offers me a range of possible GHz's in the 2.4 range, a router that uses the appropriate 802.11b, and yet still, despite my phone saying it can connect to my network, cannot get an IP.

Any ideas on what I can do?

 

[mlk2]

First of all try the router with another phone.

Does the router allow several connections?

 

[Rukbat]

Connect to the router with a computer. Look for a page with DHCP settings. Note the range of addresses. It has to be large enough to have one address for each device currently connected (computer, laptop, wireless printer, etc.) plus one - for the phone. (One simple security measure is to not have any spare DHCP addresses - so no one can get an IP address from your router - that would include your phone not getting an IP address.)

Go to a McDonalds, Starbucks or a mall that advertizses a wifi hotspot. See if you can connect your phone to that.

Do as mlk2 suggests and see if your router is accepting connections.

Are you sure you didn't put a password into your router in the wifi security section?

Is this a router you bought? If it came with your internet service, call your internet provider's tech support number and ask for assistance. Some of them put some pretty weird settings into their routers.

(There are many, many reasons for this to happen - I'm just trying to cover the common ones.)

 

[Thomas Smith]

Tried the router with another phone, my mother's – she got google to load just fine on her browser, so it at least supports her phone. This was done with my computer linked up to access the router as well, if that's worth anything (unless the router has a list of connections allowed for phones only; I am clearly somewhat tech illiterate).


I found the DCHP Address Range, which is listed as 192.168.1.100 ~ 149; similarly, saw about the DCHP Address Range a "Number of Addresses" with an editable box that said 50 in it. In the house, we have two laptops, a desktop, my father's phone and my mother's phone that connect to the net. I am assuming my parent's phones do, they never actively use the net on their phones here at home, but I am leaving the possibility open that it has connected to our network automatically (being in range and lacking a password).


I'll test my phone at the wifi hotspot at my university tomorrow. I'm sure there's no password on my network, because I reset it to the default factory settings last night which lacks a password to connect (I know every computer and my mother's phone all connected to the reset router today without any prompting for a password).


As to the router itself, I am relatively certain we bought this when we were setting up wireless years back, so it isn't from our internet provider.


An added bit to the puzzle: the phone's gmail app, when I first loaded it, did load my gmail. I saw all the emails I had received, could open into them, write replies. When I tried to send a reply to a friend, however, it just stalled on sending. I ended up writing a reply to him on my desktop and sending it. Then, a day later, the reply I wrote on my phone sent to him as the most recent reply. The draft was not, as I recall, available on my desktop when I accessed my gmail on it; I am pretty sure for a moment the email got sent from my phone. Even if this was not the case, the fact that it seems to be consistently updating the email via the app makes this whole problem more confusing. This might not be useful, but I figure it's worth mentioning.

I appreciate the assistance so far; hopefully I am proving the information necessary.

 

[Thomas Smith]

Confirming the wi fi works at my university. Connected, could browse the net, so forth. Think this means it might be the router, but I'll leave that to those more knowledgeable than I.

 

[Thomas Smith]

Not sure if bumping this is alright, but I've given it a week or so. I did as the posters above me requested, am still having the trouble I listed, and am still unsure what to do.