Are you using a 2.4 or 5 Ghz network, or both, at home. I'm beginning to suspect that an issue with DNS resolution on a wifi network might be caused by poor wifi performance between the modem / router and the remote device. No proof at this point, just a thought that comes to mind. This would be dependant on the wifi environment that the cellphones are operating in. So that brings on the question of what your wifi environment look like?
Try this, just to see what turns up. Load inSSIDer on your laptop, which is a wifi monitoring application. When loaded on a dual band laptop, inSSIDer will monitor both 2.4 and 5 Ghz networks that can be detected by your laptop. Have a look to see what you're competing with in both bands. In a suburban area, the 2.4 Ghz band is usually pretty crowded and tough to work in. Usually the 5 Ghz band is less crowded and easier to find a clear channel. After you have a look at the display, you might be able to determine if there are any 2.4 or 5 Ghz channels that are not in use, or offer less interference. Thats usually pretty tough with 2.4. Ghz channels as the only channels that don't overlap with each other is 1, 6, and 11. As a result, everyone tries to use those channels. The program link below is for the last freebie version. It doesn't display the 802.11ac networks in use in the 5 Ghz band. There is a newer licenced version out now that will handle 802.11ac networks, and which will work on a 802.11n laptop. The new version will read the broadcast management frames and display the 802.11ac networks that are running in the 5 Ghz band. If you use 5 Ghz networks, its worth the $20 U.S. to buy, so that you can see all of the 5 Ghz networks that are in use.
http://www.techspot.com/downloads/5936-inssider.html
What you want to see on the graphical display is that your network is the highest network shown, which indicates that it has the highest received power of all the received networks. Generally you want somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 45 dBmW separation between your network and any other network that is on the same or overlapping channel. So, while your network should be the tallest on the display, everything else should be well below yours. The scale on the display has 0 dBmW at the top, and it then descends from there. When the power level separation between networks decreases, you end up with interference and possibly with problems maintaining a wifi network. Your only option is to change to a channel with less overlap from the competition. By looking at that display you might conclude that the 2.4 Ghz band is hopeless and that its time to move up to the 5 Ghz band, if you can. If you have devices already running in the 5 Ghz band, change your operating channel to 149 or higher. If you can switch to any of those channels, do so, as the output power for those channels is higher, resulting in better signal levels, signal to noise ratios and data rates.
So, with inSSIDer loaded on your laptop, take a walk around your home. Take a look at the display when you're close to the modem, and where you normally use your laptop or cellphones. Essentially, you're doing a site survey. It takes about three to four minutes for the display to settle out when you move around and stop in a location somewhere. You should see some differences in the received network power levels as you move around your home, both for your own network, and those of your neighbors.
If you need any help figuring out the displayed data, you can take a screenshot of the inSSIDer display, dump it into something like Microsoft paint and wipe out your MAC address from the text and display area and then save it. Insert it into a post so I can have a look at it if you need help with the interpretation. With the info provided by the inSSIDer display it will be easier to determine what the problem might be.
I used the inssider to look at the networks.
By the way, the problem is not that my phones cannot connect to my home wifi, it is that they cannot get any internet sites to come up - it says 'cannot resolve host name'. Also, my computers work fine on the network, just the phones have trouble.
Here is a screen shot of inssider:
I hope you can figure out what is wrong
Thanks
@jimcoo, can you delete the image from your post as it contains the modem's MAC address in the text listing on the left hand side.
1. Do the Blackberry's connect on the 5 Ghz or 2.4. Ghz networks?
2. Is there a provision in the Blackberry operating system to specify a DNS server address as there is in the Windows Operating system. I wonder if one can't force the phones to use a designated DNS server.
3. You could try the following to see if it makes any difference, and that is to use a DNS server for your whole network, other than Rogers DNS. To do that log into the modem and navigate to the BASIC .... DNS page. Change the "Lan DNS Obtain" from Auto to Manual. The page layout will change when you do that. At this point you have a choice of what DNS server you want to use. Two of the popular servers are Google and OpenDNS. I use OpenDNS. Here's the server addresses:
Google: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
OpenDNS: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220
Enter either pair into the primary and secondary DNS fields. You can also use a combination of both if you prefer, or use your own DNS. Save the settings when complete.
Then, just to check, navigate back to the STATUS page and determine what Software Version (Firmware) is indicated on that page. Please let me know what it is. Also, have a look at the WAN IP address in the upper right hand corner. There should be two addresses there, one IPV4 and one much longer ugly looking IPV6 address. I don't want to know what they are, just if both are present.
Then Navigate to ADMIN .... DEVICE RESET and Reboot the modem.
Please let me know if that resolves anything. Even if it doesn't, you can leave the DNS as is, thats your choice.
When you have time, and you are logged into the site, left click on your personal icon at the upper right hand side of the page to bring up the pop-up menu. Select Profile and then on the lower right, select "View Images for jimcoo" to bring up the image library. Select the inSSIDer image and delete it from the library, so that it can't be seen by anyone after the deletion.
@jimcoo, here's a stab in the dark, so to speak. Can you drill down into the Blackberry's wifi settings, as if you were going to manually connect to a wifi network and let me know what is available under the selectable security type. Doing some reading across the net, it looks like at some point in time the Blackberry's supported WPA TKIP only, not WPA AES. I somehow can't imagine that the current wifi security state of affairs for Blackberry is still that ancient but I can't find details of the security type setting anywhere.
In the modems Firmware V4.5.8.22, with the Security Mode set to WPA-Personal, the choices under the Authentication mode are: WPA, WPA2-PSK, or Auto (WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK). The Encryption Mode's only choice is AES.
So, a couple of items come up here. To Support the Blackberrys, the modem's Wifi Security Mode should be set to WPA-Personal, the Authentication mode set to Auto (WPA-PSK or WPA2-PSK). The remaining question is the Encrypt Mode. If the Blackberrys only support TKIP, which I find hard to believe, then you can't use WPA-Personal for the security setting for the modem. Rogers has removed TKIP as a selection in V4.5.8.22, and possibly 4.5.8.21 as well, just speculating on version .21. Thats a move that I whole heartedly support. The alternate choice so support the Blackberrys would be WEP, which is not secure and which I would never recommend to anyone.
So, if you can find out what settings are available for the Blackberrys, maybe we can make some sense of this. The problem with selectable encryption in the remote device is that you can select a security mode that doesn't match the modem/router setting and therefore unintentionally lock yourself out of using the wifi network with the Blackberry.
As I said up top, a shot in the dark, but, worth doing a quick check.
Have a look at the following thread as well:
Now that is frustrating. Make a change and a day or two later it works!! grrr ..... I suspect that Rogers has made some backoffice changes that fixed the situation...
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