Why don't I have data connection when near a wireless AP that I am not connected to?

[Wingfan13]

No data connection when near a wireless AP that I am not connected to

When I am at work I am not connected to wireless. Until I leave or unless I disable wireless I will not get any notifications. Twitter, email, AIM etc. I have also noticed issues when I am trying to use a browser and if there is an WAP nearby the browser will not load. So it appears that when I am not connected to an AP and one is in site my data does not work. Same thing when I am driving down the road streaming a podcast. Is there a setting that is causing this ? Any idea why this would be ?

Samsung Galaxy S4

Thanks in advance

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: No data connection when near a wireless AP that I am not connected to

Welcome to Android Central! Is your wi-fi radio on when you're near these AP's, but you just don't sign in? What happens if you turn wi-fi off?

 

[Wingfan13]

Re: No data connection when near a wireless AP that I am not connected to

When I disable the wifi all of my notifications all come at once. I am not signing into any of the AP's. It literally happens while I am driving down the road. The stream of my podcasts sometimes stop. I need to disable wifi in order to get it to work. The only AP I connect to is at home and then things work fine.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: No data connection when near a wireless AP that I am not connected to

It sounds like the wi-fi radio is somehow blocking the mobile data connection, even if there isn't a valid wi-fi access point anywhere nearby. Do you have lots of problems accessing mobile data when your wi-fi radio is still on?

 

[Wingfan13]

It sounds like the wi-fi radio is somehow blocking the mobile data connection, even if there isn't a valid wi-fi access point anywhere nearby. Do you have lots of problems accessing mobile data when your wi-fi radio is still on?

I only use wifi at home and thinking about it now there are some times when Web pages take a long time to load. They shouldn't, i have gig fiber at home. An example of the issue. I was at a UPS store with full bars at 3G yet no Web page would load. UPS is right next to Starbucks which has free wifi. Nothing would load. I disabled wifi and it worked fine. When wifi is disabled i don't have any issues.

 

[B. Diddy]

It's an odd problem. I believe wi-fi takes priority over mobile data if there's a successful wi-fi connection, so if you're connected to a sluggish wi-fi, you'll get slow download speeds even if your mobile data is turned on (and you have fast LTE speeds). If the wi-fi is connected but not yet successfully logged in (like on a welcome page on the browser), I think that might still prevent mobile data from connecting.