Improving WiFi Reception

[Esoter X]

Not sure if this belongs in Hacks or help. But I figure this is more of a question driven by curiosity than need so I've posted here. Is there anything that can be done to increase our wifi reception? In the near month I've owned this phone I have never known a time where I am picking up full strength wifi signal. Reading through a few threads I am seeing that this issue is not just isolated to my experience with the phone. Can anything be done to boost the reception? An app I am unaware of? Some special hacking trickery I can learn?


Peace within,
Esoter X

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[VivaLaPrimo]

Honesty I am not sure if there is anything which can be done. I agree that other devices seem to get much better wifi signal strength, I have found the Droid X has pretty good strength out of all devices tho. I have seen a few apps which claim to help but it might have been for 3G... regardless I don't know if they would work. Resetting your wifi radio would be the best option if that is possible.

Sent from my DROIDX using Droid X Forum App

[macpro88]

If you are rooted, you can change how often the adapter scans for a signal, the default is 120 seconds, so every 120 seconds, it scans for a signal. Lowering this will scan more often obviously, but since you are asking it to do more work, your battery might take small toll. Weather or not this will improve reception, I am not sure, it never bothers me. Check your wireless access point you are connected to though, if its link speed is 54Mbps (if you have a wireless G connection 65Mbps if wireless N) than that is the max speed no matter the reception, if the reception get degrade enough, you will see this link speed decrease.

[iresq]

I'm not sure how to improve reception other than to suggest looking at improving transmission. Depending on your router, you may be able to hack and increase wifi output, placement is also crucial, and there are high gain wifi antenna that may help as well.

[was1958]

I used Wifi Analyzer to find the best channel for the router. Changing to a fixed channel not only improved my signal strength, but also improved network throughput to the phone.

Also, this tool is handy for impressing your friends, er, analyzing their network problems using your Droid X.

[macpro88]

I used Wifi Analyzer to find the best channel for the router. Changing to a fixed channel not only improved my signal strength, but also improved network throughput to the phone.

Also, this tool is handy for impressing your friends, er, analyzing their network problems using your Droid X.

I love that app, as a network admin, it come in handy.

OP, I would also suggest that, use the WiFi Analyzer app to analyze your home network and find out what channel is more open, usually channel 1 is the best for wireless broadcast for your router or wireless access point.

[Gorgarath]

While I do have the app on my phone, I've never used it at home to analyze the wireless. I've used my laptop instead. :lol: But yeah, there's a good chance your wireless is set to use channel 6 as that seems to be the default for a lot of wireless G routers and access points. So if you have a lot of neighbors with wireless, it's definitely worth your wile to do a scan and see what the least congested channel is. Check from the locations that you regularly use your wireless and not just from a single location. Then use the least commonly congested frequency. Not sure about the channels in the 5GHz range, but in the 2.4GHz range, channels 1, 6 and 11 are the 3 channels you'll generally want to pick from.

A side note, don't use WEP if you want to keep people from using your wireless...

[Esoter X]

Awesome. Thanks for all the support, I appreciate it! I'll try the WiFi Analyzer. If anything that sounds like a useful utility to have.

[chokeasphyxia]

This is for cell reception, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for wifi too:

Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done

[macpro88]

This is for cell reception, but I don't see why it wouldn't work for wifi too:

Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done

Hahah lamo, thats funny, I wanna try this out now lol