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Poor Wifi Signal Range


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Hi All

Before the upgrade to 2.1.0, I had very good range with the pineapple, however now I can not move more then 10 feet away from the device and I lose the signal.

I had no issues connecting to the pineapple from anywhere in the apartment but now I lose the signal once I move out of the same room.

Before I can also easily pick up 5-10 "victims" who all were in range, now nothing. (l live in a large apartment block).

Any ideas on what I should check to see how I can improve the signal. It is all on the defaults, eg channel 11 etc

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A few things:

Confirm your transmit power on the pineapple by ssh'ing in to it and doing a little 'ifconfig' - txpower is listed right there.

Also ensure your power supply isn't borked. The ones that come with the pineapple are kinda cheapo - if it was supplying less amps than the pineapple requires it would DEFINITELY cause erratic transmit range. If you have a multimeter and know what you're doing - great! Otherwise, just try a different power supply.

Third, open the pineapple up and reseat the antenna connections - theres been a post or two about bad wifi range and they traced it back to a bad connection with the antenna to the onboard wifi chip. Check that out for sure

telot

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A few things:

Confirm your transmit power on the pineapple by ssh'ing in to it and doing a little 'ifconfig' - txpower is listed right there.

Also ensure your power supply isn't borked. The ones that come with the pineapple are kinda cheapo - if it was supplying less amps than the pineapple requires it would DEFINITELY cause erratic transmit range. If you have a multimeter and know what you're doing - great! Otherwise, just try a different power supply.

Third, open the pineapple up and reseat the antenna connections - theres been a post or two about bad wifi range and they traced it back to a bad connection with the antenna to the onboard wifi chip. Check that out for sure

telot

Hi Thanks for the response. I tried 3 different power supplies and same result.

Before I start to pull the thing apart is there a guide to how to open the device, Can not see any screws and I can only manage to pop on corner open. Feel like I am going to snap the cover if I pull to hard.

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Hi Thanks for the response. I tried 3 different power supplies and same result.

Before I start to pull the thing apart is there a guide to how to open the device, Can not see any screws and I can only manage to pop on corner open. Feel like I am going to snap the cover if I pull to hard.

Pull the rubber "feet" off of the bottom. It should be the end with the WAN/LAN/USB lights. There will be just 2 screws that you will need to pull out to crack it open.

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Pull the rubber "feet" off of the bottom. It should be the end with the WAN/LAN/USB lights. There will be just 2 screws that you will need to pull out to crack it open.

Great thanks.

Ok, so it is Transmitting at 18 dBm, I tried various power supplies and opened the box up and ensured the cable was reseated etc.

Still I can only connect while in the same room, move out of the room and it drops the signal.

any other ideas?

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Great thanks.

Ok, so it is Transmitting at 18 dBm, I tried various power supplies and opened the box up and ensured the cable was reseated etc.

Still I can only connect while in the same room, move out of the room and it drops the signal.

any other ideas?

what channel is it on? 11?

Try switching to another channel and see if that makes a difference.

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what channel is it on? 11?

Try switching to another channel and see if that makes a difference.

I have tied both 6 and 11, same results, will play some more maybe. Just seems strange that for a month or so its been working great and only in the last week it has stopped work and signal has dropped.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I am experiencing the exact same issue. I was getting great range until I upgraded to 2.1. Now I get 5-10ft.

Did you ever resolve your issue. I'm going to upgrade to the latest firmware shortly to see if that fixes anything.

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I am experiencing the exact same issue. I was getting great range until I upgraded to 2.1. Now I get 5-10ft.

Did you ever resolve your issue. I'm going to upgrade to the latest firmware shortly to see if that fixes anything.

Hi There. No I have not resolved the issue. I have not had a play for a week or so. I will also try moving to the later firmware. Let me know how you go.

Cheers

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It appears my problem lies in the RP-SMA Female.

As soon as I connect the IPEX cable to the RP-SMA (with or without the antenna) the signal strength decreases substantially.

Going to order one online and hopefully that will fix my problem.

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A few things:

Confirm your transmit power on the pineapple by ssh'ing in to it and doing a little 'ifconfig' - txpower is listed right there.

Also ensure your power supply isn't borked. The ones that come with the pineapple are kinda cheapo - if it was supplying less amps than the pineapple requires it would DEFINITELY cause erratic transmit range. If you have a multimeter and know what you're doing - great! Otherwise, just try a different power supply.

Third, open the pineapple up and reseat the antenna connections - theres been a post or two about bad wifi range and they traced it back to a bad connection with the antenna to the onboard wifi chip. Check that out for sure

telot

Yes i confirm the issue, seems that some random Alfa's out there has a faulty internal RP-SMA connector or however that was my case.. Regarding that here's the topic you are looking for http://forums.hak5.org/index.php?showtopic=26089&st=0&p=199567entry199567

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Yes i confirm the issue, seems that some random Alfa's out there has a faulty internal RP-SMA connector or however that was my case.. Regarding that here's the topic you are looking for http://forums.hak5.org/index.php?showtopic=26089&st=0&p=199567entry199567

Well its good news you isolated the problem and found a remedy - well done ptrac3! We should def keep this in mind for the once every month or two question about this :)

telot

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It appears my problem lies in the RP-SMA Female.

As soon as I connect the IPEX cable to the RP-SMA (with or without the antenna) the signal strength decreases substantially.

Going to order one online and hopefully that will fix my problem.

I can comfirm this also, had the same problem with 2 Alfa AP121u's - both with faulty rm-sma to u.fl connectors! tried a spare cable and my signal strength increased considerably, alfa not using cheap parts are they?!

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I can comfirm this also, had the same problem with 2 Alfa AP121u's - both with faulty rm-sma to u.fl connectors! tried a spare cable and my signal strength increased considerably, alfa not using cheap parts are they?!

This is something we need to follow up on.

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After reading this I'm going to try the same approach, I can only find 1 AP with my Pineapple, while I can find ~15 with my internal Laptop Wifi card.

Any suggestions on where to get good quality connectors?

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I am experiencing the exact same issue. I bought the pineapple elite pack, it came in 3 weeks ago.. Worked fine for aout a week then i noticed the antenna connmector on the back coming loose. I tightened it back up but now I have a reception issue. I guess I will open it up and see if the antenna is disconnected.

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Can anyone recommend a online site for ordering such parts located in the US/Canada.

I ordered from some Chinese site for cheap but the delivery is going to be like 3 weeks unfortunately.

I used to buy from these guys when I lived in Alaska. Haven't needed anything wifi parts related in a while, but they ship stupid fast. They accidentally sent me the wrong part once, when I called them I had the correct part in the mail the next day! Overnight to AK from Florida, that's good customer service!

http://www.fab-corp.com/

I did notice when I pulled mine apart the little blob of hot glue holding the pigtail wasn't stuck to anything anymore. A new blob of glue will probably help once you get the signal back to where it should be.

Edited by barry99705
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I replaced the IPEX to RP-SMA cable and to my dismay the WiFi signal was still terrible. Is there anyway I could test the antenna to see if its working properly before I go and order one.

I'm pretty disappointed in data-alliances hardware at the moment.

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I replaced the IPEX to RP-SMA cable and to my dismay the WiFi signal was still terrible. Is there anyway I could test the antenna to see if its working properly before I go and order one.

I'm pretty disappointed in data-alliances hardware at the moment.

Easiest way would be to put it on a known good working device and see if the signal changes much.

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