Bad Wi-Fi Range

[RayStinkle]

I'm at sprint store and the evo is connected to WiFi so I did some testing. First, my hand DEFINITELY reduces the signal when holding it with my hand. Set it on the table and the signal immediately jumps back up.

But something weird happens after a while using it while its on the table, the signal starts to drop once in a while even with your hand away from it. So I dunno, it seems like its just a weird problem with no definitive solution. But definitely the hand immediately drops the signal.

 

[Robbie317]

I just realized last night that my EVO Wifi reception is good when I'm not holding it (>8Mbps) and terrible when I am (usually <.7Mbps), unless I am standing close to the router.

It doesn't seem to matter how I hold it. But laying it down vs. holding it makes a huge difference.

Holding or not holding doesn't affect the bars shown, BTW. It's pretty much always at one bar once I move from the room with the router.

This makes me feel slightly better, but I'm pretty sure this isn't supposed to happen, and there are times I would like to be holding my phone while using it with Wifi.

I just tested this and I have almost no difference.... My router is upstairs in my office and from my living room I get full bars of WiFi. I set it flat on my coffee table and ran a speed test and got 5.42 download and .97 upload. Picked it up and even held it with two hands and got 5.37 and .94 speeds. From my back porch I got 3.97 down and .82 up while laying down flat, in hand 3.93 and .79..... Not enough of a variation for it to really matter much..

 

[tekmunki]

Running a wifi signal str tester on the evo and the laptop; I get literally half the signal strength on my EVO than on my laptop. I've never once gotten a saturated signal transfer on it.

I'm assuming there's some power saving implemented in the EVO lowering the reception strength to conserve battery life? If so- I'd love to turn that off.

 

[fifolo]

Count me in as having bad wifi range. Once I leave the home office, just a one room over and it's just hanging on. Another room and it drops to unusable.

 

[chriscic]

Robbie317,
Would you mind trying it it a couple more locations just to make sure? There are a couple areas in my house where I get a strong signal and it doesn't make much difference, but it others the difference is huge. Thanks much.

 

[Robbie317]

Robbie317,
Would you mind trying it it a couple more locations just to make sure? There are a couple areas in my house where I get a strong signal and it doesn't make much difference, but it others the difference is huge. Thanks much.

I just ran a few more test results as follows..

From my kids bedroom at the end of the hall opposite side of the house from my office/router.

4.95 down 0.97 up - EVO in Hand
5.19 down 0.83 up - HP Laptop

From my garage (basically opposite side of the house and downstairs from my office)

4.04 down 0.89 up - EVO in Hand
4.97 down 0.87 up - HP Laptop

from the far back end of my back yard... probably 40 - 45 yards from the house but on the same side of the house as my office/router.

4.11 down 0.72 up - EVO in hand
5.17 down 0.79 up - HP Laptop

Down my drive way at the mail box (Opposite side of my house from the office/router and 20 yards to the end of my drive way)

3.03 down 0.45 up - EVO in Hand
3.88 down 0.47 up - HP Laptop

Sitting at my desk right now next to the router

5.29 down 0.94 up - EVO in Hand
5.87 down 0.78 up - HP Laptop

As far as signal from the EVO and Laptop from my office I get full bars at the end of my drive way I had 2 bars every where else it flipped between 2 - 3 bars.... Take it for what it's worth I guess.... Numbers are all over the place on both devices...

 

[k2ldc10]

Does wifi matter?

Excuse my ignorance on this... I'm looking to get my first smartphone, and I was prepared to get the EVO. Now I'm reading the wifi issue people are having, and I'm trying to understand how it will affect me. If I have an EVO on an Everything Data Plan, and the $10 premier data add-on, I will have unlimited data on 3G, correct? How / when would it be advantageous to use wifi? Is wifi faster than 3G, so when I'm home, I would want to use wifi instead of 3G?

 

[PREvision]

Yes, wifi should be faster than 3g, and yes, when at home, you would connect to the wifi rather than 3g. This is also true at work places, etc...

By the way, new owner of the EVO from the weekend. I too have a weak wifi signal. It works ok but not great. I never get full bars.

 

[nmelkon1]

didn't read all 29 pages of this thread so if its mention before forgive me, the wifi antenna inside most phones are buried beneath the screen or battery and other components, the one thing i like about apple now is that their ipad and iphone 4 will use the metallic cover on the outside of the phone to help boost the signal or some crap like that.. but too bad apple has to figure this out before the real people do.. they're probably gonna try to patent it as usual, greedy thugs.

So I doubt even a software update enabling Wireless-N capabilities will help the signal on this phone.

 

[RayStinkle]

Excuse my ignorance on this... I'm looking to get my first smartphone, and I was prepared to get the EVO. Now I'm reading the wifi issue people are having, and I'm trying to understand how it will affect me. If I have an EVO on an Everything Data Plan, and the $10 premier data add-on, I will have unlimited data on 3G, correct? How / when would it be advantageous to use wifi? Is wifi faster than 3G, so when I'm home, I would want to use wifi instead of 3G?

wifi will give you much better battery life if you have it available. 3g will kill your battery much quicker. plus wifi will be much faster speeds, but more importantly it has much lower ping times, so your pages will load instantly. 3g will seem a little slower.

 

[Alik R]

tried mine at home with wi-fi analyzer... no problems at all. great signal even though strength varies from fair to excellent. didn't lose connection even once. checked this with my Pre - similar results...

 

[tracerit]

when i'm at work, wouldn't using wifi AND 3G kill battery faster than just having 3G on?

or will it be better becaue the wifi signal is there, while with 3g, it has to look harder for it?

 

[Robbie317]

Excuse my ignorance on this... I'm looking to get my first smartphone, and I was prepared to get the EVO. Now I'm reading the wifi issue people are having, and I'm trying to understand how it will affect me. If I have an EVO on an Everything Data Plan, and the $10 premier data add-on, I will have unlimited data on 3G, correct? How / when would it be advantageous to use wifi? Is wifi faster than 3G, so when I'm home, I would want to use wifi instead of 3G?

WiFi is faster than 3G. WiFi will also save you battery life as long as you stay in a WiFi zone... If you get in your car and drive down the road and the WiFi is on it will destroy your battery because it's scanning for a signal.. Until it picks one up it will eat up battery searching... If your at home or work and you have a good WiFi network switch to WiFi and you get easily 50% improved battery life (at least in my test)

 

[markdek]

The HTC Evo wifi problem is the number one posted problem on the HTC Community website. Supposedly, it's also been acknowledged by HTC.

As far as the importance of wifi, if you don't know, then it probably isn't important to you, at least for now. But, are you aware of any "mobile" devices that don't have wifi?....that should give you an idea.

 

[Darth Mo]

As far as the importance of wifi, if you don't know, then it probably isn't important to you, at least for now. But, are you aware of any "mobile" devices that don't have wifi?....that should give you an idea.

I have decent 4G coverage and excellent (for Sprint) 3G speeds where I am, so the WiFi issue isn't that big of a deal at the moment for me.

But for people with no 4G and lousy 3G speeds, I could see the situation being pretty frustrating.

 

[Auzo]

Its simple. For anyone that has a broadband home connection its a no brainer to switch to wifi at home:
1) Uses less power if used in lieu of 3G/4G
2) Faster (hmm... in my house ave 18Mbps using wifi (if the wifi worked properly) or ave 800 Kbps using 3G)
3) Much more consistent (i.e. sitting in the same spot my signal can fluctuate by a couple bars, which means so will my speeds)

In the end those factors add up making the use of wifi a better experience.

 

[italianotampa]

Does a phone cover affect the WiFi?

 

[dlocks]

check this app out. Y5 Battery Saver.Once you set it up it connects to your wi-fi network automatically when in range and when you are out of your wi-fi range it goes back to 3G automatically.

 

[toiz]

I've tried Y5. I don't think it's a good solution given the current state of the EVO's wireless reception. I can't stay connected through half my house. My EVO constantly tries to connect and drains battery fast!

 

[the weasel]

Mine isn't too good either, I have to be in the same room with my router to get a full signal. One room away and the bars drop to one, kind of odd.

Same **** happens to me and i have a really nice, expensive, extended range router! Like seriously WTF!?