There are free WiFi analyzer apps on iOS and Android that scan and show nearby WiFi networks, their signal strength, and which channel they are using. With that information, you can choose a less congested WiFi channel for your location and set it on your router. However, some routers such as Nest don't allow you to manually set the WiFi channel. They claim to monitor amount of traffic on different channels and dynamically switch to a less busy channel.
Hint: Change your Wi-Fi frequency to avoid interference with neighbors router
My friend was having annoying Internet problems such as start and stop, dropped signals, streaming pauses, skips, etc. In other words, a sporadic Wi-Fi connection on his Net-Gear router that sometimes works, and most times fails to work. Everything we tried failed to solve the issue (re-boot, etc.). And the strange thing is that the connection was working fine for many months and then suddenly stopped working.
After much research, and many phone calls, we discovered these kinds of difficulties could be caused by having another customers modem/router too close. We never thought of this.
All routers must operate their Wi-Fi network on one of several “channels” — different ranges of frequencies the wireless network can operate on. If you have multiple Wi-Fi networks near each other, and you probably do unless you do not live near anyone else, they should ideally be on different channels to reduce interference.
A very simple solution. We change his routers frequency from 11 to 6 and everything worked perfectly. I am not an expert on this topic but if you are having a sporadic Wi-Fi connection that sometimes works and, most times fails to work, you might want to investigate this simple solution.
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Excellent advice. Unfortunately if you have Comcast Xfinity and use their Wi-Fi router, those settings are locked down. The only way to change it, that I know of, is to do a full reset, and then the controls are unlocked for a while, but eventually they lock again. I am definitely getting interference lately, and I can't find any way to switch channels. Very annoying. Would love to hear if anybody else has found a way around it. |
Often said this. One of the best diagnostic tools is to use a Wifi analyzer on your phone or PC or Mac. They are free and in addition to signal strength let you see who else is sharing your channels. I don't know why this is still true in 2022 but routers set to "auto" channel selectiopn tend to pick the same channels no matter the congestion |
Or get a bit higher end that automatically analyze the RF environment and pick a channel that is free. @erik_squires auto is supposed to mean that it picks the channel with the cleanest RF, however, you are correct, lower end just somewhat randomize the channel selection |
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