[Hero, G2 Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] pjeedai:
I got my HTC Hero on Orange in the UK last week.

I am getting an issue where a normally stable wireless network will be knocked out if i connect the Hero on Wifi.

I know its not the radio - connects fine on WEP secured work network and on the open connection on the train and at McDs

I have done a fair bit of googling and RTFM and basically found lots of router specific issues on Android phones but nothing that looks like the same issue i have encountered except one on the Android community forum where no one has a solution or suggestion i havent already tried.

XDA developers was a great help with unlocking and flashing a ROM to my Trion so i thought i would amend the post i made there and see if i get any more expert opinion on here. Apologies for the length of the post - will post ROM and build numbers if that helps (and someone tells me where to look on the phone!)

Conscious this is a lenghty post (hello all!) but thought as i struggled to find anything it might help others in the same situation if i detail the issues and what i have looked at and hypothesised that i need to try to resolve this - in case anyone else has similar issues.

Netgear DGFV338 ADSL and Ethernet VPN & Firewall router.

Three wireless laptops and Sony Ericsson G900 all connect fine

Laptops run XP Pro, Windows 7 RC and a dual boot Vista/Ubuntu machine

desktops (all on gigabit backbone) run similar mix but only lose internet after router and modem have borked.

I am running this on a 20 MB Virgin connection which is usually faultless (3 years or so uptime not counting upgrades to the modem). Speed or timeout is not an issue - usually get between 12MB and 17MB DL and 700kbps UL

As soon as i connect with the Hero i can use the Wifi but briefly (one web page, start to load Market etc) - basically network detected and WPA-PSK TKIP connected, IP allocated and showing in wireless clients table of router.

I was running restricted MAC access and IP/MAC binding as i have ports open for the 360's and the Wii and want to restrict access to these devices only but removed this as part of the troubleshooting.

Shortly afterwards 20 seconds to 1 minute after connection the wifi drops - all connections lost, laptops lose connections and i lose connection to Virgin. It requires a full reboot of modem and router with the Hero off to recover a connection.

I wiped the router and all the security and all the other pcs etc work fine

then turn on hero - same story. So its not any of my more esoteric and paranoid router settings - i dont think.

Been on the Netgear forums and apart from some issues with the G1 and AES on home routers (mine is the full enterprise kit metal case) i find nada

Troubleshooting to date has narrowed it down to a couple of choices.

I know my router but i am brand new to this phone so some of this is pure guess work. One suggestion was ARP floods from multiple requests from phone getting it blocked by the firewall. Except traffic logs dont support this

Encryption support:

I use WPA PSK TKIP - this is detected as WPA Personal by the Hero but it can connect to router when i use the pass and this setting so i am working on the basis this is supported and correct.

I have read about issues with poor AES support on some routers which are fixed by a firmware update but have the same issue with other devices on AES so would prefer TKIP. So it could be encryption handling - initial connection works but error logging could crash the router if this is not working correctly

Anybody know if the WPA personal listed for connections is TKIP or AES?

I cant find any clear information on this.

Orange DNS or restricted gateway settings:

This appears to be the main symptom - i lose DNS support and therefore access to the internet. Turning off the Hero and reconnecting the laptop gives me access to the router but i need to reboot the modem to get my IP back (dynamic but changes every 12 months or so) the hypothesis is that the Orange connection in this build has the DNS hardcoded to go through their DNS servers which either Orange or Virgin systems dont like and boots my connection off the internet. Bit of a long shot but as i cant seem to find any way to fix static IP or DNS listings it could be the case as i cant switch to OpenDNS as i would to test this otherwise.

Only comes to mind as the first day with the phone (when Orange 3G was not active) i didnt have this problem - wifi on phone and laptop worked fine and both together

Bit of a longshot but the symptoms point to a DNS corruption if it isnt my router treating repeated WPA or DNS requests as a DOS attack. It could be DHCP creating errors but i can bind a MAC to specific IP to override this on the router. It sees the Hero, recognises the MAC and adds it to the restriction whitelist.

I havent checked ARP logging but that theory could pan out as its unlikely DNS would take down the router and modem - ARP or DOS lockdown could.

WiFi Channel

I run channel 11 due to neighbours wifi interference - Wii wont work at all with default channel.

I cant find the default channel information on the Hero but would assume it is 6 like most devices.

this one is strange - if it is the Wifi Channel then seeing the router should be a problem and connection shouldnt happen at all. It seems unusual to allow a connection but then crash the router as it is getting traffic on a different channel.

Could be another side effect of my routers firewall blocking suspicious traffic but seems unlikely.

As you can see a fair amount of things have been tried and i am still getting nowhere.

I need to try the encryption settings - does anyone know what the WPA setting is on the Hero and which encryption is supported/offered as standard?

I need to try changing my router back to channel 6 - does anyone know the default channel or how to change this in the Hero?

I need to try static rather than DHCP (but on the phone as already have tried forcing IP from router) - how do i get to these settings?

I need to try static DNS rather than Dynamic (router proxy of Virgin DNS)

I do have a Linksys WRT54g (three of them - one vanilla, one Sveasoft and one Tomato) which i use for outside events at work so i could swap one of those in but i suspect its a combination of Hero settings and router settings and i would like to get my main router set up (and keep the 8 ports) than swap back to the older WRTs and have to set up my Xbox 360s to get around the issue they have with being on a switch with a different subnet and not connecting to Windows 7 media centre

Basically i have tried most of the things i can try with the access i have on the phone and my knowledge of its default settings. What apps can i try to give me control of the networking and access section?

Otherwise, loving the phone. Better than the reviews and whilst not lightning fast its a damn sight quicker than an overclocked Trion i was running before (which worked fine on the same router and WPA Personal)

I am liking Android, glad to not be locked into the Apple tax/ecosystem and realising that WinMo has a looong way to come; even with the help HTC and xda developers offer to make better use of the hardware.

But i am heavy internet user and i cannot risk running my Hero at home on 3g when i have 500MB cap and a £3 a MB over limit charge with no notice from Orange to say i am near limits.

Any ideas? feedback? similar tales of woe?