ere's another one - it bit me just the other day.
- I was at a restaurant that offered a free HotSpot. (although
exactly the same scenario would apply if I was staying at many hotels,
or at an airport, or any number of other locations that offer "free"
WiFi)
- I told my phone to connect to the HotSpot. It attached to the AP
and got an IP address.
- At that point the phone "preferred" to use WiFi - even though all I
was able to see was the login page for the WiFi service.
- Suddenly my app is unable to communicate with servers - I had to
disable WiFi to get it to use the cellular network.
Now, you could argue that all I needed to do was open my browser and
accept the terms of the HotSpot and I'd have access to (at least some)
data services, but:
1) What if my app doesn't connect using a "well known" port? (i.e.
one that the HotSpot will *probably* allow... HTTP/S, IMAP, SMTP,
POP3)
2) What if my application communicates with my carriers servers which
are inside their walled-garden, and for obvious reasons are only
accessible via the cellular network?
3) What if the AP's internet connection is down?
I suggest that Android be extended to allow an application to specify
(and this is only a start) whether it wishes to take advantage of WiFi
should it be available. That would allow an application to choose to
"pass" on a WiFi connection and continue to use cellular data.
(obviously the default would be the status quo)
Its not like you'd be leading in this area - many (most?) of the other
mobile platforms allow an app (either programmatically or via
configuration) to specify which data services it will use - regardless
of the presence of other options.
Doug
On Feb 2, 9:35 pm, Kevin Duffey <andjar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > >