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

On Thu, 14 Aug 2014 17:58:41 +0000, panicsteve wrote:

>>Manually setting a separate 5 GHz SSID and connecting to it by name reliably and reproducibly fixes my specific problem.  Other devices, such as my MacBook Pro, however will select the 5 GHz band without it needing a separate SSID.

>>

>>

>>

>>As a reminder, I'm the guy with the current model Airport Extreme 802.11ac router.  There was one other fellow in this thread (Keith Boring, I believe) with the same hardware and the same results.

Thanks, that jogged my memory.

First, again I think the Marvell driver needs tweaking - specifically

to prefer the 5GHz SSID (if that can even be done at the driver level)

Second, and not an excuse, more of an observation, Apple has been doing

this same SSID thing for years. Clearly they've got drivers for MacBooks, etc.

that understand this. Somewhere in a box I have an older Airport Extreme. It

hasn't been online in maybe 5 years, but as I recall, I needed, even with that

router, to go in and specify distinct SSID's to get some Windows laptops to

connect at the time. I also know Windows user's with non Surface laptops that

are NOT having issues with same SSID configured routers. Still seems like a

driver issue.

Third, router vendors for non Apple products have just started doing

this "same SSID name" smart select thing - Netgear in the new r8000 for example.

And there will be more of this kind of single SSID name to come. Which means the

vendors will need to figure this out sooner rather than later on the client

driver side.

Above is my OPINION. Read at your own risk <G>.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Barb

Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

Please mark as answered if this answers your question

Hi Barb,

By "link speed", I'm specifically referring to the connection speed between the SP3 and the router, as reported by Windows.  11-72 Mbps on 2.4 GHz and 500-700 on 5 GHz.

When, say, downloading something from the internet, I average about 1.x MB/s on the 2.4 GHz band, and 4-6 MB/s on the 5 GHz band (which is consistent with where my ISP caps me).  In other words, I'm hitting my ISP's ceiling on 5 GHz, but about 1/4th of it on 2.4 GHz.

Performing transfers on my local network is on the order of 10x slower when the SP3 is connected to the 2.4 GHz band vs. the 5 GHz band.  This is especially painful.

So, the problem in my particular case, is that the SP3 seems to prefer the 2.4 GHz band over the 5 GHz band when they have the same SSID.  Manually setting a separate 5 GHz SSID and connecting to it by name reliably and reproducibly fixes my specific problem.  Other devices, such as my MacBook Pro, however will select the 5 GHz band without it needing a separate SSID.

As a reminder, I'm the guy with the current model Airport Extreme 802.11ac router.  There was one other fellow in this thread (Keith Boring, I believe) with the same hardware and the same results.

On Thu, 14 Aug 2014 16:45:51 +0000, panicsteve wrote:

>>I'm seeing no difference that I can tell with yesterday's updates applied.

>>

>>

There were no WiFi updates in this months updates

>>

>>Everything else being constant, if I connect to the 2.4 GHz SSID, I get 11-72 Mbps link speeds. With the 5 GHz SSID, I get 500-700.

>>

>>

How are you measuring your speeds? Can you go to

www.speedtest.net and report speeds on both the 2.4 and 5 GHz SSIDs? (If you are

a Comcast customer, try speedtest.comcast.net )

>>

>>The SP3 is the only device I have to configure specifically to use the 5 GHz SSID to get those higher speeds.

Are you saying that you were using the same SSID name for both?

(if you posted this earlier, sorry, so much to read... don't retain it all)

First, I agree that in theory, no one should have to make any

changes to their router configurations to have perfect and reliable performance.

Unfortunately, configs which work "for everything else" are not working for some

people. There are a lot of moving parts involving how the Marvell WiFi in the

SP3 and whatever router someone is using interact. Some of things that come to

mind:

1. older routers that were sold before 802.11AC was launched that are pretty

much abandoned by their vendors - make sure you have the latest firmware

available and be aware some firmware may be buggy. Best advice I can give as to

what to try:

a. if dual band, use different SSID names

b. specify a channel, don't use auto select

c. if there is a setting for 20/40 channel width or auto or some way to

select, use the wide/40 width and see if that makes a difference

d. on the 2.4GHz, if there is an N only setting, try it. the mixed mode

settings that include "b" (like b/g/n) are required to use a slower stop and

wait for "b" traffic mode.

2. newer routers, in addition to the above, some vendors have proprietary

optimization features for gaming or whatever. You might want to toggle off to

see if there is an impact.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Barb

Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

Please mark as answered if this answers your question

I'm seeing no difference that I can tell with yesterday's updates applied. 

Everything else being constant, if I connect to the 2.4 GHz SSID, I get 11-72 Mbps link speeds. With the 5 GHz SSID, I get 500-700. 

The SP3 is the only device I have to configure specifically to use the 5 GHz SSID to get those higher speeds.

Hello, after a few hours with the updates I also thought it was fixed but the SP3 started to lose the Wi-Fi connection while on stand by, I would no longer hear the "Ding" of new email, when I tap on the power button I would see no bars for a few seconds and then it would get the connection again.  Eventually it totally lost the connection which even turning off WiFi and turning it back on did not help.  I had to reboot.

So I went back on the router and set the 5 GHz to the higher channel 36 and it has been stable since then again.  

Overall the updates did help maintain a stable connection for a much longer period and I did not see the "Limited" connection icon nor I saw the speed degradation issue anymore.  Those are good things.

One thing that troubled me is that the battery life took a hit with the latest updates for me.  I will test more this week and report.

After testing today with the 5 GHz router in the higher channel and verifying that it works, I am going back to my USB Wi-Fi adapter again until you guys release the next update on September.  I see it going in the right direction but it is not working like a *premium* device should be working after so many patches and with a company with so many resources it should be quite easy to test all these issues in house before releasing new updates.   IMHO

Thank You