[dulcimatik]

I've spent days reading all the posts, and haven't yet found a solution for my problem.
I have an 8320. I have no data package, data is turned off. The BB is unlocked from T-Mobile and is being used with AT&T.
I am using an Apple Airport 802.11g for the router. Several laptops, both Mac and Windows, detect this network without problems. The BB detects nothing, even after a site survey, no network is detected.
The BB will detect other networks. I was sitting in my car outside a shopping center, it picked up three. I requested to go onto each one, but they required a password which I didn't have, so I couldn't test whether or not it would work. Yesterday, I was in a coffee shop with free wi-fi, and the BB detected that network and two other locals. When I tried to use the shop's wi-fi, the BB said it was connecting, and then it failed. There was no password requested or needed for this wi-fi, so that wasn't the issue.
I've taken out the battery and put it back in. I've tried to access wi-fi when I have the data turned on, still nothing.
Under wi-fi diagnostics there is nothing listed under current profile, SSID, mac address, security type, or local IP address. Under signal level it reads -256 dBm. Connection date rate is 0Mbps. Status shows no networks found. Under VPN there is nothing listed until status, it then says "error: link down".
I've tried altering the settings to wifi selection mode- manual, and automatic. Neither one will detect my home network.
On the home screen, in the top right corner, "wifi" is highlighted in black and gray. To the right of that is "edge" in lower case letters. Sometimes that switches to GSM.
Hope I listed all info for someone to help!!
I'm beyond frustrated, as I went the extra mile to buy an 8320 just for the wifi when I could've gotten the 8810 for next to nothing with my AT&T contract.
Thank you in advance! I'm desperate, and otherwise I'm totally in love with my new Curve! This is my first BB.

[bmcclure937]

First of all, congrats on the Curve and hopefully we can get it working for you!

This is a peculiar issue because your Curve will detect most routers and wireless networks, but not the AirPort.

First of all, I am a Mac user (and have been my whole life)... so I hope I can help you troubleshoot the problem.

1) Is your Airport set to broadcast SSID?
2) How many neighbors do you have with wireless, any interference on frequencies??
3) Have you tried to do a complete reset on the router??

If you do a reset on the Airport, then see if you can connect with the Curve without security!!

Once you can establish a connection to your Airport without security, try using WPA2 (or whatever you prefer) to secure your Wireless Connection.

The thing that is peculiar is the fact you cannot connect to other networks... this issue could also be occuring for a number of reasons. You said the networks are detected but you cannot connect. And you said multiple networks were available... leads me to believe the interference was confusing your Berry again...

Have you tried to contact Apple to see if your Berry is supported on the Airport??

Also, if it is the Airport Extreme with Wireless N, then disable the N and only use G (wireless N causes issues with the Berry).

Finally, have you ever done a 'site survey' to see all available networks on your curve. From there you can also see if they are interfering on the same channel.


As for the edge and GSM connection... the best connection is EDGE, then GPRS, then GSM... etc. The lowercase meets it is a poorer connection with no (or limited) data capability

[dulcimatik]

Thank you so much for all the help...
I have been using Airport for years but I've never had to reset any of the settings. How do I go about changing the 802.11 setting? It's at 802.11g at the moment. I don't have any security set up as far as passwords/codes/ wpa2.
There are no other wireless networks in the neighborhood. My MBP only detects our home network as well.
I've done a complete reset on the router.
When doing a site survey on the BB, nothing shows up.
How do I find out if the Airport is set to broadcast SSID?
I searched on apple.com and also googled about whether or not the BB is supported on the Airport and I haven't come up with anything.

Sorry for all the questions, this end of things is new to me.

Again, thanks for your help. I'm about to throw my cute little Curve through a window!!!

[dulcimatik]

OK this is weird.
I've been playing around with airport settings trying to figure it out, and haven't actually changed a thing except for the fact that I changed the channel (??). Also restarted the airport.
Out of no where, the BB not only detected the network but it connected. I then went to the browser to actually try to go to a website and I then got error messages saying something about it being wifi and to ensure I have a wifi connection. I went back to the connections and it was NOT connected, and what's more, it didn't detect the network.

What the???????

[bmcclure937]

OK this is weird.
I've been playing around with airport settings trying to figure it out, and haven't actually changed a thing except for the fact that I changed the channel (??). Also restarted the airport.
Out of no where, the BB not only detected the network but it connected. I then went to the browser to actually try to go to a website and I then got error messages saying something about it being wifi and to ensure I have a wifi connection. I went back to the connections and it was NOT connected, and what's more, it didn't detect the network.

What the???????

Have you contacted Apple to see if they support the Curve... I do not see why the Airport would not, but I know the Airports can be really quirky at times...

Also, make sure your web browser is set to WiFi browser...

and make sure your connection is set to WiFi preferred (or turn of the cell network for the time being and only have WiFi on... for troubleshooting and testing purposes) I just don't want the Curve to keep dropping the WiFi and switching to EDGE because it is getting confused.

Let me know if you need any more guidance... and hopefully we can get you working!! If all else fails... you might wanna try a friends wireless network or some other router. I chalk it up to the Airport being quirky. I know you were having issues at a public WiFi spot, but that could be for numerous reasons...

One last thing... delete the wireless networks fro your Curve and then you might wanna try pulling the batt on the Curve (or do Alt, R-Shift, Del) to reset it. Then, once it starts back up (takes a couple minutes...) you wanna search for the network again and add it. (I dunno if you took security off like I said before... but this would be a good idea to try to connect with NO security for the time being so that we can try to get you connected to the most basic settings and work from there )

**Note... I edited and added more info... should have made a different color for you...

[dulcimatik]

I just got off the phone with Apple. I've been a mac user for many years and every time I've called them, they've been nice and helpful. Well, this guy was not nice! He was mildly annoyed that I mentioned an issue with Blackberry and said they don't support Apple and Apple doesn't necessarily support them but that they can obviously sync. (no kidding.) Then he finally narrowed down which Airport I have after he asked me for the version number, when i told him the version number he said "it can't be." Turns out I have a really old Airport. He can't tell me anything about it nor can he find any screens on his end with any info for me. I'm like,"Well thanks for your time, sorry to bother you.." He says, "yeah." ?? OH WELL. So I got no real answer there.

I didn't have to disable security as I've never had it so that wasn't an issue.
I turned off the cell network and the BB still won't detect the network.
Web browser is set to wi-fi.
It only went on that one time. I've been sitting here all day long trying to figure this out and sadly, it's never detected it a 2nd time!
I deleted the networks and removed the battery. Then it wouldn't detect the network again, so I manually added the network. Got the W010 error code, "wi-fi connection failed".

[bmcclure937]

Dang!! Well... sorry with your extremely poor experience with Apple Support... wow!! That is really rude and shocking!!

It seems to me, if your Airport is that old it may be something to do with the Wireless Router...

Is there any way you can try at a friends house??

And does everything else on the 8320 (ATT EDGE, etc work fine with it being unlocked and everything?)

I really hope we can get this figure out for you

[dulcimatik]

Thanks again for your help!

Everything else works fine, doesn't seem to have any other glitches. I was thrilled when I finally got the thing unlocked. It took to the new ATT environment swimmingly.

Hope you're sitting down, LOL, I have no friends who have wifi in their houses. I will have to go to another coffee shop or something tomorrow to see if I can get it to work.

Makes no sense that it would be a problem with the Airport, as my SIL's windows laptop detects it right away (as does my MBP and eMac and printer.) You'd THINK if it was the airport, we'd have a problem somewhere else too.

I'm nauseously thinking, could this be a problem with the BB? I hope not, I don't think I have any warranty, as I bought it on ebay, it came brand new but I'm obviously not a T-Mobile customer, so I don't know anything as far as what I would do if the thing was broken!

This is just simply MY LUCK!! LOL

[bmcclure937]

Remember that at a 'coffee shop' or WiFi hotspot the results could be poor because of other interfering networks.

So be sure to run a site survey on your BB beforehand to view all of the networks and what channels they are on (look if they are interfering!)

That is crazy that none of your friends have WiFi!! wow!! haha

If worse comes to worse... and it comes down to it... you could always sell the device on eBay or on CrackBerry market... you could probably turn a small profit and then save your money for the Bold Whatever floats your boat!! I hope we can get it working... but no luck... ahh.

The one thing that doesn't make ANY sense is that the 8320 will not find your Airport... it should at least find it and then have connection errors which can be worked out.

That is what lead me to think it was the 'older' Airport causing the issue. If you want, it might not hurt to run to Best Buy (or order from amazon or newegg) the Linksys WRT45G wireless router, about $50. This is what TMo sells for Hotspot@Home and I have a couple of these routers (they are really nice, reliable blah blah blah). See if you cannot get it working on that

[dulcimatik]

You know, it just hit me, I've recently used a HTC Tilt, and that detected the Apple network here just fine. Could it be that this particular BB has a glitch?? I'm really bummed about it.

I wasn't able to leave today to go test it anywhere...(cleaning the garage ALL day, LOL) so hopefully tomorrow I'll at least get a chance to try it on another wifi. If I can get it to hook up to another one, I'll know it's the Apple airport. If I can't get it to connect anywhere well then I guess I'll assume it's the phone itself. Dang, if it is, isn't there some way to fix it?? GRRRR. Everything else on the phone works great!

[dulcimatik]

OK Now I think my BB Curve is HAUNTED. Or it's autistic or something.

Right after I typed that last reply, I picked it up and lit up the home screen, and there at the top it listed my Apple network. I checked the settings and sure enough, that sucker had gone wifi!! So then I went to the browser, and guess what? I can't get it to do anything. I get an error message "unable to connect to the Internet, please try again later". On a whim, I changed the data setting from off to on, (I don't want to be charged for that)..but I still ended up with the same error message.

What the heck do you make of this????

[raylol16]

You have your curve set to wifi preferred? Also update the firmware on your airport and make sure its the latest.

[KIMMIEK]

I thought u had to have a data package in order to use the WIFI.... I could've sworn that's what TMO told me back when I got my phone. Before I had my data package, I could detect networks and connect to them, but without the data package I wasn't able to use it. I'm not hardcore crackberry person so don't take what I say to heart. I just thought I'd chime in to see if anyone knew what I was talking about....

[dulcimatik]

My BB is set to wifi preferred. The airport has been updated as far as it can go, .. I didn't realize it was from 1999 as I bought it on ebay a couple of years ago new in the package, and it's never been an issue with several different computers and printers.

I don't pay for a data package, but I do have the ability to use pay-per-use. So even if the wifi required data usage, it would've gone online anyway. But I've read several times that the data package and the wifi are separate entities, so I don't think you need the data package to use wifi...?

The BB still has never gone back to wifi since that one time last night. I can't wait to leave the house today to test it at another free wifi spot!!

[deepsands02]

I have a similar issue with mine... I was able to connect to my wifi yesterday (not really sure how, it suddenly showed as connected on my home screen). Now I am trying to connect again and it just gets stuck on the "Connecting to..." screen.

Doesn't go anywhere from there. I have data connection turned on and wifi is preferred. Not sure what I might have changed since it last worked, pretty sure I haven't changed anything in fact.

Any idea why its getting stuck on that screen? I dont even get an error, I just have to cancel it after a while.

[dulcimatik]

Well, just an update. I just drove across town and at every red light, I scanned for networks. Guess what? My BB picked up a ton of networks. It tried to connect but since I was driving, I'm ASSUMING it couldn't connect because I was obviously driving out of the signal. So, not a pure scientific test yet, but I'm guessing my old Apple Graphite Airport could be the culprit. Tomorrow I'll go actually sit somewhere with free wifi to see if it will work. Today just was too busy!

[jidx]

I hope you can get it to work!

[bmcclure937]

I thought u had to have a data package in order to use the WIFI.... I could've sworn that's what TMO told me back when I got my phone. Before I had my data package, I could detect networks and connect to them, but without the data package I wasn't able to use it. I'm not hardcore crackberry person so don't take what I say to heart. I just thought I'd chime in to see if anyone knew what I was talking about....

TMo informed you wrongly, you do not need any sort of data plan with your Curve in order to take advantage of the WiFi for browsing and UMA calling.

Sure, you get more functionality with a full data plan and most 3rd party apps require the data plan to activate, but you don't NEED it to use WiFi.

You should be able to connect, browse and make UMA calls!!

[bmcclure937]

Well, just an update. I just drove across town and at every red light, I scanned for networks. Guess what? My BB picked up a ton of networks. It tried to connect but since I was driving, I'm ASSUMING it couldn't connect because I was obviously driving out of the signal. So, not a pure scientific test yet, but I'm guessing my old Apple Graphite Airport could be the culprit. Tomorrow I'll go actually sit somewhere with free wifi to see if it will work. Today just was too busy!

You should walk through the same route and see if you can find an open network to experiment with

Also, did you consider my suggestion with getting the Linksys router (it will drop you about 50 bucks). As a side note: who is your ISP??

A couple of other things you could also try...

1) I am not sure how to do this on your Airport, but make sure your Curve is set to have DMZ mode. (you need the IP address of your Curve and you set it to have DMZ). This opens all ports on the router for the device at that IP, ruling out any routing issues in your router. You could also manually open all of the ports for the IP of your Curve as well... (go to portforward.net for help... or you may need help from Apple on this one)

2) Go into Menu / Manage Connections / Mobile Network Options

Data Services : On
Connection Preference : WiFi Preferred (or only WiFi for testing purposes...)

Then go Menu / Manage Connections / WiFi Options

Go to all of the saved WiFi profiles and delete them all (I think a couple are defaults included on the phone for use with the official TMo router... so they cannot be removed. But get rid of all that you can)

Reset your Curve (battery pull or Alt - RShift - Del)


Go through the Set Up WiFi... Scan for Networks... and give it a fresh attempt...

We gotta get this d@mn thing working sooner or later, right?!

[dulcimatik]

How do I do the dmz mode thing? I have no idea what that means, sorry!
My ISP is Comcast Cable.
I have thought about getting a new router, however, this one works fine for all the computers and technically I didn't plan on needing to use my BB for internet at home anyway--it's for when I'm away--but I would like to know for sure it's not a problem with the device itself (BB) while I'm still in the window for a refund on ebay!
I tried the site you posted but it didn't work. Can you double check it please?
Thanks for all your ongoing help...I'm optimistic that we can get this thing working!! LOL

[dulcimatik]

Also, a thought -- I've read that some people have had luck fixing this issue by upgrading to the beta 4.5/4.3 OS. Any thoughts on this? Also, is it even possible to upgrade to that using a Mac? I actually was going to try it and downloaded it, later realizing that it was an .exe file. I was hoping PocketMac would work some magic but no go.

[bmcclure937]

Also, a thought -- I've read that some people have had luck fixing this issue by upgrading to the beta 4.5/4.3 OS. Any thoughts on this? Also, is it even possible to upgrade to that using a Mac? I actually was going to try it and downloaded it, later realizing that it was an .exe file. I was hoping PocketMac would work some magic but no go.

I am currently running OS 4.5.44... and you cannot upgrade using a Mac (unfortunately).

You mentioned before you had PCs on your network... the best bet would be to use the PC to do all of your Berry management. I am a Mac user as well (have been my whole life) and I find this frustrating!

I actually use VMWare Fusion so I can run XP Pro SP3 with Desktop Manager on it. That way I can back up my berry, restore, sync, blah blah.

I actually have great success with the OS 4.5.44 release so far. I am not sure if this would help your Berry... and I am not sure if this would also void your warranty on eBay, since you are changing device software

I do not think you need to do that in order to get your device to work. Are there any error codes associated with any of this bizarre behavior at all??

And, as a side note, I hate Comcast!! They could all burn in h*ll. haha


DMZ mode may be called something different on the Airport. In the Airport utility or config where you can change the settings there should be a way to open ports for different devices. I am not sure the ports the Berry uses... so I would open all of them... (which is the same thing DMZ mode does). I have DMZ mode turned on for my Berry on my Linksys router.


And the link was supposed to be .com

PortForward.com - Free Help Setting up Your Router or Firewall

[dulcimatik]

The Windoze (haha) computer is my SIL's and she's not here all the time. She's very pretty cautious about anyone using her laptop and is always paranoid to ever download anything, so asking her to install anything to help my BB is kind of out of the question. I'll have to hogtie someone else to do that for me out of the house. LOL
Strange. I was sitting upstairs in the bathroom while my four year old was in the tub. I looked at the screen, and what do you know, the BB was connected to the Apple network. It won't go online, says it can't access the internet and to try later. I played around with the menus and found the signal strength---which, while in the bathroom, is upstairs and across the house from the Airport base--the signal ranged from -70dBm to -90dBm and held mostly in the 80s range. When I came down near the Airport base station, the signal went down to -40dBm. I have no idea what any of this means, but does this mean something?
I went out last night to sit at a free wifi spot but the shop was closed. I drove around a neighborhood and kept scanning for open networks. Everytime I found one, it wouldn't connect, I figured I was too far away in the middle of the street? Though my Macbook Pro would've happily gone online if it detected an open network anywhere.
I'll hold off on upgrading the OS until I hear from you again! ;-)

[bmcclure937]

The OS upgrade will not necessarily fix the issue. And if you are thinking about getting a refund on eBay sooner or later, then I would not mess with the device software. You can always install the default TMo OS 4.2.2, but still.

It is promising that you can recongnize networks. The signal of -40db is pretty weak... I think you need at least -70db or something... I am not sure really. So don't even take that with a grain of salt.

I really do not know what to tell you at this point main. I am basically out of ideas. The best bet would be to use a PC, install Desktop Manager... available from RIM (latest version is 4.5).

You uses this app to manage your Berry...

You can load apps, remove apps, backup, restore, sync and upgrade your device OS with Desktop Manager. What you would do, is backup your Curve using Desktop Manager. Then you would wipe and reset your Curve (from the device you can do this... and I can walk you thru it). From there... we would restore your device with Desktop Manager. And we could see if that fixed anything.

If you wanted... we could get you running with OS 4.5.44... but that would be EVEN MORE of a headache to get all of that up and running adn then to worry about your WiFi. I am lost now... no idea.

I thought for sure at least one of those methods I told you would get your berry working for ya

[dulcimatik]

Well you have no idea how much I appreciate all your help!! The only thing I haven't done is purchase a new router. I just might do that. I just hate spending the money if it turns out the problem is the BB and not the Airport. Oh well, life is all about risk, right??!!

Thanks again for all your ideas!