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(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
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.
I have had my TF for six weeks now and I have to say that my experience with the wifi connection is awful. My eeepc picks up loads of signals that the TF does not see and I have lots of connection problems when I travel. I have read that this is to do with USA channel restrictions which if true is bulls**t as i bought the TF in the UK and travel in Europe! For a non three G tablet wifi is essential.
Is there anything that can improve the wifi performance?
Actually I am finding it seems to beat my iphone, ipods, iPad, and my wife's Dell laptop. Saying that because when I sat in the living room with my iDevices I pretty much couldn't connect to the router all the way across the house period, it would connect but basically be worthless. My wife's laptop is almost hte same, she gets crappy speeds in the living room. I find that my Transformer shows like a 65% signal in the living room and I get great speeds. My Playbook while I had it for 2 weeks also was noticabely better at connecting to my router and speed from the living room.
My gut says to get ahold of another TF and try it. You may have a defective unit.
I've had no problems with wifi on mine. Admittedly, I am in the US.
roundhay said:
I have had my TF for six weeks now and I have to say that my experience with the wifi connection is awful. My eeepc picks up loads of signals that the TF does not see and I have lots of connection problems when I travel. I have read that this is to do with USA channel restrictions which if true is bulls**t as i bought the TF in the UK and travel in Europe! For a non three G tablet wifi is essential.
Is there anything that can improve the wifi performance?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm. i have to say the wifi on my TF is much better than on my laptop and on my phone. Maybe you have a dodgy unit
Actually the Wifi on my TF is has a better range then my notebook which has a intel 5300. My router is sitting downstairs in the living room, and I am able to stream (Plex) to my bedroom which is one floor above.
dorino1 said:
You may have a defective unit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree.
I had the GTab, the Archos, the Elocity A7, twice the Nook Color, plus the MyTouch and Samsung Galaxy S phones... and my TF has the best wifi connectivity of them all.
It connects quickly and stays connected. Today, in fact, I had to go to a local hospital and the TF connected automatically to the hospital's open wifi without my intervention.
mine is nearly flawless,but remember your not gonna see 5ghz signals because the TF is 2.4 only
My router is on the second floor of my house & I have no issues in my basement.
I'll be traveling next week so it might be a different story in a hotel.
agreed my TF is far better than my htc phone in wifi connectivity
Mine is good enough, but I did notice a bit of a dropoff in signal strength from the wifi driver in 3.0 to the driver in 3.1.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
The TF seems to favor some router channels over others. Try changing channels ( take it off auto).
My wifi actually worked very well on STOCK but now that i am on custom rom, it is much worse...
Before, i got very high signal from my router but it is not more the case.. I am waiting for on update of the wifi version....
It is not just your Tablet. No need to RMA at all.
The radio in the Transformer is just not that good.
mamaroro said:
My wifi actually worked very well on STOCK but now that i am on custom rom, it is much worse...
Before, i got very high signal from my router but it is not more the case.. I am waiting for on update of the wifi version....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My experience with custom ROMs is from mixed to poor... something always breaks. I would go back to stock.
Since updating to HC 3.1, my wifi has been horrible. Actually, it seems to get worse after every update that asus has pushed. It's not really an issue at home but when I'm at work and I can't move closer to the router, it's a problem.
It used to be TF 3.0 >> iphone 3gs > dell mini 9hackintosh with Leopard OS
now, Dell mini 9 snow leopard > iphone >>TF 3.1
I haven't had any issues with reception. It had a weird connection issue when trying to access my friend's tethering (unrooted, he pays Sprint for it). But I think it was actually the software one one end or the other, not the actual device.
I have a UK TF too and my wifi works brilliantly.
So far i have used it in UK, Germany, Switzerland and Czech and haven't had any troubles.
I set the router to channel 13, and my HTC Desired picked it right up, but the Transformer didn't. I then reduced it to channel 12, still no luck - then i reduced it to 11 and then the Transformer could see it.
Use the 'WiFi Analyser' app to check out the best wifi channels available in your area and to ensure that you aren't using overlapping channels from other equipment and neighbouring signals.
You'll be surprised when you see that the 'auto' selecting wifi hardware will almost always select the same channels which just get overloaded with interference.
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.
While I have benefited from rooting the Nook HD+ and as a result, I like it as far as if goes, I am finding it difficult to choose it over Nexus 7 which I also have. The performance of the Nexus 7 Wi-Fi seems to be far superior. My WiFi router is in the basement and I have set up a repeater and a range extender up on the second floor. The Nexus 7WiFi receiver recognizes all the three signals though the signal from the basement is the weakest and I am able to connect with any one of the three. When I analyze the signals on the Nook HD+, it shows a really strong signal from the basement transmitter, very weak one from the repeater and a middling one from the extender. However I get no internet connection. I cannot tell if it is strictly WiFi receiver issue or because of my setup. But performance on the first floor is very good and not significantly different from Nexus 7.
I like the Nook for the screen size and the SD card storage, but in my opinion, WiFi is a weak or weaker feature.
Any other thoughts?
RaliR