MapleLeaf

I am currently on a wireless only internet hook-up, it is fed from our main building about 20' away.

For whatever reason in the evenings, 5/7 a week, the signal cuts in and out. It will go from an excellent connection at 56.0 mbps to a low connection at 1.0 mbps without warning. This only happens in the evenings, never through the day. Normally the problems begin around 8:30 p.m. but not always.

If I were to take my laptop and head into the building with the router, the signal is excellent.

Any clues what this is? Clearly interference from something but what? The offices around me are closed. There is a verizon tower on our building next door but if it is that, why not the problems through the day as well?

Also, is there anything I can do to compensate for this? It is annoying to say the least.

Merci,
MapleLeaf

chichow

Maybe someone is getting home and is using a bluetooth device

jaginger

Is it from a cable source, DSL, or other?

SLC-YYZ

Depending on the type of router...you may be able to able to get a signal booster or a larger antennae. The antennae is for the router. The signal booster/repeater can just plug in anywhere with the original signal range and in effect gives is a kick.

MapleLeaf

The source is DLS - the ip address is registered to pacbell.net. That is DSL right?

I like the signal booster idea - can I pick any type of booster or does it have to be specific to the type of router?

Not sure if they will let me put an antennae on it, so probably best go with this option first.

SLC-YYZ

MapleLeaf, to confirm...when the signal dies in the evening (or so)...you can take your laptop into the main buildingand the signal will ramp back up? If this is the case I would bet on either interference of some weird sort.

With the signal booster I have never had any direct experience setting it up. My understanding from the guys in the office is that you plug in directly to the booster to configure it to the same network properties (SSID, password, channel) as your existing. You can probably figure this out from what your settings are on your laptop for WiFi. Then all you do is fire up the booster again (that's the one they played with).

Good luck.

MapleLeaf

That is exactly what is happening.

I have all that info, so just a matter of getting the booster then.

Thanks.

redburgundy

It isn't clear from your description whether you are experiencing low data rate caused by low signal strength, or by something else.

Does your computer have software that lets you see the available access points and their relative signal strengths? If so, you can do a survey of the available APs and their strengths at different times of day, and when your data rate goes down, you can confirm if the AP signal strength goes down.

milepig

Just a thought, but is there a microwave somewhere nearby? My microwave drives my wireless signal down to almost zilch when in operation.

MapleLeaf

The signal strength generally is good, sometimes it will drop off but mostly it is just the signal itself. (ie I keep the 4 or 5 bars but drop from 56 to 1 mbps).

No microwave that I know of - would have to be nuking a cow as this will die for 1 to 2 hours at a time.

Anything special I should look for in a signal booster? I have a radio shack around the corner... would they have them?

CrazyOne

That's weird. If the signal strength stays the same but the data rate drops like that, with everything else being equal (same computer, same location), it seems more like something is saturating the connection at that time.

Do you know how long the problem lasts, from 8:30 until when? Is it possible some large file transfer is happening over the wireless connection at that time, some kind of scheduled backup or something? Or, is it an open connection, perhaps being mooched by someone else in the area? Is there any security on it?

I dunno how likely any of these things are, but the bandwidth shouldn't drop off with the same signal strength unless something else is using the connection. Interference should affect the signal strength. A booster/transceiver/antenna/whatever will help with the signal strength, but if the signal strength is good, it won't get you back the bandwidth that is missing.

Palal

Try changing the channel on the router. There's a possibility that someone in the same area is using the same channel, and while it's not supposed to interfere, it may. Some 2.4Ghz cordless phones also cause interference.

MapleLeaf

Thank you for all the suggestions.

There is no back-up occuring at that time, our back-up of the server is actually offsite (well our server is offsite as well and we actually connect to it remotely).

The connection is encrypted and only a few of us have the key. Most staff are on hard-wired connections; only 2 of us use the wireless as our main connection into the network. The other person is generally gone by 6 p.m., so it isn't him.

Tomorrow when I am in the building I will check on changing the network key, see if that helps.

Merci.

#10

a
You might try changing the channel on which your router broadcasts.