Database Users

EVO Wifi is terrible

There are big threads on this on the Andrioid Central and HTC user forums. Many folks are experiencing terrible wifi performance. My experience is typical; right next to my router I can pull 13Mbps+ (via speedtest), but if I go into the next room or anywhere else in the house my signal drops to one bar and thoroughput plummets to <1Mbps. Both my iPhone and iPad work great around the whole house.

No problems here. In fact, I've been very pleased with the wifi, 3G, and 4G coverage I have here compared with the wifi and 3G I had with my Hero. My speeds are also markedly better. I was pulling 1.9Mbps with 3G yesterday and at that point, I don't think I have any reason to complain about service.

No problems with mine either. Maybe Apple is trying to discredit other products while they are running... lol

i thought i was the only one seeing this, i walk a few steps away from my router and it drops to zero or just one bar. i guess it works best with a wireless N router

My Evo's wi-fi reception isn't as horrible as some claim it to be, but it is noticeably weaker than that of my Touch Pro. When I go downstairs, I drop down to one or two bars, where as my Touch Pro stays at a solid three bars.

Try and take your router out of dual/tripple band mode and run it on only G or N and see how it does.
I've noticed running with backwards compatibility messes a lot of phones up.

i'm having the same issues...
running a linksys 802.11/b/g/n router
seeing the same issues with my ipad, but not with my old iphone
can this be remedied with a simple hack to the os? or would it be totally hw related?

YoungAceAtlanta said:
i thought i was the only one seeing this, i walk a few steps away from my router and it drops to zero or just one bar. i guess it works best with a wireless N router
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Click to collapse
Same for me man, its terrible. Mine isnt rooted or custom rom'd yet though so well see whats up when they start hax0rin the phone a lil more.

Chriscic said:
There are big threads on this on the Andrioid Central and HTC user forums. Many folks are experiencing terrible wifi performance. My experience is typical; right next to my router I can pull 13Mbps+ (via speedtest), but if I go into the next room or anywhere else in the house my signal drops to one bar and thoroughput plummets to <1Mbps. Both my iPhone and iPad work great around the whole house.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YoungAceAtlanta said:
i thought i was the only one seeing this, i walk a few steps away from my router and it drops to zero or just one bar. i guess it works best with a wireless N router
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Poor Wi-Fi performance would be a dealbreaker so how much of a reality:rumor is this?
I would have to take Sprint up on their 30-day Satisfaction Guarantee-return policy if this issue is not resolved..
BTW, N I've heard will not be supported until 2.2

YoungAceAtlanta said:
i thought i was the only one seeing this, i walk a few steps away from my router and it drops to zero or just one bar. i guess it works best with a wireless N router
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a wireless N router. Someone on one of the other forums says that Android 2.1 only runs G wireless anyway, although I'm not knowledgeable enough on that yet to confirm that it's true.

Mine is also bad i get 10 to 15ft away and it drops to nothing.

rickgomez2003 said:
Mine is also bad i get 10 to 15ft away and it drops to nothing.
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Click to collapse
mine drops to * to 1 bar when I go around the house, but it's still working and never disconnects so I don't really care.
-edit- our router sucks too btw so I'm not surprised.

Evo wifi
I just got my Evo as we were heading to Mexico for vacation. My whole family has (including me) and iphone but I had my Evo with me when we went to a restaurant to eat. The restaurant had wifi coverage but we had to get a password to access. Accessing the wifi with the EVO is a bit more time consuming than the iphone but I didnt care about that. What i DID care was everyone else was saying..CONNECTED as my EVO was still searching. It did find the signal about 15 seconds later. Now the frustrating part. My signal kept dropping while my family, with iphones kept bragging about their signal never dropping. Finally the signal dropped totally from my EVO and I had to use my wifes iphone. I love the EVO and want this phone to work for me. Im not an Iphone fanboy either. I feel like this is something that will be fixed with an update.

wfhowell said:
I just got my Evo as we were heading to Mexico for vacation. My whole family has (including me) and iphone but I had my Evo with me when we went to a restaurant to eat. The restaurant had wifi coverage but we had to get a password to access. Accessing the wifi with the EVO is a bit more time consuming than the iphone but I didnt care about that. What i DID care was everyone else was saying..CONNECTED as my EVO was still searching. It did find the signal about 15 seconds later. Now the frustrating part. My signal kept dropping while my family, with iphones kept bragging about their signal never dropping. Finally the signal dropped totally from my EVO and I had to use my wifes iphone. I love the EVO and want this phone to work for me. Im not an Iphone fanboy either. I feel like this is something that will be fixed with an update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it isn't fixed I don't see how I can get-keep the EVO..please keep us updated on this issue..

SMARTPHONEPC said:
If it isn't fixed I don't see how I can get-keep the EVO..please keep us updated on this issue..
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Click to collapse
aww, see I came from an android phone without wifi, so i'm used to not being able to rely on it lol.

Mine's just OK. I do get coverage throughout the house, even 2 floors up (router in basement). But when I'm sitting right next to the router, literally 2 feet, I do not have full bars. (1 shy). Can't really complain too much, but I do wish it was better.
Speedtest
Next to router: 9438 down, 3996 up
1 floor up: 4492 down, 4102 up

Wifi reception for me is pretty awful, only the "dot" comes on with no circumferential bars when I'm at home and I get no signal at all when I'm at work (where both my laptop & iPhone 3G do fine). This is looking like a deal breaker for me.
Gary

Here in Puerto Rico the vast majority of houses are built in concrete... My EVO's WiFi seems to fare worse than my iPod touch's WiFi (which in turn fares worse than my netbook's). In the family room, with one room and one concrete wall in between me and the standard G router, I get a signal and it works fine.
With two concrete walls (one room and a bathroom) in between me and the router signal is borderline but it still seems to work, tho I'm often seeing just a dot. With three concrete walls in between me and the router (two rooms and a bathroom in between) I get no signal whatsoever.
Under those same conditions the iPod touch would ocasionally get a signal in certain corners of that room while the netbook's never had trouble getting a signal unless I go to the far end/corner of the room. I'm not terribly worried about it since I'd use the WiFi the most in the family room but it's a bit troublesome, hopefully it's improved w/an update.

I can confirm EVO wifi is much worse then my TP. I'm trying to move my router to a more central location now to accommodate it. :-\ hopefully we'll get N in 2.2 it's not a deal breaker, just an annoyance.

You can always make a directional antenna focuser out of a soda can too, it sounds ghetto but actually works... There was an article about it on MaxiumPC about a year ago.

Weak WiFi Signal

(Search feature is down but I don't remember seeing anything about this)
It seems like the wifi signal is really weak on my Nexus S (stock, MoDaCo rX, and Cyanogen alpha). The only time I get full bars is if stand right in front of the router. Sometimes it will drop a bar or two even when I am in the same room as the router.
I'm out of the country at the moment and unable to test it with my network at home to compare performance to the N1 or MT4G I used to have. Can I get some feedback from other users about their wifi strength? I might have to find a way to return/exchange the phone from here before the end of the remorse period if it's a problem unique to my device.

c_licious said:
(Search feature is down but I don't remember seeing anything about this)
It seems like the wifi signal is really weak on my Nexus S (stock, MoDaCo rX, and Cyanogen alpha). The only time I get full bars is if stand right in front of the router. Sometimes it will drop a bar or two even when I am in the same room as the router.
I'm out of the country at the moment and unable to test it with my network at home to compare performance to the N1 or MT4G I used to have. Can I get some feedback from other users about their wifi strength? I might have to find a way to return/exchange the phone from here before the end of the remorse period if it's a problem unique to my device.
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Click to collapse
Actually have it listed as a known issue in the FAQ after seeing an article pop up from Androidcentral.com shortly after launch.
But, yes, I can confirm this. I'm literally sitting right next to my router and have a full three bars. If I move to the couch, it'll switch between 2-3 and if I go into my bedroom, it'll do it from 1-2. I'm in a relatively small apartment, btw lol.
Interestingly enough, while the graphic displays a weaker signal and testing from market apps does indeed show a weaker signal, I don't really notice much in the way of speed loss or instability.

Yap, same here.
If i go to about 30 ft away, i'm done...no wifi!

unremarked said:
Actually have it listed as a known issue in the FAQ after seeing an article pop up from Androidcentral.com shortly after launch.
But, yes, I can confirm this. I'm literally sitting right next to my router and have a full three bars. If I move to the couch, it'll switch between 2-3 and if I go into my bedroom, it'll do it from 1-2. I'm in a relatively small apartment, btw lol.
Interestingly enough, while the graphic displays a weaker signal and testing from market apps does indeed show a weaker signal, I don't really notice much in the way of speed loss or instability.
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Click to collapse
Yea, just read your thread (slapping myself on the wrist for posting too soon). Unfortunately, it does seem to cause some instability for me as it occasionally disconnects completely due to the low signal.
Do you think this is the same for all devices and has just gone unnoticed for those who don't heavily rely on wifi. Or would an exchange be my best option at this point? Not sure how much of a hardware vs software fix this would be...

No issues here. The reception isn't great, but it's a phone. Small WiFi card. Maybe my expectations are too low, but I feel like 30-50 feet through the walls and/or floors of a house/apartment is pretty reasonable for a device like this. Of course, as always, the more obstacles (physical barriers and electronic interference) the signal has to go through to get to your phone, the worse the reception will be at any given distance, so there are a lot of potential influencing factors.

zorak950 said:
No issues here. The reception isn't great, but it's a phone. Small WiFi card. Maybe my expectations are too low, but I feel like 30-50 feet through the walls and/or floors of a house/apartment is pretty reasonable for a device like this. Of course, as always, the more obstacles (physical barriers and electronic interference) the signal has to go through to get to your phone, the worse the reception will be at any given distance, so there are a lot of potential influencing factors.
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Click to collapse
That's why it's such a handicap not being able to test it on my home network at the moment where I could compare it to my experience with my previous android devices.

alot of routers no longer have external antennas reducing the possible range. just an idea but who knows

c_licious said:
Yea, just read your thread (slapping myself on the wrist for posting too soon). Unfortunately, it does seem to cause some instability for me as it occasionally disconnects completely due to the low signal.
Do you think this is the same for all devices and has just gone unnoticed for those who don't heavily rely on wifi. Or would an exchange be my best option at this point?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure either way, actually. It may be something that can be fixed with a software update or tweak considering that the Nexus One(which has a noticable stronger signal) and the Nexus S seem to be pretty close in model number(BCM4329EKU86 Nexus One vs BCM4329GKUBG Nexus S).
I couldn't find a tear down that detailed the WiFi chip found in the Galaxy S devices which would be more useful for a comparison. So, I guess, my point is that it may be something a relevantly unnoticed flaw in the device itself and exchanging it might not do anything.
I guess this is our trade off for a working GPS unit?

I dont think its based off of root, i'm on stock, and the same thing happens to me!!

The Nexus S uses a low power wifi chip, which is thought to be the cause of this (VERY well known) weak wifi reception issue. Google "Nexus S weak wifi".
You can verify it easily by running a wifi sniffer (e.g. "Wifi Analyzer" from the market). The NS's reception drops quickly with distance from router. This isn't the router's fault.

ravidavi said:
The Nexus S uses a low power wifi chip, which is thought to be the cause of this (VERY well known) weak wifi reception issue. Google "Nexus S weak wifi".
You can verify it easily by running a wifi sniffer (e.g. "Wifi Analyzer" from the market). The NS's reception drops quickly with distance from router. This isn't the router's fault.
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Click to collapse
Definitely isnt the routers fault. I have two MTS, my original G1 and N1, Two Laptops a PS3 and a PSP.
This is the only device that struggles to find a signal.

jspookss said:
Definitely isnt the routers fault. I have two MTS, my original G1 and N1, Two Laptops a PS3 and a PSP.
This is the only device that struggles to find a signal.
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Click to collapse
I am a former G1 guy myself, it had a very strong signal, Nexus S not so much. It is making me a bit irritated. It is an important feature sine I prefer to use wifi instead of 3G. It's much faster.

I have the same issue. When I turn on wifi the status icon takes about 20 seconds to turn from grey to green and on top of that even in the same room I don't get full bars. This really blows.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Wifi seems to be the main weakness of the A500

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.

Big wifi limitation on sg ii !

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.
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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...
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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.

Wifi strength

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.