Looping while Obtaining IP

[icebike]

My HTC ONE X loops while obtaining IP, and refuses to connect to my Wifi.

Note: This problem is widely seen, on lots of different Android devices as a google search on "loop obtaining IP" will show. Its almost strictly an Android problem. Not unique to HTC One.

Not a Router problem. Nexus One, Atrix 2, Captivate, Iphones Acer A500, several laptops, 4 Nooks, all connect without a problem.

Not a problem with the phone. The One X (international version) connects just fine to my neighbor's router, as well as other routers, with or without security, as well as my backup router. It has connected to this router in the past.

It connects and authenticates blindingly fast, then hangs a second or two while it says it is fetching and IP (but its actually not), then it disconnects and starts connecting again. Setting IP manually does NOT help. Rebooting router has helped, but its hit or miss.

The ONLY way around this problem is to connect to an un-encrypted router for half a minute or so, then connect back to your encrypted router.

I've read a lot of crapsolutions on the web, and tried most of them.

Have not Factory Reset the phone yet. (Last resort because it is known to not solve the problem in any permanent way)

Right now I'm using my backup router for the time being.

Any fool proof ways to fix this?

 

[icebike]

And just as suddenly as it appears, this problem disappears.

I leave my backup router connected, and when I have trouble connecting to my primary router, I just tap on the backup router (which is slower), and it will connect. Then, I tap the primary router and it will connect there as well.

Once connected it will stay connected unless I shut down wifi for some reason.

No clue why this is.

 

[icebike]

More Details: (note: I have a escalation ticket in with HTC about this)

Symptoms:
You are connected to your WPA2 Encrypted WiFi. (SSID Bikes).
You walk out of WiFi range, and walk back in again, or you shut off WiFi, and later turn it back on.

Even though your phone was previously connected to this router, it will often refuse to connect again. It will Loop while trying to connect with a sequence of messages that reads:
Saved (or scanning)
Connecting
Authenticating
Obtaining an IP address.
--Loop back to beginning

Because the words "obtaining an IP address appeared, many think this problem can be solved with a static IP. But the problem actually occurs in the Authentication phase (4 way handshake) with the wifi router, before the IP is actually requested. If you use static IP you will still encounter this problem. Its just that you won't see the Obtaining IP message, it will just disconnect and loop after ever so briefly flashing the authenticating message.

It will loop forever.

The only way to actually connect, is to first connect to some random guest account of an unencrypted router, or have another of your own junk drawer routers set up as an open WiFi (not actually connected to the net). After successfully connecting to an unsecured router, you can then connect to your secured router.

Some times powering off the router will work. But not always.

If you wade thru the log you will find messages like this:

W/wpa_supplicant(19453): wlan0: WPA: EAPOL-Key Replay Counter did not increase - dropping packet

(The authentication layer thinks someone is trying to hijack a session I suspect).

Because that packet was dropped, the router will be rejected by the phone and you will see this message:

I/wpa_supplicant(19443): wlan0: CTRL-EVENT-DISCONNECTED bssid=xxxxxxx reason=15

(I think Reason 15 indicates a 4 way handshake failure/time out).

Even though the phone has already indicated it is moving on to the Obtaining IP phase, the connection is broken off by the phone (not by the router). It never really got as far as asking for an IP, my DHPC logs never show such a request, because the phone has already been disconnected while in the Authentication phase.

 

[ANDROIDinOZ]

Mine did this too but I just exchanged the handset and all is fine now.

 

[icebike]

Mine did this too but I just exchanged the handset and all is fine now.

The issue will be back.

This isn't a hardware issue, and mine worked fine for a week or two before this started showing up. Its something in the software, and you can go for a long time before it happens, but once it does you start getting this problem very frequently or all the time.

People who connect alternately to un-encrypted router and encrypted ones may never notice this issue. Friend of mine in Seattle has this issue. He works just above a Starbucks. He just connects to Starbucks for a minute then back to his encrypted router and its all good again.

 

[ItsaRaid]

I am having browser issues.. I'll tell it to.connect to.Android.Central, most the time.it will pop open, but it has been getting stuck lately. The.green bar will move a little stop and then it informs me the server timed out. Or no server connection. One minute it's blazing fast, and the.next. it gets stuck.
Is this what you.folks are talking about? I.also.noticed.that WiFi has a.kind.of its.own, it likes.turning off and on by itself-

 

[DamuDroid]

Is there any kind of update from HTC on this yet?

The problem has been building up slowly (fixed by rebooting my router) but now its got to the stage where it constantly goes through the loop and I can't seem to find a way to get it to connect to my WiFi.

The weird thing is that when my phone is my room where the router is, it connects to WiFi straight away and appears to be solid as a rock. As soon as I take a few steps away from the router, the loops goes into overdrive again.

I have three other devices connected to the router and all three work perfectly, so I don't think it can be a problem with that.

Its so frustrating!