UPC Fine Wired but Crawling Through Wireless

jamesmc123

Jehuty42 wrote: »

Really?





And finally, from yourself:


Yeah, no help there.
:rolleyes:

You make it sound as if I hadn't tried changing the channel in the last few weeks before and channel 1 also has given issues!
To correct myself now, what is interesting is that when the issue occurred, using Inssider 2.0, you will see RSSI (Received signal strength indication) as 0. I see some poor UPC neighbour UPC***** has the same issue, it jumps from 0 to approx. 80 every few seconds and they also have a Pegatron corp vendor(Cisco 2425 maybe). Hopefully they are using wired only.

jamesmc123

iknorr wrote: »

i have upc for around 2 weeks now.

I have serious issues over wifi...speeds changing all the time. i was using a wifi analyser on my phone while doing speed tests on the laptop.
At one stage i counted 17 different wifi networks. about 10 were upc.

Wifi channel set to auto.

Results:
The speeds varied depending on the channel and whatever wifi networks are on the channel and the power of same.

I noticed all the wifi networks were jumping channel every few minutes and that the strenghts were varying drastically.

So 17 different wifi signals all searching for a free channel. 13 channels available with a 3 channel crossover.

it was looking like disco lights on the analyser due to the varying strengths and channel hopping.

It basically boiled down to this. Too many routers are continuously searching for a better channel. Sometimes these channels are better others times they are worse. either way they do not stay stable due to another router checking out another channel etc.

Channel 1 seemed to be a little quieter than the other channels. I tried that and i noticed a slightly better signal & much more stable speeds at 7-9mb

The speed of the wifi network is directly related to the strength of the network. The strength of the wifi network depends on physical items ( walls etc) but more importantly interference around 2.4 ghz such as other routers, wireless phones etc and the distance from the router. So if theres lots of other routers around, the strength will be weaker and the speed will be slower.

If i move the laptop to within the 1 meter of the router, i receive speeds of 14.x mb i have a 15mb line.

At night, some of the routers disappear from the analyser....probably turned off when peeps go to bed.
The speed at a distance increases, more stable and the channel hopping is less frequent on the networks

Now theres alot in what i just said but all you need to know about the problem is in there.
If you dont then its back to father ted and the cows "those are far away".

Thanks for this.
I still have IrishBroadband available to me and had literally one issue in 3 years using it wirelessly (when I had a Linksys router connected) and had to change the channel to 7 I think so this must not be auto searching. I also think 1 is the least busy channel being used from monitoring Inssider. UPC is definitely the most prevalent around me too, about 7 out of the 13. I also see some hotel/businesses also. I have stopped my router autosearching and will set only to 1. It's a shame I cannot see the signal strength but the feature is not enabled as RSSI is not a reliable measure. There are so many smartphones and itouches now also so people are no longer as wired as they used to be. I plan to connect the Linksys wrt54g (also Cisco) soon and hopefull this will perform better.

PixelTrawler

I was searching this sub forum as I'm also now getting the exact same thing.

It used to be fine but now I'm finding I have to reset the wifi router every day or so and I get the speed back for a while.

Fine off wired.

Can we all suddenly be experiencing dodgy routers and wifi channel interference?

Edit: actually good tips above there, Ill try a few different channels and see how it goes. Could always be something next door for example.

jamesmc123

Solyad wrote: »

I was searching this sub forum as I'm also now getting the exact same thing.

It used to be fine but now I'm finding I have to reset the wifi router every day or so and I get the speed back for a while.

Fine off wired.

Can we all suddenly be experiencing dodgy routers and wifi channel interference?

Edit: actually good tips above there, Ill try a few different channels and see how it goes. Could always be something next door for example.

It would be interesting to be able to troubleshoot these kinds of issues a bit more.
Use Inssider to check what your RSSI (RSSI - the level of signal strength (including noise)) values are, what channels are being used by everyone when you are experiencing difficulties.
I have had issues even when I am 2 metres away from the wireless router. I even disconnected the phones etc.

vibe666

other 2.4ghz wifi signals cause most of the interference you'll get on your pwn wifi network, but they only tell half the story. to find out what other interference there may be in the 2.4ghz band, you'll need a proper 2.4ghz spectrum analyser.

dect phones, baby monitors, bluetooth devices, car alarms, video senders, microwaves and god knows what else all create electromagnetic interference around the 2.4ghz frequencies that your wifi works on and none of those things will even be visible to inSSIDer.

it's an invaluable tool, but just because you can't see a problem on a particular frequency, doesn't mean there isn't one.

jamesmc123

vibe666 wrote: »

other 2.4ghz wifi signals cause most of the interference you'll get on your pwn wifi network, but they only tell half the story. to find out what other interference there may be in the 2.4ghz band, you'll need a proper 2.4ghz spectrum analyser.

dect phones, baby monitors, bluetooth devices, car alarms, video senders, microwaves and god knows what else all create electromagnetic interference around the 2.4ghz frequencies that your wifi works on and none of those things will even be visible to inSSIDer.

it's an invaluable tool, but just because you can't see a problem on a particular frequency, doesn't mean there isn't one.

Thanks for this advice. I have a UPC bundle which includes 2.4ghz phones and yes I have a baby monitor in use sometimes so will check if I can change the channel on this;

I like the sound of this Wi-Spy 2.4x:
http://www.metageek.net/products/wi-spy but it's a bit pricey

I still think what is interesting is to watch the RSSI value going to 0 using inSSIDer when the problem is being encountered. This is probably a sign that the router is suggesting change the channel or reboot. I would like to hear anyone's feedback on this.