Just over a week ago, I upgraded my phone to a new LG Optimus G (Sprint) with android 4.0.4. The phone's amazing, but once connected to my router (Linksys WRVS4400N), things went awry almost immediately. Within hours of connecting, my router completely locks up--no internet on both my hardwired and wireless network. I kept resetting both my cable modem and router, but the problem appeared frequently and randomly every day--very annoying. For the past couple of days, I have been scratching my head and searching for a solution to this problem, trying all sorts of fixes. However, I found a simple solution:
Turn off wifi during sleep! It's been a couple of days now without any lockups, so this may be a promising workaround. If you want to know more, read on.
From what I've gathered, these are some common symptoms when an android device is connected:
- Router crashes/locks up after some random time
- Hardwired and/or wireless devices cannot access network after some time
- Router reports dropped wireless packets (rises as time goes by)
- When reset, the router may not set the correct time automatically via NTP
- LAN or Internet performance dramatically decreases, then crashes completely (wireless goes down first, then the LAN a couple minutes later).
For me, while my access was slowing down, I immediately checked my router settings and some of the information and reports did not make sense. First, the router somehow erased all statistics on my wireless lan (packets sent/received, dropped, etc.)--displays all 0 (Local network stats remained intact). Second, the MAC address for the wireless side was gone (blank). Third, there were no problems listed in the log while performance was slowing. Unfortunately, the router locked up before I could check other pages. I also couldn't view the previous log once I reset the router since it's cleared after each reboot. So, I have no idea what transpired when it actually locked up.
The cause: Don't know technically, but the problem seems to be related to how some android devices handles wifi connections
when the phone is in deep sleep as stated by other android users. This problem seems to be prominent in some android devices that have wifi
and 3/4G, bluetooth, and/or cellular connectivity (My android tablet, a Toshiba Thrive-wifi only, has no problem). What I do know is that whenever this device connects with the router, dropped packets are reported. To understand what these dropped packets are, I've tried to capture traffic between my phone and router using wireshark on a laptop to no success--it seems like I need a special wifi card which I don't need right now. Maybe someone else could figure out what the trigger is? Or what the phone does on wifi when sleeping?
Steps to reproduce this problem:
- If you haven't done so, delete the wifi network on the phone and undo any prior fixes on the router and phone (make sure wifi is always on during sleep). Next, reboot the router and phone.
- Now, connect your android phone to wifi as if for the first time.
- On the android device, do something on the internet while on wifi.
- After doing your business, let the phone sleep for a couple hours with no interruptions. Sorry, no calls, texts, etc.during this period. But keep data and bluetooth enabled (not sure if it has any bearing, but it might be triggering something in the OS)
Now, while it's sleeping, observe the router statistics, logs, and reports from time to time for any anomalies. Within a few hours after sleeping, you may realize that you can no longer connect to the LAN or internet from any hardwired and/or wireless device in your network. If you try to connect to wifi via the phone, you will see that when connecting, it goes to an endless cycle of scanning, connecting and disconnecting--or--when waking up the phone, all you get are grey bars for wifi.
The solution: Turn off wifi during sleep! Don't know how/why it works, but it works. There's no reason to always keep wifi on while sleeping unless you're concerned with data usage. Plus, it's a waste of battery. Unfortunately, this setting is not so easy to find (at least on mine). To access this setting, go to Settings > Wifi. You should see a list of wifi networks. Next, tap/press the menu key. Tap "Advanced" > "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep". Set this option to "Never".
Note: The way to get to this setting may be different on other devices, so just look for that option in your settings--remember, when in doubt, press the menu key! After changing the policy, reboot the phone and router and connect your phone to wifi.
I hope this helps!
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