Internet on mobile phones

[Captain Zep]

I'm not up on mobile phones.  I can make calls and send text messages, but that's about it.

I got a new new phone: a Sony Ericsson W995.  I would like to connect to the internet using wi-fi, but not through the mobile phone network.  How do I disable the mobile phone network internert (WAP?) and only allow wi-fi (as it's FOC).

Can anyone help?

[Pingu]

Do you have a young person in the house?   

[huggy]

I would like to connect to the internet using wi-fi, but not through the mobile phone network. 

The 'smart' phone ought to do this automatically if it is connection range of a wi-fi network.  When not connected to a wi-fi network it will revert to using a 3G or GPRS signal which will charge for data volume downloaded (depending upon your contract Internet connectivity may be included anyway, or at least a certain amount of download data volume).

[Chris (was scych)]

The 'smart' phone ought to do this automatically if it is connection range of a wi-fi network.  When not connected to a wi-fi network it will revert to using a 3G or GPRS signal which will charge for data volume downloaded (depending upon your contract Internet connectivity may be included anyway, or at least a certain amount of download data volume).

+1

[andygates]

And somewhere in the bowels of the settings should be a Data Settings type place, which can say "disable data over GPRS".  Can't say on the specifics, but what you want is not strange.

[Rhys W]

It should find your wi-fi, ask you to enter the encryption key and then you should be connected whenever you're in range.

[citoyen]

The 'smart' phone ought to do this automatically if it is connection range of a wi-fi network.

Well, it should detect Wi-Fi networks automatically, but it probably won't connect to them until you enter a password, depending on the network's security settings.

The first time you connect to your home network, you'll probably have to enter the SSID key, though it should connect automatically after that.

Can't answer the OP though, sorry, cos I don't know the particular phone, but there should be a setting in the internet connection menu to disable "cellular data" [edit: or "data over GPRS", as andy says, or something similar]. You should also disable "data roaming" if it's an option (so you don't accidentally connect to the internet when abroad).

d.

[huggy]

The 'smart' phone ought to do this automatically if it is connection range of a wi-fi network.

Well, it should detect Wi-Fi networks automatically, but it probably won't connect to them until you enter a password, depending on the network's security settings.

The first time you connect to your home network, you'll probably have to enter the SSID key, though it should connect automatically after that.

I had kind of assumed that stage would already have been completed 

[rafletcher]

El problemo is, if you set it up to detect wi-fi it will always go looking for wi-fi networks (in preference to 3G) when you're away from home. And it'll probably find scads of them, all security enabled and useless to you. So in many ways, if you intend to use internet away from yr home network or other fixed location, leaving it on WAP is the better option. Oh, and if you do connect via 3G and then pass a wi-fi hotspot it'll drop the WAP in favour of the wi-fi - which will be security enables and useless to you.  So all in all 3G is more user-friendly. (I have a SE smart phone too, an X10 mini).  Unless you're a very heavy data user using 3G shouldn't be an issue - and as you've never used it before I doubt you'll be that data-heavy.

[border-rider]

El problemo is, if you set it up to detect wi-fi it will always go looking for wi-fi networks (in preference to 3G) when you're away from home. And it'll probably find scads of them, all security enabled and useless to you.

and it'll ignore them.  it should never drop a 3G connection in favour of an un-accessible wifi network.

[rafletcher]

Agreed it shouldn't, but my SE phone does I think, and also drop a weak wi-fi signal for 3G - which is arguably a good thing. And the accessability of wi-fi is still an issue out and about, with most being security enabled, so 3G remains the better mobile option I think.

[Greenbank]

El problemo is, if you set it up to detect wi-fi it will always go looking for wi-fi networks (in preference to 3G) when you're away from home. And it'll probably find scads of them, all security enabled and useless to you.

and it'll ignore them.  it should never drop a 3G connection in favour of an un-accessible wifi network.

What constitutes an accessible wi-fi network? Just getting an IP address over DHCP may not be enough, many non-free wifi sites will give you an IP but return a 'please enter login details' HTML page whatever you request. The phone has no easy way of working out whether it's a 'good' wifi connection or not...

[Captain Zep]

I got it sorted thanks.  I managed to find an "options" setting hidden away that allowed me to set it so that I'm prompted before it uses WAP.

I don't have any "free" internet use on WAP because I'll never use it.  I just wanted to connnect via wi-fi to have a play. 

It did always connect via WAP in preference to wi-fi btw - which would have cost me money rather than my free (and I assume faster) available wi-fi network.

Thanks folks 

Next..... How do you connect to the free wi-fi offered in restaurants etc, are they just Open Networks?

[Kim]

The 'smart' phone ought to do this automatically if it is connection range of a wi-fi network.  When not connected to a wi-fi network it will revert to using a 3G or GPRS signal

While this is certainly the behaviour of Android, and probably those Apple things that seem so popular with the young folk, it isn't the Nokia Way (In S60 data connections are chosen on a per-application basis), and I'm not sure how Windows Mobile handles WiFi connections these days ('badly' sums up how my last one does it).  I've no idea what Blackberries do, either.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Mmmmmmm, smart phones is the taste of summer hedgerows.

[Kim]

Next..... How do you connect to the free wi-fi offered in restaurants etc, are they just Open Networks?

Usually an open network that intercepts web requests and forces you to go to a login page, sometimes a wide open network, sometimes they tell you the encryption key - depends largely on how professional their setup is.

The captive portal method sometimes breaks on smartphone browsers, making it effectively useless.

[border-rider]

El problemo is, if you set it up to detect wi-fi it will always go looking for wi-fi networks (in preference to 3G) when you're away from home. And it'll probably find scads of them, all security enabled and useless to you.

and it'll ignore them.  it should never drop a 3G connection in favour of an un-accessible wifi network.

What constitutes an accessible wi-fi network? Just getting an IP address over DHCP may not be enough, many non-free wifi sites will give you an IP but return a 'please enter login details' HTML page whatever you request. The phone has no easy way of working out whether it's a 'good' wifi connection or not...

I had a poke about at my phone yesterday; it is set to connect automatically to "known" WiFi networks but not unknown ones.  It only flags up unknown WiFi if the 3G connection has failed.

[Jaded]

My iphone will use WiFi in preference to 3G, if available. The confusion come when the WiFi is a public but locked network. I'll get full bars but no email etc. I have to go to Safari, the web browser, and try  to load a web page. I will then get a login page for the network. Once i've logged in all the other stuff works.

[Greenbank]

I had a poke about at my phone yesterday; it is set to connect automatically to "known" WiFi networks but not unknown ones.  It only flags up unknown WiFi if the 3G connection has failed.

As Jaded points out, you may have a known network that requires logging in before it can be used, and the usage may timeout after 24 hours requiring another login. You either have to do this each time or manually remove the network from your list when you're done so that it doesn't bite you in the future.