Hello,
I just bought a GTab and am really excited about it. However, I am not particularly happy with the wi-fi range of the device. It goes to zero bars barely 15 feet away from the router. Did anyone else face similar problems? Let me know
Yup. I lose a bar just by turning my chair away from my router. No solution so far.
Thanks, How long have you had the device? Did you contact Customer Service?
Could be your router. I have no problem using my tab anywhere in the house and out on the patio with a crappy old D-link.
I don't get a full signal, but it is enough to stream my music and browse fine.
Google "cantenna" and you will find a cheap and easy way to extend your range.
This is actually one thing that amazed me about the g-tablet. I Took my g-tab to my mom's house and logged into their unsecured Linksys router. It worked fine, no issues whatsoever. My mother lives a block from the church where I serve as an elder (roughly 50-60 yards away...) I took my g-tablet to a meeting one evening, opened the case, and found that I was already connected to network. I hadn't had a chance to set up the church's network yet...the Tablet actually automatically connected to my mother's network. The signal isn't the strongest, but I hadn't expected ANY signal whatsoever. It works fine in every room of my house as well.
I ended up setting up the Church's network, but the g-tab still automatically connects to my mother's when I'm anywhere near there. My Pastor said that it's because the church's router is has protection and that typically linux based devices tend ot take the path of least resistence. I'd prefer if it checked for the strongest signal, first, though.
I agree it soundls like your router unless you got a leamon. My router is in m livingroom and my gTab drops only one bar when it is in the bedroom, meaning the wifi signal is going through the bathroom to get there, through 2 walls and maybe 15 feet, no line of sight.
When it is charging in the kitchen the signal goes 20 feet and through one wall, again no line of sight, and if I position the tablet just right I can get no bars dropped.
I have a wifi-g router, Westell I think (whatever wifi router Verizon sent me lol). I haven't tried the gTab outside yet, but my daughter's iPod tough can get a weak signal in the back yard and the router is in the livingroom at the front of the house.
mike_ekim said:
My router is in m livingroom and my gTab drops only one bar when it is in the bedroom, meaning the wifi signal is going through the bathroom to get there, through 2 walls and maybe 15 feet, no line of sight...
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Well, Mike, this is where the materials used in buiding construction might make a difference.
If sudeep_itbhu is here in India, then the WiFi signals have to pass through dense brick or stone walls to reach his gTablet. In the US, the signals might just have to pass through things like wood or plaster which won't absorb the signals as much. I've brought access points from the US to India only to have it fail miserably because of our brick walls.
sudeep_itbhu, you could try boosting the "Transmit Power" on your wireless router or AP. You can usually change that setting via a browser if you connect to the router.
Of course, my signal is going (from my mother's 100+ year old house to the 80 year old church lounge) through one interior wall, one exterior wall aluminum siding, 50 - 60 yards though a couple trees, power lines all around, through the brick exterior church wall, and through an old wood interior wall and I'll still have a signal. A weak signal, but still a signal.
mike_ekim said:
I have a wifi-g router, Westell I think (whatever wifi router Verizon sent me lol). I haven't tried the gTab outside yet, but my daughter's iPod tough can get a weak signal in the back yard and the router is in the livingroom at the front of the house.
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I just went into my back yard and from about 65 feet away from the router (no line of sight) I was able to surf the web on wireless g. I get 3 or 4 bars everywhere inside on the same floor, 2 bars right outside the house, and it drops to 1 bar by the time I hit the trees. It's wet, I'm not going any further today.
It's just another data point to help you figure out if you have either a bad router signal or a bad tablet, because at 15 feet the gTab is able to get a great signal with an 'no frills' router. Everyone else seems to have similar experience.
@rajeevvp: Agreed. I got the impression he had a bad signal at 15 feet with a direct line of sight, but I may be mistaken.
mine works fine but the only problem that annoys me is that the wifi is always automatically turned off (especially when I turn the screen off and leave it idle). When I turn the screen back on, I need to go to settings and turn the wifi on. is there any ways to solve it?
wifi dropping
I am having the same problem with my wifi not automatically reconnecting after going to sleep. This happens if the tab is off for an extended period of time. I am running vegan 5.1.1. Any ideas???
thanks for your replies, I think I might go and get a replacement and check that out. The range of my device is about 15 yards through a couple of walls. I am in the US.
stolly23 said:
I am having the same problem with my wifi not automatically reconnecting after going to sleep. This happens if the tab is off for an extended period of time. I am running vegan 5.1.1. Any ideas???
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Set your "WiFi sleep policy" to "Never" in Settings > "Wireless & networks" > "Wi-Fi settings" > menu key > "Advanced", and see if that helps.
rajeevvp said:
Set your "WiFi sleep policy" to "Never" in Settings > "Wireless & networks" > "Wi-Fi settings" > menu key > "Advanced", and see if that helps.
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Thanks for the idea, but I have already checked that. It was already set to never.
TJEvans said:
Of course, my signal is going (from my mother's 100+ year old house to the 80 year old church lounge) through one interior wall, one exterior wall aluminum siding, 50 - 60 yards though a couple trees, power lines all around, through the brick exterior church wall, and through an old wood interior wall and I'll still have a signal. A weak signal, but still a signal.
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The Wi-Fi signal would only have trouble with the brick wall, then.
As for range, the maximum values for 802.11g signals are ~38 m (125 ft) indoors and ~140 m (460 ft) outdoors. In practice, I've found that these maximums decrease considerably.
Using "Wi-Fi Analyzer" I saw a received signal power of ~ -75 dBm 20 ft indoors (through a few intervening brick walls) at the other end of my house. I got ~ -85 dBm ~100 ft away from the back of the house and outside (through the intervening exterior wall and the low garden wall). And, at that signal strength, which is at the very low threshold of the wireless received signal power range, I was only able to see my wireless router, but, I couldn't use it.
At the other end of the signal-strength range, 2 feet away from, and directly in sight of the wireless router, I see a signal strength of ~45 dBm. This means that there is a drop in signal strength of around 3 orders of magnitude (1000x) from one end of my house to the other.
TJEvans said:
I ended up setting up the Church's network, but the g-tab still automatically connects to my mother's when I'm anywhere near there. My Pastor said that it's because the church's router is has protection and that typically linux based devices tend ot take the path of least resistence. I'd prefer if it checked for the strongest signal, first, though.
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Nice--A tech-savvy pastor . But, he's wrong about Linux. Linux prefers to connect to the last access point you configured it to connect to (if it can see it). This is the correct behaviour--you wouldn't normally want the tablet to connect to some random access point or wireless router just because its signal strength was higher for some reason.
sudeep_itbhu said:
Hello,
I just bought a GTab and am really excited about it. However, I am not particularly happy with the wi-fi range of the device. It goes to zero bars barely 15 feet away from the router. Did anyone else face similar problems? Let me know
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Click to collapse
This tablet, bought Nov 2010, is very good on reception. It picked up 15-20 signals around any communities as we traveled aboard Amtrak from Philadelphia to Denver and return. It also saw a half-dozen signals (other than the in-house networks) when I was in a hospital for 6 days. I like WiFi Analyzer to see what's available.
Router
I have a few different routers (types) running here (Primary and Clients) for different reasons.
It seems to be router dependent (at least in my case). All are N capable. One stays connected all the way around the block when I walk my dog (yes, I walk my G-Tablet with us). One fades out if I am one house down. The other somewhere in between.
--You can try to reposition your router
--You could get another router, use as a client, or get a range extender
--You could log into the admin panel of your router and determine if you can increase the broadcast power.
--If it doesn't have this option and you are somewhat tech savvy (and have a compatible router), you could flash your router's firmware with DD-WRT (google it) or other similar. It should allow you to increase the broadcast power. You can look up your router on the website to determine compatibility, then carefully follow the directions to flash (standard-if you brick it please do not blame me or them)
--Hope it helps. That is pretty much all I know about this issue. Not sure where you are but the ATT DSL Router (that they provide here in the Bay Area, Cali) does not seem to have a very strong signal and is not (last time i checked) compatible with DD-WRT.
Where I work there are two wi-fi sources connected to the same system - the canteen and the library.
In the library everything is OK, ATP finds the wi-fi and connects.
In the canteen the ATP finds the signal, says signal strength is Excellent (I'm only a few feet from the aerial), but then without me moving, and just a few seconds after it starts trying to connect, the strength drops to Poor, the ATP says 'connecting' or 'finding address' for a while and then gives up saying there are signal strength issues. If I cancel the connection then the signal immediately goes back up to Excellent.
Back to the library and all is fine again...
Any ideas?
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have received the ATP back from RMA for screen issues...it worked fine in both places before.
It could very well be a router issue. If your not having any problems connecting to the other wifi source then maybe something has changed with the router that you used to be able to connect to.... I find that when I'm about to connect to a wifi spot the signal strength doesn't show the true signal strength until I actually connect to it. But I never got a connectivity issue notice like your having. Might want to check that router or bring in another device to connect to that wifi spot that you are having problems with to better diagnose your issue. If that device is having the same problems connecting then you are that much closer to finding the answer.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA Premium App
I found that my signal shows one or two lines when I fail to connect to an APN even when I'm right next to it.
Once I'm connected the signal goes right back to 100% and then it fine even if I connect to it at max range. On my prime it can be 300y in an open area and less inside.
My prime is one of those that have great wifi but 0 gps
Quick question for the OP:
You said you had your Prime repaired...
Did you already have the hotspots on your Prime when you sent it in for repair?
You may want to try and forget both connections and then reestablish both of them.
Don't know if it will help, but I know I used to have issues sometimes when changing roms on my phone where a remembered connection would act kinda weird.
Only thing that would fix it was to forget the connection, then redo it.
Just a thought.
Dnakaman said:
Quick question for the OP:
You said you had your Prime repaired...
Did you already have the hotspots on your Prime when you sent it in for repair?
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Yes, both were there before I sent it off - and all wi-fi hotspots were still on the system when it was returned (though none of my apps, photos or videos...)
Having issues with extremely slow wifi on my device. If I'm upstairs I can't even connect to my router. If I'm downstairs I connect but get horribly slow speeds. My other devices see like 8 wifi networks in my area, but I see only mine with the s4. If I try to enter the name of an open wifi network I know exists in my neighborhood, the S4 can't even see it.
I tested out disabling security on my router, and my speeds jumped up to normal if I was right next to the router. However moving to other locations in the house I still lose connection. If I turn on any kind of wireless security on the router, the speeds are super slow even right next to the router. In the 600Kb range (I have a 20Mb internet).
Almost sounds like a hardware issue to me. Tempted to bring it to Verizon, but who knows if they even have replacement devices at this point.
EDIT: So I managed to get the device to get fast wifi with security turned on by messing with security settings on my router. But if I do a speedtest right next to the router, I get great speeds. If I walk upstairs, and do another test, it's like I went back to 1997. Suddenly my ping is in the hundreds, and I'm getting 56K speeds. Walk downstairs again, and run it again, BAM fast pings and 20Mb downloads. The GNex gets 20Mb speeds throughout the entire house.
I have the device right next to my Galaxy Nexus right now. The GNex can see my network, and 5 others in my area. The S4 can only see my network.
Could very well be a hardware issue with the actual unit - I don't have any WiFi problems at all here - is this running on stock? If so I would recommend seeing if you get a replacement unit if it helps - if not then I would ask what settings are on your router? is it 5ghz (i have had problems with that on ALL devices)
Are you using a case or custom back cover? If so try it without the case/back cover.
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda premium
I'm running stock rooted.
I'm using a case, I've tried it without and it makes no difference.
My router also does 2.4ghz and 5ghz, and I've tried both and it makes no difference. I generally use the 5ghz, because the signal is bit better.
The oddest thing to me is that this thing can't see a single other wifi network in my area. My other devices will see multiple wifi networks.
Go into your router and disable (uncheck) the WMM option. Odds are youre having the constant connect/disconnect from some routers, especially but not limited to DLink DIR-655 and DIR 855 models. The disconnects and reconnects are quick enough that you sometimes won't see the wifi icon disappear and reappear.
I had the issue (i have the DIR-655) and unchecking the WMM (Wifi MultiMedia) fixed the issue.
I have that option disabled.
I really think this is just the wifi radio being weak compared to my other devices. Not sure if its a defect, or just the way the verizon s4 is. The performance is fine in the same room as my router, or even in the room directly above it. In the furthest from it in the house, however, the S4 just can't get any connection over barely 1 bar, and the signal in wireless signal info is horrible. Not being able to see other wifi networks in my area is the most telling thing to me. Even if I walk around my neighborhood, I can't see any others. Maybe if I walked right up to someone's house I could, but I haven't wanted to look pervy, so I haven't tried that. :laugh: At this moment my Gnex can see 5 other networks sitting in the exact same spot as my S4. The S4 just sees my networks.
Yeah sounds like yours is defective. On mine I can see networks from all around my neighborhood. (~5 of them)
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda premium
So today I finally came into work after being off for awhile, and brought my S4 in for the first time. We have open wifi at work everywhere with multiple access points per floor, so no matter where you are you should get 3-4 bars of wifi signal. From my desk where I usually get the full four bars on my GNex, my S4 gets 1 bar of wifi. Doing a speedtest, I get 2000kbps down, 872kbps up. My GNex gets 35Mb down, and around 25Mb up on the same wifi connection. So yea, there is something seriously wrong with this thing.
Damn I guess I need to flash back to stock and take it in.
I took took mine to Verizon and they swapped it out. This one gets a great wifi signal. The capper was when I was in the store and their display phones could see all the local wifi networks, and mine couldn't. Mine was barely able to connect to their instore wifi. New one works perfectly.