HI Scott,
We had to move a 2.4 GHz cordless phone away from a nearby router and that
solved a plethora of problems in our home. We then replaced that phone
with a 900 MHz cordless oldie-but-goodie phone and the problems did not
reappear.
Good Luck, Art
==========================================================================
On Thu, 23 Feb 2012, Scott Douglas wrote:
Hello All,
We have a situation in our house. Two years ago our cable system went Chapter
7. So we signed up with an ISP that provides a wireless Internet connection.
Radio and antenna are 40 feet up in the big tree out front of the house and
operates at 915 MHz. The radio is connected to our router (in the basement
wiring cabinet) via shielded CAT-5. The house is wired with CAT-5 in every
room and all terminate at the wiring cabinet. The external power supply
feeding power to the radio (POE) is located in the basement wiring cabinet
right next to the routers EPS.
We regularly have Internet problems, losing connection, extremely slow
transfer rates, etc. It seems particularly bad between 6 and 10 pm (usually a
few hours in that block of time). It is pretty consistent (almost daily). Our
ISP pings every radio in the system every 15 seconds and plots the return
time. Normally we run in the 10 to 20 msec range. But when it goes bad, ping
times can exceed 3-5 SECONDS! Or sometimes it just cannot talk at all. Our
radio power levels are always quite strong (-59 to -63 dBm), even when we
cannot ping or pass data. The ISP compares my return response to another
radio less than a mile away from me. Theirs is always rock steady, nary a
ping over 30 msec. He showed me plots of both radio power levels and ping
response times and it is very clear to me that my system is falling down a
lot, to the point of not even being able to use it.
The router is only a year old, the laptop is only 3 months old. We had these
same problems with the old router and the old desktop too. The mains wiring
is all less than 10 years old and mechanically screwed down rather than
stripped and poked into the outlet, etc. I even went around to check
connections and tightened some loose screws in the old part of the house two
years ago. When I wired the house, I took extra care to keep good routing and
separation of AC, CAT-5, and RF. All network and RF connectors are good
quality and poor crimp connections were not tolerated. Everything is tight
and in good order.
The ISP says it is not the radio, but somehow the data is getting hosed
before it can be modulated onto the carrier. He thinks it is something in my
house causing the problem. He said he has seen problems before with wireless
telephones, Blackberry's, motion detectors, and some other things. We do have
a 900 MHz wireless telephone that is 5-7 years old. After my most recent
conversation with the ISP, I decided to disconnect the 900 MHz wireless
phone. I had not told the ISP and tonight he emailed me and asked what we had
done. He said the system graphs had improved dramatically. Next week we are
going to plug the phone back in and see if the problem repeats.
My question(s) to the list are how do you explain this? Is it radiated as in
two radios beating against each other or your more normal radiated EMI
getting in the system hardware? Is it conducted on the mains or the network
wiring? Where is the ingress occurring? Can the phone make enough EMI to
trash the data getting into the radio? I will also be looking for a solution
(besides trashing the phone).
I have my ideas and opinions but will hold those for now. As always, I will
be looking forward to the interesting comments, ideas, and solutions that
come from you all.
Thanks in advance for your replies.
Best,
Scott
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This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion
list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org>
All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at:
http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html
Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at
http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used
formats), large files, etc.
Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/
Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html
List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html
For help, send mail to the list administrators:
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For policy questions, send mail to:
Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org>
David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com>
