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How good/bad is the WiFi built into the Exec? Is the range/strength as good as a laptop would be?
IMHO it's nowhere near as good as my laptop.
My WiFi access point is downstairs raised on a shelf 1m below the ceiling of my office. When I'm lying in bed on the first floor of the house I'm about 6m away from the access point. The signal has to pass through two hollow wooden walls, a wooden floor and my wooden bedside cabinet. My Exec can see the signal but can't connect to it. My laptop has no problem at all and never drops its signal.
In the lounge I'm ~15m away from the access point and 3 walls away. WiFi on Exec is unreliable. Laptop is fine.
Not good. Battery was at 40% when I was trying this last night and 30% this morning. Don't know whether this makes a difference.
It'd help if I knew where the Exec's antenna is. In my laptop it's in the top corner of the screen so it's always raised nice and high off the desk away from any objects. Where is it in the Exec?
Argh, that's terrible...why can't these designers just get it right? Sure it's smaller than a laptop, but so is a SD WiFi card...which brings me to my next question.
How does the built-in WiFi compare to an SD WiFi card?
I have a JJ and a Nokia 9500. The Nokia's WiFi seems a little more sensitive but I think it operates at a lower data rate. I tested this at my local McDonalds by sitiing in the same place and using the JJ and Nokia and the Nokia picked-up the weak BT Openzone signal but the JJ did not.
One of the problems with wifi is the haphazard nature of the effect the building has on the signal. I'm typing this on my xda exec on the first floor. My wifi router (a cheap chinese Origo) is two floors below in the cellar, through at least 1 radiator and a thick brick wall. I had to add a 5db antenna (ebay about £10) to get my laptop on there about 6 months ago, but that's fine with the xda. Remember after all that you're more likely to be using the xda for lighter stuff than your laptop anyway - ok, I haven't tried skype yet. The point is you might find that unacceptable speeds for your laptop are fine with you xda.
I was really looking forward to using my XDA Exec with Skype and internet streaming radio. What sort of speeds do you get when up close to the WiFi access point?
jah said:
I have a JJ and a Nokia 9500. The Nokia's WiFi seems a little more sensitive but I think it operates at a lower data rate. I tested this at my local McDonalds by sitiing in the same place and using the JJ and Nokia and the Nokia picked-up the weak BT Openzone signal but the JJ did not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep... can't agree more:My 9500 is far more sensitive but is unacceptably slow, so useless.
I did set the JJ Wireless settings/powermode to "best performance" But I have the same frustrations: not always connect. Where my Portege gives me a :"good" or "very good"
Same problems with bluetooth, but I will never do my JJ away though.
Huib
Mart said:
I was really looking forward to using my XDA Exec with Skype and internet streaming radio. What sort of speeds do you get when up close to the WiFi access point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know if there is an app that will tell me exact speeds as I test? I'm a bit hesitant about giving subjective impressions. If there's no app, pick a streaming radio station and I'll stream it for 10 - 15 minutes and tell you how many times it dropped and at what distance. Will that help?
I am a tad torn:
Things the A500 does well-
1. Build
2. USB host
3. Display (sans the extreme angles) holds up IMO to IPS displays for color and brightness.
4. Most of the apps are not shallow bloatware, compared to other devices.
5. Rooting is mega easy
6. UI and response of display
7. Battery life
8. Seems efficient in sleep mode
9. Great sound quality for a tablet
Still, the one major area for me is the wifi. Things the A500 does not do well:
1. Reception is the weakest of any of my devices except the sucktastic' Archos A5. My gTablet blows the A500 away for range and stability of connection.
2. No adhoc (why do OEMs keep screwing this up?) the only way to get it for now is risking hosing the device through modding. Most users would like it to work without that risk.
3. A brand new highly pushed device (most main retailers are going to carry it) Honeycomb tablet with no 5ghz support?!
4. The wifi seems to toggle with signal strength, since it will go from one to two bars and then disconnect and reconnect. I wonder if there is a kernel issue and screwed up power management?
It seems the other stuff on the A500 works so well, it makes the wifi stick out like a VERY sore thumb.
I have tested two routers with very good ratings for range and work well even with my weak N900 (another weak wifi radio device). My router is in my basement due to my office, but in an open and central area to upstairs. A PS3, 360, Wii, three laptops, gTablet, PSP, Droid 1, Incredible and iPod 4 all work fine and maintain connection upstairs. Upstairs, I have to be nearly above the router to get a good and stable signal with the A500.
added:
The A500 seems to need a mW level increase with the wifi radio.
I have a Netgear WNDR3700 and have very good signal .. router on 2nd fl and signal is good downstairs.. it's a more expenisve router but very good and you can load DD-WRT if you want, but the FW with it is very nice..
i don't get it.... i had a gtablet for 7 days and it's wifi sucked compared to my a500, which seems to be the opposite to what everyone else is saying.
granted, the gtab and iconia's wifi both suck compared to my archos 101's wifi, but i like the a500 so much better overall.
Wifi is GREAT here. I have a WRT610N.
Hmm. A few of us here so far aren't having problems. It's probably your unit.
In my case it's around the same power as the GTablet. I live in a 2k sq ft. apt and I get -1 bars at the farthest point from the router in my apt. The problem with increasing the transmit or receive power too much is that you get unnecessary drain on the battery...same thing with adding 5ghz support.
5ghz is also a pretty troublesome bandwidth. My phone is dual band and has trouble with SO many wifi n 5ghz networks. Even on mine as the only device using it currently, it works like night and day between 2 different firmware revisions, likely because of interference and overlaps with other people's wifi and how each fw. handled it.
People think wifi n 5 is better than 2.4 but in fact it's only better when there are very few people using it. Not only does it give you less range, but it's also more prone to interference than 2.4 or G. 2.4 N is a pretty strong balance and as long as you aren't forcing 300Mbps mode (channel bonding), I really don't understand why you're getting such a weak signal or disconnects. Wifi N is great for performance when it works how it's supposed to. It has a lower floor for noise and a wider spectrum but all in all, it's not worth the trouble (if you have any). 2.4 at least works in a more solid fashion, interference or not. I think this is why many suppliers just choose to stick with it vs. dual. Though I agree it's VERY nice to have the option. But necessary? Nah.
Try exchanging it. I don't think 'weak wifi' is general of the a500s.
No probs with wifi works all over the house no worries.
Personally my biggest gripe is the length of the power lead, shockingly short what would it have cost them to add 4 feet of wire to make it more usable. My vega has fantastic cable length...
________________________________________________________________________
ZTE Blade - Rooted OC 729mh - CM7 RC2 V/nice
Advent Vega - Rooted OC 1.4gh - Corvos5 rom gorgeous smoooth and qqquick
Iconia A500 - Rooted - HComb Sweet
i too have great wifi connection...my house is over 3,000 sqft and is made of concrete and brick. i use a cicso valet wireless n router and have at least two bars of signal when my tab is on one end of the house and router is on the other end. it has a better signal then my gtab, droidx, and the wifes new iphone 4. not sure why you are having issues as my tab has nevrr even lost connection once since the day i bought it. if you already have played with the settings on your router you might want to consider that you have a faulty wifi module in your tab.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App
I have a linksys wrt610n in my basement. My wife gets very good wifi connection all through the house and even on the 2nd floor. On top of that she gets a good connection on the front porch and back patio outside.
Wifi is as good as my ipad and iphone with this device. It never drops and works all throughout the house and yard. Posting from from front porch right now. On wifi analyzer I am picking up networks several houses away.
So maybe a bum radio then?......
I have the Netgear WNR3500L router and, believe me, the A500 finds the signal everywhere in my 2500 sqft house. I actually had more trouble with my g tablet whenever it went to sleep. Wifi would disconnect and then reconnect constantly even if I set it to "Never Sleep" in the settings.
WiFi is great for me, too. I can go outside, across my yard with no apparent signal loss.
My first A500 must have had a wifi issue, since not having the problem with my second one. Strange.
I now have also moved my router to a more central location (out of basement) so all of my devices have a good signal. I was should have done this a long time ago. Apathy I tell ya!
Had the same problem with my Acer Netbook. Had to replace the card inside with one from eBay. I am not surprised this is an issue for some of us.
I wasn't too pleased with their customer service then and I don't expect this problem to be fixed with software.
Only problem for my A500 was in my bedroom where I get 1 bar on my PCs and notebooks, and even my Droid has some issues. So I set up a range extender and have no issues anywhere in the house now.
At work and out on the road I've had no problems with hotspots anywhere.
I got online and foudn a guide on how to tweak my Dlinik router for best performance.
I changed the security to WPA2 and st it to the best channel according to the WiFi Analyzer app on the Market.
I then made sure that only N or N/G was set and allowed for a wider band (40/20 mhz?)
Don't choose channel 1 as it can interfere or be interfered with other wireless radios being too close to that channel.
Can't remembered if I did anything else but I now can have the tablet up two floors and I maintain the signal.
Looks like its a keeper after all.
decent wifi signal
I'm on mynsecond a500 after returning one due to a bad hdmi connector. Wifi has been okay on both. Mostly two and three bars and only down two one bar when outside and farthest away from the router.
In fact right now I have two bars and am connected and posting from the a500 in a hotel. It has the same signal strength as my laptop.
My problem was not the signal as much as the stability of it. If three to four bars, the connection was stable and did not lose connection. One to two bars was very unstable and would cut out about every five minutes or so, when tested with a few routers.
The second A500 is stable at low bar signals.
Hi there
I found a BIG limitation in the SG II Wifi.
The problem is that: the Wifi class on the SG II is N but each time you try to put it online, getting a signal from your router, your MAX wifi speed connection will be ALWAYS at 65mb/s
(off course my router support WiFi N and i perform a check also on other routers from friends of mine having, finally, the same result)
Now i'm running the custom rom from LitePro (K8 kernel based) and this problem still there.
I presume it is only a software limitation and not an hardware limitation.
Can someone find a solution? Is it maybe necessary to modify the apks that make the Wifi work like we did with the camera sound?
Borg3D5 said:
Hi there
I found a BIG limitation in the SG II Wifi.
The problem is that: the Wifi class on the SG II is N but each time you try to put it online, getting a signal from your router, your MAX wifi speed connection will be ALWAYS at 65mb/s
(off course my router support WiFi N and i perform a check also on other routers from friends of mine having, finally, the same result)
Now i'm running the custom rom from LitePro (K8 kernel based) and this problem still there.
I presume it is only a software limitation and not an hardware limitation.
Can someone find a solution? Is it maybe necessary to modify the apks that make the Wifi work like we did with the camera sound?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. How are you calculating the connection speed?
@wifi-settings, click on the connected network and the shown mbit's will never be over 65... And in the app: overlook fing (nice network tool) will say the same.
Why would you need 600 Mbps on a mobile phone?
I have an dual N band router too but seriously on my phone I don't see the point of more them 20 mbps...
jaapschaap said:
@wifi-settings, click on the connected network and the shown mbit's will never be over 65... And in the app: overlook fing (nice network tool) will say the same.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, exactly
Mew178 said:
Why would you need 600 Mbps on a mobile phone?
I have an dual N band router too but seriously on my phone I don't see the point of more them 20 mbps...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not?
If i pay a phone 600 euros and who made it tell me that the Wifi is N so i WANT a WiFi N because my money are real money, not charms
I a lot more concerned with battery life and wifi range on my G2 then how fast it goes
I noticed when I use G instead of N the range seems be increase.
Mew178 said:
I a lot more concerned with battery life and wifi range on my G2 then how fast it goes
I noticed when I use G instead of N the range seems be increase.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunatly i think that the battery problem is a tecnology problem: you have what you can have from this kind of tecnology, we can just make it a bit better but to have a reasonable time of charge we need a new kind of battery tecnology, compared to what the actual phone SLCD and Amoled screens ask to work .
Make sure you are on a channel without other APs.
To the OP, find an Android mobile phone that connects at a higher data speed than 65-72 Mbps and then come back with another dramatic thread.
Can you guys please do some research before making these dramatic threads?
Have u guys seen any difference in real life use ?
Forget about the numbers .
I always do video chats and works great.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Borg3D5 said:
Hi there
I found a BIG limitation in the SG II Wifi.
The problem is that: the Wifi class on the SG II is N but each time you try to put it online, getting a signal from your router, your MAX wifi speed connection will be ALWAYS at 65mb/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the expected speed of 802.11n on a small device.
QAM-64 modulation delivers at most 65-72Mbit/s on devices without MIMO. A cell phone will not have MIMO capability for cost and size reasons (requires several antennas).
No vendor provides MIMO wifi chips for cell-phone usage, so even if you tried you would get rotten battery life and a huge cell phone as the MIMO chipsets are designed for having mains power or laptop batteries, and the antennas need physical separation.
This assumes 20 MHz channel. 11n does allow for a 40MHz channel, but you will never get this in practice on the 2.4GHz band as the standard requires devices to look for interferers in the band and back off to 20MHz channel for a long time if they see any. Given how crowded the 2.4GHz band is you will always see interferers hence you will always be forced to use 20MHz channels.
Search for 802.11n-2009 on wikipedia. (I'd post the link but the forum will not allow it)
Nevermind wifi speed. I used to get good signal sat in bed with my sgs 1. With this one I get 1 bar or no connection at all. Sometimes if i turn the phone I get enough for it to resume a download.
Fair enough 1 bar gives suffient speed but it drops completely
I've tried playing with channels, changing n/g to just g etc but the signal is just weak. Nothing changed with my router, my old phone got 2/3 bar signal, my wife's HTC desire gets 2. The laptop full bars.
I'm hoping this will be fixed in a firmware update some time.
Shame cus otherwise I love this phone. (Although bit miffed with Yamaha instead of wolfsen sound, hope they release version with wolfsen. Or sgs3 )
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
65mb is more then u need in a phone wouldnt you think plus range like other have said is more important
Borg3D5 said:
Why not?
If i pay a phone 600 euros and who made it tell me that the Wifi is N so i WANT a WiFi N because my money are real money, not charms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well in theory you should get better range with n chipset (though some are reporting the opposite!)
So you pay more money to get N and with it better range and slightly better throughput than G ?
skibadee said:
Nevermind wifi speed. I used to get good signal sat in bed with my sgs 1. With this one I get 1 bar or no connection at all. Sometimes if i turn the phone I get enough for it to resume a download.
Fair enough 1 bar gives suffient speed but it drops completely
I've tried playing with channels, changing n/g to just g etc but the signal is just weak. Nothing changed with my router, my old phone got 2/3 bar signal, my wife's HTC desire gets 2. The laptop full bars.
I'm hoping this will be fixed in a firmware update some time.
Shame cus otherwise I love this phone. (Although bit miffed with Yamaha instead of wolfsen sound, hope they release version with wolfsen. Or sgs3 )
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same with me. Witn iPhone 4 I had 2 bars and good connection, with SGS2 I am forced to switch off wifi and using 3G instead, because no more than one bar of signal and I can't open any web page. I just ordered Netgear WN3000 repeater and I hope it will help me to increase the signal, but I will have more antennas in my bedroom to frying my small brain
Manafa said:
Same with me. Witn iPhone 4 I had 2 bars and good connection, with SGS2 I am forced to switch off wifi and using 3G instead, because no more than one bar of signal and I can't open any web page. I just ordered Netgear WN3000 repeater and I hope it will help me to increase the signal, but I will have more antennas in my bedroom to frying my small brain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here!!!!!
I'm next to my router and I get 3/4 !!!!!
It's really a problem! I used to have signal in some areas, whereas now with GS II I get no signal at all
Manafa said:
Same with me. Witn iPhone 4 I had 2 bars and good connection, with SGS2 I am forced to switch off wifi and using 3G instead, because no more than one bar of signal and I can't open any web page. I just ordered Netgear WN3000 repeater and I hope it will help me to increase the signal, but I will have more antennas in my bedroom to frying my small brain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my experience is different from yours. I get slightly better wifi reception than my captivate with wndr3700 router
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
I don't think the graphical representation on the notification bar is important. I've got better reception on my G router than I have with my htc hero.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
i dont see how this is such a big limitation. if youre gonna be that upset and nit picky about a device, then any phone u get thats worth any amount of money wont satisfy you.
Is it just me or do you find the wifi strength to be really poor?
My friend was at my house last night and his htc incredible said full signal and mine said 1 bar
Does software affect anything?
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Nope but the signal strength is poorly indicated bars mean little if you have no bars and full strength signal .
Use speedtest.net to measure .
jje
Yes I also noticed that when the signal is poor but the device is connected, the connection is blend but solid..
But the GS2 receiver is 1/3 than the receiver of the desire HD
I noticed some improvement with KF2 baseband imho the best receiver and the minor battery drainer for the device
for me its working fine. No issues
chaplu said:
for me its working fine. No issues
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't say "issue" but that i've noticed that the power of the GS2 wifi receiver is minor in confront of the DesireHD receiver
Imho it is the only sin of this fanstastic, strongest device
Yeah, I also have poor wi-fi signal, regularly 1 or 2 bars less than iphone 4 or even my old htc desire. Sometimes this will happen even if I stand barely 2 feet away from the router. But the connection is always solid, when it's there.
adem_7 said:
Yeah, I also have poor wi-fi signal, regularly 1 or 2 bars less than iphone 4 or even my old htc desire. Sometimes this will happen even if I stand barely 2 feet away from the router. But the connection is always solid, when it's there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right....if the connection start, don't worry is will be rock solid
But, often the problem is catch the connection when the signal is poor
Agree on this. Mine showing 2 bars but i cant browse or it is slow as hell. On desire no problem at all.
Nuked from Galaxy S II conquered by VillainROM v2.1.0
Well as long as it works (mine does, flawlessly), I really couldn't care less about how many bars are displayed.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
The wifi strenght sucks on my SGII too..
I was used to surf from my room , even with my iPod touch 3g (only B/G), but the SGII takes just one bar of signal and doesen't work, and that's strange considering that it supports B/G/N...
Well,it's a little crappy compared to the Desire HD admitedly,but meh,whatever.The final result is the same.The Desire HD has had the best wifi receiver among all my phones by the way,so we aren't comparing the S2 with some ****ty phone.
It puzzles me everytime I see one of these threads. I find the WiFi reception on the device to be great, much better than my last handset, Desire HD. The DHD would struggle to hold a connection in the rear bedroom of my last house, which was at the opposite end of the house to the router. It was so bad I had to use Connectify.me as a bridge via my laptop! The SGS2 would hold a connection without issue, even going out into the rear garden, something my N1 could not achieve. I'm stumped as to why some people really struggle with the signal strength on WiFi.
Regards.
Most of the the time my SGS2 show 1 out of 4 bars, even when i'm very close to wi-fi access point, however i woudn't say that the connection is worse comparing to when I have 4 bars. Probably this is a software issue...
should hope dev improve this. my Desire still can get the signal even if i'm outside of my house, and while reversing the car going out through the gate, it still catch the signal. GS2 didnt get this kind of reception, but it is fast once it does get reception.
I used to have the same Wi-Fi problems with my Galaxy S2 having little or no reception while all my other devices were working fine.
I fixed the problem by setting my phone to use static IP at all times when connected to the wireless network.
To do this go to:
Wireless and network > Wi-Fi Settings > Advanced (menu button)
Then check "Use static IP" and fill in the network details.
Ever since I did that, I have been getting at least three bars signal at all times and had no problems getting a connection inside or outside the house. I reckon it's a bug with the android firmware itself (I'm using rooted stock 2.3.3 KF3 btw). That or it hates my D-Link router.
ADropBear said:
I used to have the same Wi-Fi problems with my Galaxy S2 having little or no reception while all my other devices were working fine.
I fixed the problem by setting my phone to use static IP at all times when connected to the wireless network.
To do this go to:
Wireless and network > Wi-Fi Settings > Advanced (menu button)
Then check "Use static IP" and fill in the network details.
Ever since I did that, I have been getting at least three bars signal at all times and had no problems getting a connection inside or outside the house. I reckon it's a bug with the android firmware itself (I'm using rooted stock 2.3.3 KF3 btw). That or it hates my D-Link router.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try this when I'm at home mate and I'll report back
Cheers
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Just tested KG2 modem and its giving a much stronger signal at what was the extremes of range for other modems . Signal not wifi indicator .
jje
Im less than 2 meters away from the router and it indicates 2 bars of 3!! I had better indicators for the previos phones
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
JJEgan said:
Just tested KG2 modem and its giving a much stronger signal at what was the extremes of range for other modems . Signal not wifi indicator .
jje
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm this JJe.
Also,lynxboy,something must have been wrong with your Desire HD.Currently,the S2 is the second best phone I've had in terms of connectivity,but my DHD is on a level of its own.It sometimes even beats my laptop and doesn't lose connection no matter how I hold it.I never believed that the S2's wifi is actually bad,but it's certainly not as good as the Desire HD's.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
The SGS2 doesn't like all routers equally. A couple of us with Netgear router's are getting great performance - better than with previous devices. It doesn't seem to like D-Link. D-Link's also cause its battery to drain faster. There's a thread started on that already.
Does anyone else have issue with the strength of the wireless radio on these. My signal is absolutely terrible. My phone gets better signal by A LOT. I am on the latest update not rooted.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA App
is the iconia slower than u r phone when surfing?
xceebeex said:
Does anyone else have issue with the strength of the wireless radio on these. My signal is absolutely terrible. My phone gets better signal by A LOT. I am on the latest update not rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep
In my back yard, the A500 cant 'see' my AP but my HD2 can (albeit only 1 bar BUT it is still usable)
Yup mine sucks as well... much worse than any of my phones.
I even tried put a copy of "iwconfig" into /system/bin
and then downloaded "Wifi txpower" from the market.
This gave me some control over the power output of the wifi card.
Except that my card was already at full power, so it did'nt improve anything,
I can at least lower power to conserve battery now...
I think a hardware mod to the internal antenna is what is really needed, although I don't think it's been done yet...
What specific versions are you running?
I keep signal (3-4 skulls) outside my flat and in the lift for about 2 floors.
Nothing wrong with the antenna (located at the lower lt corner of the tab).
Moscow Desire said:
What specific versions are you running?
I keep signal (3-4 skulls) outside my flat and in the lift for about 2 floors.
Nothing wrong with the antenna (located at the lower lt corner of the tab).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean what versions am I running? I have the latest 3.2.1 running and the wifi has never been good. If I had known it was going to be this bad I might have returned it. I think I am outside my return window though since I bought it on Thanksgiving.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA App
Bad, has been bad, and always will be (in my opinion). I have several of these and they are worse than other models. I've tried several ROM's and they don't make a difference. So therefore, I've come to the belief that it's the hardware.
TD
timmyDean said:
Bad, has been bad, and always will be (in my opinion). I have several of these and they are worse than other models. I've tried several ROM's and they don't make a difference. So therefore, I've come to the belief that it's the hardware.
TD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is what I was afraid of. I am not sure if I should try and sell this and get something else or just deal with it, but it is certainly annoying and makes it pretty useless when it can't pick up wireless.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA App
Are there any other tricks that might get the wifi working better? Can rooting and installing a different ROM help?
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using XDA App
aw crap, I was hoping for a software fix :/
My reception is abysmal. My laptop gets 4 out of 5 bars from my laptop, my crappy phone gets full bars of wifi, and my tab gets... 1-2 bars. It fluxuates from which way I hold it if I get any reception in the bathroom at all.
The first unit I bought had a defective Wi-Fi but was able to exchange it where I bought it for a functioning unit. Unfortunately, the new one is not spectacular but it does indeed work around my home, upstairs, downstairs and outside though the signal is pretty poor.
Must be a short or overly shielded antenna. My Droid X cellphone has excellent reception and three laptops have excellent reception albeit with multiple internal antennas.
Need to find an A500 tear-down online to see what it looks like inside to see what the antenna arrangement is. If it's somehow modifiable then it can likely be improved though you'll have to take it apart
Or search for a USB Wi-Fi that is usable with Android and this device!
Sounds like a design flaw to me.
qhorque said:
Must be a short or overly shielded antenna....
Need to find an A500 tear-down online to see what it looks like inside to see what the antenna arrangement is. If it's somehow modifiable then it can likely be improved though you'll have to take it apart....
Sounds like a design flaw to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I was thinking.
Here's a teardown...
xxx.techrepublic.com/photos/cracking-open-the-acer-iconia-tab-a500/6279615?tag=nl.e101
xxx.techrepublic.com/blog/itdojo/acer-iconia-tab-teardown-easy-to-service-3g-ready/2861?tag=nl.e101
I think this is where the Antenna is located...
xxx.techrepublic.com/photos/cracking-open-the-acer-iconia-tab-a500/6279615?seq=47
I can't post links yet, so just replace the xxx with www
Yeah, that looks like it and it looks like it's strung out along the top in landscape (or right in portrait). It's a bit away from the edge of the case but not buried too deep. It looks like a standard antenna length as compared to a laptop. Interesting that it's weak. Maybe the WLAN card is just a crappy performer. I'll have to look up that part number and see what its specs are.
Seems someone found a fix.....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1418875
~Sent from my Droid SuperCharge~
I just tested my a500 and HTC Rezound with wifi analyzer to compare and in the same location my rezound was at -40db and the a500 was at -65db so this is obviously a signicant issue.
Try setting the 11G channel number on your wireless router to something different. I had big problems with mine when the router was set to auto. I changed it to channel 6 and it started working great.
Not sure if the antenna is more sensitive to certain channels than others.
spike1969 said:
Try setting the 11G chann el number on your wireless router to something different. I had big problems with mine when the router was set to auto. I changed it to channel 6 and it started working great.
Not sure if the antenna is more sensitive to certain channels than others.
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I doubt that is the issue since the channels are so close in frequency. Either way, neither my router nor access point are broadcasting on channel 11.