Weak WiFi

[Witterings]

Where the WiiM's placed it always gets a weak WiFi signal / warning whilst every other phone / tablet in the same place is showing a strong signal.

Does anyone know how the WiiM measures the connection, is it like a phone where it just indicates how strong it is to the access point it's connected to or does it measure the throughput / connection speed does anyone know?
I have tried connecting a 2nd WiiM in case it was the device itself but that also had a warning / weak signal.

To further explain what I'm asking ... the internet comes into the house and is attached to a router which I'll call point A ..... there's a powerline / range extender in the room where the WiiM is which I'll call Point B.

If your phone is connected to point B it only indicates how strong that connection is between the phone and point B and doesn't take into account how strong the connection is between points A and B so it might be telling you there's a very strong signal but the overall connection and speeds may be poor.

Is it the same with the WiiM or does it actually measure the overall connection and internet speed rather than just the connection from the WiiM to point B does anyone happen to know.

 

[DRC]

In Network Status, it shows WiFi Strength, which is exactly what it says: the strength of the WiFi connection. I am surprised that there is weak WiFi if the Wiim is connected to a WiFi access point (B) in the same room. Are you sure that it is connecting to B and not to A?

 

[Mr Ee]

As per DRC, I'd wonder about the connection point.
Device menu, Network status, click on the AP MAC value and I think you ought to see two entries.

 

[Witterings]

In Network Status, it shows WiFi Strength, which is exactly what it says: the strength of the WiFi connection. I am surprised that there is weak WiFi if the Wiim is connected to a WiFi access point (B) in the same room. Are you sure that it is connecting to B and not to A?

As per DRC, I'd wonder about the connection point.
Device menu, Network status, click on the AP MAC value and I think you ought to see two entries.

I was wondering similar ... it's actually one I've given to / setup for a friend, there's also point C which is closer than A so I was wondering if maybe it had hooked up to that.
With my setup at home I only just been offered mesh (had full fibre installed last week) so each point until now has a different SSID and you can tell which you're actually connected to, I think I'm going to setup the new one the same way as well.

 

[d6jg]

I think the WiFi aerial in WiiM is located in such a place that it can be affected by interference.

WiiM Pro stacked underneath mini amp = weak WiFi
Move amp from on top of Pro and place alongside = full strength WiFi

The Pro hasn’t moved at all and the WAP is where it’s always been.

 

[Sliphorn]

I think the WiFi aerial in WiiM is located in such a place that it can be affected by interference.

WiiM Pro stacked underneath mini amp = weak WiFi
Move amp from on top of Pro and place alongside = full strength WiFi

The Pro hasn’t moved at all and the WAP is where it’s always been.

..
Yup, I think the antennae in the WiiM mini and perhaps the pro and pro+ leave something to be desired. I have three linked mini’s and the furthest one is just twenty feet away from the router and it frequently shows weak or okay. It does not seem to effect sound quality. The other two are always showing very good or excellent. My ISP says my signal strength is strong and that is why I tend to think the antennae in the mini is not so good.
..

 

[Fredio]

Where the WiiM's placed it always gets a weak WiFi signal / warning whilst every other phone / tablet in the same place is showing a strong signal.

I have found that the antenna ( yes, wifi has a small board antenna) is weak in the Wiim Mini. My Squeeze device I tried in the same place has no issues. Nor my phone. Or tablet. Or laptop. I even bought an extender, so now it is only slow to connect and drops signal sometimes.

This is why some streamer brands have external antennas. If you haven't had it long, see if you can return it and look elsewhere. Or - run ethernet to it. I'm stuck with mine, so I'm determined to make it workable , somehow. I'm not bitter, I'm disappointed.
Over several months, I've felt that this Forum is just a Beta device message board for Mini's.

 

[Fredio]

After four? five ? Wiim updates, my wifi has become responsive and works well without any hardware changes.
Winner!

 

[Brava210]

My Mini is on the other side of the house from the router in the Garage, it shows Very Good signal

 

[brjoon1021]

Same problem.
Amazon fire Stick, Roku and my phone all show much stronger signals sitting right next to the wiim Pro Plus. I'm going to assume it's a pretty budget Wi-Fi chip? Is there anything I can be done to increase single strings I can't move it closer to the router and I can't move the router

 

[hgo58]

The 2G WiFi signal is much better at a distance than 5G and fast enough for streaming. So if you can, change to 2G.

 

[d6jg]

Signal Strength isn’t the be all and end all. You can have 100% Signal Strength and absolutely awful dropouts. Conversely you can have very low Signal Strength and a great connection. WiFi can be subject to interference from lots of sources and nearby SSIDs using the same channel can affect things even if you have 100% Signal Strength.
My point. Don’t take Signal Strength as a key indicator.

 

[brjoon1021]

I was having horrible dropouts for the last 2 months I don't have anybody nearby The nearest Wi-Fi would be 50 ft at the closest is there something I should do to change channel settings and try that?

 

[d6jg]

I was having horrible dropouts for the last 2 months I don't have anybody nearby The nearest Wi-Fi would be 50 ft at the closest is there something I should do to change channel settings and try that?

There can be interference from other electrical sources. Some Microwave cookers are a known issue for example.

50 feet is nearby!
Use a WiFi tracker app on your phone to check other local SSIDs to find out what channel they operate on.

 

[brjoon1021]

Wi-Fi tracker app. Cool idea. Probably something I can find in the Android Play store?

 

[harkpabst]

Wi-Fi tracker app. Cool idea. Probably something I can find in the Android Play store?

Correct. There's a bunch of them.

 

[slartibartfast]

Wi-Fi tracker app. Cool idea. Probably something I can find in the Android Play store?

Search for WiFi Analyser

 

[Fredio]

After four? five ? Wiim updates, my wifi has become responsive and works well without any hardware changes.
Winner!

But the Wiim Mini still says the signal is weak , even on the 5G band with a good brand extender.. The mini is taking a backseat to the upscale newer ($) models and it would likely take a hardware fix to help the mini.

 

[Witterings]

Same problem.
Amazon fire Stick, Roku and my phone all show much stronger signals sitting right next to the wiim Pro Plus. I'm going to assume it's a pretty budget Wi-Fi chip? Is there anything I can be done to increase single strings I can't move it closer to the router and I can't move the router

It was me that started this thread going back quite a while ago ... I had 3 WiiM Mini's that were brilliant in my house and never had a problem with any of them on WiFi .... despite some of them being quite a distance from a WiFi point.

I upgraded to Pros in some rooms so had a spare Mini which lent to a friend that was suffering the same issues as you describe, he was meant to have a "great" mesh network and everything else like phones / tablets connected superbly in the same area but the WiiM had problems.

I suspected that maybe the WiiM was connecting to another access point somewhere else in the house rather than the one closest to the device ... I didn't look into it that deeply but I believe in the WiFi connections there's a drop down menu and you can see which access point it's connecting to so may be worth checking that.

Alternatively, if you've got the Pro, look up Powerline devices, they plug into a power point near the router and an ethernet connection into the router, you then have another Powerline adapter plugged into a mains socket near the WiiM and in essence is the same as having a wired connection which is always going to be better than WiFi.

If you have any other devices near it you'd like to plug in, get a cheap switch and you can plug in say a Laptop, Smart TV or HD Recorder for a wired rather than WiFi connection.