[Thine Wonk]

How many wifi signals are there around your area? Am I unusual in that there's 20 here?

I struggle to find a channel where wifi reliably works in 2.4ghz just due to the number of them in close proximity.

When I try 5Ghz it's a different story and my phone connects and gets 50Mbps + on speedtest.net, sadly my new laptop doesn't support 5Ghz.

Just wondering how other people find wifi in their area and how many signals you see.

[anniebrion]

Can you not purchase a USB WiFi that uses 5ghz and use that in your laptop?

[flagpole]

not that many here. i live in a big detached house.

but my mate lives in a block of flats and there must be 40 i can see.

[jimmy7bellies]

Depends where you live. Live in flats or terraced streets or a new build where the houses are all crammed in tight then you're going to be picking up a lot of other peoples wifi....live in a detached house in the middle of no where then your not going to be in range of other peoples wifis.

I can pick up 3 (mine and 2 others) consistantly and a couple more that drop in and out...any guess what sort of street I live in?

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by anniebrion

Can you not purchase a USB WiFi that uses 5ghz and use that in your laptop?

Yeah I could do, they are't cheap though and I have a habit of knocking them around when moving the laptop and then damaging the USB port, did that with a 3G dongle in an old laptop, so didn't really want bits sticking out.

I suppose there's always the powerline adaptors too. I just wondered if this was a common issue these days with the explosion of wifi.

[barky99]

can detect 1 other apart from my own .... someone near hasn't bothered to protect their connection, leaves em open to abuse!

[flagpole]

i've never actually known it to be a problem. wifi can co-exist.

what exactly is the problem Thine Wonk. what network speeds are you getting on your laptop and is it wireless 'n'

[jwball]

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Yeah I could do, they are't cheap though and I have a habit of knocking them around when moving the laptop and then damaging the USB port, did that with a 3G dongle in an old laptop, so didn't really want bits sticking out.

I suppose there's always the powerline adaptors too. I just wondered if this was a common issue these days with the explosion of wifi.

Amazon are doing 200Mbps twin packs for £23.99 delivered

just ordered a pair

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...as2&tag=chc-21

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by flagpole

i've never actually known it to be a problem. wifi can co-exist.

what exactly is the problem Thine Wonk. what network speeds are you getting on your laptop and is it wireless 'n'

It's wireless N yes, so up to 300Mbps. I have set up the home hub and when I try different channels I get wildly different speeds of transfers across the LAN, ranging from 1Mbps up to 6 on the best channel.

Speedtest wise I get 50Mbps + on the LAN and 50Mbps on the 5Ghz range on my phone, but because of the laptop I have to put it on 2.4Ghz, where speedtest.net speeds range from 1Mbps to 10.

Most of the channels are performing really badly and the number of other access points close to me I think is really high. I just wondered if anyone else found that most channels were performing badly due to the number of access points around.

[flagpole]

you looked with an app like inssider or this for android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....wifi.analyzer

[anniebrion]

I have 2 devices for wifi on my set up both are 802.11n and I use nearly the entire range of channels, there are several people around me with their own wifi but I seem to have no problem as the strength of my signal is greater than the other networks

I find that my access point, next to my HH3, has a greater range than the router plus the aerials are movable on the AP unlike the router.

Maybe the people around you have better equipment that stamps on your signal.

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by anniebrion

I have 2 devices for wifi on my set up both are 802.11n and I use nearly the entire range of channels, there are several people around me with their own wifi but I seem to have no problem as the strength of my signal is greater than the other networks

I find that my access point, next to my HH3, has a greater range than the router plus the aerials are movable on the AP unlike the router.

Maybe the people around you have better equipment that stamps on your signal.

Quite possible, I hope you are not my neighbour.

[lettice]

try a wireless usb micro size adapter, you wont be breaking them off too easily

Netgear have some i think

[anniebrion]

Originally Posted by lettice

try a wireless usb micro size adapter, you wont be breaking them off too easily, a couple of examples here;

http://www.****************/products...0m-100ens.html

http://www.****************/products...nov-usbnm.html

But they are not 5ghz!

BTW DS don't like Novatech links

[lettice]

Originally Posted by anniebrion

But they are not 5ghz!

BTW DS don't like Novatech links

yes i thought they were, ive updated my post now, they seem to have dropped them.

uh whats wrong with novatech links, confused?

[Beachcomber]

I don't have a problem with a proliferation of Wi-Fi signals. I live in the middle of a five acre field with not neighbours! Thank you, DS, for making a fuss over the Novatech links. I would never have hear of them but for that. Looks like a good site.

[PrinceGaz]

I get about 12-15 wifi signals detectable with my current dual-band dongle, of which all but one are on the 2.4GHz band (including my own 2.4GHz signal) and the other is my 5GHz signal. That's with a rather "deaf" wifi adapter compared with another 2.4GHz only adapter I also have which could probably find about 20 signals from the same location.

I live in an area with a lot of flats in terraced houses, so a lot of signals are to be expected, and being not far from two universities, the number increases around now as students get their home connections up and running. I expect the other adapter could pick up 25-30 signals once all the additional networks are in operation.

It will be interesting to see if any of them choose the almost dead 5GHz wifi band (I'm the only one there locally), given that most of the latest smartphones now support it, many laptops do as well (or you can buy a dual-band dongle very cheaply), and many routers (such as Virgin Media's) can be switched from the default 2.4GHz to the 5GHz band if you choose to do so.

[cnbcwatcher]

I live in a detached house and all I can pick up is my own wifi, but if I go outside I pick up mine and a few others.

[Mike_1101]

At my location there are about 8-10 signals visible at any one time. I have never had any problems.

[kkynaston]

A colleague of mine did a survey for a hotel in London.
He wanted WiFi putting in for about 80+ rooms, and he wanted to charge for access.

While my colleague was waiting for the owner of the hotel, he picked up 160 different networks over both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.
About 40% of them were open networks.

He told the owner it was a waste of time putting in WiFi.
1. The amount of traffic on both bands
2. So many unsecured networks available so why would anyone pay for it!

[The_One]

Where i live now on the border of town in a road full of small detached houses there is only my wifi signal in my house.
My ex girlfriend lived in a a block of flats, there was maybe a dozen wifi signals.

Gladly i use a wireless keyboard and mouse connected to my PC and TV, connected by wire to the router. I have an iPhone 4 and iPad 3 so a wifi router is useful for those.

When i move into the city in 7 months into a new block of flats i might turn off my wifi and just use USB for my iPad/iPhone. The block im moving into will have 10 floors with 8 apartments per floor, and the block is surrounded by 2 other blocks each with 4-6 floors, just across the road. This crane is building my new home

[Mike_1101]

Originally Posted by The_One

Where i live now on the border of town in a road full of small detached houses there is only my wifi signal in my house.
My ex girlfriend lived in a a block of flats, there was maybe a dozen wifi signals.

Gladly i use a wireless keyboard and mouse connected to my PC and TV, connected by wire to the router. I have an iPhone 4 and iPad 3 so a wifi router is useful for those.

When i move into the city in 7 months into a new block of flats i might turn off my wifi and just use USB for my iPad/iPhone. The block im moving into will have 10 floors with 8 apartments per floor, and the block is surrounded by 2 other blocks each with 4-6 floors, just across the road. This crane is building my new home

I wonder why new flats and houses aren't wired with network cabling, a patch panel and sockets (next to the mains sockets) these days? Would it be that expensive - £250? I have seen a house where that was done along with sockets for TV, FM, DAB and satellite TV in every room. It was a very large old house that had been totally renovated, unfortunately the asking price was £994,950........

[The_One]

Originally Posted by Mike_1101

I wonder why new flats and houses aren't wired with network cabling, a patch panel and sockets (next to the mains sockets) these days? Would it be that expensive - £250? I have seen a house where that was done along with sockets for TV, FM, DAB and satellite TV in every room. It was a very large old house that had been totally renovated, unfortunately the asking price was £994,950........

Yea thats a very good point, you'd think all new bedrooms and living rooms would be fitted with ethernet sockets for a home network.

[Mike_1101]

Originally Posted by The_One

Yea thats a very good point, you'd think all new bedrooms and living rooms would be fitted with ethernet sockets for a home network.

Why not all the rooms?

[cnbcwatcher]

Originally Posted by Mike_1101

Why not all the rooms?

Even the bathrooms? Our wifi works in all the bathrooms. It's great because sometimes I take my iPod Touch in and read the 'net or play Angry Birds.