Strange wifi bug with SMC router and Zest T1 phone

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bobbytb

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Hi Everyone,

I seem to be going crazy with this issue!

I recently purchased one of the Zest T1 phones from Afrihost, but cannot seem to connect it to my SMC7904WBRA4 ADSL/Wifi router.

In fact, as soon as I switch ON the wifi on the phone and it starts scans for available hotspots, it instantly KILLS the router. It shows the router in the list of available hotspots on the phone, but that is all. From that point onwards, no other devices can then connect to the router until the router restarted. The router even fails to respond to pings (both over wifi and from a wired connections).

Ive updated to the latest firmware on both the phone and the router. Tried disabling the security on the router, and also the other options on both the router and the phone, but nothing seems to make the connection work.

I have around 8 wifi devices around the house at the moment (usually only 4-6 are connected at any one time) and have used the same router with approx 20+ other devices over the the last few years without any glitches.

I tried connecting the same zest phone to my mifi device and that seemed to connect fine with no issues, so its likely to be an issue with my router. Any suggestions??

Some screenshots from the router config are posted below (SSID etc has been removed):

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 9.59.09 PM.png
Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 9.59.30 PM.png
Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 9.59.42 PM.png
 
This may sound harsh, toss it and get a well known brand router, ive never heard of the SMC brand.
 
This sounds like it may be a common bug with Android and some hardware. There is a setting in many Android versions in the advanced wifi settings to switch on and off "avoid poor connections". This setting sometimes kills networks.

Switch it off, restart your phone and your router and try again. If not, also switch off the network notification setting as well and try again.

I actually think it's a hardware issue with certain wifi chips and Andoid to be honest.
 
Rickster said:
This may sound harsh, toss it and get a well known brand router, ive never heard of the SMC brand.
Click to expand...
Agreed - though I was hoping to avoid replacing the hardware. Other than this issue, its been quite reliable and trouble-free over the last few years.

Crystal Web said:
This sounds like it may be a common bug with Android and some hardware. There is a setting in many Android versions in the advanced wifi settings to switch on and off "avoid poor connections". This setting sometimes kills networks. Switch it off, restart your phone and your router and try again. If not, also switch off the network notification setting as well and try again. I actually think it's a hardware issue with certain wifi chips and Andoid to be honest.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up Crystal Web. Ive just checked again but theres no such setting on this device. I tried toggling the "Wifi Optimisation" and a couple of the other settings on the phone earlier but that didnt make a difference. Is it important to restart the phone after changing a setting ?
 
bobbytb said:
Thanks for the heads up Crystal Web. Ive just checked again but theres no such setting on this device. I tried toggling the "Wifi Optimisation" and a couple of the other settings on the phone earlier but that didnt make a difference. Is it important to restart the phone after changing a setting ?
Click to expand...

It's always best to do so, but not always necessary. The optimisation is one that causes hassles as well.

I had this exact issue with a Huawei phone. It froze up the network entirely whenever it was connected. I imagine they share the same wireless chips.

I did however flash new firmware to my phone which fixed the problem, but I don't think that's advisable on the Zest to be honest. Not even sure if it's possible.

Also change the wifi channel on the router and play with those settings.

Inevitably there will be a combo of settings that works. It takes time, trial, and error to get right though.

Good luck. I posted about my issue here but nobody replied - http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/602166-Huawei-P6-freezes-my-Wi-Fi-network

Poor me. :D

But I did eventually pinpoint it to something on the device that's enabled by default, and I suspect avoid poor connections is on default Android firmware, but the option not available to deselect. And it's specific to some routers as well. It's bery odd, and I'm quite sure that this is the exact same issue I was having.
 
Thanks again. I also feel its likely to be a small setting that is probably buried within the phone / router that should make things tick again. Will keep trying tomorrow and report back here if I come across anything that works.
 
bobbytb said:
Agreed - though I was hoping to avoid replacing the hardware. Other than this issue, its been quite reliable and trouble-free over the last few years.
Click to expand...


I assume it running the latest firmware?
 
Rickster said:
This may sound harsh, toss it and get a well known brand router, ive never heard of the SMC brand.
Click to expand...

Showing your age here a bit :p

SMC have been around for ages and used to produce some of the best networking equipment on the market, not sure how good their products are these days as you hardly ever see it being used any more.
 
Update: Tried out the phone with a netgear DGN1000 and it seems to connect fine, so its something about the SMC router that's the issue. Will see if I can still get it to work with the SMC.
 
bobbytb said:
Update: Tried out the phone with a netgear DGN1000 and it seems to connect fine, so its something about the SMC router that's the issue. Will see if I can still get it to work with the SMC.
Click to expand...

Also appears that the Zest and Huawei share the same hardware, so I'm quite certain these are related. It's a combo of the phone and router. Had the same issues with a TP Link. Glad you're sorted out though.
 
Wifi Problem

I also purchased the new Zest T1 phone last week. I am having problems staying connected to any wifi connection.
Linksys, DLink modems will not stay connected. I do not think it is a problem with the wifi, because I had an iPhone and never had a problem. I have contacted Afrihost to assist with the problem but I am waiting for a reply.
 
I have the same issue as nicobaird with my Zest when connecting to my WiFi network. I have three AP's scattered around the house, but have not been able to trace the issue to any one of them yet. I have a Billion 7800, an old Netgear DG834 and a DLink 2100 (yes, I tend to sweat some of my hardware...)

I'll log a call with Afrihost as well. I have used a number of Mediatek chipped "Chinese" phones over the last couple of years and never had this issue (had many other issues tho').

If there are more folks with this issue, we should probably start a new thread.
 
nicobaird, andref - in your case, does the phone keep disconnecting from the AP or doesn't even connect at all?

In my case, switching on the wifi on the phone seems to send out a "packet of death" that just kills the entire network. As mentioned by Crystal Web above, I also suspect it shares the same ancestry as the Huawei so its likely to be a similar issue as he experienced previously.

I have packed the netgear dgn1000 away. The SMC has much better range so its is back in use and the zest t1 is in the box for now until it can reliably connect to the network.
 
Hi there

No, in my case the phone appears to connected. The wifi icon is blue and it shows the transmit and receive arrows every now and then, however no apps are able to reach the internet. Disabling Wifi and re-enabling solves the problem. I still need to spend some time debugging to see if I can narrow the issue down to a particular AP or something, but the phone definitely still has an IP address.

I'm trying to find an app that will monitor the network connection by actually testing comms to an internet based host. There are plenty that check your connection status, but they mostly seem to check if you have an IP address only.
 
I've traced my issue to be related to DNS lookups, the phone connects perfectly gets all the correct IP / Subnet / gateway and DNS settings from the AP.

Then later on it stops being able to do DNS lookups, confirmed this using fing, I can access things using IP address but not by name.

Other devices can still work perfectly via the same AP, issue happens on the Zest until I disconnect and reconnect to the AP.
 
DNS Lookup Fix

warwickw said:
I've traced my issue to be related to DNS lookups, the phone connects perfectly gets all the correct IP / Subnet / gateway and DNS settings from the AP.

Then later on it stops being able to do DNS lookups, confirmed this using fing, I can access things using IP address but not by name.

Other devices can still work perfectly via the same AP, issue happens on the Zest until I disconnect and reconnect to the AP.
Click to expand...

Did you manage to find a fix for this?
 
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