Very Weak WiFi signal

Hello.

About 3 weeks ago I purchased an Acer Aspire One 10.1 inch D250 to use whilst travelling.

At home I do not have WiFi, so in order to check the WiFi function out and ensure that it was working as it should prior to my travels, I went to a friends house to use his WiFi connection.

I chose a location about 7 meters from his Wifi modern with one brick wall separating it from me.

I managed to get a signal that registered at the lowest reading on the bar Aspire's scale. This I managed to achieve 7 out of 10 attempts.

When I did manage, each and every time I tried to log into another link from my browser, including Google I was presented with a message that stated I was off line.

My friend then bought out his Apple Mac that was about 10 years old and he registered a 90% signal. So much so that he was actually streaming live video.

So it would appear that my brand new Acer Aspire Netbook is failing abysmally in the task for what it was purchased for.

Has anyone experienced this problem also and what can be done about it as in it's present condition it is no better than a door stop.

Regards

 

Any chance you weren't on your friends WiFI but logged on to somebody else in the neighborhood?

 

Jan,
After checking that you are on the right wifi signal, you might also check the power saving setting for your wifi network adapter. It is set to throttle back when you are running on batteries. See this thread. viewtopic.php?f=34&t=7580&p=108007&hilit=wifi+power+save

cheers
Jim

 

Hi Guys.

First answer, no it was my friends WiFi that I was logged onto.

Today I decided to take the AA1 back to where I bought it. The guy there fiddled with it and got a near perfect signal in their shop.

When asked as to what was the problem he stated that somehow or other the network pathings got misdirected and the WiFi was trying to access the Ethernet cable connection. He said he deleted the settings and pathed it as it should be. I asked him how can this be but he could not guess. These may not have been his exact words but it was something alone that path. These corrections he made from within the CMD black window

So I decided to do my own little test after I left. I drove around the streets stopping ever 100 meters or so and searched for WiFi signals.

I located a number, some secure others unsecured. At a few of the sites I opened Internet Explorer and then onto YouTube from where I watched streaming video for a few seconds. I would then move on and try else where.

Where I did make connection, 99 percent of the connections came in as a very weak signal, the bottom of the bar scale. the only place that I got a 4 out of 5 rating was outside the Acer shop.

So in a way, I am still looking to increase my signal strength but not with the same urgency as before.

I did checkout the suggested site but I must admit that some of the suggestions that I followed, I came to a dead end as I could not find the title to the things they recommended. One of these was Power management. When I went into that setting off the control Panel none of the authors descriptions applied. He said he set his power setting as "Normal" I found not such word or setting. Am I missing something?

Regards

 

Assuming you're running XP, first go to Microsoft Update if you haven't already to see if there is an "optional" download for a new Atheros driver along with any Windows updates, and install it.

Disabling the power saving mode in the Atheros driver is through Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > Network > Atheros > L-click Properties: at the Advanced Tab find Power Save Mode and toggle to "OFF"

I've also disabled QoS packet scheduling (cribbed from elsewhere on the net) since I don't have any applications that require it: "Go to Control Panel (classic view)/ network connections. Then right-click on your external connection and choose properties from the popup menu. On the General tab you will find the protocols etc enabled for the connection, one of which is QoS Packet scheduler. Just untick its box, click apply and OK and it won't be loaded next time you boot. ... The beauty of disabling it this way is that you just have to tick the box again if you find it does cause problems and want to re-enable it."

Finally, I've also gotten improved broadband performance from the little download from www.speedguide.net called TCPOptimizer and playing with settings according to its instructions - details depend on the ISP being used.

 

Hi Forone.

Sorry about the delay in responding. I have already tried your suggested path:

The problem is when I get to where I am supposed to select "Power Save Mode" then "Off", Power save mode is not displayed.

I unchecked QoS packet scheduling a few days ago (someone suggested it on a forum).

As to the tweaks at www.speedguide.net I can not find anything relating to TCPOptimizer. Does this tweak apply to the WiFi Router or the Acer Aspire One WiFi function?

Regards

 

Re Optimizer, here's the specific download with detailed explanation and a link to the documentation/instruction manual:

http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php

Re the driver setting, applies to XP - no idea about Windows 7, etc. that might be on a newer machine - I don't think you've said what you're running.

 

Hi there Forone.

Thanks for the download details. I will certainly have a good look at that. The other day I found a driver update to the Atheros Newark and installed that. As yet I have not been able to test it as I do not have a WiFi at home. I will take my Netbook down the road and leach off an unsecure signal where I tested last time. :roll: I would use my mates WiFi but he is working and I could not access his until Saturday or Sunday.

This test should give me an indication if the patch helped. I will do the same following your tweaks.

My OS is Windows XP Home.

Regards