Many SSID's - don't worry...

[sfx2000]

Just thought I would share...

In 2.4Ghz, just pick a channel - 1,6,11 - put it in b/g/n mode, and use WPA2/AES along with 20MHz channels, enabling WMM...

you'll be fine - your wireless adapter might report 10-20 neighboring AP's, but for the most part, they don't matter.

see attached...

 

[thiggins]

Doesn't the RFplot show you would not want to choose Channel 1 in this case?

 

[RMerlin]

The important thing is not whether they are overlapping SSIDs, but whether these get any traffic at all. If you overlap with another SSID that gets no traffic, then the only real interference will be from its occasional beacons - quite minimal.

Another factor is also whether you are on the exact same channel, or only partly overlapping. If you are on the exact same channel, then the two routers can co-exist more easily as they are able to "understand" one another. If however they are on slightly different channels (channel 1 and 2 for example), then they will most likely see one another as random noise (when both are transmitting at the same time), and it will be harder for them to cooperate.

 

[stevech]

The important thing is not whether they are overlapping SSIDs, but whether these get any traffic at all. If you overlap with another SSID that gets no traffic, then the only real interference will be from its occasional beacons - quite minimal.

Another factor is also whether you are on the exact same channel, or only partly overlapping. If you are on the exact same channel, then the two routers can co-exist more easily as they are able to "understand" one another. If however they are on slightly different channels (channel 1 and 2 for example), then they will most likely see one another as random noise (when both are transmitting at the same time), and it will be harder for them to cooperate.

Agree!
A freeway metaphor .. WiFi channels are like motorway/freeway lanes except in 20MHz WiFi the vehicles (your signal) are several lanes wide (historical reason). Choosing channel 6 means you and neighbors occupy (approximately) lanes 4-9. There are (in the US), some 16 legal lanes in the 2.4GHz band.

Looking at WiFi SSID counts tells you there are vehicles are in sight near your center lane, but the busyness of the center and 3-adjacent lanes (total vehicles) is quite a different story. Most WiFi survey tools don't measure busyness (channel utilization) and that's what really matters.

Sorry for the metaphoric indulgence.

 

[sinshiva]

this is why i love printers running ad-hoc by default. they scare people away from those channels

 

[sfx2000]

Doesn't the RFplot show you would not want to choose Channel 1 in this case?

Channel 1 - that's mine...

To the point - just because one sees many SSID's out there, it doesn't mean much.

802.11 has link-budgets... in my case, not much to worry about.

 

[stevech]

802.11 has link-budgets... in my case, not much to worry about.

RF Link budgets I know, but re the above

 

[System Error Message]

aside from air traffic if everyone used lower transmission power it would significantly improve performance.

 

[stevech]

Nah, I don't think so. My experience with WiFi surveys for 10+ years is that the average channel utilization is very low. Even with Netflix.

 

[Asmodian]

Agree!
A freeway metaphor .. WiFi channels are like motorway/freeway lanes except in 20MHz WiFi the vehicles (your signal) are several lanes wide (historical reason). Choosing channel 6 means you and neighbors occupy (approximately) lanes 4-9. There are (in the US), some 16 legal lanes in the 2.4GHz band.

I do not believe I will ever forgive the industry/government that thought this was a good idea. This metaphor does get the issue across very well, can you imagine trying to drive down a 16 lane freeway with a car several lanes wide!? Why can't we draw new lanes?

Nah, I don't think so. My experience with WiFi surveys for 10+ years is that the average channel utilization is very low. Even with Netflix.

It is true that usage is usually low and everything is fine but those times when 6 of the 35 devices overlapping start doing something does cause problems. This is a much bigger issue when someone is still using a wireless b (or to a lesser extent g) device as they will take a lot of air time for even fairly small bandwidth needs. It isn't that 2.4 GHz WiFi usually doesn't work in my apartment complex but that it isn't very reliable as you never know when those (hopefully) rare "everyone using it at the same time" events will stall your stream. Of course microwaves do not help.

 

[stevech]

The IEEE, not the FCC, chose the channel spacing. When they did so, WiFi didn't exist. People were thinking "fast" was a 2MHz channel.

Blame? Perhaps goes to Proxim and their pre-802.11 RangeLAN product. They lobbied (crashed) the IEEE committee. Proxim's bad managment cost them the dominant place in Wireless LAN.

The WiFi alliance made it worse by not getting the IEEE to define new 20MHz spaced channel numbering, e.g., 1, 6, 11 in 2.4GHz. But too, there's the internationalization of this. Some countries don't "like" the IEEE.