THURSDAY'S THRILLER: HOUSE OF SCREAMING RADIOS
Say you're approaching the end of a large download and in the middle of a Skype call to clients in China, when, without warning, your Wi-Fi connection drops, leaving your download and VoIP call in limbo. You retry the wireless connection, but your router, though blinking contentedly in your den, seems to be off the air. Two hours later, for no apparent reason, your Wi-Fi connection miraculously resurfaces.
Wireless networking can be a blessing and a curse: great when it works and a mind-numbing frustration when it doesn't. A common complaint among many who have moved to Wi-Fi is that their wireless connection mysteriously fades in and out.
CAN THIS NIGHTMARE BE TAMED? Yes!
These steps will help you create a stable, always-on wireless connection.
1. Change the channels.
Interference is a likely cause of intermittent connections, such as the one described above. All 802.11b and 802.11g networks operate at 2.4GHz, in a small swath of spectrum once used primarily by ham-radio hobbyists. Today, these radios, plus other Wi-Fi gear, Bluetooth devices, cordless phones, microwaves, baby monitors and wireless surveillance equipment, all crowd the spectrum. When these devices compete for the same airspace, they interfere with each other, potentially blocking each other's signals.
Luckily, there are ways to sidestep and minimise interference in many situations. In the US, 802.11b and 802.11g devices can be configured to operate at any one of 11 channels. Unfortunately, these channels overlap with adjacent channels, so you have only three nonoverlapping channels at your disposal: channels one, six, and 11. If you and your neighbour both have a wireless network, both of which are set to channel six, you may experience interference. You can remedy the problem by resetting your wireless router to a different, preferably nonoverlapping, channel, in this case, either one or 11.
Choose a channel well separated from other wireless networks.
2. Replace your cordless phones.
Cordless phones are among the worst sources of interference for wireless networks. They tend to transmit at a higher power output than Wi-Fi gear, making them louder and therefore harder to talk over, and they tend to transmit frequently, especially when the handset and base station are separated. Some 2.4GHz cordless phones let you select a channel, in which case you can try separating the phone's frequency from the frequency of your wireless network. For example, set your phone to channel one and your wireless router to channel 11.
If your phone doesn't let you select a channel, try putting some distance between your phone and your router. Generally, it's not a good idea to place a cordless phone next to a Wi-Fi router. If this doesn't help, consider replacing your 2.4GHz phone with a 5GHz phone. This way, your phone and network won't be sharing the same airspace and won't interfere with each other.
A power-line access point can help you expand your wireless network.
3. Expand your wireless network.
The further you are from your wireless router, the greater the potential for interference to block or to slow your connection. For example, you may be able to connect just fine in your house, but on your patio, you may have an intermittent connection that disappears whenever your neighbour is using her cordless phone. The signal on your patio may be too weak to cope with the interference coming from the house next door. You can strengthen the connection with antennas or repeaters, as discussed in Monday's nightmare, or you can use a power-line bridge to import the connection from your router to your patio and feed it into a power-line access point. Instead of the weak signal from your distant router, you now have a strong signal from an access point placed right where you want to buttress your coverage area.
