Tab S2 wi-fi questions - no 5g option? Weak signal.

[Mindi Bones]

Hello folks. I have read many, many offered solutions, but my tablet is out of date and most discussions are old. Bear with me, please.

I have the SGT S2, the 710, specifically. I love it and am not even interested in an upgrade. Recently my son's Tab A died, so I bought an S2 for him. And upgrade, right? Here are my questions:

The S2 gets less signal than the Tab A. He used the Tab A at work every day, and the S2 can't get decent enough connection to load a whole web page. What does the A have that the S2 does not?

A setting somewhere, I guessed. Nothing I can find.

I ran WiFi analyzer side by side with my tablet and the numbers are close enough to identical to not matter. Turns out he didn't mention that when I let him borrow MY S2 last week, he couldn't get enough signal with it either.

Meanwhile, I considered that maybe his work router is on 2.4 and the S2 is stuck on 5ghz. I know nothing about network engineering, so my grasp of channels and congestion is limited. Nonetheless, I then discovered there is no setting for 5g on my tablet, or his. But why?

My comcrap router doesn't offer a frequency change, tied to 2.4ghz. Is that why it doesn't even show up on these tablets?

It's very late. Forgive me if I'm incoherent. The bottom line is, I really, really need to figure out why the Tab A had a strong signal at the foundry, and the S2 does not.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks, very much.

 

[VidJunky]

For the most part WiFi is WiFi. You can go on and on about frequencies and all of that but if you're getting a signal and can connect the rest is moot. The bottom line these days really comes down to the radio set inside of the device. Not all radios are created equal. It could be the radio or the antenna but your issue is more than likely in the device not a setting or the router and being a hardware issue there really isn't much you can do to improve that except move closer to the source.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Ask your son to check with his workplace's IT to see if the wi-fi network is primarily 5 GHz. If so, the problem could be related to the issues discussed in this thread: https://forum.xda-developers.com/tab-s2/help/android-7-5ghz-wifi-slow-t3616417

However, it'd be pretty unusual for a workplace to have only 5 GHz wi-fi since not all devices are guaranteed to be dual-band. Another thing to consider is if Bluetooth might be interfering, since it uses the 2.4 GHz frequency. Is his tablet connected to Bluetooth at work? If so, tell him to try turning off Bluetooth temporarily, and see if the speeds increase.

 

[anon(7901790)]

Hello folks. I have read many, many offered solutions, but my tablet is out of date and most discussions are old. Bear with me, please.

I have the SGT S2, the 710, specifically. I love it and am not even interested in an upgrade. Recently my son's Tab A died, so I bought an S2 for him. And upgrade, right? Here are my questions:

The S2 gets less signal than the Tab A. He used the Tab A at work every day, and the S2 can't get decent enough connection to load a whole web page. What does the A have that the S2 does not?

A setting somewhere, I guessed. Nothing I can find.

I ran WiFi analyzer side by side with my tablet and the numbers are close enough to identical to not matter. Turns out he didn't mention that when I let him borrow MY S2 last week, he couldn't get enough signal with it either.

Meanwhile, I considered that maybe his work router is on 2.4 and the S2 is stuck on 5ghz. I know nothing about network engineering, so my grasp of channels and congestion is limited. Nonetheless, I then discovered there is no setting for 5g on my tablet, or his. But why?

My comcrap router doesn't offer a frequency change, tied to 2.4ghz. Is that why it doesn't even show up on these tablets?

It's very late. Forgive me if I'm incoherent. The bottom line is, I really, really need to figure out why the Tab A had a strong signal at the foundry, and the S2 does not.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks, very much.

Yes the Tab S2 is 5GHz capable. I'm connected to my 5GHz channel as I type this.

As for weak signals, it could be because of your location in relation to the WAP. Walls and dividers have a bigger impact on 5GHz signals than 2.4GHz signals. However there is usually less interference in the 5GHz band.

 

[funpig]

My techy son has set up our home wifi with both. 2.4 gives slightly better range and 5.0 give slightly better speed. YMMV.