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Hi
I have just got my XDAIIs and the Wifi works, however the signal quality is poor i.e 30-40% and the TX rate is only 2M. This is with power save mode setting set to best performance and I am within 1 metre from the wireless router.
ANy ideas
mine is the same
What wireless router are you guys using? I've noticed it varies with different brands. At home I've got an Apple Airport Extreme and I get about the same as you guys, whereas at work we use 3COM wireless routers and at a distance of a few meters I get about 75-80% reception.
Dimitri
I'm using a 3com and reception is around 60% anywhere. Whether I'm stood next to it or upstairs and in the opposit corner of the house (i.e. lots of bricks in the way). It's not until I go outside and start walking away from the house that I get a sudden drop off.
In other words, I think the connection software is more at fault in how it reports the signal strength than the reception.
Real Wifi transmission rate
I read back a while ago here that the maximum transmission rate on the O2 xda II, not IIs, was limited to a throughput of 256K, eventhough reception was at 2mb etc, is this true for the IIs? This was was to internal systems of the xda etc, nothing to do with wifi card etc?
I've got a netgear and a buffalo and both are the same sort of reception
Thanks for the feedback guys.
I am using a Belkin WIreless router
Hi
Mines a Draytek 2600G complete with 2 high gain (5dBi antennae), same issues, poor wifi signal when not standing next to AP. Laptop with pcicma 54G card shows full signal at same location where XDA barely registers a signal.
This causes loads of problems with skype, which drops the call and takes the wifi connection with it (soft restart required to restore).
Nigel
Are you all using Bluetooth while trying to communicate with an 802.11 network?
Bluetooth and 802.11 both operate in the 2.4 GHz band, and because of Bluetooth's frequency hopping, it can seriously impair 802.11 performance.
Some devices with integrated Bluetooth and 802.11 have proprietary mechanisms to deal with this problem, but not all as it's not mandatory.
Hi
Nope, thought of that. Killed Bluetooth on handset, other bluetooth gadgets in house, other wifi stuff bar the AP and DECT phone, and I am not running the microwave!!
Same result, poor wifi range. Also tried with 3 separate AP's now same result each time.
Went to PC world this morning connected a couple of their demo IPAQ jobbies to their btopenzone AP, got the meters up and held mine next to ipaqs. Without fail, the IPAQ's were reading 3/4 signal and my XDA was barely registering a signal. Staff must have thought I was a nutter, but I wanted to prove the sh1te wifi issue to myself!
Nigel
Anyone got an SDIO wifi card that they can test with - i'd be interested to know now much better that performed.
Nigel
i'm sure it would perform mucho better. I get the 40% signal with my buffalo router... no matter where i stand. you'd think little things like this would have been discovered during the qa cycle.
I get a much better reception around the house with my XDA 2 with an SDIO sandisk Wi-Fi card than I do with my XDA IIs with built in Wi-Fi
I don't have a Blue Angel yet, as I'm waiting to see if many of the reported issues (like this one) get resolved. However, I have a few comments/questions/suggestions:
Does anyone here know where the 802.11 antenna is inside the Blue Angel's case?
Being a software engineer who develops device drivers for 802.11 hardware, I've worked with a fair amount of WiFi devices. Chances are, the problem everyone is experiencing with WiFi is almost sure to be due to a REALLY BAD internal WiFi antenna design. The antenna is either being shielded by something inside the enclosure or picking up interference from another component.
If it's possible to shut off the internal WiFi card, one way to test the above theory is to try an SDIO WiFi card in the Blue Angel. If anyone can try this, please post your results.
If we can get information about where the antenna is in the case, it might be possible to reroute the internal antenna, or (less desirable) attach an external antenna to improve reception.
In addition, improving WiFi reception will almost surely improve battery life as well as a side effect.
It amazes me that customers of a $900 device have to jury-rig solutions to so many problems...
I use an USB Wifi dongle by Asus, reception is good arround the house, even through a lot of walls
I agree with poster above wifi on blue Angel sucks
I have both Blue Angel and XDA2 +Socket SDIO, and there is no doubt that the Socket sdio XDA2 combo has noticeably better reception, having done tests (ie trying them both from a distant spot, XDA2 can maintain connection, XDA2s can't). I'm shipping the XDA2s back and waiting for the Mini/Magician. Reception is the key to this when trying to hop on random hotpsots in the streets...so sayonara Blue Angel, too bad though...
Also, FYI on XDA, speed limit is 256K, not 2mb, due to buffers etc. routers do not prefer either system and WEP works fine on both.
Has anyone managed to get the XDA2 and socket or sandisk SD wifi card working with a dling 54g access point namely the dwl2000ap+?
I've heard of a few issues with DLINK 54g access points and these cards?
Cheers
I have the SX66 / same as PDA2k but built like XDA IIs, I use the built in wifi alot but I also Have the SDIO Socket Card also and run it when a need longer distance. No conflicts of any kind that I have seen, works well with my D-Link Router but reception is not so good with built in.
Have a Linksys WAG54G 54mb, and have tried on Dlink 108Mb running both on mixed mode. One thing I will suggest that others have mentioned but cant be explained enough, as most people place their DECT phone next to their wireless router. There needs to be at least 2M distance between the two antenna's otherwise interference will kill signal dramatically, even on different channels.
With this said, have tried XDA Mini with combo wifi card, XDA2 with wifi card, and XDAIIs with builtin, and the power management turned off to give maximum power. Yes the IIs consumes the most amount of juice, followed by the XDA2, then the Mini.
On a quick scan, drive home using wififofum, with the 3 of them mounted on the dash, came up with the following results on drive to and from work.
Access points discovered
XDA2 - 78
XDAIIs - 89
XDA Mini - 82
I might also mention, that half of these have no encryption at all, or have left noobie default settings on routers - thanks guys ;-)
Overall like the IIs, except heats up too quick and loses battery life, especially using the wireless. XDA Mini rocks, just because the size and I can place the wifi card in when i need it, and the XDA 2 is just the stable toy I have had for the last 12 months.
where did you get the XDA mini?
I didn't know that it was out in the UK yet?
Wilson electronics makes an adapter that will plug into the external antenna jack under the back cover. I tried it, and it worked great... until I disconnected it. Then the internal antenna would no longer work. It's like the act of plugging it in destroyed the phone's ability to use its internal antenna. It would work when I reconnected the external antenna, but when I disconnected it, the phone would only get any signal strength when I was right under a cell tower.
Anyone else try one of their adapters with the Captivate? If so, what were the results?
-nfs
Sent from wherever I was when I sent it.
I had no idea that input jack was there until you said anything. What happens if you switch airplane mode on and off after the disconnect of the adapter?
nappent said:
I had no idea that input jack was there until you said anything. What happens if you switch airplane mode on and off after the disconnect of the adapter?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't remember if I tried it, but it was restarted many times. I would think that power cycling the phone would have essentially the same effect.
Sent from wherever I was when I sent it.
I saw this but never had the courage to try it. Did you pull the battery and try the 3 button fix?
photo please?
This should clarify things
TommyZee said:
photo please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the round gold connector at the bottom right of the SIM card. The adapter (FME on the other end) is available here:
http://www.wpsantennas.com/359919-samsung-captivate-galaxy-s-antenna-adapter-cable.aspx
After one BAD experience, I'm not eager to try again. I was sort of hoping that my experience was a fluke and that other people had been more successful.
Why?
capnoob said:
I saw this but never had the courage to try it. Did you pull the battery and try the 3 button fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never occurred to me to do that, since the phone booted and it would work when very near a cell tower.
This struck me as either a defect in manufacture, or a design flaw... either in the phone or in the connector. I suspect it was mechanical in nature, and that once the act of connecting the adapter disconnected the internal antenna, something caused it to stay disconnected.
I wonder if this might have happened?
Read the part under "How To Know If a Cellular Yagi Will Work With Your Phone"
http://www.ehelpfultips.com/how_to_use_cell_phone_yagi_direc.htm
capn1 said:
I wonder if this might have happened?
Read the part under "How To Know If a Cellular Yagi Will Work With Your Phone"
http://www.ehelpfultips.com/how_to_use_cell_phone_yagi_direc.htm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
I was using a dual band antenna without an amplifier, so there should not have been too much SWR. I've used this antenna for years with another phone AND an amplifier without problems.
The evidence clearly indicates that phone's transmitter was not burned out due to too much SWR or anything else, because it would still work just fine when reconnected to the external antenna. Ditto for the phone's receiver section; it worked fine whenever it was connected to the external antenna. Once connected, thereafter the signal bars went to zero when it was disconnected. Also, as I mentioned, the phone would still function normally, if I was VERY near a cell tower.
The only conclusion I can make is that the connector was designed to disconnect the internal antenna when an external antenna is connected. Somehow the connector or the electronics failed to ever reconnect it when the external was disconnected.
Sent from wherever I was when I sent it.
try reflashing a modem
It's NOT a firmware problem
I know you guys are trying to help, but it's not a firmware problem. It's a hardware problem. I was just trying to see if anyone else had a similar experience. I just talked with Wilson Electronics, and the guy I spoke with acknowledged that the connector or board can be damaged on the Captivate. He also volunteered that they don't recommend direct connection with that phone. Well, that's kind of odd, since I only learned of the connector by calling them up and asking which one to use with the phone.
Even though I did not buy the adapters from them, I bought them on the recommendation of one of their people, so I have contacted them to get my money back. We'll see; they haven't responded officially yet. I suppose I can contact the vendor, but they were not the ones who told me it would work...
They have another way to inductively connect the phone. The only problem is that my old amplifier won't work for that. I'll have to get a model 801201 instead of my old 812201 which will run another $250 or so, with a cradle and/or velcro attached inductive connector.
comdei said:
try reflashing a modem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well guess what!!?? You are in luck!!!
Theres something you can do with hardware problems..
CALL SAMSUNG
your phone is under 1 year old. you have a warranty. call them. flash to stock . and get it replaced then
Why don't you try reflashing the modem or rom? People are offering you solutions and you seem stuck on it being a hardware issue. A rom or modem re-flash takes a few mins of your time. Not to start anything but I do support for a living and it bugs the hell out of me when people jump the gun and won't try other solutions.
I am stuck on the evidence as to what the nature of the problem is. Did you read what I posted previously?
Let me tell you a little more. At the time I had the problem, the phone was still on the factory firmware. The phone had never been flashed.
All the available evidence points to a hardware problem. The fact that the phone worked when in close proximity to a cell tower, that as soon as there was any distance between the tower and the phone there were no signal bars, but if I plugged the external antenna in there was immediately good signal...the fact that the connector manufacturer has admitted that their adapter could damage the board... I don't mean to be unapreciative, but I do support, too (a well a writing the software itself), and I've learned to really think about the available information when trying to deduce the nature of a problem, and it seems to me that you are stuck on a conclusion that the evidence doesn't support.
Besides, I am not looking for help here. As I wrote previously, I was trying to find out if anyone has had a similar experience. If my experience was a fluke, then I would have been willing to try connecting the replacement phone. See, the problem has been solved, but I don't want to have it again.
Now that the manufacturer has admitted that their connector could damage the board, I have decided to get a different type of amplifier which allows an inductive connection. That should prevent further problems of this nature. It's an expensive solution, but an antenna with a bi-directional amp is really useful when you are in a remote area with a faint signal. When the signal is too weak for that, it's time to use the ham radio... but that's another topic, and yes, I have been known to take my jeep off road... way way off the road.
nappent said:
Why don't you try reflashing the modem or rom? People are offering you solutions and you seem stuck on it being a hardware issue. A rom or modem re-flash takes a few mins of your time. Not to start anything but I do support for a living and it bugs the hell out of me when people jump the gun and won't try other solutions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from wherever I was when I sent it.
nfs_phone said:
Now that the manufacturer has admitted that their connector could damage the board, I have decided to get a different type of amplifier which allows an inductive connection. That should prevent further problems of this nature. It's an expensive solution, but an antenna with a bi-directional amp is really useful when you are in a remote area with a faint signal. When the signal is too weak for that, it's time to use the ham radio... but that's another topic, and yes, I have been known to take my jeep off road... way way off the road.
.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So samsung admitted it is a known problem? Are you sending it in for warranty then?
Trusselo said:
So samsung admitted it is a known problem? Are you sending it in for warranty then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was referring to the manufacturer of the adapter, not the phone. Samsung was made aware of the problem when I was trouble-shooting the problem. The tech I was talking to blamed the problem on me for using third party accessories not authorized by Samsung. However, since I had been acting in good faith, he did authorize my sending the phone in for warranty repair. I don't know if they can be counted upon to always do that.
I am left wondering how often this problem happens. I used the antenna connector on the back of my Motorola V3xx thousands of times with no issues. It seems really odd to have just connected the Cappy once and suffered such a problem. One key difference is that I don't think that the V3xx disconnected the internal antenna when you connect the external one.
Sent from wherever I was when I sent it.
I've seen similar behavior when one of my foster kids mistook the antenna for a screw while disassembling a blackberry.
The antenna jack is a "normalizing " jack in that when you plug something in a circuit is disconnected and when you unplug it restores the circuit.
if there was a problem with the adapter and it applied too much pressure to the middle pin then it may not have normalized and you would only get signal if you sat under a tower.
This is exactly what happened with the poor blackberry.
Glad to hear Sammy is covering it with warranty, other wise you would have been the proud owner of the only door wedge that plays angry birds.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Interesting. Not sure I understand what you mean by normalizing nor"middle" pin, but it was pretty clear that the internal antenna was no longer connected. Of course the unit was not entirely useless as a phone, but the requirement of having to always have it connected to an external antenna to get it to work did make it a tad cumbersome to use...
pawadca said:
I've seen similar behavior when one of my foster kids mistook the antenna for a screw while disassembling a blackberry.
The antenna jack is a "normalizing " jack in that when you plug something in a circuit is disconnected and when you unplug it restores the circuit.
if there was a problem with the adapter and it applied too much pressure to the middle pin then it may not have normalized and you would only get signal if you sat under a tower.
This is exactly what happened with the poor blackberry.
Glad to hear Sammy is covering it with warranty, other wise you would have been the proud owner of the only door wedge that plays angry birds.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from wherever I was when I sent it.
I'd agree that it's a hardware problem, it may actually be that the internal antenna is burned out. I had a similar problem with the wifi on my old ipod.
I used an aftermarket charger which shorted something inside the device. Consequently, the battery would not hold a charge for longer than 15 minutes AND the it would not recognize a wifi signal, unless I held the ipod within inches of the router. Similar to what you experience with the cell towers, except on a smaller scale.
Good luck.
Burning out the antenna itself would require the kind of amperage generated by a lightning strike. Much more likely that even in your situation some circuitry connecting your antenna to the phone blew out.
In my case there was no overvoltage, just a mechanical connection. I think something just got bent beyond its ability to bend back from... I'm guessing here, but I can see a bar inside the antenna connector. When the center pin of the adapter is pushed into the connector, it will make contact with that bar (the bar is at the side of the opening at 90 degrees to the center pin of the adapter) and pushes it to the side to some extent. I am not sure, but I think that maybe it was pushed a tiny bit too far, and it wasn't able to spring back to its original position. I am assuming that when it is pushed to the side it causes the connection to the internal antenna to be disconnected and that its contact with the center pin of the adapter is the connection to the antenna. I am further concluding that if it doesn't spring back to its original position, that the internal antenna is never reconnected.
jwolfburg said:
I'd agree that it's a hardware problem, it may actually be that the internal antenna is burned out. I had a similar problem with the wifi on my old ipod.
I used an aftermarket charger which shorted something inside the device. Consequently, the battery would not hold a charge for longer than 15 minutes AND the it would not recognize a wifi signal, unless I held the ipod within inches of the router. Similar to what you experience with the cell towers, except on a smaller scale.
Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from wherever I was when I sent it.
OK, so I came across a component replacememnt pdf and listed there was a photo with a coaxial plug (photo 1) like what you see in the old wireless cards you could buy for a laptop.. (see photo 2)
My question is if anyone knows if I can plug in an old wifi laptop card antenna to that and if thats for wireless in our devices? I know where the wireless antenna is in our phones but am stumped to what else this plug could be used for... I will be taking my PLAY apart tonight and testing this theory out, I will be shocked if its even remotely related to wifi.....
jgregoryj1 said:
OK, so I came across a component replacememnt pdf and listed there was a photo with a coaxial plug (photo 1) like what you see in the old wireless cards you could buy for a laptop.. (see photo 2)
My question is if anyone knows if I can plug in an old wifi laptop card antenna to that and if thats for wireless in our devices? I know where the wireless antenna is in our phones but am stumped to what else this plug could be used for... I will be taking my PLAY apart tonight and testing this theory out, I will be shocked if its even remotely related to wifi.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why would you want to though? i mean wifi range is good enough as it is
fma965 said:
why would you want to though? i mean wifi range is good enough as it is
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been having constant connection issues with my phone for over a month. I have reflashed the correct doom kernel wifi modules for CDMA and that helps for anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 days then it acts up again. I have FTFd and reinstalled everything from scratch in hopes that helps... which it did but only for like a week. If I sit next to my router its top notch but go in the other room and its dropped to 2 bars and wont stay connected.
I used wire to the underside of the wifi sticker as a sudo antenna and it seemed to give me an extra 30-50 feet of range but after 2 days its abck again. So I took out the wire, and found the pdf I attached. I have confirmed by looking at my old old laptops wireless card antennas inside that they connectors are the same and if I take thge wifi antenna from my laptop and put it to the connect in the PDF it snaps in place but its too big to let me put the phone back together. So lets just say I have a wifi issue that doesnt seem to want to be fixed. And I am just really tired of fighting with it and running out of ideas.... scrathc that.. I have run out of ideas. I just dont know what to do. And my only choices for other kernels are Stock with overclock, but no recovery, or stock kernel with no overclock. I have never been able to get the CWM installer to work ever........ anyways sorry for the long reply just tired of this.....
Hey folks,
today i changed the pcb of the Hox (finally managed to find a broken phone so i could use mine again).
But my wifi signal is about half it should be (i m about 1m from wifi router and there is no other network around perturbing my wifi)
I checked connector and they are ok i also changed the wifi cable but didnt changed anything. all other cables are also connected.
One thing i did was pasting a second copper isolation one the one already present, tought i would dissipate more the heat of the phone
but i won t. Now i m not sure if the trouble could come from the second copper sticker.
Did anybody got the same kind of trouble ?
Ok, I've got a old Note 3 still chugging along. The USB port was starting to get so loose I was having difficulties even with new USB cords. So I figured I'd swap out the board as it's a pretty simple swap (or so I expected). This isn't the first time I've done internal repairs, boards swaps, etc.
I replaced the old charge port board with the new one, made sure the 3G antenna cable was re-attached, and fired up the phone. All seemed fine. The connections were good and the speakerphone and mic worked (one frequent complaint of bad replacement boards). But, I was on Wifi and didn't notice until the next day that... Mobile data would drop frequently, my phone would frequently go to 4G only (something I rarely saw previously, it's usually straight into 4GLTE here in Chicago) and mobile data was very unreliable. Frequently I'd lose all bars and even if it was showing 3bars and 4G (not LTE), I wouldn't have data. I rarely do calls so I'm not sure if calls would go through.
So I opened the phone again, and checked the connections. All looked good. I used my fluke to test continuity from the ground side of the cable on the motherboard through to the pins on the USB chargeboard (where they connect to the outer back case antenna). All continuous. Resistances are all very low, even on the old board. Still messed up data and cell signal. Hmm, the lower antenna is only the 3G connection I think. Perhaps I have a bad charge board after all. I swapped the original USB board back in, but it still had the same problem.
At this point, I'm not sure what the issue is (other than I have a big problem). Is it possible the antenna embedded in the rear housing is bad or was damaged during removal? I cleaned all the connectors multiple times (first with isopropyl, then with DeoxIT Gold). I have my previous Sprint Note 3, but I don't know if the 3G antenna would be compatible (perhaps it's close enough I could use it to test). Anyone have any ideas on what I could have missed?
Thanks!