Your twinkling lights might be dark cloud for Wi-Fi
By Hayley Tsukayama The Washington Post
Holiday lights are meant to add some cheer to your day, but a
British regulator has pointed out that they may have an unwanted side
effect: interference with your Wi-Fi network.
Recently, Ofcom — an agency similar to the Federal Communications
Commission — named holiday lights as one of many electronic devices that
can trip up your Internet connection. The agency has released a new app
to check for interference that, alas, is only available in Britain.
How do lights affect a Wi-Fi network? Apparently the wiring in the
lights can add to the radio frequency interference in your home, which
in turn could confound the signals from your router. Lights aren’t the
only culprit, however - the same is true of many other devices.
Microwaves, older Blue-tooth devices, baby monitors and cordless phones
all get a mention in a Cisco white paper from 2007 outlining common
reasons for Wi-Fi interference. Many Internet providers see complaints
spike around the holidays, since networks can get congested when you’re
all gathered for a family meal - but lights may be a contributing
factor. The Irish Times reported a similar problem last year, saying
that blinking lights are particularly bad for interference.
That doesn’t mean there’s any need to be less festive than you
normally are. A string of lights won’t crash your network. All Of-com is
letting us know is that having more things, such as lights, plugged into
your outlets could contribute to some Wi-Fi slowdown, and more
ostentatious displays could certainly add to interference that’s already
in your home.
If you’re really curious about how your lights are affecting your
network, you could conduct your own home science experiment and see how
your network performs with your lights on or off. Another option is to
move them as far away from your router as is practical. That way you can
still watch "White Christmas" on Netflix in seasonally appropriate lighting.
That may help solve whatever immediate, decor-related Wi-Fi issues
you may have. But you can follow similar tips to keep your network
running smoothly throughout the whole year, as well. Moving electronics
away from your router is also a good idea, if you find that you’re
dropping your connection or losing speed.
Also, if you don’t have a password on your home network, you may
want to consider creating one for security and speed. Your neighbors may
be hanging out on your network without your knowledge. Adding a password
nips that behavior in the bud.
Another option is to change the channel on your router. As with a
radio, your router can broadcast over multiple channels, and switching
this can help you avoid interference. That’s particularly useful if your
problem is other people’s Wi-Fi networks, as is often the case in
apartments or other close-quarter living situations. Since most people
stick with the defaults, chances are most people around you on are the
same channel. You can change this by heading to your router’s settings
from any machine connected to the network, which you can find by typing
your router’s IP address into the part of your browser where you
normally type in Web addresses.
Most routers have similar addresses — some variation on 192.168.1.1
or 192.168.2.1 — but you can find out for sure by doing a little digging
on your PC or Mac.
--
*================================================ Duane Whittingham -
N9SSN (ARES/RACES, EmComm, Skywarn & Red Cross)
http://www.radiodude.info ================================================*
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