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Kayteg1's avatar
Kayteg1
Explorer II
Aug 10, 2017

"No Service" on WiFia with good signal.

I hope someone can explain what is happening with my service.
We travel from state to state and at several parks strange things happens to our connections.
-In 1 area my Sprint WiFia would show 2-3 bars of signal and "no service". At the some spot my android would make calls no problem, but internet-connected apps would not connect.
-I drive with modem plug in constantly. Just pulled into rest stop in TX and having good service was able to surf the net for about 20 minutes although with so-so speed. Than the service died and regardless walking around and changing positions, I still have "no service" display on my modem.
-Than after about 1 hr, with modem still displaying "no service" I am sending this message via it and seems the speed is better than the first 1/2 hr.
What da hack those electronics do?

16 Replies

  • wa8yxm's avatar
    wa8yxm
    Explorer III
    First: WI-Fi and Wireless are TWO DIFFERENT SERVICES..

    Wi-Fi is generally park provided. WIRELESS is your cellular provider Now your phone (or other "Hot Spot" Device may convert Wireless (Cellular internet) to Wi-Fi and it may also be able to use Wi-Fi to make phone calls but this is under your control... to a point.

    Wireless internet (No Service but a strong signal) YOu have SPRINT which advertises the IN NETWORK reliability is within 1% of Sprint. they do not advertise what IN NETWORK means.. (It means when you are connectred to a SPRINT tower) and they do not tell you that sprint has perhaps 10% (I am being kind) of the towers Verizon or AT&T or T-Mobile have .. Smallest "Nationwide" network in the country They mnerged with Nextel many years ago (over 10) and Nextel was nicknamed NO-Tel. Well. that covers it.

    YOu may get a strong signal off a Tower due to a Roaming agreement but as a SPRINT customer. they may limit or even block internet access since they are NOT Sprint You phone should have an option to tell you what's happening or there is an app for Androids (Network Signal Info) that tells you who's towers you are using.. Most of the time *I have the freee version*

    Wi-FI now is a whole different can of fish bate.

    Many parks have simple Wi-Fi routers Like a common Linksys Home/Small office router. So here is the story of where I"m parked (Multiple routers.. today)(

    Several years ago Id' head to the Family center (Internet hot spot) and hook up right about now.. I got connected no tribble. but as more and more folks came in suddenly they had a strong signal but no joy.

    Turns out Linksys routers (They had basically taken it out of the box and plugged it in) only assign 50 IP Addresses

    Think of a post office box store with 50 boxes. when they are all rented out "NO VACANCY" as it were.. Well I'd connect 'em by going Static IP and it worked (I wont bore you with that) ANd finally I though "I'll bet they never did something" sure enough they did not so I logged in and upped the box count to 100.. THere is a funny story after that.

    Today that router is a an insustrial router which can do 500 or more boxes

    So is the one I'm parked by but alas it's overloaded too

    So you get a strong signal. but the router can not talk to you because either it does not have the bandwidth (Too many streaming videos) or it's out of addresses.
  • doxiemom11 wrote:
    Maybe your connection is being prioritized by a busy tower. When it says no service, have you tried disconnection, then re-connecting to establish a new connection? Pay attention to the time of day this is happening.


    That's the way it works for us with only one cell tower in range.
    We spend the summer at the cottage and get great service except for weekends when everybody shows up. Get three bars but no service so I'm constantly rebooting to get through. Sometimes I have to give up. Come Sunday afternoon all is back to normal, great connection.
  • Maybe your connection is being prioritized by a busy tower. When it says no service, have you tried disconnection, then re-connecting to establish a new connection? Pay attention to the time of day this is happening.
  • Good cell signal is not necessarly good data service. Lots of places you can talk, but no or very slow data service. Lot depends on your carrier, and your location. My carrier used to be very good, but has gotten terrible in most places. The other major carrier is getting a lot better most everywhere.My phone is on one carrier, my MIFI is on the other. I plan on changing phone carier, but i'm too cheap to buy another smartphone.
  • Actually the best Internet I had on my modem was in my favorite California Sierra camping spot.
    In the middle of nowhere, 45 miles from nearest city, 25 miles from village, 15 miles from highway, I had perfect signal and speed.
    The cell antenna was on other side of the lake.
    Than working 1 mile from Berkeley University I had to walk from the house on the street to get any connection.
  • Welcome to the world of the internet outside of big cities.