Too many wireless networks?
At my house my wireless connection has recently become shoddy at best. I think the cause is too much noise from other wireless routers in the area. When I look at available wireless connections I see anywhere from 3 to 7 available networks all with strong connections. Some of the networks have random names like "4ocrs+k9" and "g0ov7xue", and then of course the only three in the list I trust are "Lindsay" (our own) "Webster" (my neighbours) and "Sympatico Wireless". All of the networks are encrypted except for the one called default that pops up every 20 minutes or so.
All that information was just me being shocked at how many networks are popping up, I've seen 9 different networks with up to 7 available at a time. My question is how would this effect my wireless, it's a wireless G router using wep 128 hex to encrypt. Any ideas on how to get rid of interference?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Martin
- Login to post comments
SOCIS newsletter
Syndicate
You mean, aside from
You mean, aside from shooting your neighbours?
___________
Josh Gaber
Put 1000 monkeys in front of 1000 terminals, and they'll eventually code Windows Vista
dont mean to hijack or
dont mean to hijack or anything but its funny cause at my girlfriend's place i can see a wireless connection IDed as "poopylungs" and one day in a fit of frustration over not having internet at the time i typed the password "cough" and it connected right away... good times
but to answer your question... i would have to assume it would have an effect... just like u should always get a 5GHz phone for the house since 802.11g uses 2.4GHz bandwidth... however, after living in edinburgh village and seeing no less than 10 networks available at all times and having few problems with our wireless id have to say the impact is minimal... i think...
Aaron
-no affiliation...
-depending on who you ask, i'm either 2nd or 3rd or 4th year BComp.
You can change what channel
You can change what channel your router broadcasts over. I think that's supposed to help suppress such problems.
thats true but at a certain
thats true but at a certain point that bandwidth is going to have to be saturated regardless what channel you're on... especially if there are people with 2.4GHz phones kickin around... and ya now with 802.11n routers coming in, is assume theres even more congestion because from what ive heard it uses 2 channels... either way... if signal strength is the issue, the easiest solution is just to move the router to a better spot in the house... ie if u primarily want signal in your bedroom, make sure there isnt a lead plate or any big thick walls between the router and your bedroom... also make sure that if a clear line of sight isnt possible to place the router so that the signal can travel as straight into the wall towards the bedroom as possible because a thin wall looks thicker on an angle... thats enough from me... off to bed so 2750 can finish slaughtering me in the morning...
Aaron
-no affiliation...
-depending on who you ask, i'm either 2nd or 3rd or 4th year BComp.
Thanks guys, I think I'm
Thanks guys, I think I'm gunna give changing the channels a try, and hopefully all will be well. My laptop is also directly over my router so the whole straight through walls thing should be pretty good.
G vs N
I wouldn't worry about G and N causing problems. N does use more, but the way it's set up is to allow for more congestion. Something to do with encoding the packets funny, so other networks don't bother looking at the wrong stuff in the air. That's a vague explanation.
As for channels, 2.4 has 9 or 11 (can't remember), and I can see 7 or 8 in my neighbourhood. No interference issues. Most routers are set to "auto" to find the channel of least resistance.
In my own experience, most interference has come from phones and microwaves. It's up to you how you want to approach that one. We have 5.8 ghz phones in the house, and that's all we had to do.
Randall Roberts
SOCIS President
fyi g has 11 channels... the
fyi g has 11 channels... the best way to run it is to keep as much distance between channels as possible... so if ur neighbour is on channel 1... u should use channel 11... then ur other neighbour would use channel 6... and so on... but i guess that only makes sense... u should use the auto channel select but if things arent working... thats something to fiddle with... im tired
Aaron
-no affiliation...
-depending on who you ask, i'm either 2nd or 3rd or 4th year BComp.
Another killer is a 2.4GHz
Another killer is a 2.4GHz cordless phone. Possibly offer to buy and trade 2.4GHz phones for new 900MHz phones. :)
What about 5.8GHz
What about 5.8GHz phones?
___________
Josh Gaber
Put 1000 monkeys in front of 1000 terminals, and they'll eventually code Windows Vista
hi im the host of this
hi im the host of this party... u guys are... a little late... :)
Aaron
-no affiliation...
-depending on who you ask, i'm either 2nd or 3rd or 4th year BComp.
Yea we got the 5.8 ghz
Yea we got the 5.8 ghz phones to dodge that interference, but I suppose that says nothing as to whether my NEIGHBORS have 2.4 ghz phones. I think I might like just blaming the neighbors because then it's not my fault. And yes Aaron, the party is yours, I commend you.
Martin Lindsay
Interim Assistant Sys-Admin for SOCIS
for those about to rock...
for those about to rock... we salute u
Aaron
-no affiliation...
-depending on who you ask, i'm either 2nd or 3rd or 4th year BComp.
More 2.4 talk
FYI, if I remember correctly, 2.4 ghz phones tend to be on the higher end of the channel band by default (9 to 11), but most allow you to change that (cheaper phones), or will auto correct (better phones, read: Panasonic) for best behaviour.
Randall Roberts
SOCIS President
Use something like Kismet to
Use something like Kismet to look at strengths of signals and so on. It can be really helpful to narrow things down. Also, try wiring up to see if it's just your wireless connection.
And please, with that much density someone is going to try to hack your WEP network. Go to WPA and enjoy the fact that it's secure and that the passwords can be eaiser to remember (no proprietary password to wep conversion).
--
Andrew