Phone WiFi issues

[T_Minus]

Previously we had Samsung S4 and S5 and we both upgraded to Samsung S7.

It's obvious the S7 has less reception on WiFi and Cellular/3G/4G than the S4 and S5, but what's worse is that even while connected to our home WiFi it randomly doesn't work, and requires us to enable / disable wiFi to get it working again. We were getting DNS errors and some other errors that were resolved by setting a static IP so less time was spent acquiring, but we're still running into issues even when signal is "very high".

I'm ready to take my S7 back and go back to my S5 but would like to give some things a try if anyone has suggestions.

Currently using UniFi AP Long Range, and have been VERY pleased with it on our old phones, and visitors... these S7 just don't seem to play nice. 2.4ghz only. Going through only 1 wall <20ft from our new phones barely works... standing next to it seems to work fine.

Ideas?
Fixes?
Suggestions?
Thoughts?

 

[ttabbal]

Developer options>legacy dhcp client...

See if that helps. You might need to enable the developer options menu. Go to about phone and tap on the build number a bunch of times.

 

[rubylaser]

That's weird. I'm responding to you right now from my Galaxy S7 connected to a Unifi LR AP that's throw three walls and at lest 25 feet away without issue. I changed to this phone from an iPhone 6 and the wifi is not as strong, but still very use able for me.

 

[T_Minus]

Thanks @ttabbal I'll try that out.

My wife's S7 seems to be worse than mine hers won't even work at all on WiFi right now even with a "very strong" signal!

@rubylaser
That's exactly what we're using so you'd think would be similar but nooo.. Googling this issue it seems to have started with the S4 but doesn't seem to hit everyone, very very strange.

Hopefully we can fix it!

 

[bds1904]

I've found several incompatibilities with UniFi waps and certain chipsets, that's why I don't use them anymore.

Whatever wifi chipsets Samsung uses in their phones doesn't play nice with UniFi at all. Same thing with some other dual band radios even if the AP isn't dual band.

Ever since I changed all my clients off of UniFi to either open-mesh or mikrotik waps the complaints have completely stopped. As a matter of fact several of them called me after a month or so after the reinstall to thank me and ask for more business cards for their associates.

 

[T_Minus]

@bds1904 what do you use?

 

[bds1904]

@bds1904 what do you use?

Open-Mesh is my first choice. Mikrotik Routerboard AP's in capsman mode is second. Some businesses/people dont like cloud managed anything which is why I have two.

 

[rubylaser]

@T_Minus, do you happen to have multiple APs that they are trying to pair with a different one that has a very weak signal?

 

[T_Minus]

Nope.

I actually got a 3 pack but 1 covered such a huge area I didn't need anymore. We get coverage ~1 acre it seems!! Rather crazy. Only noticed this when we went on walks around the house and Pandora worked fine


So far the Legacy DHCP thing seems to be working!

 

[Patrick]

I've found several incompatibilities with UniFi waps and certain chipsets, that's why I don't use them anymore.

Whatever wifi chipsets Samsung uses in their phones doesn't play nice with UniFi at all. Same thing with some other dual band radios even if the AP isn't dual band.

Ever since I changed all my clients off of UniFi to either open-mesh or mikrotik waps the complaints have completely stopped. As a matter of fact several of them called me after a month or so after the reinstall to thank me and ask for more business cards for their associates.

I have similar issues with UniFi APs and some Samsung phones.

 

[mason736]

I have the newest version Unifi AC LR's in my house. Our iPhone 6s Plus and iPads work great. Haven't had a wifi issue yet, unless the controller stops working for some reason.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Patrick]

OK so it looks like you can get the AC's for $220 on Amazon with free One day for me.... Amazon.com: Open-Mesh MR1750 Dual Band 802.11ac Access Point: Computers & Accessories $5 less than on the open-mesh site.

 

[bds1904]

OK so it looks like you can get the AC's for $220 on Amazon with free One day for me.... Amazon.com: Open-Mesh MR1750 Dual Band 802.11ac Access Point: Computers & Accessories $5 less than on the open-mesh site.

If you plan on using multiple AP's I actually prefer the OM5P-AC. Ive found that many environments actually benefit from a lower power transmit AP and multiple AP's. You get better signal strength and higher speeds in the areas that normally would be near the fringe zone.

The advantage to open-mesh is the seamless roaming when using multiple AP's. All of the signal advantage of multiple AP's with none of the PITA wifi handoffs with drops.

 

[wildchild]

Tminus.. there are some serieus issue with unifi ac and mac.. the just released a firmware fix last night.

For those of you running intel ac wifi on windows 8 or 8.1 and are seeing high latency spike on any wifi network: there is a serious issue with intel and windows 8 -8.1.
Please google for "Scan associated intel"

 

[T_Minus]

If you plan on using multiple AP's I actually prefer the OM5P-AC. Ive found that many environments actually benefit from a lower power transmit AP and multiple AP's. You get better signal strength and higher speeds in the areas that normally would be near the fringe zone.

The advantage to open-mesh is the seamless roaming when using multiple AP's. All of the signal advantage of multiple AP's with none of the PITA wifi handoffs with drops.

With a 2k sq/ft house and 1k sq/ft up and 1k sq/ft down would you suggest putting 1 upstairs and 1 down stairs?

Currently we get about 1 acre coverage from the single access point in the down stairs, on the very side of the house... but that doesn't matter anymore now that connection != usable.

I'd like to continue getting wifi on my large deck out back, and my garage/office that's 100' away... is that possible with the lower power units? I don't really want to spend over $500 installing a handful of these vs. 1 larger powerful unit.

We live rural so we have 0 interference / neighbors or signal issues like that.

 

[T_Minus]

Device factory reset.
Firmware updated.
Re-configured WiFi.

Setup phone on new wifi network, strong signal... 1' away from AP.
Still doesn't work.

Going to have to get something else

 

[ttabbal]

Bummer. Android wifi issues are annoying. It really should work, but compatibility issues seem more frequently blown off by device manufacturers and Google. Their solution seems to be to keep swapping APs. I don't control every AP I connect to, and shouldn't have to. Problems seem worse on AC than it did on N. I even found the same AP worked fine if I limited it to N connections. My AP is a consumer router in AP mode, not the enterprise gear you guys are using.

If you are rooted, disabling/freezing "Google Connectivity Services" seemed to help some people as well.

 

[T_Minus]

Yeah, I can't get WiFi to work at all now (it connects but no data/internet)... it was hit or miss before, after firmware nope.
I cleared my phones cache via reboot method, rebooted, etc, nope no Wifi on this AP.
I'm going to try an old router and see if I can set it up as an AP and how that goes.

 

[bds1904]

With a 2k sq/ft house and 1k sq/ft up and 1k sq/ft down would you suggest putting 1 upstairs and 1 down stairs?

Currently we get about 1 acre coverage from the single access point in the down stairs, on the very side of the house... but that doesn't matter anymore now that connection != usable.

I'd like to continue getting wifi on my large deck out back, and my garage/office that's 100' away... is that possible with the lower power units? I don't really want to spend over $500 installing a handful of these vs. 1 larger powerful unit.

Stick built home with a "standard layout" I would put 2 AP's on the main floor and one outside on the rear of the house closer to the deck. Imagine cutting the house into 5 even sections lengthwise and putting the AP's in the center of section 2 & 4. By standard layout I mean the footprint of the house is roughly a rectangular shape not an L shape.

Poored concrete walls or brick walls will require a more dense AP setup. If you have sound-reducing drywall that will also increase the amount of AP's you need because of the foil film used in it.

A more dense AP setup with open-mesh will give you greater thruput overall. Even though the AP's are all on different channels you won't get roaming-lag because of seamless roaming. To learn more about how open-mesh handles it check out some docs on B.A.T.M.A.N. routing.

 

[T_Minus]

I picked up a 2.4 only Mesh to try out we'll see