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deafanimator

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 6, 2007
56
0
I have current is iPhone 3G 16gb that I have AT&T and my home Netgear Router N Wifi. My area does not offer 3G because I live in small town. I have excellent full range WIFI that my iPhone shows. I can see my bars from 1 to 3 bars back and forth that are often searching and then No Service.. It does back and forth on a minute and then off other minute as it is searching the service. I do not understand why my iPhone will not able to use my wifi with out AT&T. it must to use AT&T and why it does require? I have very good signal that is about 500 feet to the tower. my setting is off the Airport Mode, WIFI is on, Enable 3G is off, Data Roaming is off, and VPN is not configured. I am wondering if there any one able to help me to trouble shooting?
 
You said your wifi doesn't work without AT&T cell service? Weird.

Have you tried turning Airplane mode ON and turn wifi ON? Does that work? It works for me. If it doesn't work, maybe there's something wrong with your iPhone.

Edit: I just noticed you said your router is set to N? Is it also using b/g? I don't believe the iPhone can use N, only b/g.
 
You said your wifi doesn't work without AT&T cell service? Weird.

Have you tried turning Airplane mode ON and turn wifi ON? Does that work? It works for me. If it doesn't work, maybe there's something wrong with your iPhone.

Edit: I just noticed you said your router is set to N? Is it also using b/g? I don't believe the iPhone can use N, only b/g.

I thought N was backwards-compatible with b/g, but I could be wrong...

I agree with you on the Airplane Mode. You should be able to activate Airplane Mode (i.e. disable the cellular network) and then turn Wi-Fi back on. If that does not work, yes, I'd also recommend that you take your iPhone to the nearby Apple Store for an inspection.
 
Might be worth going to AT&T to have them check your SIM card. Maybe it wasn't installed well or perhaps you have a bad card. I know you said you get bad reception in your area but maybe the phone is having trouble dealing with the card. Just a thought.
 
Oh and do you have your phone set to search for wireless networks? I keep that set to off unless I am needing to add a new network to my iPhone. It already knows your home network. There's no need for it to be searching for any others. I found that sometimes my phone would jump to using some other wifi network that I didn't want to use. And sometimes that network would have a really weak signal or it didn't actually provide internet. Thus my phone would try to use it and stuff wouldn't work well.
 
try to set your router for G mode instead of auto or N. the N is still a draft spec and compatibility issues may come up. or see if Liinksys has a firmware upgrade for your router
 
the router is build in G band and N band that do both ways.. I have turned on airport and it will not work as it required the wifif.. I do not have airport internet plug in the wall.. Do you think airport in plug wall work better than netgear?
 
I have an issue with my N-router, where my iPhone will connect to it for a couple of days and then it will not connect. So I go into my router and resave the settings and poof, it connects again. This has happen since 3.0, so I am hoping 3.1 fixes this issue. Also note, I have turned the router to only broadcast B + G, no N.
 
I had to read your post twice to get an understanding (I hope) of what you're asking, but if I were you, I'd find a WiFi-equipped laptop, set both the lappie and the router to G-only mode, and see if the lappie gets good, steady signal. If so, I'd be inclined to suspect something is wrong with the WiFi radio in the iPhone. If the lappie gets the same signal fluctuation as the iPhone, I'd suspect the router, or something in your environment causing interference. Microwave oven, cordless phone, that kind of thing.
 
Your post is very confusing. Are you saying that you can't get WiFi data access without a cell signal? That sounds strange. What happens if your try to use data (i.e., Safari) when you have no cell signal?

You also say that you are 500 feet from the cell tower and yet your service goes in and out. That doesn't make sense to me. Are you sure that is an AT&T tower?

Finally, it also sounds like you may be saying you want to make phone calls when you have only a Wi-Fi connection. If this is what you are saying, you're out of luck. AT&T does not support VoIP calling for the iPhone, though they are said to be coming out with a femtocell solution this year which might help.

For what it's worth, I have no problems connecting to my Linksys WRT-160N router on my iPhone even when it is set to B/G/N.
 
Oh and do you have your phone set to search for wireless networks? I keep that set to off unless I am needing to add a new network to my iPhone. It already knows your home network. There's no need for it to be searching for any others. I found that sometimes my phone would jump to using some other wifi network that I didn't want to use. And sometimes that network would have a really weak signal or it didn't actually provide internet. Thus my phone would try to use it and stuff wouldn't work well.

Maybe I'm blind, but where is that setting at? I see the Auto Join Networks setting, but not the searching one. I'd love to turn that off if I could.
 
I understand your points OP; but sadly the iPhone will continue to fluctuate between "No Service-0 bars-1-3 bars" on a regular basis. This should only affect your cellular data network, or your ability to make/receive phone calls, and text messages on your iPhone. WiFi problems may need to be addressed via your Router, and as others have said, ensure that you update the router on a regular basis via Netgear's website....(ASL? PM me) :(
 
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