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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 the Wifi speed for the TF a maximum of 72mb/s? My wireless router supports 300mb/s and my laptops can make use of that but the TF will not go past 72.
So when I'm streaming or copying hd videos over from my server its transferring at speeds slower then my internet connection it self!
my router is a an ASUS RT-N16 with Tomato firmware on it. Using WPA/WPA2 AES encryption. On channel 7 on lower sideband and 40mhz channel width.
The max on the Transformer is a 72.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1185938
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
WiFi speed is one of those marketing things like the way glass CRT TV sets were sized - the marketeers use an unrealistic perspective that never manifests in the real world for real people and real devices. Sure, my laptops claim they are connected at 300 Mbps. However, if you actually test that, you find it's well under 100 Mbps. Hard wired network connection speeds seem pretty real.
If the TF claims 72 Mbps, it's probably telling you what it really is, not what some marketeer says it is. And then, like the other fellow says, the TF doesn't support the faster speeds. The question is whether the TF can stream HD smoothly. Generally, mine does.
Bye.
ludester said:
Is the Wifi speed for the TF a maximum of 72mb/s? My wireless router supports 300mb/s and my laptops can make use of that but the TF will not go past 72.
So when I'm streaming or copying hd videos over from my server its transferring at speeds slower then my internet connection it self!
my router is a an ASUS RT-N16 with Tomato firmware on it. Using WPA/WPA2 AES encryption. On channel 7 on lower sideband and 40mhz channel width.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the WRT54G2
Is there an dramatic improvement with using wireless N or dual wireless N
With programs such as splashtop and VLC streamer
basically is it worth getting another router over
With all the hype about cloud I would think the speed between router and end device would be important. If so any recommendations on routers to buy?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium
I don't know if it's true for the Tab, but for the SGS2, it hates D-Link routers of all shapes and sizes. The signal stength is weaker and it drains the battery more. It likes NetGear routers a lot. With a high-end NetGear I get excellent signal strength through two floors of poured concrete on both my SGS2 and Tab.
walter909 said:
I have the WRT54G2
Is there an dramatic improvement with using wireless N or dual wireless N
With programs such as splashtop and VLC streamer
basically is it worth getting another router over
With all the hype about cloud I would think the speed between router and end device would be important. If so any recommendations on routers to buy?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IMO the improvement in upgrading a wireless router is more about improving overall bandwidth available to multiple wireless devices rather than pure throughput to a single device; at least as it pertains to devices such as a tablet.
For example, my local cable internet connection tops out at 10Mbps so the bandwidth available to a single device on my WRT54G2 router that I had before was more than adequate for me.
If however you're pushing things around the house between multiple wireless devices you may benefit from a dual wireless setup and segmenting out your wifi a little to take advantage of that.
walter909 said:
I have the WRT54G2
Is there an dramatic improvement with using wireless N or dual wireless N
With programs such as splashtop and VLC streamer
basically is it worth getting another router over
With all the hype about cloud I would think the speed between router and end device would be important. If so any recommendations on routers to buy?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dual wireless N won't help unless you've got a lot of interference. Think about it this way: Wireless N routers can be had for about $20 now. Thats about as cheap as they'll get before they're replaced with another standard. So just go get one. Your laptop will thank you..
Not that this has that much to do with the nexus player but I'm looking to get a new router. I do a lot of streaming and have at least 12 devices connected minimum. I currently have a Netgear R6300 that I think is on the way out. Looking for suggestions and I don't really have any tech savy friends to ask that are in the same boat.
I am an early adopter and love the cisco/linksys/belkin line of routers. i always get the newest model as they are announced/released. have been on board with linksys exclusively for decades using their brand of routers.
im currently using a linksys EA9200 which is an AC3200 router. has one 2.4 side and two 5ghz sides. the router senses the slower traffic and places it on the proper side whereas faster devices will be steered to another one. does this all automatically. has more features but that is a nice setup about this router.
I also have a hub and use 9 machines (wired and wireless) with this unit.
the next best router for a bit less bread is the wrt 1900 also from linksys. its built like a tank and has the ability to load up custom firmware.
http://store.linksys.com/products/linksys_stcVVcatId551966VVviewcat.htm
lots of opinions will abound this thread so have fun sifting through them all.
marctronixx said:
I am an early adopter and love the cisco/linksys/belkin line of routers. i always get the newest model as they are announced/released. have been on board with linksys exclusively for decades using their brand of routers.
im currently using a linksys EA9200 which is an AC3200 router. has one 2.4 side and two 5ghz sides. the router senses the slower traffic and places it on the proper side whereas faster devices will be steered to another one. does this all automatically. has more features but that is a nice setup about this router.
I also have a hub and use 9 machines (wired and wireless) with this unit.
the next best router for a bit less bread is the wrt 1900 also from linksys. its built like a tank and has the ability to load up custom firmware.
http://store.linksys.com/products/linksys_stcVVcatId551966VVviewcat.htm
lots of opinions will abound this thread so have fun sifting through them all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. The tri band setup seems pretty sweet. Didn't even notice this one. I've been looking at Asus and netgear pretty much so far.
I got the Linksys EA6900 for Christmas and hated it.
Internet connection kept dropping, wifi kept dropping, USB printer connection "thing" didn't work with my MF printer.
Took it back and paid an extra $50 and got the Neatgear Nighthawk R8000. Also a tri-band (1 x 2.4 and 2 x 5 ghz) with auto sensing.
I love it. Everything works as expected out of the box.
In the house I have 2 smart phones, 3 tablets, Nexus Player, Wii all using Wifi and 3 PC's, 1 TV and 2 PS3's all hard wired.
I have an Asus AC66U. So far I'm happy with it. Nice features and speed and range are great. They say they are compatible with DD-WRT but when I loaded it up it was spotty at best and my data rates were about half of what I got on the stock firmware. I reverted back because I would rather take speed and stability over features. My media server uses an ASUS PCE-AC68 card and I get pretty much gigabit speeds. Link shows 1300mbps and throughput tests are consistently around 450-475mbps from about 30 feet away and through 1 wall. The NP gets about 230-250mbps. at the same distance.
Munkee915 said:
I have an Asus AC66U. So far I'm happy with it. Nice features and speed and range are great. They say they are compatible with DD-WRT but when I loaded it up it was spotty at best and my data rates were about half of what I got on the stock firmware. I reverted back because I would rather take speed and stability over features. My media server uses an ASUS PCE-AC68 card and I get pretty much gigabit speeds. Link shows 1300mbps and throughput tests are consistently around 450-475mbps from about 30 feet away and through 1 wall. The NP gets about 230-250mbps. at the same distance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have AC66U which I run merlin wrt on (pretty close to stock firmware). Works great with NP and all other connected devices.
Konstigt said:
I also have AC66U which I run merlin wrt on (pretty close to stock firmware). Works great with NP and all other connected devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had some TP-Links, Belkins and even Linksys routers but this one is most stable one - not to mention the transfer speeds, Merlin firmware is updated daily.
I just have an airport extreme.
So far I tried a Nighthawk R8000. First one was junk out of the box. Tried a second one and I like it. I tried the Linksys AC3200. I thought the range was terrible so I went back to the Nighthawk. I have a ASUS RT-AC87U on order. I'll try this but so far I'm pretty happy with the R8000