How does the Droid 1 fare with wifi?

[deathbydroid]

Hey guys,
I am a bit of a droid 1 enthusiast. I really like the phone's design, processor speed, and the physical features. I am currently in the market to buy one and seem to be having a bit of a hard time.
The two times that I have found a droid, the owner has honestly come out and told me that it does not do well with wifi. The 3g is not a problem, but the wifi seems to be a bit of a hassle. Last night, I was sitting in this total stranger's house while he was trying to connect the damn thing to the wireless. It was awkward and disappointing. The other guy told me that his droid favors certain routers above others. He told me that he is a mac user and has some mac router (didn't know they made those).
I know it may be weird to read, since it seems that within a few years data plans will become the absolute norm and no one will be without them, but I am someone that does not like the way data plans are distributed right now, at least with the providers that I have. I like wifi, and I am almost always near it.
So, my question is twofold: 1) Does the droid 1 have problems with wifi because of some problem with the design or did I just have 2 unlucky draws; and 2) being someone who likes wifi, should I re-think on buying a droid 1?
Thanks for reading my thread.
-Deathbydroid

 

[Droid DOES!!]

Welcome to DroidForums! I run WiFi on my D1 all the time with 0 issues so far

DroidForums Junkie!!

 

[nmos]

Basically the wifi power management on the Droid doesn't get along with some routers. If you're rooted it's an easy fix.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

 

[AngryHatter]

Basically the wifi power management on the Droid doesn't get along with some routers. If you're rooted it's an easy fix.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

Huh?
Explain.

I have a cheap netgear and it works really well.

 

[deathbydroid]

Basically the wifi power management on the Droid doesn't get along with some routers. If you're rooted it's an easy fix.

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums App

So, what you are saying is the default driver for wifi is bad and rooting it helps you get a better driver or something?
Can you please explain "rooting" in a paragraph or less?

 

[d3vilfish]

Rooting on linux which android is linux based gives you complete contoll over your phone.

running darkslide 4.2

 

[mike_kauble]

My Boss and I have the D1 and it will not work with the HP420. I finally switched phones and gave my wife the D1. Whatever the latest update for the D1 also kills the 3com WAP in the office and I'm constantly rebooting it. I turned off the wifi on my boss' phone, and it works continually.

Go figure. WiFi has always been a problem for the D1 with some routers. It sucked having to deal with it when it happened.

 

[nmos]

In theory, if there is little net traffic the Droid should be able to tell the router that it's going to sleep for a second and the router should hold any data packets destined for the Droid untill it wakes up and requests them. There are at least 2 power saving modes (3 if you count "off") and by default the Droid uses the most aggressive (ie it sleeps for a long time). Even when it's working correctly this can cause some things like ssh to feel really slow but normally it's not a problem. Anyways, for some reason this negotiation doesn't go well with some routers and apparently some encryption methods make the problem more noticable. There's a config file called tiwlan.ini where you can tune this feature.

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[PereDroid]

D1 for almost a year now and never 1 problem with any wifi network.

 

[kodiak799]

Works better if you don't hide the SSID. That was a problem a good number of people had.

Otherwise, works great on my wifi. Worked great on stock too, but I've been rooted since before the 2.1 update so can't say for sure. I will say the hardware is very dated and if you load it up with apps and heavy home themes it's still going to have annoying lag on wifi.

If you can, there's really no better value out there than signing a 2-yr contract and getting a much better device for $200 from VZW.

 

[nmos]

If you can, there's really no better value out there than signing a 2-yr contract and getting a much better device for $200 from VZW.

IMHO there really isn't really anything out there that is "much better", especially if having a locked bootloader is a deal breaker. Lots of interesting stuff in the pipeline though.

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[deathbydroid]

In theory, if there is little net traffic the Droid should be able to tell the router that it's going to sleep for a second and the router should hold any data packets destined for the Droid untill it wakes up and requests them. There are at least 2 power saving modes (3 if you count "off") and by default the Droid uses the most aggressive (ie it sleeps for a long time). Even when it's working correctly this can cause some things like ssh to feel really slow but normally it's not a problem. Anyways, for some reason this negotiation doesn't go well with some routers and apparently some encryption methods make the problem more noticable. There's a config file called tiwlan.ini where you can tune this feature.

So, do you NEED to be rooted in in order to configure this "tiwlan.ini" file, or is that a feature in the android operating system that is easily accessible?

 

[nmos]

It's in /etc/wifi so I believe you would need to be rooted. A google search for wl1271.ini will give a pdf with various config options. FWIW I've noticed that this file gets replaced whenever I swap kernels.

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[deathbydroid]

What about droid 2? Is there any such problems with the next generation?

 

[donzz]

That's the first I heard there was ever an issue. I haven't had any issues connecting to a router yet.