WIFI Channel Selection ?

Big Thank You to everybody the chimed in.

To @Calender for the link to "Wireless Wizard". That little program helped me zoom in on channel usage.

To @Helmut Thanks for were in the maze of router settings they keep the channel selections. I looked a long time and never thought that I needed to go thru the wireless SETUP ?

Final update - Now running just fine. Why that laptop decided to select the 2.4g band is beyond me. It had always hooked up the 5g band. Now its hooking its hooking up to the 5g band. Now I did change to router setting for the 2.4g band to channel 10. It was set to "Anychannel" before. All other 2.4 devices are now using channel 10. Last bit of news is that using the "Wireless Wizard" I've noticed that the signal strength on the other router is now much less than it was before. I assume who ever it was moved it.

Last but not least, "Is it common to have a overpowering router set to same channel that your using and have your equipment having drop outs as I described above ?" I will mark this thread as SOLVED.

storageman said:

Big Thank You to everybody the chimed in.

To @Calender for the link to "Wireless Wizard". That little program helped me zoom in on channel usage.

To @Helmut Thanks for were in the maze of router settings they keep the channel selections. I looked a long time and never thought that I needed to go thru the wireless SETUP ?

Final update - Now running just fine. Why that laptop decided to select the 2.4g band is beyond me. It had always hooked up the 5g band. Now its hooking its hooking up to the 5g band. Now I did change to router setting for the 2.4g band to channel 10. It was set to "Anychannel" before. All other 2.4 devices are now using channel 10. Last bit of news is that using the "Wireless Wizard" I've noticed that the signal strength on the other router is now much less than it was before. I assume who ever it was moved it.

Last but not least, "Is it common to have a overpowering router set to same channel that your using and have your equipment having drop outs as I described above ?" I will mark this thread as SOLVED.

You should only ever use channels 1,6 or 11 on 2.4 GHZ band as they are the only non overlapping channels.

The following is a simplified description of why (more complicated)

When you select a channel, they can get and give interference from 2 channels either side.

So you have 3 basic ranges (the ranges are me just be describing principle).

A - Channel 1 will pick up and generate interference from 1,2 and 3.
B- Channel 6 will pick up and generate interference from 4,5,6,7,8
C- Channel 11 will pick up and gernerate interference from 9,10,11,12,13

Nearly all routers auto select 1,6 or 11 as no overlapping channels.

So if you choose 10, you can get interference on 8,9,10,11,12

So you will pick from interference from users on channel 11 and channel 6 (as they overlap on channel 8) i.e interference over range A and B increasing potential amount of interference. to that of two ranges.

By choosing channel 1, 6, 11, you only get interference in your particular range (A, B or C).

This describes it more graphically.

https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6-11.html

cereberus said:

You should only ever use channels 1,6 or 11 on 2.4 GHZ band as they are the only non overlapping channels.

The following is a simplified description of why (more complicated)

When you select a channel, they can get and give interference from 2 channels either side.

A - Channel 1 will pick up and generate interference from 1,2 and 3.
B- Channel 6 will pick up and generate interference from 4,5,6,7,8
C- Channel 11 will pick up and gernerate interference from 9,10,11,12,13

Nearly all routers auto select 1,6 or 11.

So if you choose 10, you can get interference on 8,9,10,11,12

So you will pick from interference from users on channel 11 and channel 6 (as they overlap on channel 8).

This describes it more graphically.

https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6-11.html

Thanks - I believe I'll chance it to channel 11 although I have not seen any interference on channel 4 (Which was its default channel). But is good info.

Just do a quick check from time to time, maybe if you ever see a new network.

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/wifi_i...tion_view.html