Wifi strength mystery

Si_Clist

Our home broadband provider is Vodafone and we have one of their routers upstairs in a bedroom.  We are currently in a room almost below the router, both using Chromebooks.  Mine shows the wi-fi signal strength as "weak" whereas my wife's shows it as "strong". Using the Vodafone speed checker over wi-fi, my download speed is 0.9. Hers is 24.6. Any ideas please as to the likely explanation?

victor2

Is one on 2.4GHz and the other at 5GHz?

Routers supporting both frequencies often use the same SSID for both.

Si_Clist

Sorry but I have no idea! How do I tell?

victor2

Si_Clist said:

Sorry but I have no idea! How do I tell?

Can you get into the router's admin pages? If so, that will probably tell you what is connected and at what speed. It may also allow you to switch off one of the frequencies and you can see which (if any) Chromebook loses a connection.

That's assuming the router supports both frequencies. Does it have WiFi indicators on it for each frquency?

Alternatively, maybe the Chromebooks can tell you what frequency they're connected at. Sorry, I don't have a Chromebook, but maybe somebody else will know how to do that.

Of course we could be barking up the wrong tree, but it's worth finding out!

Edit: Info here https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-check-chromebook-specs-hardware-4782658

Look at the "See Chromebook's Network Connection Info" section.

Si_Clist

Thank you very much indeed for that but I have a heap of stuff still to do tonight so will have to return to this in the morning 

Si_Clist

OK, I have now established that both Chromebooks are on a frequency of 2447.  The plot thickens though: at 1930 yesterday evening, using the Vodafone speed checker via wi-fi, my figures were ping 125, jitter 279 and download 0.9.  This morning those figures are 8,2 and 32.2.

The only obvious factor that's changed is time of day.  Weird or what?

DullGreyGuy

Si_Clist said:

OK, I have now established that both Chromebooks are on a frequency of 2447.  The plot thickens though: at 1930 yesterday evening, using the Vodafone speed checker via wi-fi, my figures were ping 125, jitter 279 and download 0.9.  This morning those figures are 8,2 and 32.2.

The only obvious factor that's changed is time of day.  Weird or what?

Should be 2412 if you are on 2.4ghz on a Chromebook

Not really weird... do you live close to neighbours or in the middle of nowhere? Are you near devices that have notable magnetic fields like microwaves etc? Lots of things cause interference with signals, in our old flat with paper thin walls you could hear the neighbours microwave go on and the second it did our internet speed dropped. 

If you go into the admin for the router you should be able to set the channel the router is using, ideally it may have a scanner to find which one is least congested in your home and auto-select the best one. From personal experience this can occasionally cause problems with some more basic wifi connected devices (eg smart bulbs) reconnecting to the new channel. 

victor2

Don't know if it will work on your router, but try the samknows realspeed test at https://www.samknows.com/realspeed/. It tests the actual router speed as well as your WiFi connected device.
Try it on both Chromebooks at the same time to confirm it is just one of them getting a poor connection.
If it is just one device, is a factory reset possible on it?

facade

It may be the position of the aerials inside the laptops, and the exact position of the laptop in the room.

Moving a few feet changes my wifi reception considerably on my phone.

(Not exactly the same, but my FM radio has terrible reception placed on the mantlepiece exactly where I want it. Move it a foot to the side and reception is 100%. I compromise by angling the aerial at 45 degrees which works reasonably)

Si_Clist

DullGreyGuy said:

Si_Clist said:

OK, I have now established that both Chromebooks are on a frequency of 2447.  The plot thickens though: at 1930 yesterday evening, using the Vodafone speed checker via wi-fi, my figures were ping 125, jitter 279 and download 0.9.  This morning those figures are 8,2 and 32.2.

The only obvious factor that's changed is time of day.  Weird or what?

Should be 2412 if you are on 2.4ghz on a Chromebook

How strange!  2447 is what it says in the advanced network settings on both machines, but the wife's works just fine as is so I won't worry about the discrepancy.  Ref interference from other devices, it's essentially 1980 in this house (we don't even have a television), so if that's the cause, it would seem to be down to the neighbours - and perhaps a peculiarity of my Chromebook's aerial or whatever?

I'll try more speed tests this evening once the issue rears its very annoying head ...

ETA Ref the aerials on our Chromebooks, it's just dawned on me that wife's has a plastic body.  Mine, which is problematic, is metal ...

Si_Clist

Thanks for your help so far, folks