iphone wi fi assist (1 Viewer)

[Deleted member 29692]

Your lucky...

Not on my 4s

Interesting. Did it take IOS 9 OK apart from that?

 

[mjltigger]

That's basically it isn't it. That's what any and every phone does anyway all the time.

You're at home or in McDonalds or wherever connected to WiFi. You go down the road and lose the WiFi connection so your phone reverts back to data. That's what has always happened and always will happen.

All this feature does is allows the data to kick in a bit sooner before the WiFi has completely dropped out.

Thinking about it like that makes all the scare articles (if you Google it there are absolutely loads of them!) look even more pathetic.

I think what is happening is something different - my Samsung ANdroid device did something similar and I took ages to find out how to turn it off - so...

You have your phone in your pocket and you are at home. You wander down the garden to get the lawnmower. As you wander up and down the garden pushing the lawn mower the wifi comes in range, gets weaker and then goes out of range, comes back in range and gets stronger ... you get it ...

What happens next is the device says 'ooh, this wifi isn't very good, keeps dropping out.. I know,, I will use my 4g instead to assist the wifi' in fact, the samsung went one step further and actually disabled the home wifi leaving my phone on 3/4g until I spotted it and turned it off.

Now OK if you have an old 3g contract with cheap or unlimited data but modern 4g tariffs are not - they have low limits and high costs for further use. Your phone switching to mobile data without you knowing about it could be a costly nightmare.

 

[Just smiffy]

Interesting. Did it take IOS 9 OK apart from that?

No probs..
Had 4 s for years and always updated when new software available and has not missed a beat... Last month went touring around France and put in a pay as you go all you can eat data from three and it was brill..! Back home put my normal card in and all good..

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[scotjimland]

The problem could affect ANYONE who has upgraded to the new iOS 9 operating system, even if you don't have the new iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus.

anyone looking for WiFi assist on their 4s .. don't bother..
it's not a feature on 4S..

thankfully..

http://ios9news.net/no-wifi-assist-iphone-4s/

 

[Deleted member 29692]

I think what is happening is something different - my Samsung ANdroid device did something similar and I took ages to find out how to turn it off - so...

You have your phone in your pocket and you are at home. You wander down the garden to get the lawnmower. As you wander up and down the garden pushing the lawn mower the wifi comes in range, gets weaker and then goes out of range, comes back in range and gets stronger ... you get it ...

What happens next is the device says 'ooh, this wifi isn't very good, keeps dropping out.. I know,, I will use my 4g instead to assist the wifi' in fact, the samsung went one step further and actually disabled the home wifi leaving my phone on 3/4g until I spotted it and turned it off.

Now OK if you have an old 3g contract with cheap or unlimited data but modern 4g tariffs are not - they have low limits and high costs for further use. Your phone switching to mobile data without you knowing about it could be a costly nightmare.

No experience of Android so can't comment on that but I don't see how it could "disable" your home network. It could make your device ignore it maybe. As far as I'm aware the IOS version doesn't do this but I suppose time will tell.

My 4G tariff doesn't have low limits, 8GB seems to be plenty for what I use.

But even if someone is on a low limit the point I made in a previous post still applies - with any smartphone a very low data plan means you are likely to exceed it anyway unless you are a very low user in which case the feature is nothing to worry about. Nobody (yet!) has been paranoid enough to suggest that it somehow forces you to use more bandwidth, either data or WiFi, than you would have done before.

The "costly nightmare" comment I keep hearing is the one that winds me up the most. We all know what the worst data munchers are - updates, streaming video etc - and most of them are disabled by default unless you are on WiFi so if the Assist, or whatever we're calling it, kicks in and switches you back to data then those processes would see that they aren't on WiFi and stop in exactly the same way that they do when you lose WiFi under normal circumstances.

All it's meant to do is kick the data back in a little bit sooner than it normally would so anyone who's doing something that might result in a "costly nightmare" is still going to have the "costly nightmare" By turning it off you aren't preventing your phone from switching from WiFi back to data, you're only choosing to make it wait a bit longer before it does.

 

[mjltigger]

No experience of Android so can't comment on that but I don't see how it could "disable" your home network. It could make your device ignore it maybe. As far as I'm aware the IOS version doesn't do this but I suppose time will tell.

My 4G tariff doesn't have low limits, 8GB seems to be plenty for what I use.

But even if someone is on a low limit the point I made in a previous post still applies - with any smartphone a very low data plan means you are likely to exceed it anyway unless you are a very low user in which case the feature is nothing to worry about. Nobody (yet!) has been paranoid enough to suggest that it somehow forces you to use more bandwidth, either data or WiFi, than you would have done before.

The "costly nightmare" comment I keep hearing is the one that winds me up the most. We all know what the worst data munchers are - updates, streaming video etc - and most of them are disabled by default unless you are on WiFi so if the Assist, or whatever we're calling it, kicks in and switches you back to data then those processes would see that they aren't on WiFi and stop in exactly the same way that they do when you lose WiFi under normal circumstances.

All it's meant to do is kick the data back in a little bit sooner than it normally would so anyone who's doing something that might result in a "costly nightmare" is still going to have the "costly nightmare" By turning it off you aren't preventing your phone from switching from WiFi back to data, you're only choosing to make it wait a bit longer before it does.

None of those things are disabled by default unless you are on WiFi. Plus 8gb... seriously. My mobile uses 10-15 a month away from WiFi and my home broadband uses about 300gb a month. Not a typo. Massive bills if you get that wrong believe me.

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[Deleted member 29692]

Di

None of those things are disabled by default unless you are on WiFi. Plus 8gb... seriously. My mobile uses 10-15 a month away from WiFi and my home broadband uses about 300gb a month. Not a typo. Massive bills if you get that wrong believe me.

Different phone setups then. I was talking about my phone

And I never get anywhere near the 8GB. Usually don't go much over 2

 

[mjltigger]

Di


Different phone setups then. I was talking about my phone

And I never get anywhere near the 8GB. Usually don't go much over 2

And that's why for you the advice given wasn't needed but for others (our 17 yo has just been given her first iPhone - I know 17.. poor thing is so neglected) it is really useful to have these things highlighted.