3 Android devices slow wifi while Laptop is good (only home wifi). Experts help!

[Android Central Question]

I have this weird issue with phone wifi being slow.
If you guys can help me solve this I would be forever thankful.

To summarize the issue for you:

- My Android devices are very slow on my home wifi.
- Laptops have fast speed on my home wifi.

By slow, I mean the time to load websites in chrome, or loading of facebook, instagram etc takes forever, like a dial up.
Download speeds and upload speeds are just as good as the laptop.

The issue started suddenly, becasue all these 3 devices has had normal speeds on the same home wifi for years.

What I have done so far (alot) without luck:
- Replaced router with a new one of the same brand and model.
- Reset, restart several times.
- Relocating and moving around the router, devices etc.
- Changed from 2,4 to 5Ghz.
- Changed channels, mhz, security several times using Wifi analyzer to find the best one.
- Played with settings for QoS, NAT, without luck.
- Changed different protocols (802ac, 802n etc without luck)
- Renew leases on the router devices without luck.
- Tried changing Androids phone wifi from DHCP to Static DNS (Google 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4).
- Tried factory reset of one of the Android devices.
- Tried Safe-Mode on Android.

Hints:
- When having all three devices next to eachother, and opening the same website, it takes equally long time for it to load, so all three are equally slow +- 10%.

- I have the feeling it is the packets being delivered or sent between the android and the router which is the issue, like if something is interfering and it is slower than usual, but then why not the laptop?

About the Android devices, all with latest updates installed.
- Samsung S6 Edge stock, Nougat.
- Samsung S7 stock, Nougat.
- Samsung TAB S2, Nougat.
- No abnormal apps or anything, standard use.

Tried clearing cache, factory reset on the S6, etc...

- We have not changed anything in our home, so nothing is interfering from our side.

Guys, what should I do as a next step?
Tried searching this forum without any new tips.

It (wifi) worked fine before, with the same setups!!!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Do the phones have normal wi-fi speeds on other wi-fi networks?

Check the router manufacturer's website to see if there are any firmware updates available.

 

[Kami K]

Welcome to Android Central! Do the phones have normal wi-fi speeds on other wi-fi networks?

Check the router manufacturer's website to see if there are any firmware updates available.

Other networks = Good / Normal wifi speeds yes.
Only home wifi = problem.

Router has latest FW.

Any experts here?
heeeeelp

 

[Rukbat]

If the speeds are good, it's not the router or the phones. it's the browser. Try using Internet (which comes on Samsung devices). A recent upgrade to Chrome could have caused the problem. (I notice a definite difference between using Chrome and using other browsers.)

 

[Javier P]

Welcome to the forums. When you say that the same problem happens with Facebook or Instagram, do you mean using the app or the web version from a browser?

 

[Kami K]

If the speeds are good, it's not the router or the phones. it's the browser. Try using Internet (which comes on Samsung devices). A recent upgrade to Chrome could have caused the problem. (I notice a definite difference between using Chrome and using other browsers.)

Hi, thanks for the tip.
Already did that, no luck there.

 

[Kami K]

Welcome to the forums. When you say that the same problem happens with Facebook or Instagram, do you mean using the app or the web version from a browser?

Hi and thanks.

Tried them both actually.

 

[Kami K]

So, here is an update.
The issue is still there.

I just setup my Windows 7 Laptop with a wired connection to the router.
Then I setup my laptop as a hotspot.

Then, I connected through wifi on my android devices to the laptop directly.

Issue still there!!!!!!!!

Doesn't this mean there is something wrong from the connection from the router to the ISP?

Because the laptop had a wired connection, and I had a wifi connection to the laptop instead of the router.


I also did this test to see if there was any particular interference on wifi around the router:
I put my other phone there and used 4G data traffic to create a hotspot.
I placed the phone just next to the router.

Then I connected my own phone (another one) to that hotspot via wifi.

If there was interference, then I should have encountered it again now, but it worked great instead.

So connected to a hotspot which was on 4G data traffic next to the router worked great.

Clues????????

 

[Javier P]

So weird! I wonder if there's a conflict with any app, setting or configuration that you share between the different android devices. You could try this. Pick the device you use less and let's go a bit nuclear.

Reset app preferences in settings - apps - overflow menu.

Clear data for the settings app in settings - apps - all/show system - settings.

Boot in safe mode and run a test with any app that came preinstalled.

 

[Kami K]

So weird! I wonder if there's a conflict with any app, setting or configuration that you share between the different android devices. You could try this. Pick the device you use less and let's go a bit nuclear.

Reset app preferences in settings - apps - overflow menu.

Clear data for the settings app in settings - apps - all/show system - settings.

Boot in safe mode and run a test with any app that came preinstalled.

Thanks for the tip, tried safe mode before without luck.

Factory reseted my own s6 edge without luck.

Really weird........

Called ISP, talked with their technician. He didn't know more than my little brother about router configurations and wifi etc... no help at all.

dont know what else to do... How to troubleshoot from here...

 

[Javier P]

No idea what else to suggest, mate. Sorry. My idea was disabling any app like antivirus, connection optimiser and such, and resetting your preferences and settings to default values.

Did you restore the phone to your personal settings/apps after the factory reset?

 

[nofunsally]

Did you ever find a solution? I am experiencing very similar issues.

 

[paulkimlax]

A month ago, purchased new Huawei phone and was having the same issues... I thought it was a bad phone, so I requested for a replacement and got the replacement phone today. Same issue with the new phone. I installed an app called DNSet and everything works now.

 

[Rukbat]

If you know how to change the DNS manually, changing it to Google's servers* is always a good idea. If you don't, DNSet does it for you in a different way. (If you also run a PC or laptop, it's not a bad idea to change them there as well.)

*If you do but don't know the addresses, they're 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
@paulkimiax: That says that your internet provider or carrier (depending on whether it was slow on wifi or internet data) has pretty bad DNS servers.

 

[nofunsally]

A few days after this issue started I set my router to use the Google DNS Servers (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4). This did not fix the issue. I've also tried different channels to no avail. I have of course reset the router and phone several times.

My current phone runs 6.0.1, I tried another phone running 5.0 and it also was very slow. All of my other wifi-connected devices seems fine (e.g. kindle fire, computer). When running a google speed test, my Windows 10 computer and the slow phone report very similar upload, download, and ping rates.

The phone works fine on 4G and on other wifi networks.

 

[Paul Medway]

I'm having these issues, have been for some time now, but as it's now affecting my Android TV to Netflix, I must find a fix.

Modem is Netgear DM200 in modern only mode, router is Asus Rt88u. Phone is galaxy S8.

The lowdown, all my non Android devices work fine with the setup whether wired or wireless, 2.4 or 5ghz.

Now this gets weird. Using Google speed test, all devices get similar download speed (50-60 Mbps), but the Android devices get 0bps, or very slightly higher, like 1bps. I notice that when the upload test starts, it bursts up to about 10Mbps for a "blink and you miss it" second, then goes to 0. Now this gets a bit more weird, the same happens for all of my wireless devices (Android or otherwise) but with the non Android devices the upload speed recovers back to 10Mbps, where the Android devices just stay at 0.

Tried to resetting everything, all latest firmware, cleared app cache and wiped cache partition all to no avail.

It gets weirder still...

Same phone, connected to same WiFi, doesn't work, then, I connect the Asus router to IPVanish VPN (for all traffic from all devices), make literally no changes to WiFi or phone, and bang! Full upload and download with no "burst" at the start.

So, where I thought there was a device issue with the S8, it can't be that. Then I thought it was a network protection issue interrupting the upload stream on the router, but that also can't be the issue.

So it's an ISP routing issue I decide, but how can I get this checked out when all non Android devices work fine, and they must follow the same routes.

I've been working in IT for nearly 20 years, and this has me completely bamboozled!

Ironically, this is posted from my S8 using my 4G connection as the page times out when trying to upload this message!