Poor router performance

[mkhan155]

I wanted to bring up an issue I've been having with the sr203 for a while. The WiFi signal must be trash as whenever my next door neighbor re boots their BT router, their router always happens to over ride my wifi channel. When they re boot I get disconnected from wifi for about 2 minutes. It's like a bigger stronger router bullying a small cheap one lol

[cookiemonsteruk]

@mkhan155 

Does the router light stay green or does it go amber?

Can you determine whether the devices are on 2.4 or 5ghz?

Interference from neighbouring routers will tend to effect 2.4 more than 5. Are any devices etherneted and are they affected?

[mkhan155]

The lights stay green and I use Ethernet occasionally. I mainly use 2.4ghz as I have a large home. The router stats shows the Internet has been up for 47 hours aswell as both 2.4 and 5GHZ networks. 

[mkhan155]

@cookiemonsteruk 

[Chrisee]

@mkhan155 co-channel interference is an issue with the 2.4GHz channel. All wifi routers transmit at the same power which is 100mW but if your neighbour's BT hub is on the same or adacent channel it will cause interference which means your data gets disrupted  it is unavoidable. You may find changing the channel on your hub helps try ch 1,6,11, 3 or 9 In turn when the interference is there to find the quietest. See these instructions 

It is quite possible that there is no channel in the 2.4GHz band that is unaffected if that happens you may need to use the 5GHz band which is far less prone to the problem which may mean using a wifi booster. Sky will provide these foc if you buy their Broadband Boist bundle for £5 a month or you can buy third party units quite easily - plug these in halfway between the hub and where tge signal is too weak

[mkhan155]

@Chrisee 
I've been on channel 1 for a while now and my neighbor must have re booted their router and. Because of this their router decided to hop on channel 1 even though my router is very close to theirs. Maybe the BT hub couldn't connect to 6 or 11 as it was already crowded over on my neighbors side?

[jamesn123]

@mkhan155 

A router will pick the least congested channel from its current position. Its quite likely that channel 1 is the least used for your neighbour due to other neighbours and the transmit power of your Sky hub being low.

[mkhan155]

@jamesn123  I think the transmit power is set to 20/40hz? Theirs may be 40 only 

[jamesn123]

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@mkhan155 wrote:

@jamesn123  I think the transmit power is set to 20/40hz? Theirs may be 40 only 

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I dont mean the transmit power setting i mean just generally the transmit capabilities of the Sky router compared to the BT router. 

[mkhan155]

@jamesn123  How is the transmit power so poor compared to BT's? They have a home hub 5 which isn't Bts latest router but the sr203 is sky's "best router"

[Chrisee]

@mkhan155 the SR203 and Hub 5 have similar transmit power the 20/40MHz refers to the range of frequencies used the higher the figure the more data can flow but the wider the number of channels used. The 2.4GHz band has up to 13 channels each 20MHz apart so a 20MHz bandwidth uses one channel however most routers use the 40MHz setting which will cause interference on 3 channels above and below the one indicated

A quick bit of logical thinking wil show you when you hit 4 such signals the band is effectively full any more are guaranteed to interfere. The easiest way to see what channels are doing what is to install a wifi analyzer app onto a phone, tablet and lsptop as these will show all of the signals in range with their channel and signal strength. Walk round your home these will change relative to one another.

This allows you to choose the best channel for your home but it can change as your neighbours reset their systems. If you live close to lots of networks it is frequently the case there is no usable channels free. 

[mkhan155]

@Chrisee  The wifi analyzer on my phone only picks up my neighbors building next door. There are more houses across the street and I have to use a laptop to pick them up. 11 and 6 are quite full in my opinion and the sky router apparently dosnt choose the best channel when on auto. Stil don't know why bts router had the logic to change to 1 even though I'm right next door.

[TimmyBGood]

@mkhan155 

Transmission 'power' is limited by law: any ISP which inadvertently released hardware capable of more than the maximum permitted in the UK would get a spanking from the appropriate regulator.  How effectively any particular router uses that power is significantly affected by design and hardware specification.

[jamesn123]

@mkhan155 

basically build quality, design & firmware. IMO BTs routers always seem to have better coverage, likely down to antenna design.