[mdlug] OT - Mysterious wireless outage

[Joseph C. Bender]

Ingles, Raymond wrote:
>> From: R Kannan
>
>  My new PS3's wifi doesn't seem to work too well in the evenings. I've moved
> my net to an unused channel, my laptop can always connect okay even in the
> same room, but after about 6pm the PS3 just can't seem to hook up to my WAP.
> Next morning, no problem. I don't think my neighbors are microwaving *that*
> much...
>
	I tend to prefer using channel 1 on 802.11g if there's going to be 
issues with microwave ovens, as most microwaves tend to operate in upper 
half of the 2.4GHz ISM band.

	The bigger problem that I keep encountering are the cheap 2.4GHz 
cordless phones.  Those things tend to blast all over the band as their 
output isn't well filtered.  Even the well filtered ones will cause 
issues if they're on an adjacent channel, to the point where when I 
bought a multi-handset cordless phone setup last year, I specifically 
shopped for a 5.6/8 GHz or a 900MHz unit to frequency coordinate aroun 
the wireless equipment.

	You might just have a neighborhood blabbermouth who is on the phone all 
night.  *grin*

	One other thing to try is to also make sure your antenna orientation on 
the devices match.  Most of those omni-looking antennas are actually 
dipoles, and as such, orientation vertically or horizontally counts for 
a lot.  I've improved many wireless setups with marginal performance to 
certain devices just by putting one antenna horizontal and one vertical, 
making sure to have the router use "diversity" mode for antenna 
selection (some APs/routers will let you set this).




-- 
Joseph Bender
Bendorius Consulting
P: 248-434-5580
F: 248-434-5581
jcbender at bendorius com