[S5-371T] Wifi range

I have an issue with my newly bought S5-371T laptop.

Indeed the wifi range is quite low.

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To add to brummyfan2's excellent reply:

Aside from changing bands between 2.4GHz and 5GHz maybe try this:

The 2.4GHz band has much further range than the 5GHz band so use the 2.4GHz band.  The 2.4GHz band has channels from 1 to 11.  Neighbors wireless may be the same or close to the channel you're using which can reduce your wireless range considerably.  So the goal is to use a channel that is the most isolated from your neighbor's channels to get the most range and most reliable and fast wireless connection.

The 2.4GHz channel selection is made in your router.  Use the info in this howtogeek link to find the best channel for your wireless:

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/21132/change-your-wi-fi-router-channel-to-optimize-your-wireless-signal/

Note that your router may be set to "auto" which automatically finds a good channel to use.  In my experience, this is useless.  I've setup several routers and found that the channel that the "auto" mode chose can be much less than optimal.  Use the WifiInfoView program to find the best channel for your location and manuall set that channel in your router. 

Also note that you need to run WifiInfoView several times to determine the best channel to use.  Run it at night when neighbors are home and on weekends day and night.  If neighbors power their router off when they are not using it, WifiInfoView will not show the channel they are using.

Good luck,

Raptor88

I live in a quite rural area, so no pertubation from the neighboor...

But if you have any more advice, I willl gladly take it and try.

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Aside from interference from neighbor's wireless, it's also possible to get interference from other devices like microwaves, cordless phones, noisy (electrically not sound) electric motors, etc.

If you have a cable modem/router from a provider and have your own router plugged into that cable modem/router, that cable modem/router could be acting the same as a neighbor's wireless.  Here's a real life example of this:

A friend was having problems in an upstairs bedroom with connecting, slow data transfer rates like youtube videos pausing to refill its buffer,  and dropping connections.  Asked me to help.  I ran WifiInfoView and saw that the wireless signal from the provider's cable modem/router was on channel 9.  His router was on channel 11.  Both channels were at full strength per WifiInfoView, which means they were interferring with each other.  With my laptop connected to his router's channel 11, when close to his router, things worked "OK" but probably not at full speed.  As I moved away from his router, problems started happening. I changed his router to channel 1 since there were only weak neighbor's signals on channels 1-6.  All of his problems disappeared.

WifiInfoView probably won't show interfence from appliances though.  Know that the preferred channels for the 2.4GHz band are 1, 6 and 11.  Those channels are spaced far apart enough that there is no frequency overlap to cause interference.  So to bypass interference from appliances, cordless phones, etc., if your router is set to channel 1 or 2, just change it to channel 6 or 11 and see what happens.  If you router is set to channel 9-11, change it to channel 1 and see what happens. 

Note that the wireless channel is determined by the router.  Not by the computer.  Your computer just finds the router's wireless signal and uses that channel.

This is just something good to try.  It's very good to know which channel is the best for your location for the best wireless connections and speed, regardless.  Aside from  this, returning your computer would be the next step.