Slow WiFi 2.4 GHz

How did you test this? Is the problem latency or throughput?

I tested with https://www.speedtest.net/
Ping seems OK. It is mainly the throughput.
Even that much, that videos stop to stream or games tell that they lost connection.

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Hi,
Anybody found a solution for this?
I have the same issue, WiFi is at 1.5 Mbs when on 2.4 GHz , 22 Mbs when on 5Ghz, 97Mbs on my computer…
I’m connected through ubiqiiti ap.
Videos stop and takes age to load when in 2ghz.
Connection drop and reconnect very often (in the same place as a Samsung a5 phone, my fp3 disconnected from the wifi 6 times in 30 minutes this morning while 0 for the Samsung.)

FYI: The January Update is getting rolled out, and the changelog says “WiFi connection problems” have been adressed…

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Yes I already got the update. I’ll check if it’s better

I have the Same Problems. Very slow WiFi. I dont have any Idea what to do.
But that Phone makes No Fun…

I think, we have some interference between bluetooth and WiFi (2.4GHz) frequencies here.

Source Wikipedia:
Bluetooth : 2,402 GHz - 2,480 GHz
WiFi : 2,400 GHz - 2,484 GHz

Some observations:

1. Direct in front of my Fritzbox 7490 I connected my FP3 to my WiFi and measured the speed of my internet connection:
WiFi 2.4 GHz: 48Mbps download / 4 upload / ping 32
WiFi 5 GHz: 48Mbps download rate / 4 upload / ping 32

This is what I usually get from my provider.

2. Now additionally I connected my FP3 via bluetooth to my Bose Soundlink Mini, without playback.
Again:
WiFi 2.4 GHz: 48Mbps download / 4 upload / ping 32
WiFi 5 GHz: 48Mbps download rate / 4 upload / ping 32

Nice.

3. And finally I let my FP3 play a local song from sdcard through bluetooth and repeated the speed measurement.

WiFi 2.4 GHz: 7Mbps download / 4 upload / ping 32-66
WiFi 5 GHz: 48Mbps download rate / 4 upload / ping 32

All values are rounded to the nearest integer.

This was just a quick experiment out of curiosity with a fast conclusion but does this apply to the use cases of those having WiFi problems in this thread?

PS:
The FP3 seems no individual case. I just repeated this measurement with my Xperia Z Ultra under identical conditions with equal results.

PPS:
Further testing revealed the same happening to a Huawei Mate 9.

It seems as if this bandwidth decrease occurs only, if you use WiFi 2.4 GHz and bluetooth playback on the same device.
If you use different devices for each, they don’t influence each other, even if they are side by side.
So it maybe a general weakness of the hardware or software implementation.

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Bluetooth and WiFi 2.4 GHz only have interference when people -out of ignorance) use different frequencies than 1, 6, and 11.

I notice interference on Amsterdam CS and Utrecht CS with my bluetooth connection. Everywhere else, it generally works. Not sure what’s up (apart from bluetooth stack being vulnerable to remote RCE).

Some month later, here is an update of my case: I’m running wifi only with 5ghz band now, because the 2.4 is not working fine as soon as the Bluetooth is on.
I own a smartwatch so there is always a bluetooth device connected to the phone…
When I’m using WiFi 2.4 I cannot get more than 3mbs
If I switch to 5 I’m at more than 30mbs at the same place.

Some tests:
Wifi2.4 + bluetooth on:

Wifi2.4 + bluetooth OFF

Wifi5 + bluetooth on

Very disappointed… How can the engineer missed this problem?
So I’m with 5ghz all the time, and sometime it’s not very convenient.’’

I have the same problem on my Fairphone 3. Ithink I figured out the root cause, which in my case was the withings health mate app, which connects to my Withings Steel HR. As soon as this app is installed, I experience the same drop in WiFi 2.4 speed as you described, WiFi 5 also not affected. Uninstalling that app brought back full WiFi speed. However, I installed a WiFi selector app, which keeps switching to WiFi 5 whenever possible, so I can use both the phone and SmartWatch.

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It’s not just healt mate.

Any app that keep a bluetooth connection with anything will give the same result.

As soon as you use bluetooth, it create interferences with wifi in 2.4ghz bands.

So forget using bluetooth or forget using 2.4g wifi.
In my case I disabled the wifi 2.4 in settings and I only connect to 5ghz wifi
It’s an ok solution for home or work. But it’s painfull with public WiFi

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I only use 2.4 on my router and I get 40MB which is the max and same on my various computers. I can confirm the speed drops below 20Mb when simultaneously transferring an image via bluetooth.

If you are referring to interference as a physical phenomenon, that doesn’t seem to be the problem here. With my BT headset connected and health mate killed, I still reach >40 Mbps. Also in that case, any other phone would have the same problem, which is also not the case. I assume that BT and 2.4 WiFi share the same piece of HW and some apps are prioritized in a way that WiFi is no longer usable. That should be solvable on OS side I guess.

With or without health mate is the same for me.
Bluetooth off, wifi works.
Bluetooth on, wifi is broken

Tested with 2 different smart watch, with or without application for smart watch, With bluetooth speaker and headset…for me its hardware problem.

It should be interesting to know if people with /e/ have same issue.

I think the issue is with the Fairphone, and not therefore any other phone.

Maybe the antennae in the Fairphone are common or so close as to interfere.

I have a Raspberry Pi 4 computer with the know problem that both the wifi and bluetooth are on the same chip and interfere with each other \so as to reduce the speed of each when both are enabled.

On my FP3+ I only have wifi or bluetooth enabled when I about to use them.

Regarding the 40MB : Have you done a speed test over a browser whilst you are using the bluetooth headset and compared that to when the bluetooth is disabled and compare that to the max speed you can get over wifi.

As I said my my speed is 40MB which I get even if bluetooth is enabled (just tested) but not actually transferring data. The rate of data transfer of the bluetooth impact is 1) Playing audio to a music box it drops to 25MB 2) transferring an image it dropped to 18MB

I made a series of tests now. My router is a Fritz!Box 7530, nominal DSL speed is 50 Mbps.

With BT off, I’m getting 43 Mbps on both 2.4 and 5 GHz band.

BT on, Health Mate installed (only in background) gives 0.7Mbps on 2.4 and 43 on 5 GHz.

BT on, Health Mate stopped in settings or completely uninstalled gives 30-35Mbps on 2.4, 43 Mbps on 5.

BT headset connected, no audio playing have 30 Mbps on 2.4

BT headset playing audio gave 10 Mbps on 2.4

Obviously there is some kind of interference or (more likely) shared use of resources, however the physical issue can’t be the reason for the unusable 1 Mbps when Health Mate is running. My recommendation would be to check all apps with BT permissions one by one to find the blocking app. My workaround is called Smart WLAN selector. It allows to switch to 5 GHz whenever available, while still allowing 2.4 connections. Much more convenient than blocking 2.4, which has far better range and is still more common in public places, at least here in Germany.

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For further reading I recommend my post, linked here. It seems to contradict @JeroenH’s tatement that the issue does not appear on channel 11, as the tests were run on channel 11.

I think channel 11 is the default as it is the highest frequency band and has a slightly shorter range signal but higher speeds. It’s one of three default channels (1,6,11) that don’t overlap each other and so don’t interfere with each other, much. Of course if you are in a shared house etc you will get many uses of the same channel maybe from separate routers even.

https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6-11.html

However the problem with is that bluetooth uses that range, too ( 2.400 to 2.484GHz) so if both are enabled channel hopping can occur and loss of packets may occur, loss of call even) So unless you want to use bluetooth disable it in case the network is 4G and you get interference. Bluetooth and 5G are fine, but who has 5G ~ not me.

Off course bluetooth and 3G are fine

In the UK the new 5G mobile is between the two around 3to4GHz

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Here’s my experience with the issue:

My phone is suffering from the disappearing settings bug, so I can’t enable 5 GHz WLAN. At a friend’s place, my connection is always slow. They use a 4G+ 2.4/5 GHz hotspot and have a bunch of Ikea wlan-controllable devices, so the hotspot and all of the gateways, hubs, power sources, and all of their wires are packed in a high-entropy quantum entanglement underneath a massive steel radiator.

I know what your thinking, but no, it was turning off the hubs that fixed it instantly. I think they communicate with the devices over BT or 2.4 GHz WLAN and I suspect they do that at a power that could make hot cocoa to ensure a good connection in people’s weird homes. Next time I’m there, we’ll try to set the band to wherever Ikea isn’t cooking omlettes.

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This is common on laptops and mobile devices.

Bluetooth has frequency hopping since version 1.2 (very old). As a result, it should hop to different available frequencies, but if it is unable to (for example because it is crowded on the entire 2.4 GHz). If you are indoor, I recommend to use 5 GHz as much as possible, to leave more space for 2.4 GHz. 2.4 GHz is unlicensed and used by many devices in- and outdoor. Not just Bluetooth and WLAN. Microwaves use it too, as do for example some game controllers and some wireless headsets. Plus, who knows what your neighbors use, where their transceivers are located, and how strong they are tx/rxing.

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