How do I force Fi to use VPN over my home Wi-Fi?

[N4Newbie]

I have a Nexus 6P on Project Fi and I just last week upgraded my wife from a Nexus 5 on Cricket to a 5X on Fi, partly due to the poor cellular reception she was getting in our home.

It turns out that, side-by-side, her 5X still gets worse reception than my 6P even now that they are both on Fi. And so, this begs the question, why can't I force Fi to use a VPN connection over my home's Wi-Fi network instead of her poor cellular connection? I know I can make it use Wi-Fi if she disables the cellular radio (airplane mode) but is that really necessary?

My home Wi-Fi network was configured to use WPA security and, from what I have read, that may impede Fi from creating a VPN. So, I turned on my router's "guest" function and created two unprotected Wi-Fi network connections (a 2.5GHz and a 5.0 GHz). Both our phones will connect to them, but neither will automatically go into VPN mode.

Why? Wi-Fi signal strength is excellent, btw.

 

[Rukbat]

If your wifi is better than Fi, just use wifi. Turn on wifi and turn off network data. (If you then want to connect to a VPN, set up your VPN settings before turning wifi on.).

(Fi doesn't create a VPN, Cisco does, other companies do, and they sell the boxes to various companies. (A VPN is an end-to-end private network - hence the name. It's not a website you connect to, even though many people call them VPNs. Your wireless data is still exposed. With a VPN it's not. Someone has to be watching over your shoulder.)

(There's no automatic "VPN mode", you have to enter all the VPN data - server name, login, etc. When your phone goes online, THAT'S what it connected to (logically, even though it's physically connecting to Fi or your router).

It sounds as if you're talking about the "VPN" mode that Android uses so as to not confuse the people who use the word incorrectly. That's just a server (that usually sells any data from you that goes through it - which leads to tons of email spam) and is about as secure as hiding behind clean clear glass.

Read this page to learn what a VPN is. The best you can get with an "automatic VPN connection" would be Tor, and it's still totally insecure, it's NOT a VPN. (And it's not really automatic connect, you have to be running a Tor client.)

 

[N4Newbie]

Fi is supposed to setup its own VPN and places a skeleton key-like icon in the notification bar where the wi-fi and cellular signal icons are. I've seen it in a couple of restaurants I frequent, so I know it works.

Okay, reading further, it seems that only happens over Google "certified public networks" - whatever that means.

The whole point of this is that I need to resolve my wife's poor cellular signal calling problems when at home in our kitchen, for example. Fi shouldn't have these issues, right? It is supposed to automatically choose the better connection - cellular or Wi-Fi, right? Well, it does not seem to be doing that.

And, yes, I can teach my wife to disable cellular data when she is at home, but, frankly, that would go over like a lead balloon. Besides, I don't see why she should have to go to such extremes.

I suppose I might be able to do it with Tasker, but again, why should I need to do that?

 

[Broncho]

A VPN as you are talking about isn't required for Fi to make WiFi calls or use WiFi, which is what I think you are actually asking about. Fi is supposed to use WiFi when cellular isn't available, but what the settings actually have the phone do is if there is any cellular signal at all it will still route the phone call through the cell tower and not WiFi. Putting it into airplane mode and turning WiFi back on works around that. Unfortunately it really doesn't work as well as what they imply in their marketing, at least for phone calls. I think it works exactly as intended for data.

I'm in the same boat with my wife and her 5X at our house. We both had Sprint and had an OK signal most of the time but part of the reason we switched her to Fi was the WiFi calling. It isn't working the way we thought unless she forces airplane mode on. I'm hoping that in a future update that maybe we will be able to tell the phone/Fi app which WiFi networks we want to use for WiFi calling so that it automatically works when connected to those WiFi hotspots. For right now though, forcing airplane mode is the only workaround I've found.

As a side note, the VPN and key you are referring to in Fi is only supposed to happen on open networks to protect your data there. At your house one a secured network it shouldn't be needed

 

[N4Newbie]

A VPN as you are talking about isn't required for Fi to make WiFi calls or use WiFi, which is what I think you are actually asking about. Fi is supposed to use WiFi when cellular isn't available, but what the settings actually have the phone do is if there is any cellular signal at all it will still route the phone call through the cell tower and not WiFi. Putting it into airplane mode and turning WiFi back on works around that. Unfortunately it really doesn't work as well as what they imply in their marketing, at least for phone calls. I think it works exactly as intended for data.

I'm in the same boat with my wife and her 5X at our house. We both had Sprint and had an OK signal most of the time but part of the reason we switched her to Fi was the WiFi calling. It isn't working the way we thought unless she forces airplane mode on. I'm hoping that in a future update that maybe we will be able to tell the phone/Fi app which WiFi networks we want to use for WiFi calling so that it automatically works when connected to those WiFi hotspots. For right now though, forcing airplane mode is the only workaround I've found.

As a side note, the VPN and key you are referring to in Fi is only supposed to happen on open networks to protect your data there. At your house one a secured network it shouldn't be needed

I will return to this later, but just wanted to point out that way back when I was on Sprint I managed to get them to give me a free "Airave" ( https://www.sprint.com/en/support/s...upport-center.html?ECID=vanity:inhomecoverage ) with no additional monthly charges. Did a good job of solving our in-home signal issues. Nevertheless, we eventually left Sprint because their rates greatly exceeded what we were able to get with Cricket Wireless and, now, with Project Fi.

 

[Broncho]

Thanks, we were also wanting to cut our bill in half or more which is the other part of the reason we are switching to Fi. I'll either be moving over in the next month or so or when my contract is up in August, still trying to decide. Both of our Sprint phones have WiFi calling built in so we could do that to help if we wanted to but have noticed that we missed incoming calls that way. Usually it isn't that big of a problem, although my wife noticed a serious loss of quality on phone calls at our house when we switched her to Fi. I believe it is getting stuck on Tmobile which I think has a worse signal than Sprint at our house, but haven't put the appropriate apps on her phone yet to check.

 

[Almeuit]

As a side note, the VPN and key you are referring to in Fi is only supposed to happen on open networks to protect your data there. At your house one a secured network it shouldn't be needed

This. The Fi service will only initiate the Google VPN when it automatically connects you to a known open wifi network (such as when you're around town). If you're at a friends house or at your house on your protected wifi where you had to enter the PW will cause it to not initiate the VPN.

More on this here: https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6164833?hl=en

Your phone automatically connects to open Wi-Fi networks that we've verified as fast and reliable. As you go about your day, you'll stay connected in places where your cellular connection isn't as strong. This feature is known as Wi-Fi Assistant.

Wi-Fi Assistant does the following:

• Finds open Wi-Fi networks at places like coffee shops or hotels.
• Automatically connects to networks we determine to be high-quality (while avoiding unreliable connections and networks where you need to take action to connect).
• Protects your data by sending it through a secure connection.

When your phone is connected via Wi-Fi Assistant, you'll see this icon (the key) in your notifications bar, and your Wi-Fi connection will say "Connected via Wi-Fi Assistant."

 

[N4Newbie]

This. The Fi service will only initiate the Google VPN when it automatically connects you to a known open wifi network (such as when you're around town). If you're at a friends house or at your house on your protected wifi where you had to enter the PW will cause it to not initiate the VPN.
...

Thanks.

I figured out that, for example, while at the gym that I have been going to for over a year (and connecting to their open Wi-Fi network all that time), if I "forget" the Wi-Fi network, Google's Wi-Fi Assistant immediately reconnected to it and this time opened a VPN tunnel as seen here:

​

Minor curiosity: why is the cellular connection showing LTE when it did not do so before (when I was connected to the known Wi-Fi network without the VPN)?

Also - not that there would be a good reason for doing so - if I configure my home Wi-Fi router with an open (no security/password required) Wi-Fi network, why doesn't the Wi-Fi Assistant connect to it and set up a VPN as it did at my gym?

 

[Almeuit]

Minor curiosity: why is the cellular connection showing LTE when it did not do so before (when I was connected to the known Wi-Fi network without the VPN)?

This is normal. As long as the wifi symbol is there that is what it is using. Caller ID apps and others sometimes cause the cellular icon to stay active.