Re: Wifi status indicator

On 02/07/2024 03:13, bp@www.zefox.net wrote:

Chris Townley <news@cct-net.co.uk> wrote:

Between the two, I'm rather confused. Over the past year or
two wifi has gotten worse,I thought because of interference
from neighbors, who now number close to 20. But, during a scan
wavemon consistently reports my access point as the strongest
signal. Is "strongest signal" not sufficient by itself?

Wavemon scan reports in part
:DD:8D  63%, -66 dBm, ch   6, 2437 MHz 1 sta, 28% c
hGiants Guest     22:FD:13:14:DD:8E  63%, -66 dBm, ch   6, 2437 MHz 28% chan, Ra
dmillerhome2      F0:72:EA:49:C6:4A  63%, -66 dBm, ch   6, 2437 MHz ESS, Radio M
eATT5Zavd8s       08:9B:B9:01:B7:14  60%, -68 dBm, ch   6, 2437 MHz 9 sta, 58% c
hd-link.zefox.net 00:13:46:86:6D:0C  84%, -51 dBm, ch   2, 2417 MHz ESS        │

I'm on channel 2 and seemingly have it to myself.

The 12 (or 13 in some countries) WiFi channels date back to the first
iteration of WiFi which had a much smaller bandwidth, and are very
unhelpful these day that the signal is much wider than a single channel.
This means that there are only 3 useable channels which don't overlap;
1, 6 and 11.

It is far better to be on these channels, even if there is also a fairly
strong signal from another router, as the devices and access points will
detect each others transmissions and timeshare on that channel. If you
use the other overlapping channel numbers it will interfere with other
APs, and they cannot coordinate leading to lower speeds for everyone.

Don't rely on the router to pick a channel, as the best one where it is,
is not important as it's signal is going to be much stronger anyway. Go
around the perimeter of your house or property where you are likely to
be using WiFi, and measure the signal strengths of competing APs on
channel 1, 6 and 11. Pick the channel which has the least competition on
average in these locations. It may not be possible to get a good signal
on any channel everywhere, so you may have to consider WiFi repeaters.

---druck