Problem holding WiFi connection?

[westbros]

My brother and I both have the Note 10.1 2014, and both of us are experiencing problems with it holding a WiFi connection. Most of the time this is happening at home, although I have noticed it at work a couple of times (but this may be due to the strength of the signal and where I am in the office). Sometimes I can reconnect simply by turning off the WiFi on my tablet and then turning it back on. Sometimes this doesn't work though, and I have to reset the router.

On a few occasions I have noticed that my brother and I have both lost the connection at the same time, and so my thinking is that the router is the problem, not the tablets. But I would like to check whether anybody else has had problems with WiFi connections, and what your thoughts are?

Thanks.

 

[lotus49]

It is possible you have both been unlucky but my guess is that the router and the tablet just don't get on - this doesn't seem to be uncommon with a whole host of devices. Some routers work fine with most devices but just not one and some phones or tablets work fine with most routers but not one particular one.

Wifi connections are far from bulletproof and do drop for no apparent reason but having used a huge number of wifi devices, I don't believe that the Note stands out as being susceptible to dropping the connection.

 

[tamxir]

Hi There

Mine drops out now and then but I only notice it because I need to always use Text to Speech because of my vision problems. So, I hear the reconnect notification. I use a PC media server and use XBMC among other DLNA apps to stream live TV and media to the Tablet at night in bed. It hasn't dropped out during playback yet, but the last few days I've had stuttering video problems. I've tried other player apps on the Note 10.1 with the same result.

It's not a signal strength issue as my Toshiba AT100 Tablet and every other device in the house play just fine. I posted elsewhere here that the Note 10.1 had assigned itself the same IP address as the server PC the other day. I fixed that by assigning the Tablet a fixed IP and pointed it at the Modem/Router as its DNS.

The PC and network here have been ruled out as a cause of my connection dropouts and stuttering so the finger is definitely pointing at the Tablet for now for me anyway. If you've ever tried setting up a WDTV Live to play nice on a multi-PC Windows network, the Tablet issues will be easy

I hope the Tablet doesn't turn out like the WDTV Live and require me to stand in the corner facing north while I whistle dixie to get it to play nice on my network. If it does, my tolerance will be zero and it'll be going back as faulty. I really hope not. I'm loving it (mostly). It's early days so some teething problems are expected.

Regards
tamxir

 

[tamxir]

Additional Info

I installed a network traffic monitor and was looking at it while playing a video from my local network.

The traffic speed fluctuated from the stream rate expected (I could hear the sound) and down to zero as the video stuttered and stopped. This behavior has only been apparent in the last week so I can only presume the cause to be a recent Samsung Update. I have eliminated all other possible causes of the problem.

So, I would assume a fix will be fortcoming from Samsung, otherwise they will face a mutiny

Regards
tamxir

 

[tamxir]

The video stuttering has stopped. The Tablet has been on all day and the problem was there this morning but not now.

I didn't change anything.

Regards
tamxir

Update: The dropouts are back. This is getting annoying. I'm losing my patience with this Tablet. My 3 YO Toshiba Thrive runs rings around it in Video performance and wifi radio reliability. I probably should have got one of their Tegra 4 models.

 

[tamxir]

More findings. I've narrowed down the dropouts and stuttering video to after 10PM at night when I generally watch a TV episode or a movie in bed.

I might be onto something. Our a Smart Meter (power) is about 4 Metres away from the bedroom so it is now a suspect for causing RF interference. I'm using a clear wifi channel 11 to get away from the neighbors signals. I used the 'Wifi Analyser' app to see what channels they are using so I could avoid any interference from them. I had done this some time ago.

I'll try a few different channels in my router settings to see if this makes any difference. Perhaps the radio in the tablet is a bit too sensitive to interference.

tamxir

PS - Sorry to harp on about this. I rang Samsung Tech and they wanted me to go to MacDonalds to see if the problem occurred there. UM, no. I could smell a 'There's something wrong with your network' coming. IT'S FINE! Every other device works flawlessly throughout the house.

 

[tamxir]

SOLVED - it was my Bluetooth headset (not that old). That explains the night time problem.

When the headset was connected, the video would stutter, play, pixelate etc. When I disconnected the headset, the video started playing normally. I borrowed another Bluetooth headset and paired it and it all worked fine.

How odd, but at least I got to the bottom of it. Thanks for tolerating my whinging

tamxir