Wireless Home Networking - Index of

Chapter 18: Ten Ways to Troubleshoot Wireless LAN Performance
A home outfitted with a variety of Radio Shack and X10.com gadgets may
have a fair amount of radio clutter on these frequencies, which can cut into
your network’s performance. These sources of RF energy occasionally block
users and access points from accessing their shared air medium.
As home wireless LAN use grows, people report more interference with home
X10 networks, which use various wireless transmitters and signaling over
electrical lines to communicate among their connected devices. If you have
an X10 network for your home automation and it starts acting weird (such as
the lights go on and off and you think your house is haunted), your LAN
might be the source of the problem. A strong wireless LAN in your house can
be fatal to an X10 network.
At some point, you have to get better control over these interferers, and you
don’t have many options. First, you can change channels, like we mention
earlier in this chapter. Cordless phones, for example, use channels just like
your local area network does; you can change them so that they don’t cross
paths (wirelessly speaking) with your data heading toward the Internet.
Second, you can change phones. If you have an 802.11n or g network operating
at home on the 2.4 GHz band, consider one of the newer 5 GHz cordless
phones for your house. Note: An old-fashioned 900 MHz phone doesn’t
interfere with either one, but finding one these days is a miracle.
You may find that your scratchy cordless phone improves substantially in
quality and your LAN performance improves too. Look for other devices that
can move to other frequencies or move to your 802.11 network. As we discuss
in Chapter 19, all sorts of devices are coming down the road that will
work over your 802.11 network and not compete with it. Ultimately, you need
to keep the airwaves relatively clear to optimize all your performance issues.
At the end of the day, interference from sources outside your house is probably
your own fault. If your neighbor asks you how your wireless connection
works, lie and tell her that it works horribly. You don’t want your neighbor
getting one and sending any stray radio waves toward your network. Do
the same with cable modems. You don’t want your neighbor’s traffic slowing
you down because it’s a shared connection at the neighborhood level.
Interference is a sign of popularity — it means that lots of other people have
caught on. Keep it your little secret.
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