Gaming World Forums
General Category => Technology and Programming => Topic started by: Mince Wobley on January 10, 2008, 11:14:54 pm
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The wireless card on my computer (or my sister's I don't know) became insane, it's signal is disappearing and appearing at random and it's really irritating, wtf can be causing this?
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Hmm my cards operate on the 2.4 ghz band, I think it might be interference from someone else's microwave
How do I fix that?
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It's more likely interfering with a 2.4ghz cordless telephone. Solution: Get 5.2ghz or 900mhz phones.
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Yes but nobody was using the telephone here
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Yea, I'll second the telephone theory, maybe a neighbor though? I have the same problem with my card, it'll drop the signal whenever the phone rings. Luckily the phone rarely ever rings.
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Who's the fucking genius that decided that it was ok to make these two very common things which do not interact well at all together operate on the same frequency?!
I have been having a lot of wireless trouble lately, and I am suspecting that it may be caused by this! I will have to investigate.
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I've been wondering the same thing, which is why I don't understand why more devices don't allow power users to adjust the frequency to account for such problems.
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You can set the channel that routers broadcast on, which leads me to believe this actually isn't the cause of MY problem. Why you can't adjust the frequency of a wireless card, especially since wireless cards came after 2.4GHz phones (right?) they couldn't see this as possibly being a problem? Stupid.
Phones, of all the goddamn things. Phones.
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The card will operate on the same channel as the router, Its part of SSID of the router. Go into the router settings and change the channel, see if that helps. Also, in explination to the 2.4ghz issue, you can thank the FCC, because they have strict restrictions on what frequencies and what devices are allowed to broadcast.
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IIRC, the channel doesn't change the frequency it broadcasts on, because no matter what channel I set mine on, it still goes crazy when the phone rings. I could very well be wrong though, and it is just my phone kills everything.
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You're right, it doesn't. But, ensuring your wireless devices are on seperate channels, you can limit their interference. I'm going to guess your cordless phone's base sends a signal on every channel when the phone rings, then locks into one once you answer.
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IIRC, the channel doesn't change the frequency it broadcasts on, because no matter what channel I set mine on, it still goes crazy when the phone rings. I could very well be wrong though, and it is just my phone kills everything.
Actually the frequency changes, but very little (2.412 GHz [channel ][/channel] to 2.477 GHz [channel ][/channel]).
The key is to find the channel with the least interference, usually 1, 6, or 11. Maybe even try netstumbler to see if there are any other networks closeby broadcasting, then use a channel that they aren't. Also you can try to repoint it's antenna, and the antenna on the router to get maximum signal strength so interference doesn't affect it as bad.
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I'm currently using channel 6. It doesn't really matter though right now, because I am back at my apartment at college now, and I don't have the problem here luckily.
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You can set the channel that routers broadcast on, which leads me to believe this actually isn't the cause of MY problem. Why you can't adjust the frequency of a wireless card, especially since wireless cards came after 2.4GHz phones (right?) they couldn't see this as possibly being a problem? Stupid.
Phones, of all the goddamn things. Phones.
It is because to change the frequencies at which it works you'd need to change the shape/size/length/thickness of the antennas because they have specific resonant frequencies
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All of my computers work on the 2.4gz band.... and there are five cell phones in my house. Between me and the router there is a microwave.... and although it does interfere, I have since upgraded the antennae for the router and placed a cheap repeater in this room (that also helps the connection with the other computer on this side of the house). It solved all of my problems.
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I have a repeater in my room. They are pretty great, and you can easily and pretty cheaply blanket your house in full bars of wireless goodness.