Atrix 2 WiFi Problems

i agree as well i have a BA in Computer Science, and am also A+,Net+CCNA Certified, Am also a MCP(Microsoft Certified Professional, he tried to tell me that there was no radio, that it was all controlled by software, and to some degree he is correct,but when i asked him why the need for a Mac address if there was no radio, he decided to say he couldn't answers my problem and wanted to know if there was something else i need, poor cs in my opinion, i should have stayed with sprint but got fed up paying for 4G when i don't live in a 4G city and also there data speeds are hopples, dial up is faster than there network speed.

and also yes all me settings are correct on the device and router it has to be the device, it did it with my old router, so i bought a new one, then this one gave me problems then i upgraded my home internet and came with a motorola surfboardSBG6580 with a 4 port gateway/wireless router. so in turn im on number 3, all different manurfactures, all have no problems the problem is the device itself, i belive i have a faulty radio, but the warrant dept said this.....

AT&T: I do apologize but I cannot replace the phone under warranty for a Wifi issue.  The Wifi is not covered under the manufacturer's warranty.

ME:can you be more specific what does the warranty cover

AT&T: It covers hardware defects

ME: so then why does the wifi not fall into this, 

AT&T: Wifi is a software defect not a hardware defect

ME: so what your telling me is that the wifi is software not hardware

AT&T: Correct

ME: so then how can you account for a mac address if it is software. Is there not a radio that recives wireless signals?

AT&T: I can only tell you what the warranty says and it says that I cannot replace a wifi problem under the warranty.  Is there anything else I can help you with?

and that was that i told him i contacted moto and they did confirm that this falls under hardware warranty, and did not understand why AT&T Refused me a replacement.

I would def call back. Be persistent I can' t see why they would not replace the device.  I talked to about 6 diff people but finally they agreed to send me a replacement.  Maybe try tech support 800-331-0500 and select the option to take you to a tech support rep.  Explain to them what's going on.  When I talked to the warranty they kept saying it was a battery problem if the phone kept turning itself off.  I had to explain to them over and over that the phone was not powering off that the wifi was not working properly.  I guess I finally just got a hold of someone who had good cust. Service skills.

the only other thing i can think of you might look at (then i'll leave you alone), when i have friends over that want to connect to my wifi, i have to turn the mac address filtering off on the router.  when everybody's gone, and i turn mac address filtering back on, the default is to BLOCK my previously ALLOWED devices!  very odd.  so after a couple of seconds of head scratching, i realize i have to change blocked to allowed on the linksys e3000 router, and everything returns to normal.

in changing routers in and out, do you think maybe you're blocking your mac addresses rather than allowing them? 

This may not fix the problem but it can help you to understand. Android is a Linux based OS and soho routers (Netgear, Linksys, etc) have some issues with devices using Linux as the OS. The symptom: the router kicks out your device; then the phone  has to renegotiate the connection which means that it needs to get an IP address. The problem is sometimes (in my experience) with the renegotiation handle in some Linux drivers , ( so it is also an issue in your phone) . What happen is that the router and phone cannot negotiate again.

How do you know if that is your problem? Simply disable the wireless network in your phone, then restart (do not reset) your wireless router by disconnecting from the electric outlet for a couple of minutes. The router should forget that it previously had your phone in its internal tables. If you phone can connect again with no problem, now you know that is the issue. But don't get too happy because the phone will have the problem again a few hours later.

If you are curious, you can also check the network status of your wireless router. You may notice that the table has information about iphones, windows or Macintosh machines addresses assignments, but Android no trace that it is connected to the network (from the router perspective)

In some of cases I resolved the issue by assigning a static IP address to the phone. You can do that by going to the network settings and configuring it there. Wireless & Networks --> Wi-Fi Settings then look for advanced settings IP settings. There you can configure your address, gateway, and netmask and DNS. But remember than before doing that you should know what local network configuration you have in your network. You also have to dedicate a range in your router local IP address pool for that assignment, so the router does not give that same address to another device (and then you'll have two problems with other device disconnecting)

I've seen this problem in several HTC models,and my Atrix 2 and my Linux laptops; and it only happens with old wireless routers. My windows machine never had issues with the old routers.  Maybe a software update in the router will solve the issue (it did not in my case). I have not problems with a newer (but enterprise) wireless router.

I hope this helps you and others.

See my reply below if that workaround works for u.

It's wrong to suggest "fixing" the ap/router or hardcoding network settings as the solution especially when these symptoms follow you everywhere you go.  I might get away with that at home, but at work, no.

I have this same issue and it only affects my newly purchased atrix 2, my atrix 4g never had these issues.

With all the wifi/data settings configured to never turn off data services or put the wifi antenna to sleep, the thing should just stay on and connected until I turn off the antenna myself.

When the antenna is on and connected, there's no issues there, I get a good IP and all the appropriate DHCP settings and data serivces work fine so that suggests that the hardware and the software necessary for network negotiation is good.  The problem to me seems to be the software on the device deciding on its own when to disable data services and even turn off my wifi antenna when IT thinks its appropriate.

Wether it's the base software or something that I installed is at fault is not important.  I just want to know that something can be done to fix this issue.  Times like this I wish there was a way to just have some diagnostics software that I can turn on to capture the events that lead to my wifi antenna getting turned off.

My WiFi would turn off every time the phone went into stand-by mode, despite the never sleep setting.  I read somewhere  to change the battery mode.  The "Maximum battery saver" setting was disconnecting WiFi each time.   Since changing to "Performance mode", my WiFi has stayed connected without a problem.   (Settings - Battery & data manager - Battery Mode)

Hope this helps someone!