On 09/07/13 19:04, MJ Ray wrote:
So there's rather a lot of these BT Home Hubs around me. They are hopping all over the 2.4GHz band as they fail to avoid interfering with each other and every other router in the area. In short, it's messing up my wifi and any time I (or any other non-BT neighbour) move to a quieter channel, it starts the madness again as the BT hubs shuffle around - the Android phones cope most of the time, but the Linux laptops (one rtl8723ae, one I forget what) don't like it very much. Is there anything I can do (module options or tool configs) to discourage the laptops from disassociating when there's a burst of noise?
The good folk on IRC suggest getting a 5GHz band (802.11n) access point but I fear any relief will be temporary as the BT hubs get upgraded to similarly-misbehaving 5GHz kit. Or is it more resilient?
Is powerline networking worth a try? Has anyone got tips or things available locally that they'd recommend? I hope it's just ethernet as far as Linux is concerned.
Is there another option short of lead-lining my walls which I'm missing?
Failing that, I'll wire up yet another house with ethernet cables...
Thanks,
IME, as long as you're broadcasting your SSID and your devices are set to auto-detect the channel number rather than being on a fixed channel, I've not had any problems when I've changed channel.
I've not tried the 5GHZ channel myself, but as long as all your kit supports it (802.11n), then I can't see you've got anything to loose. It gives you some more channels to try and they may be less congested and less prone to interference.
I tend to try to set my channel manually on the router, and let all the clients follow it. I disconnect a laptop from the network then use iwlist WIRELESSDEVICENAME scanning to generate a list of all the nearby wireless networks. I then try to work out which channel is clearest for me. I've got lots of home hubs round me all on channel 1, and a few on channel 6, so I've gone up near the top. As for config
I've also used the gui-tool wifi-radar to do the same sort of thing.
You mention fearing the 5GHz relief will be temporary. Why not try it and see? If it works for a year or two, then take that year or two, then re-examine your options. There may be a new flavour of 802.11 by then, or some super-duper new technology. I don't think there's a good reason not to try it, unless it's because you'd rather do something else.
The alternatives? You can try powerline. Never tried it myself as I'm put off by the cost. Alternatively, you could run some cables round your house.
The problem with both the above is: do you want to have your laptops plugged in to the network whilst you're using them? Perhaps that's not an issue, pehaps it is. But what about other devices like android phones - you can't plug them in to the network - so you're going to have some sort of Wifi, so why not try the wifi route first?
You could try a faraday cage round your external walls! Cheaper than lead lining! But you won't be able to use your Wifi outside!
HTH Steve