NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Solved
Problem with setting a channel
It was suggested in another thread that one of the setup things I do is take the router off of "automatic" channel and set it manually. So I set the wireless to channel 6 which was one of the best c...
WiFi analyzer programs look at the signal strength of access points broadcasting on each channel and find the channel that has the lowest aggregate signals being broadcast. When the Orbi is set to channel 6 and the WiFi analyzer device is anyplace close an Orbi, it says, "gee whiz, channel 6 has somebody really strong broadcasting on it." (The Orbi) That is what you want.
In order for a WiFi analyzer to be of value, it must be run while the Orbi is not turned on. Basically, that is what happens when the Orbi is set to "Auto". The Orbi does a brief scan of WiFi channels and says, "hmmm. this particular channel has the least interference, I'll set myself to it." This is also why Orbi sometimes choses one of the "overlapping" channels. Everybody is probably aware that the nice folks who designed 802.11 (WiFi) put the channel frequencies too close together and broadcasting on channel 1, for example, bleeds over into channels 2 and 3. Channel 6 bleeds over into channels 4, 5, 7, 8. But, channels 1 and 6 do not overlap at all. But, what if there are a ton of WiFi's close by that are set to 1 and 6? Maybe 3 or 4 actually has more capability than adding to the traffic on 1 or 6.
OK. Do you have any explanation as to why when I set a channel manually, that channel goes from being excellent to very poor once the Orbi is connected to it? Setting it to auto probably will not help that? It seems whatever channel it is set to becomes bad.
WiFi analyzer programs look at the signal strength of access points broadcasting on each channel and find the channel that has the lowest aggregate signals being broadcast. When the Orbi is set to channel 6 and the WiFi analyzer device is anyplace close an Orbi, it says, "gee whiz, channel 6 has somebody really strong broadcasting on it." (The Orbi) That is what you want.
In order for a WiFi analyzer to be of value, it must be run while the Orbi is not turned on. Basically, that is what happens when the Orbi is set to "Auto". The Orbi does a brief scan of WiFi channels and says, "hmmm. this particular channel has the least interference, I'll set myself to it." This is also why Orbi sometimes choses one of the "overlapping" channels. Everybody is probably aware that the nice folks who designed 802.11 (WiFi) put the channel frequencies too close together and broadcasting on channel 1, for example, bleeds over into channels 2 and 3. Channel 6 bleeds over into channels 4, 5, 7, 8. But, channels 1 and 6 do not overlap at all. But, what if there are a ton of WiFi's close by that are set to 1 and 6? Maybe 3 or 4 actually has more capability than adding to the traffic on 1 or 6.
Thanks - That is a good explanation. Also explains why when 6 shows as so bad, 5 and 7 are also less than optimal. Seems like I can just leave it set to 6 and not worry about it.