Interference on 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz

[mikey8s]

I had a lot of interference on my IP supplied 2.4 GHz router, so I bought a dual band Linksys model. Now I am having interference on the 5 GHz band. There is a cell phone tower across the street from me, could that be causing the problem? I have used 2.4 GHz X-10 cameras at my home for years and never had a problem before. Now I am even having trouble with their signal transmissions. I do not own a laptop to do any testing, only desktops and iPads. What do you suggest ?

 

[L&LD]

Did you try testing and using different channels on each band?

 

[avtella]

Have you tried 36-48 channels on 5Ghz? Some older cordless phones may interfere in the higher 5Ghz channels.

I don't see why a cell tower would interfere in the 5Ghz Band, they communicate in much lower frequencies as in 700-2600 Mhz depending on country/carrier and avoid the 2.4 Ghz WiFi band as well.

 

[stevech]

I had a lot of interference on my IP supplied 2.4 GHz router, so I bought a dual band Linksys model. Now I am having interference on the 5 GHz band. There is a cell phone tower across the street from me, could that be causing the problem? I have used 2.4 GHz X-10 cameras at my home for years and never had a problem before. Now I am even having trouble with their signal transmissions. I do not own a laptop to do any testing, only desktops and iPads. What do you suggest ?

Please detail what leads you to think that performance problems are due to interference?

(A cell tower typically has no transmissions in the 2.4GHz or 5.x GHz bands. Is this is the US?

 

[mikey8s]

I have tried several different channel combinations, but currently I have the 2.4 band set on channel 11 and the 5 band set on channel 161. I regularly run a speed test on my iPad and on a recent bad day the test showed .73 Mbps download speed, while on a good day it shows 29.5 Mbps. Sometimes during the test, the speed fluctuates from the lower extreme to the higher, which I attribute to interference. During these periods my internet is slow, and I cannot even watch Netflix. I am in North Carolina and my IP provides me with GB speed service although my computers and router are limited only to 100 Mbps. What other possibilities could be causing the interference ?

 

[avtella]

Try turning off the cameras just to see if they are causing the issue 2.4Ghz issue or try this:
http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/Other_2.4_GHz_Device_Compatibility
As for 5Ghz: older 5Ghz cordless phones and some signal boosters (like T-Mobile's 4G LTE booster communicate between receiver and broadcaster in 5ghz channels), can cause issues.

Are you not having this issue while wired, and also how/where is your router placed and are there a lot of other electronics next to it?

 

[sfx2000]

Are you certain it's interference or perhaps issues with your upstream connection...

 

[mikey8s]

All of my x-10 cameras are set to the default channel A, which is 2.41 MHz. I have had them in operation for 10 yrs and they never caused a problem before. I have the router set to channel 11 on the 2.4 band, which is about 2.46 MHz. The router is located in a back room of my house on a shelf about 1 1/2 feet above a desktop computer that is connected to it. The computer is the only electronic equipment in the room. I have a wireless phone but it is the 900 GHz, so I know that that is not a problem. One thing that I have noticed is that my download speed on wireless is less than the upload speed. The upload speed from my IP is supposed to be 30 Mbps . Wireless upload speed almost always remains a constant 3o Mbpswhere as the download speed is always less. The speed on my desktop computers which are wired is a lot faster but the download speed is always more than the upload speed, which also hovers at about 30 Mbps. Is it normal that the upload speed would remain the same, but the download speed would be slower using wireless ?

 

[stevech]

analog cameras will occupy about 6MHz of spectrum.
Analog cameras need to be at one end of the band and WiFi at the other. Have mercy on your neighbors. New IP cameras rather than X10 analog strongly recommended.

Indeed: process of elimination as suggested. Turn off all cameras, work from simple to complex.

ISP speeds are a down to up ratio of about 5 or more. Up is often 1/5th the up speed for DSL and cable modems. Mine is 110/10 Mbps with top tier DOCSIS 3. Speed test with wired. Wireless speed tests are hard to do as conditions vary so much from hour to hour, day to day.

 

[avtella]

Could it be an iOS issue? What version of iOS are you on?

 

[tim]

I have a wireless phone but it is the 900 GHz

Whoa that's come super wireless phone equipment you have there!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordless_telephone