Tablet has poor signal when connected to BT Wifi

[Northwain]

I just recently bought an Amazon Fire 10 HD and I'm having trouble connecting to BT wifi and BT wifi Fon. That said, my laptop has no problem connecting and the signal is quite strong. My question is: is there any way for me to improve my signal such as a range extender, etc? Or would something like that work in this case?

 

[spdragoo]

Not sure I understand 100%. Do you mean that the signal strength is weak (i.e. 1 or 2 bars instead of 3), or the connectivity is poor (i.e. strong signal, but getting low bandwidth/slow connection speeds)? I suspect from the wording at the end of your post it's the latter.

So first, you have to test to see if the slowdown is a) with the Fire 10, b) with the WiFi in general, c) with your overall broadband connection, or d) somewhere else in BT's network.
-- If the slowdown only happens with certain sites, there is probably little to nothing you can do about it. You might have a super-fast connection to the Internet...but the server you're trying to access might not be as fast. Or maybe it has a fast connection, but there are a lot of users trying to access it simultaneously (kind of like how your own connection would drastically slow down if you had 4 Roku boxes, 3 PS4s, 5 smartphones, & 2 laptops all trying to watch streaming video simultaneously).
-- If the slowdown doesn't seem to be tied to a particular website, see if there's a pattern to it. For example, if the slowdown happens every night between 5 & 8 PM, then there's probably a lot of other BT users in the area trying to access the Internet, & BT just doesn't have enough capacity to meet everyone's full needs. Not sure about how they do it there, but here in the U.S. the ISPs list their services as, "up to XX Mbps", but only provide a guarantee of maybe 80% of that (i.e. my current service is rated to 100Mbps, but I generally "only" see 70-75Mbps as the maximum). Unfortunately, barring upgrades to their network by BT, the only "solution" is to try to avoid peak times when downloading large files.
-- If you don't see a pattern in the sites or thee times, then download the SpeedTest app by Ookla. The free app accesses the same testing network as their primary website (http://www.speedtest.net), & it auto-detects the closest testing nodes to reduce latency/network slowdowns as much as possible. Use the app to test your connection speed with the Fire 10.
-- Next, use the app (or the website) to test your connection with another WiFi device (laptop, smartphone, etc.). If the Fire 10 is significantly slower than other WiFi devices, then the problem is with the Fire 10, & you should contact their Customer Support.
-- If the other WiFi devices also have the same slowdown, try testing with a device hardwired into your router (i.e. desktop PC; or, if you only have a laptop, turn off its WiFi & connect it directly to the router with an Ethernet cable). If the hardwired connection runs faster, then the issue is WiFi-related. You'll need to do additional testing to see what's causing it (might be an older router that doesn't use the N or AC protocols, might be getting interference from other devices, might be a range issue, etc.).
-- If the hardwired device is also slow, then it's not the WiFi. To make sure it's not the router, try bypassing it & connecting your PC directly to the modem with the Ethernet cable (if applicable). Also, using the Command Prompt on Windows, you can use the "tracert" command to tell your PC to send test pings to a particular website (Google, Yahoo, CNN, ESPN, whatever). Tracert will show you the different nodes it has to pass through (each with their own IP address), & how long it takes to travel from 1 node to another. You can either test it yourself, or call BT Customer Support & have them walk you through it to see if the slowdown is on their portion of the network, & where it's at.

 

[Northwain]

Not sure I understand 100%. Do you mean that the signal strength is weak (i.e. 1 or 2 bars instead of 3), or the connectivity is poor (i.e. strong signal, but getting low bandwidth/slow connection speeds)? I suspect from the wording at the end of your post it's the latter.

So first, you have to test to see if the slowdown is a) with the Fire 10, b) with the WiFi in general, c) with your overall broadband connection, or d) somewhere else in BT's network.
-- If the slowdown only happens with certain sites, there is probably little to nothing you can do about it. You might have a super-fast connection to the Internet...but the server you're trying to access might not be as fast. Or maybe it has a fast connection, but there are a lot of users trying to access it simultaneously (kind of like how your own connection would drastically slow down if you had 4 Roku boxes, 3 PS4s, 5 smartphones, & 2 laptops all trying to watch streaming video simultaneously).
-- If the slowdown doesn't seem to be tied to a particular website, see if there's a pattern to it. For example, if the slowdown happens every night between 5 & 8 PM, then there's probably a lot of other BT users in the area trying to access the Internet, & BT just doesn't have enough capacity to meet everyone's full needs. Not sure about how they do it there, but here in the U.S. the ISPs list their services as, "up to XX Mbps", but only provide a guarantee of maybe 80% of that (i.e. my current service is rated to 100Mbps, but I generally "only" see 70-75Mbps as the maximum). Unfortunately, barring upgrades to their network by BT, the only "solution" is to try to avoid peak times when downloading large files.
-- If you don't see a pattern in the sites or thee times, then download the SpeedTest app by Ookla. The free app accesses the same testing network as their primary website (http://www.speedtest.net), & it auto-detects the closest testing nodes to reduce latency/network slowdowns as much as possible. Use the app to test your connection speed with the Fire 10.
-- Next, use the app (or the website) to test your connection with another WiFi device (laptop, smartphone, etc.). If the Fire 10 is significantly slower than other WiFi devices, then the problem is with the Fire 10, & you should contact their Customer Support.
-- If the other WiFi devices also have the same slowdown, try testing with a device hardwired into your router (i.e. desktop PC; or, if you only have a laptop, turn off its WiFi & connect it directly to the router with an Ethernet cable). If the hardwired connection runs faster, then the issue is WiFi-related. You'll need to do additional testing to see what's causing it (might be an older router that doesn't use the N or AC protocols, might be getting interference from other devices, might be a range issue, etc.).
-- If the hardwired device is also slow, then it's not the WiFi. To make sure it's not the router, try bypassing it & connecting your PC directly to the modem with the Ethernet cable (if applicable). Also, using the Command Prompt on Windows, you can use the "tracert" command to tell your PC to send test pings to a particular website (Google, Yahoo, CNN, ESPN, whatever). Tracert will show you the different nodes it has to pass through (each with their own IP address), & how long it takes to travel from 1 node to another. You can either test it yourself, or call BT Customer Support & have them walk you through it to see if the slowdown is on their portion of the network, & where it's at.

My bad! What I mean is that the signal strength is weak as it hovers around with one bar.