Wifi Tweaking

rtotheich

New member
Nov 21, 2011
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Hello all.

I am a proud owner of the original Surface Pro since launch day and am overall very satisfied with the device. In addition, it still performs very well a little over a year after the purchase. I do, however, have one annoying concern. I have been living in France for a year and will continue to for quite some time. In general, the wifi is responsive and fast (in cafes and on friend's networks). It was also responsive back home in the states, where I had Verizon Fios. Now, on the other hand, I'm a poor student :grincry: and can't afford internet service/refuse to pay for it. Nonetheless, several wireless hotspots are located in the street below and I can occasionally get a perfect signal yielding speeds of 2.5 MBPS upload. This is, however, intermittent...it's quite annoying. What's MORE annoying is that it's a public wifi with a login and I have to log in every time I lose signal or the wireless adapter appears unstable.

I thought to myself "ok, no problem. It's just a poor-quality signal." Then my girlfriend came over with her Macbook Pro :straight: it's an older model and she manages to get a perfect wifi signal wherever she is in the apartment. I usually get a signal in only 1 or two places and it's not particularly strong. I then went to the store and bought a D-Link wireless adapter along with an extension cable. Sometimes, I get a slightly better signal with it and, if not, I hang the adapter out the window with a USB extension cable :grin: oh, the student life. Neither of these seem to fix my problem 100%. I also have to deal with my girlfriend's taunts as her computer gets signal without any issue. Does anyone have an idea about tweaking the integrated wireless adapter or particular tricks that work in order to improve reception? I have disabled selective suspend for starters and always keep my surface on "high performance" mode rather than battery saver or normal usage. I also tried keeping bluetooth on and shutting blutooth off during browsing. None of these ideas has worked. I am starting to get desperate. Does anyone have any advice? (And don't say pay for your internet :winktongue: )
 
There have been several updates to the device that included improved WiFi performance, are you on 8.1 and fully patched?
 
There have been several updates to the device that included improved WiFi performance, are you on 8.1 and fully patched?

Yes. I always install patches and I'm a regular reader of wpcentral so I get to see when the big ones come out. Surprisingly, I had decent consistency right before Windows 8.1 came out and after the update, I ended up having reduced wifi performance, reverting, but updating again because I'm not one to live in the past. Amidst updates and patches and changes, the wifi problem hasn't improved. I also have tried searching for updates to the d-link adapter, but none have come out for 2 years.
 
Huh. I had odd issues with mine, but the latest firmware updates fixed mine. Sorry to hear you are having issues. I have noticed the surface doesn't have the best antenna, but it's not bad by any mean, at least not mine. Is it better plugged in than on batter? You changed battery settings, but did you change power settings on the wifi itself? You said you tried a USB dongle and it doesn't get good reception either? You think it would be better if the surface was having reception issues and it just wasn't signal.
 

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