The problem: At home, my 3G signal is very weak - occasionally it reaches 2 out of 4 bars, often it's only one and it frequently drops out altogether causing the phone to switch to EDGE. At work, however, I get a very good 3G signal, so it would be useful to use 3G.
Now, in theory the "Auto" band setting (auto between GSM and WCDMA) ought to cover this; but in practice the 3G signal at home is just strong enough that the phone keeps trying to switch into 3G mode (and thrashing the battery) but the actual data speed I get (even over HDSPA) doesn't seem much faster than EDGE, and every time it loses the HDSPA link and drops to EDGE there's a long pause before the data starts flowing again.
I've tried switching the phone's band setting between "GSM" and "Auto", using the GSM setting at home, and Auto elsewhere; but doing that plays havoc with "Microsoft Direct Push". Switching the phone band causes the data connection to drop, which switches Direct Push off; switching Direct Push back on again loses the more detailed settings I have set in ActiveSync (where I download email manually during work hours but automatically outside of work). In addition, because the data connection is lost, any application that's using it generally has to be shut down and restarted.
Is there some way of moving the phone between "Auto" and "2G only" mode without messing up the Direct Push setting and, if possible, without severing the data connection? While actually in "Auto" mode the phone happily switches between HDSPA and EDGE without any side-effects; so it seems like there ought to be a way to tell the phone "be in Auto mode but for the moment pretend that there is no 3G signal even if there actually is a weak one", and then use that setting in weak 3G areas, switching back to normal "Auto" behaviour when you know the 3G signal has improved. Or alternatively perhaps "Auto" mode could be made to not try to switch to 3G until you get a 3-bar signal, but, once switched, try and stay with 3G until it drops to 1 bar?
Related
Feel free to refer to THIS THREAD
Summed up, since the UMTS towers in my area are operating in some sort of testing mode, I am only able to maintain/achieve UMTS reception by "dragging" it with me through hand-offs, which ONLY WORK IF I'M ON AN ACTIVE DATA CALL (H symbol showing). When the data transfer (which I keep active with MobiTV or streaming radio) pauses/ends, the "H", as usual, turns back to "3G", and the tower "kicks me off" 2-3 seconds after that. The phone loses reception, rescans, and connects to a GSM tower with no way to force it to register back to the UMTS tower, which has a stronger signal... NOW THE QUESTION:
Is there any way to trick the network into believing that my data connection is constantly being used so i can maintain this connection? Maybe keep HSDPA active w/out any actual data transfer or possibly writing a script that would download a fraction of a kilobyte every 2-3 seconds?... just a thought...let's hear yours...
On any of my phones including new Pro2 when I have auto set for band, it always connects to GSM instead of 3G band on my network. This seems to be network depended because when in roaming it always connects to 3G when available.
Simple fix would be to leave 3G band only and not auto, but where I live not whole area is covered with 3G signal so I would often be out of reach.
Is there a way to make 3G (where signal is available) preferred band regardless of network preference?
u should have play around with your device more often, or read a lot in the forum, its in the communication settings - phone - change band - choose WCDMA
gunggu said:
u should have play around with your device more often, or read a lot in the forum, its in the communication settings - phone - change band - choose WCDMA
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I don't think you have read my question entirely
I know where to choose band, but I need it to be on AUTO since 3G signal doesn't cover all region where I live.
But at the same time i want it to connect to 3G first if there is 3G for my network. Currently when band is on AUTO and when I turn on the phone it connects to GSM by default rather than 3G.
In case of bad 3G coverage, The phone "Fall's" down in 2G mode by it self. We can't choose with one is prior to the other. It is an hadware (ie in the 3G ship) that is implemeted this choice, because 3G was promoted to respond to 2G saturation. In your case, this is due to a bad 3G covergage or bad 2G signal.
Hope it can help
Schmurtz1968 said:
In case of bad 3G coverage, The phone "Fall's" down in 2G mode by it self. We can't choose with one is prior to the other. It is an hadware (ie in the 3G ship) that is implemeted this choice, because 3G was promoted to respond to 2G saturation. In your case, this is due to a bad 3G covergage or bad 2G signal.
Hope it can help
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I was afraid of something like this
Although I'm not sure this is in phone hardware, rather that preference is set by network. For example on my own mobile network even when I'm very close to 3G base station and signal is excellent, when I turn off the phone and turn it on it will choose GSM signal if phone is set to auto. This happens with every phone, not just HTC. And it will never connect to 3G again unless I set it manually in settings.
On other networks and when in roaming when I turn on the phone and have auto set it automatically connects to 3G, and when I loose 3G signal it connects to GSM but once 3G signal is available it automatically reconnects to 3G.
So I think this is actually set by network and not the phone.
I sometimes work at a place that has full edge signal, and 2 lines (stable and good reception) of 3g. All HTC phones always prefer EDGE, if band is set to auto.
frkser said:
I don't think you have read my question entirely
I know where to choose band, but I need it to be on AUTO since 3G signal doesn't cover all region where I live.
But at the same time i want it to connect to 3G first if there is 3G for my network. Currently when band is on AUTO and when I turn on the phone it connects to GSM by default rather than 3G.
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Click to collapse
oops sorry, my bad...
even in my room here the 3G signal is weak (1 bar), but the phone still prefers 3G (HSPA) and not EDGE, it turns to EDGE when i go to the bathroom , but when i got out, in a couple of minutes it turns back to 3G.
The underlying problem here is that the 3G signal in my house is quite weak, but not so weak that it is undetectable. If I leave my TP2's band setting set to "Auto" then it keeps trying to switch into 3G mode, then dropping back to 2G, with a delay every time it does it. (Drains the battery too). So I'd like to be able to quickly switch between 2G and 3G mode. (Obviously I could just leave it set to 2G all the time, but this is a waste when I'm at work or in some other place which actually has a good 3G signal).
My current solution is that I've got a start menu shortcut pointing to CMBandSwitching.exe in the Windows folder. (This is the same program that is launched if you go to the TouchFLO "settings" page, then hit Communications/Phone/Band). In here I can change the Network setting between "Auto", "GSM" and "WCDMA" which has the effect of turning 3G on and off.
But... there are horrible side-effects. Switching in this way causes the current data connection to get messed up, so that nothing can actually use it to access the Internet. Web browsers stop working, and I can't receive email. I've tried switching the data connection off and back on in Communications Manager, and this works sometimes; but even when it does, it messes up my ActiveSync schedule settings. And usually I simply can't get the data connection to turn back on. More often than not, when I change the Band setting I end up having to hit the reset button to get everything functioning normally again.
There must surely be a way of turning 3G on and off without disrupting the data connection and ActiveSync settings and requiring a reboot? The phone itself can do this in "Auto" mode if I'm moving between areas of good 3G signal and zero 3G signal. Is there perhaps a way to tweak the behaviour of "Auto" mode so that it needs a higher 3G strength signal to switch to 3G? Or is there any way to convince the phone (while in Auto mode) that there isn't really a 3G signal present (even though there is really a weak signal) so that it switches to 2G in a side-effect-free fashion?
(bump)
Hm. 136 views and no reply.
You might check into WMLonglife
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478519
I haven't tried it, but it may work for you. It functions more based on what you are doing with the phone as opposed to what bands are available.
mwelch16 said:
You might check into WMLonglife
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=478519
I haven't tried it, but it may work for you. It functions more based on what you are doing with the phone as opposed to what bands are available.
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I'll check that out, thanks.
Hi..
Anybody knows how to switch manually to use 2G or 3G only?
Because sometimes when I am on the 3G coverage area, the phone still use the EDGE data connection rather than the 3G/HSDPA data connection. It really annoy me because the speed is slow if I use the EDGE connection.
In my old nokia, it allows me to use the 2G/3G connection only, so I wonder if desire can also do that.
Settings/wireless & networks/mobile networks/network mode. The auto is however set up quite well. The reason you keep finding edge, is that the edge signal might be stronger that the 3G. 3G will always be the preferred option for the phone, but keep in mind that a strong signal on edge will beat a poor signal on 3G where download speed is concerned. Therefor your phone tends to pick the fastest/strongest signal in your area.
So, I keep my wifi on mostly at all times. But I've found that when I leave my home, and get outside my wifi range, instead of naturally switching back to 3G (I usually have 4G disabled for battery purposes, unless I need speed), my 3G and bars icon will be all greyed out, and I will have no incoming data. I otherwise have a great signal here in Boston. Sometimes it will eventually start working, but other times I will need to reboot in order to have a working data connection.
Is this an issue anyone else has? It seems the transition from wifi to mobile data is glitchy?