crowded airwaves

barlymarly · 3 Oct 2006 at 00:29

Being a student in the second year we have just installed broadband and a us robotics router to share the connection around the ouse wirelessly.

The only problem is that everyone in the street has had the same idea and i can pick up 10 seperate networks from my laptop (all probably with 5+ computers connecting to them)

I have noticed that the connection continually drops meaning that you have to 'repair' the connection using windows.

I have no dount that the problem is down to overcroding as it is worst about 6pm when everyone gets in from uni and there are no problems at 1-2am presumably because everyone has turned their laptops off.

Is there nything i can do to solve this problem?

has anyone else had similar problems?

Thanks in advance

roughlad · 3 Oct 2006 at 00:36

Try changing the channel you are using.

LewisStuart · 3 Oct 2006 at 00:37

Change your wireless channel

download netstumbler to see what channels other people are using, then change yours to a free one.

Avalon · 3 Oct 2006 at 11:09

Though illegal, immoral and a whole load of other things I knew at least one house in a largely student area where the occupants managed the whole year by jumping on other un/poorly secured wifi networks. Granted they didn't take the wee wee by downloading large files etc but they did manage a whole year without paying for an ISP. Then again i've seen CAT5 cables going between houses pre wireless being common - student ghetto broadband at it's best

If you have other networks in your area then do the smart thing and secure yours as best you can, the number of people who thought that NAT and antivirus were secure isn't even funny.

barlymarly · 4 Oct 2006 at 19:28

Avalon said:
Though illegal, immoral and a whole load of other things I knew at least one house in a largely student area where the occupants managed the whole year by jumping on other un/poorly secured wifi networks. Granted they didn't take the wee wee by downloading large files etc but they did manage a whole year without paying for an ISP. Then again i've seen CAT5 cables going between houses pre wireless being common - student ghetto broadband at it's best

If you have other networks in your area then do the smart thing and secure yours as best you can, the number of people who thought that NAT and antivirus were secure isn't even funny.

not its secure enough, and the majority of the others are wpa protected (saying that a couple of the faster ones aren't - and even still have the router model number as the network name!)

I was jus wandering if there was any trick to get round the overcrowding or if switching to only wireless-b rather than b+g would be slower but mre reliable?

SinaiSound · 4 Oct 2006 at 20:27

I had a similar problem at an exhibition at the NEC last year and solved it by changing the wireless to a free channel.

BenST · 4 Oct 2006 at 22:15

barlymarly said:
I was jus wandering if there was any trick to get round the overcrowding or if switching to only wireless-b rather than b+g would be slower but mre reliable?

In theory 'B' should be no more reliable than 'G'. Do as others have suggested and change your channel. The most popular is 11 and 6.

Avalon · 4 Oct 2006 at 22:54

Well protected ? Using wep or wpa ? Wireless and secure are two words that shouldn't be used together in general especially if you are infering the former can be classed as the latter... wpa and wep have well known exploits and even step by step guides on how to break them on several mainstream review sites.

On a more posative note how's the channel selection going ?

barlymarly · 4 Oct 2006 at 23:25

Avalon said:
Well protected ? Using wep or wpa ? Wireless and secure are two words that shouldn't be used together in general especially if you are infering the former can be classed as the latter... wpa and wep have well known exploits and even step by step guides on how to break them on several mainstream review sites.

On a more posative note how's the channel selection going ?

tbh i'm not to worried about it its only to protect our internet connection from other students, lol.

If anyone has the time, knowledge or motivation to try and hack it all they'll get is another internet connecion and i doubt anyone within 100m of the house has any of that

I'll try another channel- funnily the 2 channels i tryed were 6 and 11, lol, what are the chances!

barlymarly · 6 Oct 2006 at 18:56

any other suggestions?

danieln1 · 6 Oct 2006 at 19:05

Though illegal !!!!!!

most routers alow you to set them on U.S and candide 5GHZ band compared to EU 2.5

somthing to try

Gibber · 6 Oct 2006 at 19:09

Isn't the 5ghz wavelength 802.11a? I always thought this had to be specially implemented into the wireless chipset before it could be used?

Could be wrong though.

802.11a would probably fix your issues but apparently has a shorter range than B/G and slightly slower throughput.

Only thing is I haven't seen any wireless routers based on A/B/G lying about, if there are I would imagine they're pretty hard to get hold of (and expensive!)

Sone · 6 Oct 2006 at 19:12

Gibber said:
Isn'
802.11a would probably fix your issues but apparently has a shorter range than B/G and slightly slower throughput.

Only thing is I haven't seen any wireless routers based on A/B/G lying about, if there are I would imagine they're pretty hard to get hold of (and expensive!)

netgear do one, have a look through some xbox 360 forums as people genrally use A for the xbox and G for everything else on the network

danieln1 · 6 Oct 2006 at 19:46

Gibber said:
Isn't the 5ghz wavelength 802.11a? I always thought this had to be specially implemented into the wireless chipset before it could be used?

Could be wrong though.

802.11a would probably fix your issues but apparently has a shorter range than B/G and slightly slower throughput.

Only thing is I haven't seen any wireless routers based on A/B/G lying about, if there are I would imagine they're pretty hard to get hold of (and expensive!)

5ghz wavelength just a wave leangth not realy speed down to speed

2.5ghz in U.S is band by use as its used/listed as emergency services

forget what 5ghz band used for in EU now but note to worry about as the routers can not transmit over any distance you be lucky to get 20 metters from your house

use to have netgear dg834GT and netgear addaptor and all the whfi phones and the building next to are work place useing loads A/points i switch ares to 5ghz problem gone

did not notice any thing in speed etc being better just never rely drop the line again

benjo plz. · 6 Oct 2006 at 23:30

danieln1 said:
5ghz wavelength just a wave leangth not realy speed down to speed

2.5ghz in U.S is band by use as its used/listed as emergency services

802.11a, which is the 5Ghz standard is slightly poorer than B/G in terms of coverage, and therefore will give a poorer speed. There is the chance that other people in the area are also using a, and afaik it's more susceptible to collisions than BG is. The problem BarlyM is having could also be caused by something like phones which use the same frequency as the router or a crappy router/adapter, or it could also be that one or more of the neighbours are using pre-n routers, which pretty much flood the spectrum and screw up nearby BG networks.

danieln1 · 7 Oct 2006 at 11:33

802.11A use 5 GHz band is band in the EU as it has to be licence
But we still used it???? but 802.11B use 2.5ghz in EU

But same for US 2.5 is band from use as well

There G products use the 5 GHz band and Ares us 2.5ghz

Most product like linksys and netgear as you what country your in the sets it to 5ghz or 2.5 with 13 channels Japan have 14 channels at 2.5

5 GHz have 2 channels

Unless this changed been ages to be onist since I was working in US now

benjo plz. · 7 Oct 2006 at 20:30

I'm not sure quite what you're getting at

. 802.11A is 5Ghz, and is allowed in Europe. 802.11B/G is 2.4Ghz. :confused:

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