I have two Raspberry Pi 3’s both loaded up with the latest version of OSMC. One is about 3 feet from my WiFI AP, the other maybe 20 feet. Can you guess that the one just 3 feet away is having wifi problems?
This problem has been going on since I put the near one in. I just upgraded to Netgear’s Orbi mesh network, that didn’t help (much to my surprise). I can look at the AP’s info and it says the near Pi has 74% signal strength, but often shows just a 2Mbps link rate, the further one has 54% signal, and a solid 72Mbps link rate,
The near one often stutters when trying to play a MP4 file from my file server (even 480P).
The two Pi’s should be identical, but there must be something holding back the one. Any suggestions? (I tried iperf3 and iwconfig, both are “not found”)
thanks, Larry
You need to install iperf and iwconfig before they’ll work:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install iperf3 wireless-tools
should install both programs and any dependencies for you and then you’ll be able to test.
Thanks, okay did the install… the info seems to be nearly identical (as expected) From the good unit:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:“AirMaddog”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.427 GHz Access Point: B6:B9:8A:51:CF:90
Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s Tx-Power=31 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=55/70 Signal level=-55 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:186 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
From the unit that stutters:
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:“AirMaddog”
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.427 GHz Access Point: B6:B9:8A:51:CF:90
Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s Tx-Power=31 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:on
Link Quality=66/70 Signal level=-44 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:135 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
Is there some other factor that would cause the stuttering? I assumed it was that the unit wasn’t getting a good wifi signal, but this seems to say that the signal is fine. ???
thanks, Larry
Swap SD card, power supply, HDMI cable and all attached devices to the other Pi.
Does WiFi performance improve?
If so, change one item at a time until you find the culprit.
Doesn’t the AP have ethernet ports? Why don’t you use a 3 foot ethernet cable?
It may work better moving it more than 3 feet away. Being too close can “deafen” the wifi receiver.
https://www.skywerxsupport.com/kb/articles/9-can-my-wifi-router-be-too-close-to-my-device
Well, the unit may be only 3 feet from the AP, but there’s a wall between them. The AP is in one room, the Pi in another. I was giving some thought to using a cable tho, to see if that does fix the problem. I have a third Pi I could sub in if there is a hardware problem.
3 feet through a wall is not 3 feet away from your AP. Radio signals do not pass well through walls and depending on the material your walls are made of you may be connecting only to reflected signals through doorways.
If cable is an option, use it - you’ll find many hassles and much time are saved.
Well, okay. Ran a cable to it and indeed it seems to do fine. This kinda grates my soul a bit tho. Yes, three feet away with an interior wall between the pi and the AP is something… but the other Pi is thru the same wall, and then another one, and it works fine.
I know, I know. Somethings just aren’t worth bashing your head into a wall. It may not be the solution I was hoping for, but the darn thing does work now.
I thank everyone for their suggestions and help.
Larry
Unfortunately too many environmental factors make it very difficult for us to give you a good answer. But there is a lot of advice on improving WiFi signal on the web which may help.
Sam
I have a Netgear Orbi system, I don’t see that parameter anywhere in the set up. 