Phone hangs on Wifi and causes other Wifi devices to also hang

[Hunter1428]

Hey all,

 

I really hope someone can help me with my problem because it's driving my crazy, my last phone had this problem and now suddenly my new one and it's driving me crazy! 

 

Problem:

My phone hangs on home Wifi's and can cause other Wifi devices to also slow down completely. (Only WIFI devices are affected)

For example, I could be scrolling google or watching youtube and suddenly my phone will hang (Aka images/content will stop loading) for a few seconds and then it will catch up. This always happens within a few minutes of using my phone. Other devices are also affected and I have noticed it at my home in the UK with no difference (Currently live abroad).

 

Note: At my company Wifi I have no problem. But I have experienced it at other peoples houses, everyone will then tell me to get off my phone.. legit that's how bad this is!

That or I'm really going insane over this!

 

Device / OS Version

Samsung A52s 5G / Android 13

 

What I have tried:

1. Getting a new phone. (My new phone started experiencing the same issues after 1 year, aka a few software updates. Old phone was a Sony Xperia XA1)
2. Factory Reset Router/Modem.
3. Factory Reset Phone.
4. Turned Phone and On and Off.
5. Turned Router/Modem On and Off.
6. Forgot Network on Phone.
7. Stood next to the Router/Modem.
8. Tried a different phone web browser.
9. Googling. I cannot seem to find anyone who has the same problem. 
10. Monitoring my PC directly connected to network to see if it experiences the issue when it occurs on  my phone. It does not.

 

[E-waste]

This I just do not believe.  Have you ever mentioned this to others, so they have the idea that your phone will take down the wireless connection, so now they assume their wifi issues are actually caused by your device?

 

That is the only way I see this happening.  Did this also happen with the Sony device?

 

Have you tried using a different DNS?  DNS is usually by default (all website name / domain requests) sent directly to anyone's ISP (Internet service provider) or on some devices, set to Google's servers with 8.8.8.8 (which is a privacy nightmare).

 

9.9.9.9 Quad9 is based in sweden and follows strict privacy laws, and even Sony is highlighting it.  Cloudflare is another option,

1.1.1.1 and is currently the world's fastest DNS resolution service, but NOTHING is faster than a locally cached IP address, otherwise, your devices will always reqyest the IP for any domain every 175 seconds.  The developers of the Unbound DNS program recommend caching DNS addresses for at least one day, up to three days.

 

To see all network activity on your device even with stock android, download RethinkDNS which is in active development and has a lot of ways to block IP addresses, and apps completely.  What it CANNOT do, is block ANY domain names.

 

This is not possible with stock android.  First, the website or domain name request MUST be resolved to an IP address, regardless if you set RethinkDNS to block a domain, it doesn't matter.  Android prevents this.  But, once the IP address is returned from the DNS provider, it can then block that IP address.

 

You can use a DNS provider such as NextDNS to block these at their servers, and you have control over what is allowed and denied connection, using a cloud-managed account.  It is much easier to setup vs Pi-Hole in virtualbox, but if you are very technical, it will be easy.

 

RethinkDNS logs (locally on your device) all IP addresses (in firewall section) and all domain/website name requests (DNS logs) in the program until you choose to clear them.

 

It also has DNS caching built in, so if it all works as expected, and pi-hole on your local network or NextDNS has already blocked a domain, that should be cached to 0.0.0.0 and not be requested remotely again for a while.

 

You could have a poorly designed program hogging the network--especially if this is on two different devices, multiple networks, and multiple factory resets, you MUST be installing some app that is causing this issue, so you may want to figure out what app it is.

 

Lastly, you could also use

 

http://wireshark.org/

Once installed on your computer, click the listing with network acticity that you usually use, and start a capture.

 

To filter the list immensely, simply type

 

dns (and press enter)

 

into the filter box and you will only see port 53 or website requests for the network, making the information a more reasonable amount to process.

 

Also click view, and resolve IP addresses, so that the website numbers become website names instead.  There are more options for this in the preferences, and name resolution section.

 

This lets you see the same information as RethinkDNS but in much more detail, and for the entire network you are connected, even if it is someone else's wireless, once you are connected to a network, this gives you full access to all network activity so you can get down to the root cause.

 

Also, when these pauses occur, you should probably stop the network capture shortly after, so it's not a gigantic list of activity to look through.