I Ɛ> Sprint! Long(!).

[fr4nk1yn]

So my Wi-Fi doesn't work.
Not a big deal but sometimes I get this thing where little stuff really bugs the crap out of me.

I'm on the BB waiting list for a replacement but I decided spur of the moment to take a drive over to Sprint and drop the phone off while picking up lunch.
I walk in and the greeter asks me how she can help.

"I'm here to drop off my phone to be fixed".

She takes my name and before I can check my mail I get called.

The CS guys asks how he can help.
"I'm here to drop off my phone"
"What's wrong with it?"
"The Wi-Fi doesn't work"

He fingers the phone some takes it to one of the "advocates" behind the bulletproof glass and they're talking.
I hear: "The WI-Fi is turned off". That of course makes me LOL.
I think: "I better not LOL since these are the guys that have the choice of swapping my phone, let's not alienate them."

Now even though I heard it I never really expected him to come back and say:
"He fixed it. You had the Wi-Fi turned off. To turn it on you have to go to preferences, blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah."

So much for not alienating the CS people, yeah my mouth moves faster than my brain but it's not as bad as it used to be.
After I let him finish the whole explanation:
"Do you guys really thing I'm that stupid? I do know how to turn on the Wi-Fi. I could save you some step in your procedure".
"I didn't think you were that dumb" was the response.
"So what's it doing?"
"It won't find routers, if it does find a router the connection is unstable. It get's lost before I can even paste the password in most of the time."

Back off to the guy behind the glass.
It's taking awhile I'm walking around browsing the phones and looking at the Pré display video.
I go back to the counter and hear. "We don't have Wi-Fi, how are we going to check it?".
The guy walks over to the HTC Diamond, fingers it then to the Touch Pro.
I walk over and offer some insight: "If you don't have a router it's gonna be hard to check, Did he really tell you to try and connect to one of these phones? That's not gonna work unless you could put it into some kinda ad-hoc mode which they won't do".

He walks away with no reply, I go back to watching the stunning Pré display and now they're both over at the HTCs, One with a Diamond in hand the other with the Touch Pro. Neither having success putting them into a mode to be picked up by the Pré, thery're going between HTCs and Pré.

Back behind the bullet proof glass goes the "advocate".
"What now? Should I swap out the phone?", "How do I back up his contacts? He's going to lose all his pictures and stuff."

Again with my useful insight: "Are you going to do a partial reset? That won't delete my stuff."
"No we're going to do a full reset"
"Go ahead, don't worry about my contacts, it'll pull my contacts from web."

One full reset later I'm asked to enter my info then they're back off.
Apparently Sprint did have a router after all. It was just hiding the SSID.
Somebody unhid it and the phone is picking it up stable with 3 bars!
But they won't actually connect to it to check.

Explanation: "blah blah blah."
If I have any more problems I can come back.
But: "before I leave the area if I want I can walk over the Starbucks and connect to their free Wi-Fi to make sure it's working."
Since it's been over an hour I opt to go back to work instead.

Back at work I turn off the encryption on the router for easy access and it works!
It's all bubble gum & candy until I do a speed test. 129kbps. Wow!
A few equally bad tests and I do a Quick Test on the phone, again it fails with a "code 25".

Back to Sprint after work.
Too bad there's a line out the door and even if I wanted to wait in line, They took my name and was supposed to be holding a Pré for me, there's NO parking.
Of course the other businesses in the area have signs posted about towing people at the Sprint store so I leave.

I'll wait for Best Buy to call me now.

[kwajr]

just to point it out on the wm phones like diamond u can create an ad hoc network of course that works great as a mobile hotspot with no fees und no data limits but just thought i would point that out

[fr4nk1yn]

Yes you can.
But it takes software. Either Wi-Fi Router(?) or ICS. AND they aren't supported by Sprint which makes it even more "funny".

[kwajr]

it doesnt require sw go to settings i think its wifi then create new connection it ask what type u say computer to computer <ad hoc> and fill in nthe blanks then ur done

[fr4nk1yn]

Just checked so I wouldn't speak out of turn.
That does NOT create an adhoc connection of the phone that is discoverable by other devices.
That creates a new connection to an existing router. instead of connection automatically your doing it manually. I had to do that to connect at work with my Touch Pro.

The software changes certain registry entries to make it all happen.