Locating Inteference

Ever since I moved in to my current house I have been struggling with inteference. You guys might remember I had issues with FTTC (FTTC Issues). In the end I couldn't get to the bottom of it, so just moved back to Virgin Media as this fixed the issue from a speed perspective.

Unfortunately I am still having many problems with bluetooth and WiFi devices in the room that I use as my office. For example the bluetooth (and also non bluetooth mouses where you get a little dongle) can be right next to the machines yet I get judders and randomness with the movement of the mouse. I have found WiFi is also problematic in the room, it works, but will cut out for a split secondor so which causes websites not to load properly and endless pressing refresh (the WiFi connection isn't lost, just the throughput) .

Any ideas if there are any apps or similar where I could see visually what's going on to try and fix this issue? Or any other advise people might have who have had a similar issue.

Edited by gary333 (Tue 31-Aug-21 11:48:49)

So the issues have persisted after a swap of service between Openreach FTTC to Virgin ?

So it’s very local to your property. Did you try the radio trick ?

In reply to a post by gary333:

Any ideas if there are any apps or similar where I could see visually what's going on to try and fix this issue? Or any other advise people might have who have had a similar issue.

This is going to be expensive. All those devices use the 2.4 GHz "ISM" band (Industrial, Scientific & Medical) which was deregulated and so is used for WiFi and Bluetooth and the proprietary radio links between keyboard/mouse and computer.

You need something that is looking in the 2.4 GHz spectrum and is not limited to just WiFi or Bluetooth transmissions, so you need a "spectrum analyser". The sort of thing that can show you if a faulty microwave oven is causing your 2.4 GHz to be unusable.

This is the sort of product that Metageek make, e.g. WiSpy and Chanalyzer:
https://www.metageek.com/products/wi-spy/

There may be others.

Edited by jchamier (Tue 31-Aug-21 20:42:38)

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

So the issues have persisted after a swap of service between Openreach FTTC to Virgin ?

So it’s very local to your property. Did you try the radio trick ?

I did try the radio trick back when I had FTTC, it seems to be worse near the electricity smart meter however the whole side of the house and rooms seem to be noise heavy.

Can you completely switch off and run just the circuits for you PC or even (if laptop) drop the whole house and see if interference subsides? Go back one breaker at a time and check.

So try isolating the relays on the fuse board one by one till you narrow it down.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Can you completely switch off and run just the circuits for you PC or even (if laptop) drop the whole house and see if interference subsides? Go back one breaker at a time and check.

Good point. I did try this last time but even with just the PC circuit on the interference was still there (and the noise was also there on the radio when master switch was off). I now have a new laptop (where the problem also exists) so i'll give that a go tomorrow. I suppose I could also turn the isolate off in the meter cabinet to rule out the consumer unit completely.

Edited by gary333 (Tue 31-Aug-21 22:01:12)

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

So try isolating the relays on the fuse board one by one till you narrow it down.

Ta. I'll give it a go tomrrow and report back

Precisely take the whole house out from the isolator. and check one breaker at a time. It could be a neighbour or something that you’d never otherwise consider could be the cause.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Precisely take the whole house out from the isolator. and check one breaker at a time. It could be a neighbour or something that you’d never otherwise consider could be the cause.

It had crossed my mind as I’m on a looped supply (I’m the master, next door is the slave). Although it’s unlikely to be them as this problem was present when their house was empty. Does make me wonder if it’s a neighbour but seems strange this problem is most evident in my office/right side of the house. Although, my house is wired left and right, so I suppose that might be another flag.