Poor Wi-Fi

[QuesoGrande]

Hello,
Seems that way back when I got my evo (last week), that there were a few complaints about Wi-Fi reception. I don't remember if there was a dedicated thread or not, but I can't find it now.
Anyway, I remember that the conclusion for many people was that the wifi indicator was simply misrepresenting the signal strength... i.e. even though it showed very poor signal, they were getting full signal.. etc.

This is NOT the case for me. If I am not very close to my router and have wifi turned on, then I'm constantly getting interrupted with 'network unavailable' messages. It's so bad that I pretty much just turn wifi off and use 3g. I have wifi devices all over the house and have never had a single problem getting signal. Netflix streaming over wifi in the basement? No problem. All of my work done on laptop in basement, back yard or upstairs.. no problem. Only this phone has a problem.

Everything else is great with the dang phone... even the battery life is pretty good. I haven't seen much discussion on the wifi issue lately. Any fixes or suggestions? Or is it maybe just my phone?

 

[QuesoGrande]

Just occurred to me while writing this... I wonder if my laptop's wifi could be interfering? Maybe I'll try turning that off and see what happens.

 

[darweth]

My situation is weird. In some locations I have no trouble connecting no matter how far away I am from the router. In others, like coffee shops, I cannot connect at all.

 

[Xadeus]

Yea i was 10 feet away from my router and my EVO had 1 bar of reception, My Palm Pre had way better reception then the EVO does. I don't use wifi that much so its not that big of a problem for me, but you would think it would be the same or better since its such a new device.

 

[QuesoGrande]

Ok, so it's not just me then! Hadn't seen any discussion on it in a while, so I was hoping someone found the magical fix.
Well I tried turning off my nearby wifi devices to see if that helped.. .didn't seem to make a difference in the signal strength indicator anyway.

It hasn't been a huge issue for me.. yet. I just turn it off and use 3G and even then, the speed has been great for me. It does concern me though for when the time comes that I do *need* it.

Hmm... gonna keep digging. I do love this phone, but this is bugging me.

 

[darweth]

I'm just lucky my wifi works great in my home, my girlfriend's home, my best friend's home, and at my job. I've just had very bad luck at coffee shops and the like. Before you blame the coffee shop, my iPod Touch connects fine at the same places.

 

[Dracostian]

I'm just lucky my wifi works great in my home, my girlfriend's home, my best friend's home, and at my job. I've just had very bad luck at coffee shops and the like. Before you blame the coffee shop, my iPod Touch connects fine at the same places.

Do you see any pattern on what channel their Wifi is on, or whether it's a/b/g/n?

 

[darweth]

Do you see any pattern on what channel their Wifi is on, or whether it's a/b/g/n?

I should look into that.

 

[Dracostian]

I should look into that.

I'll try, too. Have a crapload of Free Wifi businesses near my home, might stop in a few and see if I have the issue there.

 

[clambert1273]

do a speed test while it is connected... the indicator on the evo is not really correct.. I can be connected to mine with 1 bar and get 9mbps down and 1.01 up ...

 

[Rigmaster]

My wifi's pretty fast and always connects. My Evo keeps up with my laptop, is significantly faster than my iPod Touch 2G, and connects when I have all devices running at the same time whether they're near each other in the same room or in different parts of my house or yard. I'm using encrypted/locked wifi B. Haven't tried it in a public wifi area. Won't unless I can't get data signal which hasn't happened yet.

 

[rushmore]

The issue is not speed, but is a range reception issue on EVO.

"Beer", it's what's for dinner.

 

[clambert1273]

The issue is not speed, but is a range reception issue on EVO.

"Beer", it's what's for dinner.

I haven't had any issues with range.. mine has been outside on the street with mine. . still at the 1 bar of signal.. same speed..

so I don't really know.. I know on mine the indicator sucks donkey balls

 

[Rigmaster]

No range issues with me either. Can go outside in my yard or anywhere in my house.

 

[clambert1273]

No range issues with me either. Can go outside in my yard or anywhere in my house.

rig... does your indicator suck like mine? I know others do just wanted to find out.. mine stays at the 1 bar no matter where I am.. but I can go across the street with it...

 

[sagedil]

Same for me. Indicator is useless. But my wifi works fine. Same range as my netbook.

 

[Rigmaster]

rig... does your indicator suck like mine? I know others do just wanted to find out.. mine stays at the 1 bar no matter where I am.. but I can go across the street with it...

My bar stays solid when I'm within 50 feet of my router (anwhere in my house), drops to 2 bars when I'm outside. Drops to 1 bar when I cross the street but holds until I get 2 houses away. Same on my wife's Evo.

I turn off my 3G whenever I'm on wifi though because it did have some impact. Basically still got 3 bars inside and 2 in my yard, but lost signal any time I left yard or crossed street.

Indicator has always worked as expected. This is slightly better than my iPT2G.

 

[swatpup102]

There is an app called wi-fi analyzer. Download it and run it, you should be able to see what signals are around you on what channels. I found that most around me were on lower channels so I changed to 11, works perfect no and no interference. Also check for cordless phones that run on 2.4ghz, some are still out there either in your dwelling or around you possibly.

 

[clambert1273]

My bar stays solid when I'm within 50 feet of my router (anwhere in my house), drops to 2 bars when I'm outside. Drops to 1 bar when I cross the street but holds until I get 2 houses away. Same on my wife's Evo.

I turn off my 3G whenever I'm on wifi though because it did have some impact. Basically still got 3 bars inside and 2 in my yard, but lost signal any time I left yard or crossed street.

Indicator has always worked as expected. This is slightly better than my iPT2G.

hmmmm how would I turn off 3g when enabling the wifi? I thought it did that automatically... sorry for being a noob

 

[Rigmaster]

hmmmm how would I turn off 3g when enabling the wifi? I thought it did that automatically... sorry for being a noob

It is automatic, but I'd just gotten into the habit of turning off/on manually because I know exactly when I'm going to be using wifi. I use 3G 99% of the time though because I get very strong signal and it seems as if using 3G is more power-efficient (I haven't tested it - just a feeling).

I'm new to Android, but I'm liking it. It isn't perfect, but it's better than I thought it would be. I can life with it's music player and other shortcomings though because they fall into areas where my IPT2G still serves it's purpose best.

 

[QuesoGrande]

There is an app called wi-fi analyzer. Download it and run it, you should be able to see what signals are around you on what channels. I found that most around me were on lower channels so I changed to 11, works perfect no and no interference. Also check for cordless phones that run on 2.4ghz, some are still out there either in your dwelling or around you possibly.

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that out. Interesting that some people are getting great range. I wonder if it does have something to do with band, channel or maybe some kind of settings. I'm at a loss... I'll give this a try.

 

[cesjr02]

Sitting close to my router I'm getting 10.15Mbps down and 2.15Mbps upload.

Limitation to speedtest.net (the fancy meter only goes to 10) or the phone itself?

I'm sure it's not a fair comparison but by contrast my computer averages 17.17Mbps down and 2.13 up.

Note the upload speeds are the same.

 

[EarlyMon]

FWIW - I use the Power Control widget (+ -> Widgets) from Android to explicitly turn my wifi on and off the (+ -> Widgets -> Settings) Mobile Network widget to control when that's on.

 

[sikclown]

Thanks for the tip, I'll try that out. Interesting that some people are getting great range. I wonder if it does have something to do with band, channel or maybe some kind of settings. I'm at a loss... I'll give this a try.

Yeah I find it interesting too and I wonder if it comes down to manufacturing issues. Maybe the grounding issue, which I don't have. My WiFi signal is currently showing one to two bars and my router is in my warehouse. I am upstairs and it is going through concrete walls and my Speedtests are between 14000kbps and 17000kbps Up and 3500-3900 kbps uploads. It is worth noting my speedtests were a bit slower before my hard reset the other day. I am using a Linksys 610n with antenna running at 5 ghz n only and one at 2.5 ghz mixed mode with WPA2-Personal security mode and WPA-TKIP or WPA2-AES encryption on ch 11 with no wireless phones around. My home setup is around the same but with the Linksys E3000. same exact band setups except channel 1 and I am closer. Speedtests about the same

 

[mtrajano00]

It is automatic, but I'd just gotten into the habit of turning off/on manually because I know exactly when I'm going to be using wifi. I use 3G 99% of the time though because I get very strong signal and it seems as if using 3G is more power-efficient (I haven't tested it - just a feeling).

I'm new to Android, but I'm liking it. It isn't perfect, but it's better than I thought it would be. I can life with it's music player and other shortcomings though because they fall into areas where my IPT2G still serves it's purpose best.

How do you turn off the 3G off manually. Im new to the Adroid also and I can't seem to locate the off button for it.