[purple_bb]

I happened to notice this morning when I had both PB and Torch at my side that whenever I did a manoeuvre with the PB that required the internet, my Torch activated like crazy (you know the in and out arrow on the top right corner of the screen), even though my PB wifi showed 2 or 3 bars, so perfect connectivity.

Why on earth did it not select the wifi pathway and instead sollicitated my Torch via bridge for downloading?

[taz323]

Do you use the PB to text.

[purple_bb]

Yes I do. Appreciate the possibility to do it and use it regularly.

[robsteve]

Your wifi may have been acting up at the time. If your Torch was also on wifi and had a good connection, the PlayBook would have used the wifi connection of the Torch rather than cellular data. It is a less known feature that you can put your phone in a spot with better wifi signal and then use bridge to get data to the PlayBook.

Another thing to keep in mind is the signal indicator on the PlayBook Is not live, only updated now and then. To get a live signal strength you need to go into wifi status.

[purple_bb]

Wifi was kind of acting up actually. I did a factory reset on my router a couple of days ago and it was sort of fine and better until that episode, but I'll have to be more attentive. I was told Belkin is no good. I may have to change it...

But as I said, the PB showed an ok connection. 2 or 3 bars. Usual for my home connection. That's why I figured it was strange that it was not using it... It did not warn me in any way that wifi wasn't good.

That's kind of annoying because when you don't notice it, you could end up using data from your plan when the phone doesn't hook to wifi for some reason...

[purple_bb]

Is there any way to find out what the PB is using for internet input at any time?

[anon(4067838)]

Wifi was kind of acting up actually. I did a factory reset on my router a couple of days ago and it was sort of fine and better until that episode, but I'll have to be more attentive. I was told Belkin is no good. I may have to change it...

But as I said, the PB showed an ok connection. 2 or 3 bars. Usual for my home connection. That's why I figured it was strange that it was not using it... It did not warn me in any way that wifi wasn't good.

That's kind of annoying because when you don't notice it, you could end up using data from your plan when the phone doesn't hook to wifi for some reason...

I have been using Belkin modem routers for some now but was having internet problems and though it may be router. I went and bought a new Belkin N600 router, and when the last update for playbook was released I did the update as usual over wifi. It downloaded and installed the update and after install it checked for latest update and said update available but had already installed this update. I. Did a security wipe and reload of software via wifi and desktop software but still it wanted to update even though the latest version was installed. After numerous calls to Blackberry tech support uthey came to conclusion that my playbook was stuffed so I sent it in for repair and they sent me a new playbook. When the new playbook turned up I went through the setup process and was finished it did it's usual check for updates, updated and restarted but again exactly the same problem - update available but already installed. Numerous calls to Blackberry tech support again and still no luck. I noticed that my pda would not connect to my new belkin router either (all computers and ipods/ipads connecting fine but problem with playbook and pda ) . Then I had a major find according to blackberry, the WPS (wifi protected setup) on the router was blocking access for my playbook and pda. By disabling the WPS feature on the router everything was fine and both pda and playbook connected and playbook update issue disappeared. Turns out that I had found a flaw in the WPS function which is currently the industry standard for connecting devices to wifi. Funny that even though I had tried to update the playbook via desktop which is connected via ethernet cable to router, the router still caused connection issues. Both the playbook and pda would see the wifi network , playbook would connect but not update and the pda would not even connect. Now that I have disabled the WPS everything is good. Maybe you could try to disable WPS in router settings. Sorry for the long post and it may be irrelevant, but hopefully this will help others with a similar issue.
Wayne

[purple_bb]

Actually, I'm not willing to disable Wi-Fi Protected Setup on the router... It's actually set to WPA/WPA2-Personal (PSK) and it's been working not too bad with all devices except PB upto now, which is why I figured it is on the PB I have to concentrate. How would you go about without WPS Ozfork if you had 8 close neighbours? Maybe I just don't understand what you mean by WPS though. It could be another setting you are talking about. Thanks for sharing anyway, I'm sure it could apply to someone else.

@robsteve: Just noticed your comment about wifi status. Can you tell me where to find signal strength? I can actually get this wifi info right now:
signal level: -70 dBm (there's a minus sign here)
connection data rate: 54 Mbps
Is this the figures you are talking about?

Is this acceptable figures for the PB?

Also, I've been thinking that the novelty here is that I started using Slacker radio as recently as yesterday. Could it be that the streaming is taking up the wifi connection and that the PB uses bridge to do the rest? This could be foolish, does it show that I know nothing about the technicalities of networking hey!

Finally, someone mentioned texting. Triggered my curiosity. Why could it matter?

edit: Doing some tests right now. Listening to a CBC Radio playlist, and arrow on phone was acting (but rather quietly), but music didn't stop when I turned all phone connections off - Mobile, Wifi and BT. Song number 2 just started and it's running without gaps. One figure changed, I read -63 dBm now as wifi info on PB, but I think it had gone down before I switched the phone connections off.

I am really wondering how the PB chooses which connection to use guys. Does it give priority to wifi always? Does it switch to bridge if wifi fails? And when it bridges, does it use the phone's wifi to retrieve the info, or the phone company network connection? I don't mind doing some reading if someone has a web page which explains this to recommend to me.

[anon(4067838)]

Actually, I'm not willing to disable Wi-Fi Protected Setup on the router... It's actually set to WPA/WPA2-Personal (PSK) and it's been working not too bad with all devices except PB upto now, which is why I figured it is on the PB I have to concentrate. How would you go about without WPS Ozfork if you had 8 close neighbours? Maybe I just don't understand what you mean by WPS though. It could be another setting you are talking about. Thanks for sharing anyway, I'm sure it could apply to someone else.

WPS is a one touch setup to connect new devices. You can turn it off in your modem/router settings as it will not affect devices that are currently connected and still retains the current security settings i.e your wep/wpa or wpa/wpa2 security settings. I have several neighbours in close proximity too and I can see their wireless networks but without security key I cannot connect and vice versa. You can always enable or turn it back on to connect new devices if needed and then switch it off again, no problems. WPS function is just designed to make connections easier to set up. Just try to disable it and see if this affects your playbook connection. If you have any problems you can private message me if you like. Regards,
Wayne

[purple_bb]

I did have the meaning of WPS wrong! Now I found it on my router setup page.

I'm giving this a try. It doesn't make a difference, as I never use this functionality. I'll see if it makes a difference.

Thanks!

[kbz1960]

Unless you're going to use your phone as a remote or send to why not just turn bt off and you'll know your only using wifi.

[FF22]

Unless you're going to use your phone as a remote or send to why not just turn bt off and you'll know your only using wifi.

I understand your avatar is busy attempting to divide Lake Huron to make the Canadian invasion of the US easier!

[kbz1960]

I understand your avatar is busy attempting to divide Lake Huron to make the Canadian invasion of the US easier!

Hey, I just got it. Baby steps, I'm working on the pond across the street first.

[purple_bb]

Unless you're going to use your phone as a remote or send to why not just turn bt off and you'll know your only using wifi.

So basic... I actually do this when I want to be extra sure I don't use up data from my plan (ex videos). I guess it's just laziness... having to turn it back on once in a while, huh! But you know this doesn't explain how the PB functions. And it keeps me from using bridge: receiving text messages, email, calendar notifications, and so on. I do use bridge a lot.

I guess I like things complicated!

Yeah, this avatar is something... it's the Febreze part of it that is puzzling... you MUST have shares in the company!

[kbz1960]

Ah I see you do use parts of bridging then. I think when you're connected to wifi then it uses that first and your phone activity may just be it checking things on its own or text.

The Febreze is a 5k thread thing

[purple_bb]

All right but this arrow was so frantic (talking 'bout OP) I figured it was doing more than just the routine txt/email checking, which I realize must be done once in a while...

5k? You mean 5000 messages on CB do you? They must change product, whatever the story. I sneeze just reading the name of the company!

[Chaddface]

Finally, someone mentioned texting. Triggered my curiosity. Why could it matter?

After one of the updates BBRY added bridge Wifi. Not exactly sure how it works but according to BlackBerry it will allow data to be transferred over wifi when your connected to bridge and Wifi is on both devices. That may explain why you see more activity on your phone.
That data would be moving just over your local network so no worries about carrier charges.

[kbz1960]

All right but this arrow was so frantic (talking 'bout OP) I figured it was doing more than just the routine txt/email checking, which I realize must be done once in a while...

5k? You mean 5000 messages on CB do you? They must change product, whatever the story. I sneeze just reading the name of the company!

5K is what we still call the thread that is now the 100K CB challenge. They just keep changing the title but we still call it what the first change was.

[purple_bb]

Now here's something interesting, the kind of info I was after. It's elegant because this explains that.

But what about speed though? I read once on CB that bridge internet is slower than wifi because it's limited by BT speed. So this wifi exchange between PB and phone would be faster?

edit: And further, does this mean my PB knows that the phone wifi is more efficient and decides to use it? That would be good news, it would compensate for the PB's weakness with wifi...

[kbz1960]

Now here's something interesting, the kind of info I was after. It's elegant because this explains that.

But what about speed though? I read once on CB that bridge internet is slower than wifi because it's limited by BT speed. So this wifi exchange between PB and phone would be faster?

Only if it's using wifi and not bt to do it. BT is the slow component.

[Chaddface]

Now here's something interesting, the kind of info I was after. It's elegant because this explains that.

But what about speed though? I read once on CB that bridge internet is slower than wifi because it's limited by BT speed. So this wifi exchange between PB and phone would be faster?

That's the idea. To move data between phone and PB faster.

The connection priority on the PB would go like this: Wifi-phone Wifi-phone carrier connection. You can test this yourself by streaming music or video and turning of different connections.

[purple_bb]

And back to my original question Is the PB using wifi or BT?

[Chaddface]

And back to my original question Is the PB using wifi or BT?

The PB is using its own wifi if turned on and connected. If for some reason the PB wifi connection is lost it will use the wifi on the phone over bridge. If that's not available it will use the carrier connection over bridge.

I was just texting with someone and saw the same activity arrows you mentioned. Just opening the text message app on the PB makes the arrows go. When the text messages stopped so did the arrows for the most part.

[purple_bb]

After one of the updates BBRY added bridge Wifi. Not exactly sure how it works but according to BlackBerry it will allow data to be transferred over wifi when your connected to bridge and Wifi is on both devices. That may explain why you see more activity on your phone.
That data would be moving just over your local network so no worries about carrier charges.

Wait a minute! This wouldn't be April 1st info? I think I 'll stay away from CB forums today, just in case...

[purple_bb]

5K is what we still call the thread that is now the 100K CB challenge. They just keep changing the title but we still call it what the first change was.

Ok, what kind of contract is trying to find this thread and reading it? Like a 600 page book or something?