How can I tell which ​communicati​on system is being used on my WP7?

I've got a Windows Phone, now with Mango (yeah!) on it.  At home I have it set up to use my WiFi, and of course I also have it setup to use WiFi in other locations, like my local Starbucks, etc.

How can I tell if it's using WiFi, or 3G?  For example, if I wanted to stream a movie on Netflix on my phone, and I'm home, how do I know it's using the WiFi and not my 3G connection?  Generally speaking, how do I know which transport protocol is being used to do whatever it is I'm trying to do with my phone?

I think WiFi takes priority when you have both WiFi and 3G connection.

As long as the WiFi icon is bright (not gray out) you are using WiFi. But you need wireless when you try to make a purchase, not exploring apps, when you purchase app. At least that's what happened to me when I turn off wireless.

1 hour ago, magicalclick wrote

As long as the WiFi icon is bright (not gray out) you are using WiFi. But you need wireless when you try to make a purchase, not exploring apps, when you purchase app. At least that's what happened to me when I turn off wireless.

OK, I guess that makes sense.  So, using an app, if the WiFi is bold, then I'm likely using that, rather than 3G.  But purchasing apps requires 3G.  It's nice that using the apps only require WiFi.

Thanks.

No, you can purchase apps on 3G just fine, but there is a limit (I think 10 or 20Mb) so you don't blow up your data quota. If you buy a large app on 3G, it will finish downloading once you're back on wifi or connected to your computer.

With wireless sync, if you don't download large apps you should never need a computer (well, except for synching photos back to the pc, I hope that gets implemented one day)

@PaoloM:

I need to clarify. I said purchas app, not, download app. That's an action before the download starts.  the download will stuck in pending when I had wireless turned off. Clarify, that's before download starts.

I have a Windows Phone that I don't have on a plan and keep in airplane mode. I can make purchases and download apps over WiFi just fine.

On my other phone, I've purchased and downloaded apps over 3G while out and about.

So in my experience, there doesn't seem to be any kind of connection requirement for purchasing or downloading apps.

@cbae:

I should try it again. I wasn't able buy stuff when I was only WiFi.

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I think that's my own network problem. I was able to buy apps by directly connecting to router through wifi.

I was doing something crazy with my PC network sharing and it wasn't working perfectly. I have my PC wifi working as receiver + lan share + wifi share. Not working as good as I expected.