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I've been having the same problems as other people in this thread and have done some testing which may prove useful to help Microsoft fix the problem. I'm in the UK and have a SB2 13.5inch, i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB HD.
I've tried to apply the fix suggested elsewhere in the thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/7ko2i8/ridiculously\_slow\_wifi\_on\_surface\_book\_2/?st=JDQH3NBM&sh=a3d7ab9e
This meant that I could get by on only 2.4G. However, I still saw slow internet repeatedy at home (BT Home Hub 5), a friends house (a Sky wifi box) and work (unknown, Eduroam box). My housemate (using a MacBook) has no issues with her 2.4G connection, neither does my phone.
For me, I get usable wifi at 2.4G, with intermittant drop outs and pretty much unusable 5G for any kind of streaming (BBC iPlayer, Youtube). I've worked out that the mains power connection drastically affects the performance of the wifi. I think that either a driver modification to the wifi contoller or power management system may be required.
The testing that I did to work this out is below, with observations at the end.
Setup:
OneNote, onedrive, etc, switched off. All other wifi devices disabled. Test file is a ~650MB file transfer from a desktop pc connected to router via ethernet to eliminate possible internet issues. Surface book is 3m away from router (vertical, floor above). Bluetooth mouse connected. Firefox 59.0.2 running in background to look at router homepage to confirm connection. BT Home Hub 5 wifi router has different names for 2.4 & 5G networks. SB2 was set to one network at a time in device manager.
Results:
Test1: Power cord connected, keyboard connected
2.4: 20Mbps/2.4MBps sustained transfer rate
5: 8-80Mbps/1-6MBps variable transfer rate, ~3MBps average
Test 2: Power cord disconnected - best performance power setting, battery 70-80%, keyboard connected
2.4: 20Mbps/2.4MBps sustained transfer rate
5: max speed 2-12Mbps/~700KBps intermittant, spent most of the time at 0Kbps. Not usable.
Test 3: Power cord disconnected - best performance power setting, battery 60-80%, keyboard not connected
2.4: 20Mbps/2.4MBps sustained transfer rate
5: max speed 2-12Mbps/~700KBps intermittant, spent most of the time at 0Kbps. Not usuable.
Test 4: Power cord connected, keyboard not connected
2.4: 20Mbps/2.4MBps sustained tranfer rate
5: 3-50 Mbps/3MBps average, variable (spiky) transfer rates
Observations:
Major:
Power connection appears to be critical, without mains connection, 5G just doesn't work for any sustained period.
Attaching power capble during test 2 5G led to increase of transfer rate to same as test 1 levels after ~10s.
Attaching power capble during test 3 5G led to increase of transfer rate to same as test 4 levels after ~10s.
Couldn't replicate fault with 2.4 band dropping out :( From memory, this happened in battery mode in the past.
Minor:
Turning bluetooth off made no difference to test 2 at 5G.
"Recommended" power setting made no difference to test 2 2.4G, although a couple of short, steep drops in transfer rate were seen, this might indicate what makes the 2.4G band drop out, but a lot more detailed testing would be required to prove this.
"Recommended" power setting made no difference to test 2 5G
It appears that having the keyboard connected might make a slight speed difference to 5G based on this crude test, but if so, it is only marginal.
Current workaround: stick with 2.4G only, attach power cord when the intermittant drop outs occur.
Long term solution: need a solution from Microsoft.
