When you buy a wireless access point for your house, it's easy to forget that many of your neighbours have done so likewise.
Most people, however, leave these things transmitting on their default channel and if you add yours to the mix the connection you're getting will be limited by a cacophony of signals all trying to out-shout each other.
Below is a scan made with a free program called Airgrab of the network density in my neighbourhood my node is called "Airwoolly". Can you spot it in the chaos of channel 6?
There's three people's routers on the same channel. Surely that will not do. In the administration console of my router this channel can be changed to something that didn't come with the default settings:
Please note that the channel in this screenshot is set to 6. If I change it to 3, you can see than my access point "Airwoolly" has a channel of its own now with nobody else crowding the space.
I'm not sure how much this improves connectivity, but I imagine it will at least help with interference and range.
Cheers,
Woolly
There's a zillion PC apps that do the same, of course. Maybe someone knows of one? I'm not in a position to try one out.
Thanks Woolly... Just downloaded it and moved to my own exclusive channel (12!). Not sure if it's going to make a difference, but it can't be a bad thing! :)
There are also a few iPhone apps that will show you all the networks in an area and various levels of detail as far as channel and strength and MAC etc. Same principles apply.
With you being on an exclusive channel it cuts down the level of interference and the level of shit filtering that your router has to do - always a good idea not to double up in the local vicinity.
Funny thing is that in my area with 1.5 acre blocks we don't have this problem... I am lucky to find just one in the local area and I think that is next door and he turns it on and off each time he uses the internet - Mine on the other hand is a WAP that would be like a damn local beacon by comparison... nice and safe though with the 36 character Pass phrase :) Nice work Woolly - love the network name!!
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