The basics of WiFi

Wanaka Wi-fi has collated information on WiFi below to help you demystify the different types of wireless speeds, best practices, channels and what we use in our systems.
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Most internet services providers provide a piece of networking equipment that serves as both a router and a wireless access point, but if your home is larger or includes many smart/connected devices, then you really should use dedicated wireless access points in addition to, or instead of, the wireless capabilities that might be built-in to your router.

You’ll also want to consider using wireless access points if your home is made of building materials that are made of high-density or refractive building materials (e.g. interior walls made of stone or floor-to-ceiling mirror walls) which can block or interfere with wireless signals.

Why?

Dedicated wireless access points can be more appropriately placed so the signal doesn’t have to pass through problematic building materials and so that your wireless source is located in key areas. They also allow your network to handle more wireless connections, some ISP all in one devices can only handle up to 32 or less devices, this may sound allot but with today’s smart enabled homes and devices this can be used up fairly quickly.

In summary if we avoid all in one devices and deploy a wireless access point or two into our home we now have the flexibility move them around which takes us onto our next point placement.

Wanaka Wifi can best advise you of the equipment suited for your home, Call us or email for a obligation free quote

With most homes we are locked into to where our fibre or ADSL connection enters our home. However the modem and or router can be placed in this room and because we are now using separate access points these can be moved around as cables and access permits.

Wireless access points being at one end of the house often leaves the other end with a poor or weak signal which could mean streaming content in that room doesn’t work reliable or even at all. There isn’t a “general” rule for placement as every home is different and layouts vary greatly, the best advice we would give is to try for a central location that can reach the most used rooms, its a slight balance.

If we use the example above you can see how the placement effects the other rooms and the devices connected.

Working out which rooms have the most wireless traffic and then working your way back is a good start. There are many apps available for your mobile device to check signal around the house for dead spots.

You have to also account for walls and other interference, solid brick walls block the signal more than wood frame of plaster.

If you find that you aren’t getting into all the rooms you want with one access point then you will likely need to add more to accommodate.

Wanaka Wifi can best advise you of the equipment suited for your home, Call us or email for a obligation free quote

If you live in an apartment complex or town house, you’ve probably noticed more than just the passive-aggressive network IDs that your neighbors use—very likely you’ve had problems with your wireless connections dropping out, or just not being as fast as you’d like. This often has to do with the Wi-Fi channels in your area.

If you’re on the same Wi-Fi channel as a lot of your neighbors, you’ll experience a lot of interference with their networks—so it’s best to choose a different channel with fewer people on it. When you do, you’ll reduce that interference and improve your WI-Fi signal.

Wifi networks today come in two different frequencies 2.4 (most common) and 5ghz, 2.4ghz is more susceptible to channel congestion so for this example we will mostly be talking about 2.4ghz. To find out more about the two frequencies see below 2.4ghz vs 5ghz.

If you want maximum throughput and minimal interference, channels 1, 6, and 11 are your best choices, as you can see in the above example in green the channels do not overlap. But depending on other wireless networks in your vicinity, one of those channels might be a better option than the others.

For example, if you’re using channel 1, but someone next door is annoyingly using channel 2, then your throughput will plummet. In that situation, you would have to change to channel 11 to completely avoid the interference (though 6 would be pretty good as well). It might be tempting to use a channel other than 1, 6, or 11 — but remember that you will then be the cause of interference (and everyone on 1, 6, and 11 will stomp on your throughput, anyway).

In an ideal world, you would talk to your neighbors and get every router to use channels 1, 6, or 11. Bear in mind that interior walls do a pretty good job of attenuating (weakening) a signal. If there’s a brick wall between you and a neighbor, you could probably both use channel 1 without interfering with each other. But if it’s a thin wall (or there’s lots of windows), you should use different channels.

There are various apps for your smartphone that let you check wireless network channels in your area so you can choose the best for your home. Wanaka Wifi can offer this as a service to you, Contact us for a free quote

What is a wireless band, anyway? Radio signals are electromagnetic waves, part of the same electromagnetic spectrum that includes light and x-rays. All waves vibrate at a particular speed or “frequency,” measured in Hertz (Hz); a billion Hertz equals one GigaHertz (GHz). Radio waves are defined as a specific part of the slow end of this spectrum, called the “radio band.” To avoid interference between different uses of the radio band — broadcast radio, broadcast TV, GPS, emergency communications — the government divides it into smaller divisions, also known as bands.

Most consumer devices that emit a radio signal — wireless routers, cordless phones, mobile phones, garage door openers — operate in the ISM band, short for industrial, scientific, and medical. This band was cordoned off decades ago because such devices don’t need to broadcast very far and therefore (theoretically) won’t interfere with one another, and thus don’t need to be licensed and confined to a specific frequency, like a radio or TV station. The ISM band extends from 2.401GHz to 2.473GHz, but people call it the 2.4GHz band for short.

Today, tons of devices operate in the 2.4GHz band and, as a result, cause lots of interference with nearby devices. In an effort to prevent this from occurring, the 2.4GHz spectrum is split into 11 “channels” (small bands), each 22MHz apart. In theory, these channels provide three frequency ranges whose signals never overlap. Or, to put it another way, three 2.4GHz devices using three different channels should never interfere with one another.

Fortunately, there’s another option: a different band known as the Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) band, called 5GHz for short. Dual-band wireless networking equipment supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz operation. Devices that support the Wireless AC (802.11ac) standard can move up to the higher-frequency band to take advantage of additional channels that are less prone to interference than 2.4GHz.

Be aware that there is a trade-off for minimizing interference. Because they operate at a higher frequency, 5GHz signals have a shorter range than their 2.4GHz counterparts. you can see this in the graph below.

Which frequency should you choose – 2.4 Ghz or 5 Ghz?

It depends. There are a variety of factors that will dictate which band your devices should utilise. Lots of devices in today’s world use the 2.4GHz wavelength, including microwaves, baby monitors, and garage openers. While you may not have many of these devices in your home, if you live an apartment surrounded by other people with their own routers, the 2.4GHz band is likely congested with all sorts of devices. If  you have a device that doesn’t move around and will be located near your router (and you can’t connect it with an Ethernet cable), we recommend having it utilize the 5GHz wavelength to reduce congestion and take advantage of the higher speeds that the 5GHz wavelength can provide. 

If you have a device that moves around your home a lot (like your mobile) and it is usually located farther away from your router, we recommend you set this device up to take advantage of the 2.4GHZ wavelength. The 2.4GHZ wavelength has a larger range and can penetrate solid objects easier than the 5GHZ band, making it ideal for devices such as cell phones or laptops that are taken from room to room or are located farther from the router.  

Wanaka Wifi can best advise you of the equipment suited for your home, Call us or email for a obligation free quote