How To Use Wifi On Your Blackberry

Most BlackBerry models come with Wifi capabilities. By connecting your BlackBerry to a Wifi network (at home, office or on the road) you will be able to send email and surf the net with out using your telephone carrier’s data plan, and this could save you money.  There are many locations around most cities that offer “free Wifi hotspots”…so you can take advantage of these opportunities to save on your data plan. Here are the basic steps to setting up a Wifi connection on your device:

• Click on the Manage Connections Folder which should be on your BlackBerry main screen;
• Click on “Set Up Wifi Network”;
• Click on “Scan For Networks” – if prompted click on “Turn Wifi On” to perform the scan. Your BlackBerry will now scan for available Wifi networks and will list all available Wifi networks. Select the Wifi network you want to connect to;
• Choose the “Security Type” from the drop down menu (most common is Pre-Shared Key), then enter the network security key and click “Connect”.  You may come across Wifi networks that are unsecured and do not require a network key to access;
• Click “Yes” to save the Wifi network as a profile..this will enable you to easily and automatically connect to that same Wifi network the next time you are in range of it;

I keep my Wifi on all the time so I can quickly connect to my saved Wifi networks.  As I enter range of a Wifi network that I have previously saved, I get a pop-up asking me to join that particular Wifi network. This makes it simple to maximize my Wifi use and to minimize my use of my carrier data plan.

We have done extensive testing on BlackBerry Battery use, and we found that keeping the Wifi on all the time had no significant affect on BlackBerry battery drain.

Please let us know about your experience with Wifi on your BlackBerry. Do you use it a lot? Do you keep it on all the time? Have you noticed battery drain when keeping the Wifi on all the time?