Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2017 December 31

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December 31

Cell phone issue: Using wi-fi when out of data

I'm very confused. Maybe someone can help me or explain to me what's going on? My mother's cellphone (LG LFL33L) ran out of data on her Tracfone plan, because she didn't realize she was not connected to the wifi (that she has through Verizon for the house). It always worked that when connected to the Wifi, no data was deducted from the Tracfone data plan because the internet connection was not being used through the data plan but through the Wifi. So, as far as I can tell, even though she's out of data now, I don't see why the internet should not work so long as she's connected through Wifi, but I can't get her phone online. I went into settings and connected to the Wifi; put in the password, clicked connect, seemed to work. It says signal strength good; all that. Yet, every time I try to connect through the phone's native browser, it says "out of data", and when I try to connect through the phone's Chrome browser, it says the phone is offline. I am typing this post on the house computer so the same internet connection I am trying to get the wifi through is online. I tried turning off "mobile data"; no effect. I went into the browser settings and dumped as much as I could, cache, cookies and history; no effect. Airplane mode is off. I tried resetting the router and turning the phone off and on; no effect. Am I wrong and you actually have to have data through your plan to connect to the internet though the wifi? Thanks.--100.2.221.147 (talk) 19:23, 31 December 2017 (UTC)

Sounds like the phone's ability for Wi-Fi wasn't working (so it used network data instead) and then it still isn't working today (so can't connect now). No big change, just one fault and it's the same fault going on. No weird interconnection between Wi-Fi and data plans.

You need to get the phone's Wi-Fi connection working, and that connection working as far as the internet. Can the phone connect to the router? Does it think it has? Can it connect (use a web browser on the phone) to the router - probably as the IP address http://192.168.1.1 Once it's at the router, can it get beyond that to the internet? Andy Dingley (talk) 19:42, 31 December 2017 (UTC)

Yes, note that Android's Smart Network Switch feature will use mobile data to help out if the wi-fi network isn't working well or at all. Nil Einne (talk) 05:28, 2 January 2018 (UTC)

I've found that turning off cellular data is helpful when diagnosing stuff like this as it prevents you from thinking you've corrected the wifi. Also, I hate to say it, but have you cycled the power off and on? That a horribly obvious thing to suggest, but it really can fix a lot of issues. Matt Deres (talk) 16:55, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

And if power cycling the phone doesn't work (i.e. wifi still doesn't work, as Matt Deres has suggested you should disable mobile data while testing this), try power cycling the wi-fi router is possible. (It sounds like this is a home connection.) ISP provided routers in particular are often notoriously bad and power cycling often fixes some of their issues at least for a while. Nil Einne (talk) 05:29, 2 January 2018 (UTC)