My wife's iTouch finds and connects to WiFi hotspots at greater distances than my N810. I have to be about twice as close before I can connect. Any solution for this?

Maybe you have a bad tablet. My N810 connects the same distance as any iPod.

My N810 is weaker than some laptops and stronger than others. When the source is not close, its reception often depends on its orientation and the keyboard (opened or not). Sometimes this makes me angry because before N810 I had 770 and the reception of 770 is the best I have ever seen.

My N810, routinely finds and is able to connect to way more AP's than my laptop... (and the laptop's pretty good at it)

Well, part of the problems with long range wifi is the antenna. The n810 doesn't have all that great of one. Although someone in here did come up with a mod (you gotta be somewhat brave to pull this off) that would allow you to add a larger antenna to the unit and thus get better reception and range. Problem is, I don't know which thread it was in.

How would I go about verifying this more objectively? Is there a really sophisticated software app that might help?

I have not had my N810 for 30 days yet, so I guess I could exchange it or send it back if there is a problem. In general, my N810 is really slow -- all apps seem really slow. It doesn't connect to WiFi well, and the GPS is so bad that it is useless.

My wife's iTouch makes my N810 seem 10 years old. Her iTouch does everything faster. We pulled in to a WiFi hotspot to check on movie schedules the other day, and she had connected, browsed all the movies and gotten all the info while I was still trying to get connected.

I sure would be pleased if all this is explained by a bad unit. I really do not want to get an Apple or Windows product, and I'll accept a bit less performance in order to run Linux, but the performance of my N810 is such that the unit is nearly unusable. I had been considering just sending it back for a refund and giving up on tablets...

This comment ("Maybe you have a bad tablet.") gives me some hope.

Another hope is -- bad software. Try the following: update to the last version of the OS (if you your unit doesn't use it already), then enable swap, then install tear as web browser. Others may give other suggestions.

All this will not make the WiFi connectivity faster. For this, move to to a better place (if possible) and turn the back of the device towards the antenna of the WiFi spot. Watch your hands as they can easily block a weak signal.

There is an ap "WifiInfo" that gives some detailed information about detected connections. You may find it useful in evaluating performance.

Thanks. This is a cool app.

Now I just need to learn how to make sense of the SNR values...

Where should I place my hands to avoid blocking the WiFi signal? (I looked here, but that didn't help me: http://www.nmacleod.com/nokia/schematics/).

I have the latest OS (my device came with it) and I increased the memory for swap a few weeks ago, but that didn't help.