Neighbours wifi signal over powers my own

unclebob123 · 4 Jul 2013 at 23:01

I have this really annoying issue where by all of my neighbors wifi signals overpower my own.

I have installed inSSIDer and it's clear that on all the channels there are wifi signals much stronger than I am receiving my own. I'm currently on Channel 11 so it doesn't cross over multiple frequencies, but I have the same problem no matter what channel I try.

Basically is there anything in my router or from windows that I can do to tell my computer to ignore certain signals?

Buying a new router, extenders or setting up a wired network isn't an option as I can't afford it, and I have tried moving my router about no no avail.

Cheers

bremen1874 · 4 Jul 2013 at 23:16

Your only real option is to choose the least congested channel. It's possible that your router has options to adjust it's output power, but probably not.

Anything else is going to cost money.

unclebob123 · 4 Jul 2013 at 23:24

I thought that was going to be the answer to be honest.

Surely this problem is only going to get worse as cities get busier and more and more people use wifi/have wifi devices. I'm currently picking up 27 routers

bledd · 4 Jul 2013 at 23:30

What router do you have?

unclebob123 · 4 Jul 2013 at 23:40

Unfortunately it's a bebox which as I understand are not the greatest

dfarrall · 5 Jul 2013 at 00:17

If it's on it's own channel and it's not losing connection then it's likely not making much of a difference.

unclebob123 · 5 Jul 2013 at 00:19

Nope it's not on it's own channel, there are 7 other things on the channel

unclebob123 · 5 Jul 2013 at 00:20

I should also add it does loose connection. I'm pretty vertain this is due to the interference from other routers

dowcow · 5 Jul 2013 at 00:37

How strange. I struggle to get my wifi upstairs or in the workshop, and there are no neighbours within 200 yards and more like 300 to the nearest one with wifi... I have a Draytek Vigor jobby which is a pretty good router but the house is old and without cavity walls and internal walls are solid.

Is ethernet cable really too expensive? I run a long cable from my router to my front room and have a gigabit switch in here with ethernet cable to all my stuff. Before that I ran a phone line extension to the router which I had in here, and the extension with extra adsl splitters was certainly below a tenner... Phone cable isn't some high quality audio cable that costs a fortune, it's unshielded piddly little wires, I am surprised it even caries a phone call let alone Mbps. And short ethernet cables are only a couple of quid too! I keep getting free ethernet cables with stuff I believe. Don't think I've bought one for years and keep finding spare ones.

Craigius · 5 Jul 2013 at 07:41

Could you use homeplugs?

tribz · 5 Jul 2013 at 08:17

I've had a similar problem. I've moved to 5GHz which fortunately my laptop, tablet and phones work on. It was a real problem before this, now my wifi is on its own at the moment in the 5GHz range.

iwrox · 5 Jul 2013 at 09:02

tribz said:
I've had a similar problem. I've moved to 5GHz which fortunately my laptop, tablet and phones work on. It was a real problem before this, now my wifi is on its own at the moment in the 5GHz range.

This. Again I am the only 5ghz user in my area so have all the bands to myself

Tarqy · 5 Jul 2013 at 16:56

I've had the same issue at home, seems like every idiot in the street has a free ISP router with an auto channel setting so they jump around meaning changing mine didn't really help.

90% of them probably don't use the wi-fi either, no idea why its not off by default its ridiculous.

Anyway solved by changing the region setting on my router to US and turning up the signal power.

Not sure how the neighbours are getting on now but my wi-fi is excellent.

Hyburnate · 5 Jul 2013 at 16:59

Tarqy said:
I've had the same issue at home, seems like every idiot in the street has a free ISP router with an auto channel setting so they jump around meaning changing mine didn't really help.

90% of them probably don't use the wi-fi either, no idea why its not off by default its ridiculous.

Anyway solved by changing the region setting on my router to US and turning up the signal power.

Not sure how the neighbours are getting on now but my wi-fi is excellent.

Because if it was off, they wouldn't know how to turn it on, you forget they have to make these system idiot proof.

Caged · 5 Jul 2013 at 18:21

Tarqy said:
90% of them probably don't use the wi-fi either, no idea why its not off by default its ridiculous.

What on earth are you talking about?

Psycho Sonny · 9 Jul 2013 at 14:51

Tarqy said:
I've had the same issue at home, seems like every idiot in the street has a free ISP router with an auto channel setting so they jump around meaning changing mine didn't really help.

90% of them probably don't use the wi-fi either, no idea why its not off by default its ridiculous.

Anyway solved by changing the region setting on my router to US and turning up the signal power.

Not sure how the neighbours are getting on now but my wi-fi is excellent.

wtf?

first of all if you use an ISP supplied router you are automatically an idiot?

90% of them probably don't use the wi-fi? lul wut?

so you think they have hard-wired their systems up? because if they have then that would make them smart would it not because hard wired is better but as you have already stated they are idiots. i can guarantee you most people use wi-fi, because they have mobile devices or the fact their home doesnt come with ethernet sockets and a server setup already built in, in fact i would say 99% of people use the wi-fi function of their routers, not 10% like you think.

so now you have changed your router onto a different region and illegally bumped up the power beyond UK regulations, which will in turn burn out your router faster than normal i can imagine rather than buying homeplugs, ethernet cables and switches or wireless extenders / access points?

deadite66 · 9 Jul 2013 at 17:29

with dd-wrt you can increase the tx-power.