what's with the Droid wifi antenna? (sp)

[Jim 777]

At home I notice that the wifi set up which is fine (full bars on any laptop anywhere in the house) doesn't show the same strength on the droid. Standing 10 feet from the router with no obstructions still only yields 3 of 4 bars. Here on vacation I get 1-2 bars on the lappy and no recognition of the network on the droid. Sometimes even my iPhone buddy sees what I don't.

Is there any tweak to improve wifi reception?

 

[Jim 777]

Today at the resort my buddy had 2 bars on wifi and I could barely see the networks.

Anyone?

 

[Crazy]

I have the same problem in my house. Sometimes, it even loses the connection, that's why I don't bother going on WiFi and use 3G 24/7 now.

 

[leadhead]

I didn't even think it was the antenna, I always assumed it was my network. But I have the same issue, what makes it worse is I have no 3G reception at my house either

 

[googlelover]

Are you guys O/Cing your phones? if you are try to use a different kernel, different voltage, different speed. My phone would NOT connect to my wifi network, and I noticed i switched to a slower speed kernel (kinda weird it happened when i went SLOWER) i went and reflashed to my old kernel and amazingly enough wifi went back to perfect after words.

 

[dezymond]

my guess is it has to do with the ROM you're running.

I'm on CyanogenMod and am running perfect Wifi. I tried BB as well and was fine on wifi then too.

also, have you tried reconnecting it to the network? erasing the settings and then making it again is what i mean.

 

[Jim 777]

yes OC'd but I have a very hard time finding kernels that don't cause reboots if they work at all. Can try slowing it down, but there isn't even the indication of the network being there, so the problem is even before trying to connect. It connects fine once it registers a bar or more.

3G not an option out of the country and wifi is faster.

Tried another ROM recently and had the same low reception issue.

 

[SixStringTheory]

I'm on CM6 and I have no problems. Ever use WiFi Analyzer? Wouldn't be a bad idea to see some straight dBm readings on a stock Droid vs yours.

But my Droid picks up my wifi better than my mother's laptop. Although my laptop has an extremely difficult time connecting to my router. It's entirely possible that either your antenna is bad, there's something causing some RF loss (like a bad connection on your antenna), maybe it's the hardware in the phone itself being deficient, etc...

I'm an RF engineer and just by wiggling a cable with an RF signal I can drop the power by 10-20dB. We repair units all the time just by tightening up connections that were improperly secured when it was built.

So even slight differences in build quality of your Droid could have a major impact.

 

[RW-1]

+1 on Wi Fi Analyzer ...

Likely combo of ROM/Kernal.

My Droid loves Wi Fi.

 

[BayouFlyFisher]

No wifi issues with either Sapphire 0.8.4 or Sapphire 1.0. I use various P3Droid kernels. Normally the 125mhz - 1.25Ghz 7 slot LV.

 

[hemorrdroid]

Just an FYI i had my droid apart this past week replacing some parts, and it looks as though the wifi antenna is located directly above the charging port when you are looking at the phone screen. It makes contact via 2 pressure contacts, if your willing to dig in there, you might find the contacts not making a good connection. Just a last resort thought.

 

[dolpns13]

Whats a Kernel? I have the same problem with my WiFi. I only get about 1 bar at home even within 20 feet of the router. Laptop strenght is excellent. However, although I only get 1 bar, my Droid connection is never interrupted.

 

[Jim 777]

Well, I've tried 3 or 4 ROMs with the same results, but honestly, since it can be difficult to find one that works well AND can look good, I'd hate to think that in order to have decent wifi reception I'd be dictated what ROM to use.

the baseband has nothing to do with it, does it?

 

[Tanknspank]

The driver for wifi is located at the kernel level, so your best bet would be to try another kernel... Jump around. Try chevy's, p3's, cvpcs's, etc until you find the one for you.