Today I noticed something peculiar about my iPhone. Despite my presence in the massive IDG office and lawn tennis complex, the iPhone was telling me that it was using AT&T’s EDGE network for Internet access.
We’ve got an in-building network, appropriately named IDG, so that didn’t really make sense to me. When I went to my iPhone’s Settings window, the phone claimed to be connected to the IDG Wi-Fi network, but no dice. I restarted: nothing. I started to think that my desire to use iFuntastic to add the “Wonder Pets” theme song as my ringtone had led to the destruction of my iPhone’s networking capabilities.
In a last-ditch effort, I re-entered the Wi-Fi settings area, tapped on the blue arrow next to the IDG base station, and entered the advanced network settings panel. And I found something interesting: it didn’t list any assigned IP address for my iPhone. I’ve seen this sort of thing before on my Mac: it’s what can happen if a wireless base station is turned on, but not actually hooked up to the Internet.
I went back to my MacBook, unplugged its Ethernet cable, and confirmed that the problem was with our Wi-Fi network not being connected to the rest of the office network. Our IT staff showed up and fixed the problem, and now my MacBook and iPhone are using the office Wi-Fi with ease.
This little adventure taught me something, however: the iPhone’s really quite smart about networking. It didn’t get confused about the fact that it was connected to a Wi-Fi base station. Since that base station couldn’t supply it with network access, it switched to EDGE and got the job done.
Yes, that’s exactly how such a device is supposed to work. But my long experience with computers and various gadgets tells me that most devices wouldn’t do it that way.
That's called "multihoming" - the ability to use multiple network interfaces, routing traffic to whichever one is able to deliver it. Regular OS X does this; for example, if you have Ethernet plugged in and AirPort connected, it will normally use Ethernet, but if the Ethernet network stops working, the computer will start using AirPort instead.
OK, so this is not completely ON topic, but I have a question in this very arena that I cant seem to figure out.
I am travelling in Hawaii where WiFi access is limited and when I got to our condo, it popped up with a local WiFi access point so I selected it and while it was "connected", it was not active.
In order to activate it, I had to "buy" some access time via the web browser and when I accessed a website, it redirected to their purchase page.... Yes, this is all very common over the years but now i was in a pickle.
I dont want to pay for WiFi access for my iPhone, Edge is just fine for what I need at this point.
Now the problem, now that I have "accessed" this WiFi point, my iPhone wants to always connect to it and it can never get EDGE access - the only solution is to completely turn of WiFi at which time the EDGE connection takes over.
So, the question: How can I tell the iPhone NOT to use one of the WiFi access points?
@Jens: Yes, I know what multihoming is. I also have seen devices get very confused when they're connected to a wireless network with no service, whether they get assigned a DHCP IP address or have to self-assign. The fact that the iPhone does that right, and in displaying the networking situation shows EDGE and hides wi-fi, is not a no-brainer. It's the right choice, of course, but I guess my expectations for this sort of behavior on mobile devices are pretty low. But the iPhone came through, which I felt was worth noting.
@Mike: In your Wi-Fi list, tap on the blue arrow next to the wi-fi network. In the following screen, tap on Forget Network. That's it!
Or you can just turn off Wi-Fi. That'll also work.
I have had major problems with my iPhone's wifi.
Basically, it sees all the networks. I connect to the network, but my phone still uses EDGE anyway. I can't figure it out. I go to the pref panel and it says it has 3 bars on the network, and it still won't use it.
My network at home I have no problems with. It seems to happen randomly.
Anyone have this happen? steve
My iPhone always seems to use the edge network even when I am home with a strong FIOS signal? Any ideas? I assume it will be faster with wifi
thanks
S
My iPhone always seems to use the edge network even when I am home with a strong FIOS signal? Any ideas? I assume it will be faster with wifi
thanks
S
jens - actually os x's networking does not favor ethernet over wifi - it works based on the order of the adapters in your networking setup panel (which can be reordered in the Network Port configurations popup.) If Ethernet is listed first, then its tried first... and default it's listed first.
when i using my wifi is conneted then i got to youtube and play .. but the pup up said " u cannot connect to youtube ... i really very sad for buying iphone ... no blue tooth no mms ........... and most of the thing dun have .....
if i update my i phone from 1.0.2 to 1.1.1 will it work properly what is the behavior ? or els hoe can i can fix it ?