My android is not connecting properly in my workplace's wifi. Why?

[Thalles Leal]

Hello
I have this Galaxy J1 which I use when I go to my workplace (not safe to walk in these streets with better phones) and two weeks ago it started to act wildly while trying to connect to my workplace's wifi (and only my workplace's. In my house or in other places, it works perfectly). It keeps disconnecting, trying to reconnect and giving the "failure to obtain IP address" message (sometimes it's the "authentication error" message). After two dozen of trials, it reconnects and only to stay 2-3 minutes connected. Sometimes, it says that the phone is connected, but it clearly isn't.
I've done some basic troubleshooting I've found on the net: plane mode it for 10 seconds, rebooting, forgetting the connection, changing connection search options, deleting google play services' cache...nothing works.

 

[SpookDroid]

If it's only happening for a single network, I'm more inclined to believe it's a problem with your work's setup. Either the channel they're using is now 'noisy' or they are actively killing your connection maybe by some aggressive QoS. Some routers are also weird with certain Samsung phones, so if your workplace recently changed network equipment, that's also a possibility.

Another thing to try to rule out interference is to connect to WiFi and disabling Bluetooth. Once connected try streaming something to keep the connection alive and see if it lasts more than what you're seeing now (if it does and when streaming stops you see the disconnection, the router/network might be terminating your connection if there's no activity). Also check to see if you have any 'smart network' options active on your phone (if so, try turning them off).

 

[Rukbat]

Someone is administering your company's wifi (if they just bought a router and plugged it in, you work for a company that hasn't discovered the 21st century yet.) Speak to the administrator. (If they're using TKIP or TKIP+AES encryption, they shouldn't - TKIP has a hole in it large enough to rive a building through. And that encryption can cause a problem with some phones too.)

 

[hallux]

It could also be that if the network is the "internal" network they're preventing unmanaged devices from connecting and getting an address (provided the company is using some kind of mobile device management regime) and your device is not managed. Or, are you trying to connect to a guest network of some kind?

If you're connecting to the "internal" network, be sure that the company is OK with you doing this - connecting a personal device to a company network poses security risks to the company so it may not be allowed.