Database Users

WiFi Drops out

Hey,
Ive just bought a acer Iconia a500 recently, every thing seemed ok until recently. Owned it about a week or so.
Basically my router (netgear wnr2000) is in my room upstairs, if im in that room everything is fine browsing etc.
However the minute I move away from that room the signal strength drops down, which is normal. But if i go downstairs to the living room, the connection is unusable, then it drops out takes a few mins to reconnect etc.
I've never had any problems before with any wireless devices ive got in that room, the xbox is in there currently and plays on Live fine etc. Ive got 3 laptops, HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy S, 2 iPod touches etc so I dont believe its a router issue.
Ive had a play round with the router settings just incase, put on unused channels etc
Anyone else had any similar experiences? Anyone found any fixes?
Thank

yes take it back. Mine did this out of the box on the living room i dint had any wifi i had to be near the router in my room to have any internet. Just to be sure of things get wifi eye or something like that from the market and watch the signal if it goes un and down like crazy its the A500

My first A500 did that and the second was a wake-up from sleep too much problem. The A500 is one update away from awesome, but would be nice if they patch the current issues now, rather than wait for a 3.1 update.
Some folks are not having any issues, which makes me wonder if bad batches.....

Maybe like the glue issues with iPad 2 Rush. Maybe it is bad batches...

cointel said:
Maybe like the glue issues with iPad 2 Rush. Maybe it is bad batches...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely makes more sense than a general firmware issue now, since more folks would be hollering if a general issue for all devices.

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.
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.

WiFi really poor?

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.

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.

Techradar review

So the Techradar review is now out: http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/tablets/sony-xperia-tablet-z-1133193/review
Glowing it is.
I went into a local Currys today and had a play with the tablet and I was mightily impressed. It was very fast, highly responsive and overall a pleasure to use. The speakers did sound a bit tinny, but I wander if that can't be sorted with some fiddling with the equalizer.
Also I found the display to be rich and saturated, but it wasn't pin sharp like say my Nexus 4. Rather it was comparable to the Nexus 4 which is decently sharp but not razor sharp.
Overall, I'm very impressed!

That's my review for Techradar.. I can confirm it's a great device. Fire away with any questions..
Sent from my SGP321 using Tapatalk 2

philliplavelle said:
That's my review for Techradar.. I can confirm it's a great device. Fire away with any questions..
Sent from my SGP321 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's the SSD/flash IO performance like? Does it start to bog down if there's multiple things going on at once (like Play market updating in the background while a browser is trying to open a web page, or something like that) ??

francobarber said:
What's the SSD/flash IO performance like? Does it start to bog down if there's multiple things going on at once (like Play market updating in the background while a browser is trying to open a web page, or something like that) ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope not, that's an Asus exclusive issue so far

I just looked at a cnet review, and they really criticized the tablet saying that it has horrible wifi speeds. Can you confirm?

jetstream131 said:
I just looked at a cnet review, and they really criticized the tablet saying that it has horrible wifi speeds. Can you confirm?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, about WiFi issues and all around review, you can read here on InsideHW (my review):
http://www.insidehw.com/reviews/mobility/7777-sony-xperia-tablet-z-slim-and-mean
To cut long story short, WiFi is average when it works - up to 4MB/s, but it disconnects relatively often.

I havent come across this WiFi disconnect issue with my XTZ it works perfectly and i love it. It seems like there is a few lemon's out there unfortunately.

Mr. Corny said:
Hi, about WiFi issues and all around review, you can read here on InsideHW (my review):
http://www.insidehw.com/reviews/mobility/7777-sony-xperia-tablet-z-slim-and-mean
To cut long story short, WiFi is average when it works - up to 4MB/s, but it disconnects relatively often.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my XTZ for about 6 weeks now and it's never once disconnected from WiFi. I've just done a speed test and got 6.5Mb/s, which is about as fast as my home broadband goes. So if there are tables with WiFi problems, it must either be a dodgy router, or a faulty tablet that will be covered by the warranty.

Sean09 said:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why is the HTC One X, Asus Prime and even the Nexus S being used as comparisons still?