2 routers, same SSID, wireless connection problems

[stevech]

Challenge in channel selection is that the neighbors' traffic load stats vary widely by day/hour.

 

[L&LD]

KGB7, it is not just an opinion - the closer the radio's proximity to the broadcasting one the higher the interference, no?

stevech, that is why I like to do the setup at the worst time of a customer's day (networking wise). Using real workloads in the actual settings is the only way to know for sure if it is the optimal solution (agreed: for that specific time - but it is the best we can do).

 

[stevech]

KGB7, it is not just an opinion - the closer the radio's proximity to the broadcasting one the higher the interference, no?

My comment: close = stronger signal. WiFi "interference" from other WiFi is mostly how often you and the neighbor's WiFi compete for use of the RF/channel. WiFi transmitters have a low ratio of transmitter on vs. off (frames and packets). WiFi/802.11 has a method to almost eliminate colliding transmissions on this shared-use unlicensed RF spectrum (2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands)..

In broadcast radio, the transmitter's carrier signal is always-on, so yes, in this case closer is more interference. In 802.11 (and others), transmitters use a listen-before-transmitting protocol to share the spectrum because it's unlicensed. It's called CSMA/CA (carrier sense, multiple access with collision avoidance) If the channel seems occupied, the potential transmitting unit will wait a tiny fraction of a second (a few 1/100th) and listen again, etc. So a neighbor with a busy use of the channel (like video streaming) will cause your transmitter to wait a lot- leading to less speed/throughput despite good signal strength. So you change to a less busy channel, much as you would on freeway lanes.

stevech, that is why I like to do the setup at the worst time of a customer's day (networking wise). Using real workloads in the actual settings is the only way to know for sure if it is the optimal solution (agreed: for that specific time - but it is the best we can do).

yes, in my profession, I advise that it does little good to measure channel utilization (busyness) which most free WiFi tools do NOT do. My reason is that if you measure again next week/month, it will be different in these unlicensed bands. The Enterprise grade systems use controllers and other methods to automatically change channels to minimize inter-system and intra-system air time competition. But you can't let that change too often, and thrash about, as the client devices may not be sophisticated enough to cope properly, or take reassignment commands from the enterprise controller.