Question

wireless signal waxes and wanes during day

Asked by: dgrrr

A customer has a wireless router in middle of house, and they get good to medium signal strength throughout the house, in the night and morning.

But in the midmorning the signal gets weaker, and dies out in the afternoon. THen comes back in the evening.

Does this make any sense?

I was thinking that they had some device that was generating interferrence at some times of the day? But we can't find anything, just the refridgerator, and we moved the router away from that, no change.

We also tried unplugging all the cordless phone, and changing the CHANNEL, and putting encryption on. One of the above SEEMED to improve the signal.  But now the waxing and waning has returned.

Someone suggested a neighbor's wireless system. But shouldn't the change in channel rule that out?

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Asked On
2006-01-24 at 11:37:53ID21708577
Tags

wireless

,

signal

,

wanes

,

waxes

Topic

DSL Lines / Cable Internet

Participating Experts
3
Points
100
Comments
13

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Answers

 

by: MiguelSilvestrePosted on 2006-01-24 at 11:44:50ID: 15779135

Hi dgrrr,

I have a similar issue but with a microwave interference .....

Miguel

 

by: dgrrrPosted on 2006-01-24 at 13:51:41ID: 15780718

You mean a microwave oven?

 

by: MiguelSilvestrePosted on 2006-01-24 at 13:59:29ID: 15780837

Hi dgrrr,

Yes ....

Miguel

 

by: Mrclean0325Posted on 2006-01-25 at 18:59:20ID: 15792410

This may sound stupid, but have you tried a different brand of router? It is quite possible that there is not enough cooling on the transmitter of the current one and during the day when it gets hotter (even in an air-conditioned environment) it may be over heating the transmitter. Especially if it is in a room that gets a lot of sun during the day.

 

by: dgrrrPosted on 2006-02-03 at 05:12:16ID: 15862647

Tried a new router (switched from airlink to netgear rangemax), same problem.

Checked temperature and lighting conditions - everything looks normal.

I made a terrible, idiotic mistake -- I spent hours getting an older wireless laptop card to work with the new router's wireless encryption -- and only THEN did I take the laptop upstairs to check the signal -- and it was actually lower (worse) than with the old airlink router. So all that work on the encryption issue was moot.

AND, even though I made a mental note NOT to disturb the "preferred wireless network" list, because the customer lives in 3 places -- Netgear AND Linksys tech support each had me clear out the list several times....

And at the end of the night, I realized I had wiped the network info for the other 2 houses.  Dumb!  I had stopped myself from deleting them, but when netgear and linksys told me to, for troubleshooting, I just went right ahead. Dunno why!

 

by: dgrrrPosted on 2006-02-03 at 06:28:44ID: 15863520

Just waiting to see if anyone else has input as to causes...

thx

 

by: MiguelSilvestrePosted on 2006-02-03 at 16:11:58ID: 15869788

Hi dgrrr,

Like i say before, a common interference source is the ubiquitous microwave oven, which operates in the 2.4 Ghz band.

Also take a look at :

http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/site/d0c406516fd8b42b/

Miguel

 

by: cubemonkeyPosted on 2006-02-08 at 08:47:43ID: 15904064

I have to agree that there is something going on around the house during the day. Resturants, offices, power plants, even industral places. Have you tried to run a site survey during the day to see what the deal is?

 

by: dgrrrPosted on 2006-02-12 at 07:49:55ID: 15934925

cubemonkey - what is a site survey?

 

by: dgrrrPosted on 2006-02-27 at 18:24:35ID: 16061444

Looked it up.  Client wouldn't spring for that, and I can't do any more free work for them.

 

by: dgrrrPosted on 2006-02-27 at 18:30:10ID: 16061541

Hey MiguelSilvestre -- is that article about wireless internet, or some wider field in general? It talks aboukt squelch, audio interference, and other things I"m not familiar with.

 

by: MiguelSilvestrePosted on 2006-02-27 at 22:49:43ID: 16062653

Hi dgrrr,

The article is about wireless transmitions not only about data or internet with a focus on the frequency of the 2.4 Ghz ....

Miguel

 

by: dgrrrPosted on 2006-02-28 at 16:56:48ID: 16071364

Thanks, I will try to educate myself on the whole issue of interference.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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