Nokia Lumia not connecting to web via wifi?

iadom · 24-02-2014, 18:04

A bit of a long shot but getting answers from Nokia online support is a convoluted affair to say the least.

I have a newish Nokia Lumia 1020 phone, on O2 4G network.

I was checking the data usage yesterday and was surprised and abit miffed that it showed almost 500mb of mobile data usage and less than 80mb of wifi usage. Checking some of the individual usage it showed Internet Explorer as 150mb mobile and 35 wifi, updating apps 106mb mobile, 30mb wifi. The phone should always use the wifi connection first when connected to both 4G and wifi.

I would say that I do over 75% of my browsing and 100% of my app updating when I am supposedly connected to a good wifi signal, mainly my home network.

I did some playing around and disabled mobile data connection. I then found that although my screen shows a strong wifi connection and is shown as connected in the wifi settings, if I have not used the phone for 20 or 30 minutes then I cannot connect to the internet. If I disable then re enable the wifi connection it then works perfectly until I leave it alone for a while. If I come home and the phone reconnects to the home network the same thing happens.

I have a Nokia Lumia 800, two laptops and two tablets that all work perfectly on the home network so I am at a loss as to why this is happening.

I'm guessing that it may be a lease renewal problem, but that is only an uneducated guess.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions or should I just persevere with Nokia support?

Jim.

Jumping · 24-02-2014, 20:46

Doubt it will be a DHCP lease renewal issue as normally unless you have specifically changed it your lease will be much longer than 30 minutes.

Sounds more like the Wifi sleep problem I had on my HTC one with one of the updates that I installed that once the phone put the wifi to sleep it didn't wake it up properly when it needed it even though it showed connected to wifi with strong signals.

I would check and see if there is any updates to your phone, im not very familiar with Windows phones though so not sure if its same as Androids where you can update radio drivers independently to the OS.

iadom · 24-02-2014, 20:59

Thanks for your reply.

I think I have sorted it and you are on the right track.

By default the wifi connection should be closed when the screen shuts down, there is an option in the advanced wifi settings to select, 'Keep wifi on when screen times out'

This had been ticked, I blame my missus who was having a play with it last month, (the phone that is)

Now that is unticked the connection is closed whenever the screen shuts down, you can see the wifi signal icon blanked out when you reactivate the screen for a couple of seconds before it re connects. Have tried it like this for past couple of hours and it seems to be working fine.