Wifi signal strength vs. Link speed

[SouthofOttawa]

Hi,
Just wondering if someone has a simple explanation for why you may have 5 bars showing for your Wifi signal but when you check the status it may show a link speed of 19 mbps when you would expect something closer to 72 mbps? Should there be a correlation between the visible Wifi signal icon and the actual speed of your network?

Thanks,

J

 

[SBMom93]

I have seen this "phenomenon" with my A500, too, but lately not that often. I would notice a sudden speed loss in the middle of browsing and I would check the wifi conditions under Settings. It would show something like "fair" and 19 mbps. I would walk over and stand right next to the router and the low mbps would not change. With my internet provider, a signal of 65 mbps is the usual speed. However, when I turned off the wifi on the A500 and then turned it back on, the signal would immediately jump to "excellent" or "good" and register 65 mbps. It felt like the A500 was arbitrarily dropping to a low signal and staying there unless the wifi signal was manually turned off and then back on. I ended up installing a wifi on-off widget to do that quickly without having to go through Settings. I also assigned a static IP address for the connection that was experiencing this issue. I still have to do the wifi on-then-off trick but lately not as often. So if someone has an explanation or, even better, a cure for what we are experiencing with the wifi signal on the A500, I would certainly be interested.

 

[RaAkhenaton]

Thanks to reading this post, I've started switching WiFi on/off periodically to boost reception. It bugs me that none of the ad-hoc fixes have overcome the problem. Does anyone know if there is a physical limitation causing this problem?

 

[SBMom93]

Thanks to reading this post, I've started switching WiFi on/off periodically to boost reception. It bugs me that none of the ad-hoc fixes have overcome the problem. Does anyone know if there is a physical limitation causing this problem?

You're very welcome! I've only rarely have had to do the wifi turn-off-turn-on thing with my A500 lately. Sometimes, I wonder if it may be my router that is not "playing nice" with the A500. But the occasional off-on toggle necessity is a very minor nuisance when it comes to the A500 overall as I think everything else about the tablet is just fantastic.