Interference from neighbours network

[Garyj881]

Mine and my neighbours routers are on the adjacent walls. I am with Zzoomm, they are with VM and they are advising the neighbours signal is causing my frequent WiFi drop outs.

What are my options other than relocating the router?

Is a mesh network something worth looking into?

 

[Garyj881]

Could just be the channels, a simple WiFi analyser app on your phone and channel change on the WiFi settings on the router may resolve any problems.

Tell me more please. Zzoom have been altering the settings and changing channels for over 4 months with no improvement.

 

[Garyj881]

Could it be as simple as a faulty router and poor advice from your ISP? Admittedly, i suspect it is more likely to be a channel conflict as said previously but faulty hardware is always a possibility.

I suggested this and they replaced the router earlier this week.

 

[Garyj881]

Out of interest, do you use a wired connection at all or purely wireless? Just wondering whether you have an undiagnosed line fault. If you have a wired connection does that continue to work when your WiFi has dropped out?

All the pcs are hard wired and work fine. Over WiFi, phones, tablets and streaming films via Netflix etc all suffer from intermittent slowdowns, freezing, buffering and disconnections. Zzoomm confirmed there are a lot of errors.

 

[Garyj881]

Ok, so update time.

Firstly my neighbour is quite old and not tech savvy but I will talk to him about It. I have installed WiFi analyzer and can see he is using channel 6 on the 2.4ghz frequency. So I have moved to channel 13. I assume It would be better if he can move to channel 1?

I see on the 5ghz frequency, there is a hidden ssid on channel 44 which is very strong/close and my neighbour on VM is using channel 56 so I have opted to use 112dfs but I also have the option of using DFS long but currently it's the 2.4ghz frequency that's is causing the issues.

I will test out the new channels and speak with my neighbour to ask if with my help we can get him on channel 1 on 2.4ghz.

Also would channel width and mode be worth looking at?

 

[Garyj881]

Don’t use Ch13 for 2.4GHz.

The only true (none-overlapping) channels are 1, 6 and 11.

Ok, I'll try ch11 and see how it goes.

 

[Garyj881]

Update. Since my post, Zzoomm have changed the channels, rebooted the router but still having the same issues. They have suggested moving the router but this isn't practical. I have ethernet cables routed to an outdoor office and my son's room so cannot really move them. The hard wired connection is fine but wireless is extremely poor and I stable.

I have read up on a mesh routers could this fix the issues?

 

[Garyj881]

Ok, just thinking about my options here. My router is literally on the opposite side of the wall from my neighbour, who I am being told us causing the interference. My options are, going back and forth with my isp, trying another isp or maybe physically blocking the interference.

What if I covered the wall in some sort of foil, and decorated it. For example some interior wood cladding. Would that pretty much block the neighbours signal?

The wall in question is at the foot of the stairs and probably 3m wide.

 

[Garyj881]

If you're on a sufficiently spaced channel to them, then it isn't their router causing the issue.
Are these issues around particular times of day, or random?

Here is the current channel layout.

2.4ghz
I'm on channel 1 and they're on channel 6.

5ghz
I'm on channel 104dfs and they're on 116dfs

Every time I report the issues with Zzoomm they say after checking they can see conflict issues and there are errors in the log file.

 

[Garyj881]

My isp emailed me not too long ago stating there is only 8 errors on the 5ghz frequency.

My reply

Hi James,

At the moment there is no current issue.
When I first messaged, Netflix was suffering from quite a lot of issues. Firstly, when pressing play on a film or TV series it would slowly count up to 100% as though I am on really slow internet. When it started to play, it played audio only whilst the video was completely frozen. It then played a little then froze again. Then it reported an error and stopped playing. This went on for over an hour.

When this happens again I will try using Netflix on my Nvidia Shield to rule out any issues. Although the NS was previously more notorious to the these issues.

You say my error count is low. I reset my router yesterday as requested by your colleague. Is an error count of 8 still low for one day?

I would expect the error count to be zero.

Just to mention, I have never suffered from these issues prior to Zzoomm. You said it maybe due to the faster connection. Is this correct?

I see currently I am on channel 1 on 2.4ghz where my neighbour is on channel 6. On the 5ghz frequency, I'm am on channel 104dfs where my neighbour is on 116dfs. Are you 100% confident the issue is caused by my neighbours interference?

The router has been replaced ruling this out, but what about the small white box?

Currently, I have two cat6 network cables running to an outdoor office. (primary and redundancy) then one more hard wired into my son's room.

If the router was to be placed elsewhere, this would cause a lot of issues due to have to remove the sockets, plastering and decorating.

 

[Garyj881]

It is the isp saying it is the neighbours device, that is causing the issues. I am just advising what they have said. My TV connects via a smart plug. I'll remove this for a period firstly.

 

[Garyj881]

It's a smart plug, for turning on/off the TV. I'll remove it tomorrow and test during the next few days.

 

[Garyj881]

Having a complete reread over everything, is it just Netflix with the stalling issues? Although you mentioned other wireless devices suffer from it, is it mainly the Shield TV? For sake of testing can you wire up the Shield TV to the router if possible just to see how that goes?

Streaming over Kodi with my Nvidia Shield gave the same issues. Multiple disconnections