Wireless channels

mehmeh12

Hi

does it matter what channel the wireless router uses? my router is currently on channel 13. Dos this affect how the signal is picked up by a laptop?

Rosco_Weird

Yea it does,but if channel 13 is working for you,then you should leave it on channel 13

is the internet really slow/slower than it should be?

lucernarian

Only issue I've seen with channel 13 is that windows laptops/desktops with Atheros wifi cards will not be able to even see it, as the stupid ordinary drivers that atheros release are designed for US use (meaning channels 1-11). The wifi cards are capable of it, it's just the drivers that are at fault.

The only workaround I discovered is to install some proper Wifi analysis program that uses its own drivers for the wifi card. E.g. commview. I installed the trial of Commview wifi, installed the drivers that came with it in accordance with the instructions, and then it was happy days for all with Ch. 13 appearing. And when you uninstall the program (it is trialware after all), you're left with the good drivers!

Rosco_Weird

Well if channel 13 works,channel 11 could work also,if it doesn't go way lower down to 2-3 and try them all till it works,if it was me,i'd just change the channel in that case to avoid any problems with using programs and install new drivers...

If you need help changing channels I can help you

axer

mehmeh12 wrote: »

Hi

does it matter what channel the wireless router uses? my router is currently on channel 13. Dos this affect how the signal is picked up by a laptop?

The channel only matters to get the strongest possible signal. There are only 3 full non-overlapping channels available to choose from. 1, 6 and 11 so technically everyone should use one of those unless all three are already used.



Use netstumbler to find out which channels are already used.

cpu-dude

axer wrote: »

The channel only matters to get the strongest possible signal. There are only 3 full non-overlapping channels available to choose from. 1, 6 and 11 so technically everyone should use one of those unless all three are already used.



Use netstumbler to find out which channels are already used.

Nice post axer, I came on to specify the same thing (I use 11 for everything, cordless phones usually use frequencys from 1 to 6).

lucernarian

In fact, in areas under the ETSI, Channels 1, 5, 9, and 13 don't overlap.


Anyone who says otherwise can't read the diagram above and/or is just re-quoting american websites.