Easy Wifi Improvement

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PolishPoet

Senior Member
Aug 14, 2011
333
77
I can repeat these results over and over again on my Prime. A good distance from my router (through 2 indoor walls, 1 outside brick wall) I get the top 4 throughputs on Photo 1. I cannot stream video without an awful lot of buffering and everything else is slow. With some testing I found if I put that little piece of foil on the face of the tablet(Photo2) then I get the bottom four throughputs and I can stream video until the cows come home with no buffering. It seems simple and works well on my unit. And again, I can repeat the results. I've been using this for three days now and am really happy with the improvement. I'd be real interested in knowing it this affects anyone else's unit the same way. If it does let everyone know and this may be a quick and easy way to help with your WiFi without having to result in disassembling your Prime or doing an RMA.

I'm planning on painting it black and taping it the the face.


See post 99 for details of my installation.
 

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T

tedr108

Senior Member
Dec 3, 2011
416
138
Los Angeles area, CA
That is quite impressive. I'm game to give this a try. How far down the back of the Prime does the aluminum foil go?

I remember the little antenna earlier model iPhone users stuck on their phones. Perhaps something like that can simply be stuck on the Prime's glass? But, in your situation, the foil going over the top and down the back may also have an influence. I'm going to see if this improves GPS, too! My wi-fi is decent, but my GPS in non-existent at this point.

Thanks for the post...
 
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D

dcAndroidFan

Senior Member
Feb 6, 2012
144
74
PolishPoet said:
I can repeat these results over and over again on my Prime. A good distance from my router (through 2 indoor walls, 1 outside brick wall) I get the top 4 throughputs on Photo 1. I cannot stream video without an awful lot of buffering and everything else is slow. With some testing I found if I put that little piece of foil on the face of the tablet(Photo2) then I get the bottom four throughputs and I can stream video until the cows come home with no buffering. It seems simple and works well on my unit. And again, I can repeat the results. I've been using this for three days now and am really happy with the improvement. I'd be real interested in knowing it this affects anyone else's unit the same way. If it does let everyone know and this may be a quick and easy way to help with your WiFi without having to result in disassembling your Prime or doing an RMA.

I'm planning on painting it black and taping it the the face.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Holy Crap. I'm going to try this when I get home -- I've got a dead spot in my house where my WiFi drops off almost completely. If this works, I'm going to 1) laugh, and 2) think about all the physical damage that some people have done to their Primes in the hardware modding thread, and then 3) be sad for them, and then 4) laugh again, but bitterly.

Keeping the fingers crossed.
 
undercover

undercover

Senior Member
Oct 10, 2010
14,726
4,441
London, UK
Next thing is foil hat! :D

On a serious note, quite interesting to see results.

Sent throught the wormhole from my CoinInserted Sensation OG.
 
D

dcAndroidFan

Senior Member
Feb 6, 2012
144
74
PolishPoet said:
I can repeat these results over and over again on my Prime. A good distance from my router (through 2 indoor walls, 1 outside brick wall) I get the top 4 throughputs on Photo 1. I cannot stream video without an awful lot of buffering and everything else is slow. With some testing I found if I put that little piece of foil on the face of the tablet(Photo2) then I get the bottom four throughputs and I can stream video until the cows come home with no buffering. It seems simple and works well on my unit. And again, I can repeat the results. I've been using this for three days now and am really happy with the improvement. I'd be real interested in knowing it this affects anyone else's unit the same way. If it does let everyone know and this may be a quick and easy way to help with your WiFi without having to result in disassembling your Prime or doing an RMA.

I'm planning on painting it black and taping it the the face.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Also, have you tried putting your prime in a portfolio-type case (like the Minisuit) with the foil on it? If so, does it still work? If so, that would be excellent, because the case would hide the foil.
 
S

sirnice

Member
Dec 27, 2011
15
1
tinky1 said:
Next thing is foil hat! :D

On a serious note, quite interesting to see results.

Sent throught the wormhole from my CoinInserted Sensation OG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Holy@#$@$ :eek:, I have verified that it works. My dl speed went from 3xxx to over 15000 using speedtest.net app. I will post screen shots......:eek:
 
V

Vcolassi

Senior Member
Feb 1, 2012
426
29
Whitehall
Wow so cool! Even though we shouldn't have to do this lol. Brings me back to the days of my modded wifi dongle with tin foil upgrades to "borrow" my neighbors connection haha.

Damn I'm out of tin foil, I'm gonna run to the store and report back! Even though my new C2 serial get almost identical speeds in my living room in my apartment. Let's see how far I can go!

What about some copper conductive tape? A thin strip of it.
 
M

m3t4lw01f

Guest
What happens to your GPS signals if you move the foil over to the left a wee bit (above the GPS antenna)?

I don't have a problem with Wifi, but I certainly do with GPS, so I'd be interested to see.
 
S

sirnice

Member
Dec 27, 2011
15
1
tinky1 said:
Next thing is foil hat! :D

On a serious note, quite interesting to see results.

Sent throught the wormhole from my CoinInserted Sensation OG.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Holy@#$@$ :eek:, I have verified that it works. My dl speed went from 3xxx to over 15000 using speedtest.net app. I will post screen shots......:eek:

screen shots taken just now...
nofoil.jpg

Foil.jpg
 
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Erusman

Erusman

Senior Member
Aug 21, 2011
231
215
Yakima, WA
lol very cool. Looks like you are reflecting your wireless signal into your primes antenna. Forcing it down the throat so to speak :eek:
Cool Parabolic effect. Aluminum foil is great for that.
 
T

TEmp69

Member
Sep 4, 2011
27
5
WTF!!!

If this is really true then i'm even more glad i returned my unit. So for my 600€ toy to work i gotta get a 1€ foil-roll, ASUS are you kidding me?
 
P

PolishPoet

Senior Member
Aug 14, 2011
333
77
tedr108 said:
That is quite impressive. I'm game to give this a try. How far down the back of the Prime does the aluminum foil go?

I remember the little antenna earlier model iPhone users stuck on their phones. Perhaps something like that can simply be stuck on the Prime's glass? But, in your situation, the foil going over the top and down the back may also have an influence. I'm going to see if this improves GPS, too! My wi-fi is decent, but my GPS in non-existent at this point.

Thanks for the post...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It doesn't have to go down the back. I have it taped on now nd it goes from the top edge of the screen down. You have to move it from side to side to get the best signal. Again it does not need to go down the back, but to find the best location I originally had the foil going over the back.

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
 
Erusman

Erusman

Senior Member
Aug 21, 2011
231
215
Yakima, WA
PolishPoet said:
It doesn't have to go down the back. I have it taped on now nd it goes from the top edge of the screen down. You have to move it from side to side to get the best signal. Again it does not need to go down the back, but to find the best location I originally had the foil going over the back.

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Very cool PolishPoet. Yes I imagine if you had it in some sort of Parabolic shape. You could increase / direct the signal even more.
hahahah i love this.

Make a plastic frame with aluminum in it and you can clip on top of prime. Sell them and you will be rich!
 
Last edited:
S

sirnice

Member
Dec 27, 2011
15
1
It appears to block/degrade GPS signal. I'm getting 0 now instead of 2-3 by the window with the foil on. But wifi definitely improved.
 
M

Moothead2

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2012
210
14
Mixed result for me. 1.2MB/s with the foil then 5.8MB/s without the foil and then 6.4MB/s with the foil again.
 
Doktaphex

Doktaphex

Senior Member
Oct 18, 2010
1,804
731
Earth
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite
If I use Wifi analyzer as soon as I hold a DVD in place I suddenly see about four other networks that disappear as soon as I take the DVD away. Happens every time without fail. Signal goes from ~70dB to ~55dB
 
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    P
    PolishPoet
    I can repeat these results over and over again on my Prime. A good distance from my router (through 2 indoor walls, 1 outside brick wall) I get the top 4 throughputs on Photo 1. I cannot stream video without an awful lot of buffering and everything else is slow. With some testing I found if I put that little piece of foil on the face of the tablet(Photo2) then I get the bottom four throughputs and I can stream video until the cows come home with no buffering. It seems simple and works well on my unit. And again, I can repeat the results. I've been using this for three days now and am really happy with the improvement. I'd be real interested in knowing it this affects anyone else's unit the same way. If it does let everyone know and this may be a quick and easy way to help with your WiFi without having to result in disassembling your Prime or doing an RMA.

    I'm planning on painting it black and taping it the the face.


    See post 99 for details of my installation.
    View
    11
    Diamondback
    Diamondback
    Okay, I tested this one here too and I have to say it kinda works.
    But this has nothing to do with magic, magic mirrors for RF or parabolic antennas.

    The only thing you do with your aluminium foil is to block the wifi signal completely from the antenna.
    Once the Prime notices the reduced signal strength it switches over to the second antenna and uses that one.

    It seems the other antenna works way better than the one you just blocked.
    I am not sure anymore which one is the main and which is the aux antenna, but the left seems to work much better than the right one.

    I can easily reproduce this effect and get a gain of about 4-7dBm in the range of 72-82dBm of my wifi.

    Btw, this effect can be easily reproduced by changing the kernel code and removing the use of the right antenna in the wifi driver. So we can hope for a software side fix here.
    View
    5
    P
    PolishPoet
    astralmind said:
    Could someone update the OP with "official" placement and optimal size for the piece of foil? That would be greatly appreciated :)
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    I don't know about official but this is what works best for me. The final size of the foil that will remain on the edger is 3/4" x 1" where 1" is the width. I folded a piece of foil so I am using 2 ply. Initially the piece was about 3" long so that I could hang it off the back to keep the front section in place while testing for the best location. I found that you don't want to move it much each time. I ran 4-5 throughput's each time until I felt I had it right. My final location was 1-3/8" from the right edge of the Prime. Make sure that the front piece remains against the glass while testing. Once you have found the sweet spot tape the foil in place and remove the foil from the top edge back so that only the 3/4 x 1" piece remains.

    Hope this helps.


    One final point to show what it does for me. Without the foil my speeds averaged 1.38Mbps after 10 tests. With the foil in place the results are shown in the photo. I know there are nay-sayers here but these number for me are factual. I live in a neighborhood where I can see 16 different wireless signals all the time with as many as 21 in the evening. Lots of interference around me so that I am really happy with this improvement.
    62ef322b-44f1-d530.jpg
    View
    3
    D
    dcAndroidFan
    I'm using a single thickness, shiny side towards the glass, about 1 1/4 inch wide and about 2 inch from the right edge. Extends down from the top edge to about 1/4 inch from the top edge of the screen. Make sure that it is smooth against the glass, but mine isn't attached in any way. Just folded over from the back.

    Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using Tapatalk
    View
    3
    JoTeC
    JoTeC
    PolishPoet said:
    I can repeat these results over and over again on my Prime. A good distance from my router (through 2 indoor walls, 1 outside brick wall) I get the top 4 throughputs on Photo 1. I cannot stream video without an awful lot of buffering and everything else is slow. With some testing I found if I put that little piece of foil on the face of the tablet(Photo2) then I get the bottom four throughputs and I can stream video until the cows come home with no buffering. It seems simple and works well on my unit. And again, I can repeat the results. I've been using this for three days now and am really happy with the improvement. I'd be real interested in knowing it this affects anyone else's unit the same way. If it does let everyone know and this may be a quick and easy way to help with your WiFi without having to result in disassembling your Prime or doing an RMA.

    I'm planning on painting it black and taping it the the face.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse
    You deserve a hundred thanks for this. Good job!
    Everyone click a thanks for PolishPoet.
    View

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