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USB 3 port on ReadyNAS 204 interferes with laptop 2.4ghz WiFi
I learned something useful yesterday and I wanted to share it with the community in case someone else has a similar problem.
I recently purchased a second-hand RN204 with four 8TB hard drives. It has two USB 3.0 ports on the back, and I connected a MyPassport USB 3.0 5TB drive to one of the ports to transfer data to the NAS, and after this was completed, to mirror a few key folders on the NAS.
I have a brand-new Dell Optiplex All-In-One desktop computer which is connected to the brand-new NetGear dual-band 1750 router via ethernet. The router also has a USB 3.0 port on the front, but I am not using that port at present, although I intend to use it in future.
I also have a 6-yr-old Toshiba Satellite S-70 laptop, which connects to the router using the laptop's on-board WiFi 2.4ghz adapter.
When all this was set up 2 weeks ago, the laptop was sitting on the dining room table, about 30 feet from the NAS and the router, and the WiFi was working fine. Then last week I moved the laptop to the coffee table, which is 2 feet from the router and the NAS, and instantly the laptop's WiFi stopped working.
The laptop's WiFi would connect to my router's 2.4ghz network and identify it for about 5 seconds, after which it would drop the connection and spend 15 seconds attempting to identify the network again, and it would fail to do that. 10 seconds later it would identify the network and connect, and then 5 seconds later it would fail, and this would repeat endlessly.
This caused progressive deterioration of all the network connections on my home network, and several hours later all my network devices would fail to connect simultaneously. I would reboot everything - desktop PC, laptop, modem, router, NAS - and the network would work for a few hours, then all the devices would fail again.
It was only when I shut the laptop down for a day and all these issues stopped, that I realized the problem was with the laptop, and not with any other device.
I searched the Web for several days to try and find out what was wrong with the laptop's WiFi, and I tried every suggestion offered, but none of them worked. In the end I decided that the laptop's WiFi adapter was failing, so I disabled that adapter and purchased a NetGear dual band WiFi dongle for the laptop, which solved the problem.
It was only then that I discovered that USB 3.0 can create interference with WiFi 2.4 connections if they are located too close to the active USB 3.0 port, which I had not known about before.
I tested this by disconnecting the MyPassport USB drive from the NAS and enabling the laptop's original WiFi adapter. The on-board WiFi immediately began to work perfectly. I then did another test by reconnecting the USB 3.0 drive to the NAS and moving the laptop back to the dining room 30 feet away from the NAS, and again the WiFi began to work perfectly.
This situation probably doesn't happen very often, but as I did not find any mention of this issue in the Community, I thought I should share it.
It was only then that I discovered that USB 3.0 can create interference with WiFi 2.4 connections if they are located too close to the active USB 3.0 port, which I had not known about before.
It was only then that I discovered that USB 3.0 can create interference with WiFi 2.4 connections if they are located too close to the active USB 3.0 port, which I had not known about before.
