Neighbours were fine with it as I told them about the insecurity and got them to put encryption and passwords on.

The Virgin SuperDud's that my neighbours have seem to FOLLOW my channel setting. So I choose channel 6 which is empty - and then two days later I find the two VM SSIDs are now also on Ch 6. They were on channel 2 and 8. so I move, and they move again!

Same I've given up with it...

Many fail to understand that their router broadcasts more than adequately but it is competition with neighbour�s wifi that plays havoc with their wifi connections?

Very often it can be the 'free' channel that causes problems.

Here's a typical scenario. There's 3 routers using channel 6 and 3 routers on channel 11. No routers on channel 1.

You scan the wireless channels and see channel 1 as empty. You then use this channel.

Chances are this channel has at least one the following, wireless doorbells, wireless telephones, bluetooth devices, wireless baby monitors, AV transmitters etc. WHY? These devices avoid populated channels too. So they wont choose 11 or 6 usually as they're already in use.

1 of these devices is much more likely to wreak havoc on your WiFi. This is because many of these devices aren't regulated in the same way that wifi routers are. A WiFi router will work quite well on the same channel as another WiFi router.

A wifi router and several cordless phones on same channel = a nightmare.
several wifi routers on same channel = some performance loss but not too bad

Of course on inssider you never know if the channel you are choosing is populated by these devices. You only see wifi routers which are a very small part of the true picture.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 03-Dec-12 10:05:44)

My setup does not disconnect because my router has 14 channels, where most have 12 at most, so on channel 13 my kit is not fighting with the neighbours... (D-Link DIR-655)

Due to overlapping channels when using channel 13 you will still interfere slightly with channels 12, 11 and 10. So if any router is using 11 (which they probably are) then your AP and theirs is still probably competing.

Also most routers sold in the UK do channels 1 - 13. Channel 14 shouldn't be used.

The ideal recommendation is to use 1, 5, 9 and 13. This avoids any overlapping...

However in the UK we use 1, 6 and 11 by default. This is because many manufacturers default to channel 6 so the 1st setup wouldn't work too well... As 6 would overlap with 5 and 9.

Makes me laugh when I see from my house (via Wifi Analyzer) 6 local wifi set ups all broadcasting on the same channel

Probably isn't too bad. Routers can co-exist quite well. The issues occur when there are other devices such as cordless phones, microwaves etc also on that channel. OR if somebodies router is outputting higher than it should be.

If anything having this many routers on 1 channel would discourage the bad devices (such as the cordless phone) from using the channel. So it can end up better.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 03-Dec-12 10:14:42)

Then of course it's possible to do the job properly.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Then of course it's possible to do the job properly.

And 5GHz is often useful for many.

That's a very neat tool!!! Shame it's not free but that would come in handy!

Very true however the range isn't very good...
In experience beyond one wall 2.4ghz performs better. This is my property and obviously different properties have different building materials. So there's scope for differences there.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 03-Dec-12 16:00:55)

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Very true however the range isn't very good...
In experience beyond one wall 2.4ghz performs better. This is my property and obviously different properties have different building materials. So there's scope for differences there.

I think it also depends on the router. I've got a 5GHz airport express which is about 3 years old, and it has almost no range, but lets me use my laptop in the front room when the neighbours have saturated the 2.4GHz - but I can't get its signal anywhere else.

My parents have an Airport Extreme as their only router (which is a lot more money), and I can pick up their 5GHz signal the other side of the house upstairs. (4 bedroom family house).

Draytek don't do a simultaneous dual band yet, and their software doesn't play nicely with OS X annoyingly. (802.1d frames set to wrong country).