Surface Pro 3 Slow WiFi - 72Mbps Max (driver)

I'm curious.. what router are you using?

"Netgear N300 Wireless Gigabit Router WNR3500Lv2" bought three months ago from Fry's.

Are you using Open Source firmware on this or Netgear firmware

I'm curious.. what router are you using?

"Netgear N300 Wireless Gigabit Router WNR3500Lv2" bought three months ago from Fry's.

Are you using Open Source firmware on this or Netgear firmware

I'm using the firmware that came in the box (i.e. Netgear) with the latest firmware upgrade the Netgear router has said it has available.

Update: So far after 24 hrs with the updates from 9/9 the SP3 has not disconnected once from the Linksys WRT1900AC and the transfer rates are the same as it was, about 230 Mbps which is more than acceptable for me.  After I have a few days more of testing with different routers I will report back to see if I find any of the previous problems.

There is a small issue with the Bluetooth connection to some devices but that was present before the update.  I assume they were trying to get the Wi-Fi problems fixed first but overall it is manageable as long as the Wi-Fi stability is fixed.

Hello, reporting in with the latest after applying the Sept 9 firmware update.

Short version: Although the Surface Pro 3 still consistently shows a lower link speed than my MacBook Pro, it now seems to be performing at a comparable speed when an actual file transfer is taking place.

Longer version:

As you can see in this photo (Mac on the left, Surface on the right, sitting next to each other), the MacBook Pro reports a link speed of 527 Mbps vs the Surface's 144 Mbps.  Both are connected to the same 802.11ac network, broadcast on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz using the same SSID from an Apple Airport Extreme.

First thing to note is that 144 Mbps is the highest link speed I've ever seen the Surface report in this configuration.  Before the 9/9 firmware, I never saw it go above 72 Mbps.

Next, I proceeded to download a large (2 GB) file from my home server over my local network.  After giving it a little while to settle, both computers reported a transfer speed of about 10 MB/s (megabytes, not megabits).  This is also a notable improvement.  Before the firmware update, the Surface would rarely achieve 2 MB/s.

So, although they still report very different link speeds, the actual throughput of a file transfer seems to have equalized between the two.  At least, for now.  This is good news, and is definitely new behavior since applying the 9/9 firmware update.

I will continue to keep an eye on it and report back if I notice anything else.

Hello, reporting in with the latest after applying the Sept 9 firmware update.

Short version: Although the Surface Pro 3 still consistently shows a lower link speed than my MacBook Pro, it now seems to be performing at a comparable speed when an actual file transfer is taking place.

Longer version:

As you can see in this photo (Mac on the left, Surface on the right, sitting next to each other), the MacBook Pro reports a link speed of 527 Mbps vs the Surface's 144 Mbps.  Both are connected to the same 802.11ac network, broadcast on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz using the same SSID from an Apple Airport Extreme.

First thing to note is that 144 Mbps is the highest link speed I've ever seen the Surface report in this configuration.  Before the 9/9 firmware, I never saw it go above 72 Mbps.

Next, I proceeded to download a large (2 GB) file from my home server over my local network.  After giving it a little while to settle, both computers reported a transfer speed of about 10 MB/s (megabytes, not megabits).  This is also a notable improvement.  Before the firmware update, the Surface would rarely achieve 2 MB/s.

So, although they still report very different link speeds, the actual throughput of a file transfer seems to have equalized between the two.  At least, for now.  This is good news, and is definitely new behavior since applying the 9/9 firmware update.

I will continue to keep an eye on it and report back if I notice anything else.

Could you post the same picture but using different SSID for both bands? I'm just curious.