Losing the signal - all too frequently

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alisam

830 posts

Ultimate Geek

#29973 25-Jan-2009 11:01

I have a DSE XH9950 in an upstairs study. The study contains a Uniden 2.5 cordless phone and a desktop PC. The desktop PC is hard-wired to the router.

Downstairs in the kitchen (which is not directly underneath the study but within 2 metres or so), I have an MSI Wind U100 connecting wirelessly and a phone station.

My first thought was that the cordless phone whould be the problem, but I cannot see any improvement when it is switched off (both units).

Firstly, I am using channel 6. There are about 4 other wireless connections in the vicinity and use 1, 6 and 11 (as one would expect).

I have set the router to only use 'g' (it can do b and g) and using WPA2.

As in a previous post, the floor between the ground floor and first floor may be the problem.

I have downloaded Netstumbler and my connection reads:

Signal + = -29/31 (others read 80-88)
SNR = 67 (others 16-18)
snr+ = 69 (others 16-22)

PS Just checked Netstumbler before pressing the Submit button and the Signal + is now -56 and SNR is 34-40. Check again and Signal + is down to -52 and SNR to 42.

I cannot hard-wire (and don't want to) the notebook to the router.

I also Remote Desktop from my Desktop PC (Vista) into my work PC (XP). I think I am getting more disconnections from this DSE Router than my previous ADSL Router (non wireless). It's just a feeling.

What are my next steps?

PC: Dell Inspiron 16 5640 (Windows 11 Home), Dell Inspiron 7591 2n1 (Windows 11 Pro), HP ProBook 470G1 (Windows 10 Pro), Intel NUC7I5BNH (Zorin)
Net: Grandstream 1 x GWN7062 Router, 1 x GWN7665 Access Point
Storage: Synology DS216play NAS, 2 x 6TB
Media: 3 x Amazon FireTV. Echo, Dot, Spot
TV: 2 x Samsung H6400 55" LED TV, Panasonic TH-P50G10Z 50" Plasma TV
Mobile: Samsung Galaxy A52 5G
Wearable: Gear S3 Frontier

iainw

75 posts

Master Geek

#192227 27-Jan-2009 10:44

The most likely cause of the problem, is the position of the downstairs computer relative to the access point.

99% of consumer access points use a dipole antenna, and these have a doughnut shaped radiation pattern. This means that directly above and below the antenna are dead spots. Because of the physics of RF radiation, as you get further above or below the antenna, the dead spots get bigger - think of it like a torch, although in this case, we are talking about the absence of light rather than the presence. The further from the torch, the bigger the "footprint".

As a general rule, consumer AP's do not handle multifloor coverage very well.

To solve it you can:
- put the AP and client on the same floor
- move either the access point or the wireless client so they are more distant laterally.
- try angling the antenna so it is pointing horizontally rather than vertically. NB this will cause you to lose coverage on the same floor as the access point.

As an aside, 1,6,11 are NOT the optimal channels in NZ. 1,7,13 are. We follow the ETSI (European) standards, not FCC (US). If you are surrounded by 1,6,11 networks, unless chanell 11 is notably more congested than 1 and 6, channel 13 is the best channel to use. 1 and 6 will give you no co-cannel interference, channel 13 will give you maybe 70-80% co-channel interference with channel 11, which is better than 100%.

Your cordless phone will only cause interference if it is 2.4GHz. Microwaves, baby monitors and flourescent lighting are other common causes of interference.

alisam

830 posts

Ultimate Geek

#192978 30-Jan-2009 18:54

Things soon got worse. The Internet connection went down every 1 to 2 minutes, specially during the day (evenings seemed to be OK).
Also, a cordless phone call would cut the connection.

As a last resort I phoned Telecom and a nice little man came out today and found a very badly corroded wire which broke as he touched it.

So, my internet connection is back to being OK. Signal is still down, but at least I can continue with ianw's comments.

PS The wireless notebook doesn't like Channel 13, even though I can select it.