WIFI Interference

[scmhogg]

I frequently complain to my son that he is "hogging" the bandwidth on our WIFI with his gigantic downloads.

When my system started bogging down over the last few days, I again blamed him. He came up to my office, proclaiming his innocence.

He discovered, that when he turned my new sun-light type floor lamp on and off, it affected my download speed by 80-90%.

I presume it is some type of interference, but my WIFI connection shows it as continually strong.

Steve

[LCHIEN]

I frequently complain to my son that he is "hogging" the bandwidth on our WIFI with his gigantic downloads.

When my system started bogging down over the last few days, I again blamed him. He came up to my office, proclaiming his innocence.

He discovered, that when he turned my new sun-light type floor lamp on and off, it affected my download speed by 80-90%.

I presume it is some type of interference, but my WIFI connection shows it as continually strong.

Steve

Apparently the sun lamp is downloading automatic updates
to improve OS (operating sunlamp) security.

[Holbren]

LOL, that is funny Loring.

1. check that you have security enabled and your neighbor is not tapping into your network.

2. try plugging the lamp into another outlet. Don't think that would make a difference but you never know.

The only thing I've know to interfere with the signal is other devices operating in the same frequency range like a cordless phone. Being you say that your signal is still good, maybe the lamp is loading down the circuit or something. I would think the router would operate down to a pretty low AC voltage but who knows.

[crokett]

The lamp may be causing interference such that your computer has to request that info be repeated. In other words, you and a friend are standing on opposite sides of a room talking to each other. More and more people come into the room and start talking. Pretty soon you get to a point where you can still hear your friend but have trouble filtering his conversation out of all the other conversations and he has to repeat himself a lot.

[coryb]

I agree with Crockett

My wireless network seems to be very touchy as well. I'm in a plastered wall home with expanded metal lath - a signal strength killer. Reception quality seems to depend on the barometric pressure - or Dow Jones. I would not rule out the interference from the lamp - however I'm no electrical engineer.

Absolutely make sure you are not broadcasting your SSID, have WEP enabled and, if possible, MAC address filtering enabled. WiFi signals will carry a surprising distance in the right conditions.

Anyone who travels with a wireless enabled laptop will agree with this --- It is still amazing to me how many unsecured networks exist in larger cities.

***As far as I know - if they're on your WiFi - it's your IP address that they are using. Is that correct?***Please correct me if I'm wrong.

CoryB

[Otter]

there are a number of factors that can cause slowdown, wardrivers, netsntchers and the like.

Many people use default channels on there WAPs, This will help you see the data landscape. I use it all the time and it is free.
http://www.netstumbler.com/

Another issue is the nasty 2.4Ghz phone systems, these cheap interference devices are all over. To find them you can get a $105 device from www.metageek.net

between these 2 you can find and maintaine a "hole" in the landscape.

Granted this is just 2 of many areas that can effect your preformance, however my company has a 2.4Ghz product and have to troubleshoot them often, and the 2 items listed above seem to help 90% of the time.

[vaking]

This is all nice but - even the old style WiFi (802.11B) was supposed to have bandwidth up to 11MBit/sec. Realistically it was never that fast but 5MBit/sec was real. The newer standard (802.11G) is many times faster. If your Internet connection is cable - that will give you up to 6MBit/sec tops. DSL is less that that. In other words, if you are using newer WiFi - it is supposed to be many times faster than the speed of your Internet link. Your sun light needs to bring your WiFi down by about 90% for you to notice, otherwise the Internet link will be the bottleneck.
As for WiFi security - I have a teenage geek at home. Last week my MOL bought a laptop and we went to her appartment in NYC to help set it up. She still uses dial-up so we were prepared to explain to her verbally how High Speed Internet would work with her laptop when she gets cable. The geek got his hands on the laptop and before we knew it he already found at least 3 wireless networks and tapped into them to demonstrate how it works and to install updates on a laptop. About 2 hours later the neigbour finally figured out something was wrong and blocked our MAC from connecting to his WiFi. Byt that time my geek has already downloaded at least 50 MBytes of data.

[LinuxRandal]

I frequently complain to my son that he is "hogging" the bandwidth on our WIFI with his gigantic downloads.

When my system started bogging down over the last few days, I again blamed him. He came up to my office, proclaiming his innocence.

He discovered, that when he turned my new sun-light type floor lamp on and off, it affected my download speed by 80-90%.

I presume it is some type of interference, but my WIFI connection shows it as continually strong.

Steve

When I was looking for a new cordless phone (my 900mhz digital spread spectrum one got dropped too many times) I was looking at what all interfered with each other. Phones are in the 2.4 range, I believe I read some baby moniters. Microwaves put out signals that cover a range. And there was a few brands of Light bulbs, that the filiment vibrates at that frequency. I am still waiting on 5.8 to come down. But you should either not use that lamp, or seperate it from in between you and your router by at least a wall (it should be farther from the router then your pc).

[Scottydont]

Interferance. Wireless can be finicky. FYI, many people place there wireless routers right on top of their cable/dsl modems. I don't anymore. Ideally wireless router should be placed away from any other device that can emit an electrical field. (Receptacles, Modems, speakers, lamps, stereo equipment etc.)

Bandwidth. If your kid is using something like Bearshare for downloading music those programs often have specs. you can set to limit the bandwidth they use when downloading.

Trobleshooting. Here is a webpage with some great free web based utilities that can help you troubleshoot internet speed issues. "Trace Route" for example can let you know not only which component on your network is giving you trouble but also show you the IP on the internet that may be causing speed issues. I do on line gaming where maximizing your connections performance is critical. Try running some of these tests after playing around with your wireless router location and position. You'll be surprised.

http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/default.asp

[Wood_workur]

Put the light outside, and bring the sun inside, along with the 80 spf sunblock. Problem solved.http://thefuntimesguide.com/audio/Bu...ock_Wearer.mp3