K1 Slow wi-fi internet [ Edited ]

[inertias_dream]

Got the as a gift for spouse thought it was a budget conscious alternative to the iPad.  She is beyond frustrated with the poor wi-fi performance.  Web pages take a while to load, and streaming videos is just painful; pixelated and jumpy.  Comparing to the wi-fi performance of my laptop, when set next to each other if I try to stream a TV show via CBS the laptop does great, full screen performance with no jumps, and shows 4 bars on the little "HD network" indicator for the video streaming.  When I try to stream the same thing on the tablet (not at the same time), the image is so pixelated you can't really make out what's happening on the screen, it hangs up, and the "HD network" indicator for the video shows 1 bar.

Is there anything that can be done?  We were out of town for the holiday's and are only now getting a good chance to try it out and are completely disappointed.  What good is a tablet that can't use the internet?  Unfortunately, there was only a 14-day return period, and I bought it a month ago, as it was a gift. There are some other posts of a few people having really slow internet connections, but no resolutions, only other people saying that theirs works great.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?   

[Burger]

Updating your k1 tothe latest update solves a lot of issues. Give it a try.

[gdeight]

A lot of people have posted about this problem and my wife has mentioned it as well. I finally decided to do an objective test to confirm this.

1. Open the following from both Lenovo K1 and my laptop:

Speakeasy - Speed Test

2. Run the speed test several times, alternating.

Results: CONFIRMED

Lenovo K1 averaged: ~7-8Mbps

Laptop averaged: ~10Mbps

7-8 Mbps is still very usable but it's unfortunate K1 users won't be getting the full experience.

I wonder if this is a hardware or software issue....

Out of curiousity I went back to the Lenovo teardown pictures

(http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/itdojo/lenovo-ideapad-k1-teardown-easy-to-open-not-so-easy-to-servi...). If you look at image #42, you can see where the Wi-Fi antenna begins but it's not clear where the rest is routed. I wonder if it's routed in such a way where other components are shielding the signal?

 I have the build: K1_A301_13_13_111209_US

[inertias_dream]

It just recently updated in the last week or two.  The Android version shows 3.2.1.  Is there another update that I'm missing?

[inertias_dream]

In the neighborhood I live in, "High speed" internet is not available, so no fios or xfinity, so speeds aren't blazing fast, but the results from the test are pretty interesting: Sitting side by side, testing the laptop first from the same city station
Laptop: 2.5 down, 0.5 up
K1: 0.5 down, 0.37 up
So, that to me is pretty pathetic. Though, interesting to note that while the difference is not proportionally the same between my test and gdeight, they both vary by about 2 Mbps (8 & 10 vs 2.5 & 5).
Also to note, when running the tests, the "wi-fi signal meter" on the K1 showed 4 bars for connection, which makes me think that it shouldn't be a matter of shielding the signal as that would weaken the ability to connect.

[rockhunter]

I get 7.2 up and 7.8 down on my K1
and 7..6 up and 8.2 down on my Acer A100.

[burly127]

Last Result: Download Speed: 13089 kbps (1636.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 1708 kbps (213.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

[inertias_dream]

So, just to give an update:

Sat down with the K1 today, only to find that the wi-fi had shut off at some point in the afternoon (I was using in the earlier afternoon) and would not turn back on.  It was stuck on "Turning off..." status.  After a few unsuccessful attempts at trying to get it to turn back on, I restarted the K1.  When I turned it back on, the wi-fi connected.  So I went to load a webpage, and low and behold, Google pops up in no time.  This being a new experiance for the K1, I immedietly went to speakeasy.net and did the speed test again, and came out with a 2.5 Mbps -- the same as the laptop reads.

I have no idea what happened.  It had been restarted before, and hadn't been shut off or anything during the afternoon.  It did not install any updates today or anything.  I work with computers enough to know that nothing happens without a cause, but I have absolutely no clue what happened to fix it.  It's as if it just felt like.  Crazy.

So for anyone else having slow connection speeds, all I can say is, try it again tomorrow -- which is not helpful at all.

[gdeight]

UPDATE:

Today my Lenovo K1 was able to get 10Mbps download which is the same as my laptop.

I noticed if I turn Wi-Fi off on the K1 and turned it on again, if I ran the speed test as soon as the K1 reestablished the connection the speeds are good. If I try it an hour or two later, the speed drops off to what I reported earlier.

I have two theories:

1. It's a problem with the network stack (software and firmware). It may be keeping some state or cache that after a while slows it down. It needs more performance longevity tests. Restarting the Wifi allows it to clear up whatever state it has and start fresh.

OR

2. There are other applications/services which are sipping some of the bandwidth. Disconnecting WiFi and quickly testing the bandwidth, allows the test to happen in a window before these apps or services reconnect. For one, it could be all the Google Sync processes.

Those with slow connections can confirm theory #2 by turning off Google sync (I'm thinking especially Pictures) and see if it fairs any better.

Or if there's a traffic monitor that can break down network traffic by application or service that could confirm or rule outtheory #2 (assuming it can monitor all traffic including the Google syncs)

[inertias_dream]

Very interesting.  Thanks gdeight for keeping with me on this.  I'll check out some of what you suggested.