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Help Disappointed in WiFi antenna strength

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xrae

Well-Known Member
Is there a way to boost the wifi reception strength? My Android phone and laptop both pick up wifi signal great in the corners of my home, but the Nexus 7 drops the signal or just has a weak one dot in those same places. Seems like I have to be within 10-15 feet of the router to get a really strong signal. Just wondering if there are any tweaks I can do to the tablet or router to get better signal. Thanks!
 
can't say there's any secrets to be had. mine works great in all areas, even my in-laws who have a very poor signal router.
 
xrae said:
Is there a way to boost the wifi reception strength? My Android phone and laptop both pick up wifi signal great in the corners of my home, but the Nexus 7 drops the signal or just has a weak one dot in those same places. Seems like I have to be within 10-15 feet of the router to get a really strong signal. Just wondering if there are any tweaks I can do to the tablet or router to get better signal. Thanks!
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I think there might be some problem with the settings in your router because mine works really well. In fact I live on the seventh floor of a building and I used my tablet on the ninth floor where my grand parents live.
 
mine seemed to be much better out of the box and even used it outside. Now can barely get a signal upstairs. I was wondering if one or some of my apps might be causing it to run worse or interfering??
 
I'd describe my Nexus 7's wifi as "about average". I spend a lot of time at a side of the house quite far away from the router, where bad wifi antennas have struggled. The Nexus 7 gives me 1 or 2 bars, and although the speed is reduced at this range, it allows for web browsing and low-quality video streaming just fine.

The exception is youtube. For some reason I have a hell of a time getting youtube to play videos without buffering all the time. Even when "HQ" is turned off. The Youtube app just doesn't want to download more than a few seconds of video at once. I assume this is a problem with the app.
 
OP, make sure the back of your Nexus 7 is securely snapped into place. When I first got mine, it had absolutely horrible WiFi reception.Two bars from thirty feet away kind of stuff. But I found a post in this forum that referenced loose case backs as a culprit and, sure enough, one of my corners wasn't snapped in tightly. Once I did that, reception had been outstanding. Has something to do with where the antenna is located or some such alchemy.
 
Optimus Prune said:
OP, make sure the back of your Nexus 7 is securely snapped into place. When I first got mine, it had absolutely horrible WiFi reception.Two bars from thirty feet away kind of stuff. But I found a post in this forum that referenced loose case backs as a culprit and, sure enough, one of my corners wasn't snapped in tightly. Once I did that, reception had been outstanding. Has something to do with where the antenna is located or some such alchemy.
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This guy saved my n7 from a regrettable death from high speed smash into a nearby wall!! About a week ago my WiFi signal became dismal - I started looking to my router for answers, did a WiFi analysis with the WiFi analyzer tool. My gnex was getting -50 and was picking up 6 neighbors. The n7 was getting -85 and could see no neighbors. I ran a Google search, came across this post, and this man's reply solved my issue. The top left corner of my n7 was slightly separated. I snapped it back into place and was immediately greeted with a full WiFi signal and getting -40 with the analyzer app. I was so stoked I registered for an account just to reply.

Thanks
 
I have a samsung galaxy tab that the signal keeps going on and off,stating network problems,bought the nexus 7 as a update from froyo to jelly bean,the nexus is giving great reception and has not lost the network once.
 
I use both an iPhone4S and a Nexus7 all the time on my home WiFi, and I can report that my Nexus7 consistently gets better reception than my iPhone.

I have one room at the top of the house where I get no WiFi reception at all on my iPhone, and yet the Nexus7 retains a solid hold on the signal.
 
opposite for me my S3 is excellent but the Nexus 7 drops all the time even when standing by the router
 
Compared to my Paladin this N7 rocks
Speedtest regularly registers the same speed as my PC everywhere around my house.
WMMV.
 
Optimus Prune said:
OP, make sure the back of your Nexus 7 is securely snapped into place. When I first got mine, it had absolutely horrible WiFi reception.Two bars from thirty feet away kind of stuff. But I found a post in this forum that referenced loose case backs as a culprit and, sure enough, one of my corners wasn't snapped in tightly. Once I did that, reception had been outstanding. Has something to do with where the antenna is located or some such alchemy.
Click to expand...
OK, I saw this thread when searching for wifi issues with Nexus 7 and sure enough, the corner wasn't completely snapped down -- got 3 more bars and went from -75db to -55db with wi-fi analyzer. Great!
 
Optimus Prune said:
OP, make sure the back of your Nexus 7 is securely snapped into place. When I first got mine, it had absolutely horrible WiFi reception.Two bars from thirty feet away kind of stuff. But I found a post in this forum that referenced loose case backs as a culprit and, sure enough, one of my corners wasn't snapped in tightly. Once I did that, reception had been outstanding. Has something to do with where the antenna is located or some such alchemy.
Click to expand...


amazing! exactly the same here! many thanks for your post. One press on the back topright corner....click....and there's the wifi signal! at last.
Maybe our devices were assembled on a monday morning by somebody with a hangover?
 
squeakyg said:
I'd describe my Nexus 7's wifi as "about average". I spend a lot of time at a side of the house quite far away from the router, where bad wifi antennas have struggled. The Nexus 7 gives me 1 or 2 bars, and although the speed is reduced at this range, it allows for web browsing and low-quality video streaming just fine.

The exception is youtube. For some reason I have a hell of a time getting youtube to play videos without buffering all the time. Even when "HQ" is turned off. The Youtube app just doesn't want to download more than a few seconds of video at once. I assume this is a problem with the app.
Click to expand...
agree the you-tube app is rubbish, other non google you-tube apps like Playtube play you-tube videos no problem but the official google you-tube app doesn't , go figure ??
 
Optimus Prune said:
OP, make sure the back of your Nexus 7 is securely snapped into place. When I first got mine, it had absolutely horrible WiFi reception.Two bars from thirty feet away kind of stuff. But I found a post in this forum that referenced loose case backs as a culprit and, sure enough, one of my corners wasn't snapped in tightly. Once I did that, reception had been outstanding. Has something to do with where the antenna is located or some such alchemy.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much!!! Had problems with my wifi for almost a month since i dropped my nexus. Thanks to You i checked back cover and realised that back is loose in one corner. Now my wifi is back to normal !
Had to register here to thank you :)
 
My WiFi is still incredibly slow. I've posted about it here before and I've tried everything that's been suggested. I've even tried using different routers and homemade signal boosters. If you're interested in making homemade extenders/boosters, see this also. It explains it well in theory.

Personally I've just given up on the Nexus 7 wifi. If I have something to watch rather than try stream it I'll download it and push it to the Nexus 7 wirelessly with Airdroid. I have issues with reddit (especially when using 3rd party apps like baconreader to access) and facebook (app and mobile) not even receiving data. I have to actually turn the device off and restart it just to check my news feed.

I was thinking the other day that the problem may be heat related. The heat from games and the battery charging (battery is in close proximity to wifi card) may of damaged or somehow distorted the card. It's possible that it's worked itself loose also but I assume that would result in terminal failure rather than patchiness.
 
sleezecheeze said:
My WiFi is still incredibly slow. I've posted about it here before and I've tried everything that's been suggested. I've even tried using different routers and homemade signal boosters. If you're interested in making homemade extenders/boosters, see this also. It explains it well in theory.

Personally I've just given up on the Nexus 7 wifi. If I have something to watch rather than try stream it I'll download it and push it to the Nexus 7 wirelessly with Airdroid. I have issues with reddit (especially when using 3rd party apps like baconreader to access) and facebook (app and mobile) not even receiving data. I have to actually turn the device off and restart it just to check my news feed.

I was thinking the other day that the problem may be heat related. The heat from games and the battery charging (battery is in close proximity to wifi card) may of damaged or somehow distorted the card. It's possible that it's worked itself loose also but I assume that would result in terminal failure rather than patchiness.
Click to expand...

If you're having that much issue with wifi speeds, it might be something more wrong in the device. If it's still under warranty, I'd look at a replacement. I can sit and stream Netflix and Flixster on mine just fine, and I'm only on a 3MB connection at home with decent range on top of it. If you're dropping data and everything, then it might be something else. Admittedly I haven't gone and looked for your previous posts, but have you tested it as the only wireless device connected? The only reason I mention it, is I have a friend of mine, and her router always seems to find itself an IP issue when more than one device connects. She'll come home, and her phone will connect to her WiFi and kick the printer off the network. Or her laptop will stop working until she goes in and refreshes it. In her case, it's a router issue, but it definitely affects what's on it. Not saying it's the same for you, but just trying to hit random things. But if you're data is that slow/intermittent, and you've tried everything else, it might be something more wrong with the device.
 
If you are still having trouble with YouTube buffering, I found an app that loads videos much faster and you can even watch videos in HD instead of having to settle for HQ like all the other unofficial YouTube apps. It even has a built in download function. Its called tubemate and it isn't actually on the android market.You have to either get it from their website, or download it from Amazon's apps section. Hope this helps you out!
 
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