Is there an Android app that will automatically switch on mobile data when I can't access the internet through the wifi connection?

September 24, 2011 7:51 AM

I'm looking for an Android wifi manager app for my HTC Sensation 4G with a specific feature. When my phone thinks it's connected to a wifi network, it automatically turns off mobile data, which makes sense, as long as it's actually connected. Unfortunately, sometime there's something wrong with the wifi connection or the connection is really crappy, and I can't actually access the internet through it. This means that unless I go turn off wifi, I can't access the internet at all. Is there an app that will automatically switch on mobile data when I can't access the internet through the wifi connection?
posted by ErWenn to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

you know you can manually turn off wifi on the phone (as opposed to going to turn off the wifi access point), right? (it's in settings on the phone) I believe that, if the phone thinks there's wifi (no matter how crappy), it will default to that.
posted by tomswift at 8:26 AM on September 24, 2011

Response by poster: Yes, I know I can manually turn it off. It's just annoying to have to do it by hand. Also, depending on the app I'm using, it's not always obvious at the front end that the problem is no internet access (it can take several minutes for me to figure this out sometimes). If possible, I'd like the wifi connection to automatically turn off whenever I can't actually access the internet through it. Or something with a similar effect.
posted by ErWenn at 10:57 AM on September 24, 2011

Have a look at "unlock with wifi". and Tasker.
posted by Akeem at 11:00 AM on September 24, 2011

I always figure that a loss of Internet with wifi enabled is due to the phone connecting to a dead-end access point. I use a single-icon on/off switch for my wifi in that case, so I can just swipe over to my "utilities" pane and click that and get back on the cell network. Once in awhile I'll have to flip-flop into and out of airplane mode in order to reset the network configuration, but that's not very often.
posted by rhizome at 11:03 AM on September 24, 2011

erwenn, on my stock Nexus S the network icons turn green once they are proven to be useful, though that might just be a 2.3.4 feature.
posted by khedron at 5:01 PM on September 24, 2011

What rhizome said. I have a Sensation and had exactly this problem.

To fix it, I googled for my carrier's APN access point numbers and then I manually punched them into the settings. Only had to do it once and the problem stopped for good.
posted by dobbs at 6:22 PM on September 24, 2011

Response by poster: Akeem: Thanks. I'll take a look at those. I'm not sure if they'll do what I want, but it looks like Tasker might do something else that I was looking for.

khedron: Sounds like a great feature. Too bad it's not on my phone.

dobbs: What's an access point number?
posted by ErWenn at 4:00 AM on September 26, 2011

ERWenn, it's some number the phone needs to reliably talk to your provider.

If you go into your Settings and then into Wireless and Networks and then click Mobile Networks you can see if you have any settings there. On my unlocked phone there were none, so I hit Menu and then Add and added the numbers from here. Each carrier will have their own data to enter.
posted by dobbs at 4:55 PM on October 5, 2011