Improving Wireless

[Geko]

So... My parents live reasonably close to Heathrow Airport, about 10 miles away, and the aircraft seem to interfere with the wifi. I have googled and haven't found anything that supports the idea that aeroplanes affect wireless. But after living there for 10 years, I can assure you that it definitely does.

Now... Currently they use a HH3 and a HH2 as a repeater. So the wireless routers are pretty poor, being BT shite.

I am looking to replace the wireless solution, as it frustrates me constantly while I am here. I am here for Christmas, brought my IPTV devices along to watch and struggle to get a few minutes of video before it breaks up. I don't get these issues at my place.

So....

I am looking for a good quality wireless router.... and a couple of repeaters as it is a big house and the BT point is at one end, so won't reach the other end of the house. Especially upstairs.


I have seen this one - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nighthawk-Wi...ustomerReviews although it doesn't have a modem built in. If it would solve the problem, I'd pay the money. But.... I don't want to pay £200 if it doesn't work.


Also found these extenders - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netgear-WN30...ustomerReviews


Any advice or suggestions?

[blacksheep]

There shouldn't be any issues, I read an article about them putting wifi on airplanes so if that was the case it's not the planes. Not sure if there's any landing beacon/system that uses that frequency but engineers are usually pretty careful about overlap/reuse of that kind of thing.

Have you you tried the usual scan for other access points and what channel they're on and make sure you're clear?

use home Plugs? As for a more powerful router im going to use the analogy someone else did in another thread - imagine 2 people on two hills, one can shout really loud and the other guy can hear, the other guy isn't quite as load so the first can only make out bits (or nothing) of what's said.

[Geko]

Homeplugs are also interfered with by the planes. It doesn't help that there are 6 rings for the sockets. 3 up and 3 down. It's 100% the plane (I knew people would doubt this). At night when no planes land or take off. It is perfect. The planes come every 2 minutes or so. The internet cuts out when they come. It's too precise to be coincidence. The older the plane, the greater the interference.

I see your point about the plane wifi. But there is definitely something, that comes with the plane (beit the landing beacon, a comms system or something) that interferes.

I will scan now. But they don't live on a housing estate. A little private road where the footprint of the house would usually contain the wireless signal from the router.

[Geko]

I've just run a wifi tool.

I can only pickup the wifi in the house.

I'm not after a more powerful router. Just a more stable router less prone to interference, if there is such a thing. The HH2, for example is crap. The HH3 seems a bit more stable.

[blacksheep]

It could be almost anything on the plane creating a strongish em field moving parts beacons etc but as I said engineers are usually fairly good on this. If that's the case the only way round it is to turn your house into a faraday cage. Could try moving everything to 802.11n?

[Over Carl]

I used to live in the TW5 0?? area for some time and can't say I noticed any interference from plane affecting wifi. As you said 10 miles, I'm guessing a similar distance but maybe different direction. Planes would fly over approx every 5 mins in the summer so I'm guessing should be a comparable situation.

[Geko]

I used to live in the TW5 0?? area for some time and can't say I noticed any interference from plane affecting wifi. As you said 10 miles, I'm guessing a similar distance but maybe different direction. Planes would fly over approx every 5 mins in the summer so I'm guessing should be a comparable situation.

Did you use BT HHs?

I only notice it when streaming with IPTV or when CS on SKY. Not as obvious when CS on foreign channels, probably due to less frequent ECMs. Also not as noticeable when streaming on iplayer etc.


I've bought a different wifi extender to replace the HH2. As that is by far the worst performing. I'll see if that makes any difference.

Could try moving everything to 802.11n?

That is a consideration. But I'd need quite a few wifi extenders as N only really covers about 15% of the house from the main router.

[evilsatan]

Strange that homeplugs are affected, I recently had to replace those Netgear repeaters with homeplugs as even in a very small property they were unreliable, the walls must have been very thick.

Might be worth trying 5Ghz routers if your devices support it.

[Over Carl]

Funnilly enough, we had some Sky routers which didn't seem brilliant but once I setup a HH2, things were much better.

[Geko]

Strange that homeplugs are affected, I recently had to replace those Netgear repeaters with homeplugs as even in a very small property they were unreliable, the walls must have been very thick.

Might be worth trying 5Ghz routers if your devices support it.

I assume it is because the wiring is quite old and that the sockets are on different rings.

Although... They are also about 6 years old. So maybe the tech has improved?

[evilsatan]

If sockets are on different rings I don't think the homeplugs can communicate. They have come a long way though, I have 600mbps smart link ones at the moment (smart link uses the third wire as well, good for noisy mains) and I have pre-ordered the 1200mbps model which should arrive late jan. Some also have WAPs build into them.

the nighthawk router is supposed to be good, if you wanted to save a little then TP-Link are copying most popular Netgear products and they have a router out that is a copy of the Netgear. Not sure on the quality of it but I use TP-Link routers sometimes and they seem decent and their unmanaged switches are very good.

[Geko]

They do communicate on different rings at my mum's. And they can stream video.... Until a plane comes over. Works fine at 3am.

[Fon]

I think its more likely your using a busy channel, thats not so busy in the early morning.

Have you scanned the wifi channels being used in and around the house? Theres loads of apps to help you for your smartphone.

Fon

[Geko]

I think its more likely your using a busy channel, thats not so busy in the early morning.

Have you scanned the wifi channels being used in and around the house? Theres loads of apps to help you for your smartphone.

Fon

I have. I can only see my wifi. Like I said above, the house is not on a housing estate and is a reasonable size. Also... The HH3 apparently autosenses for interference and switches channels. I have overruled it to channel 1, anyway.


It's a bit coincidental that it only happens when planes come over. Also.... When the ash cloud grounded the planes, there was no interference for those couple of days. It was bliss.


To be honest.... I'm surprised this thread hasn't turned into a "can't be the planes" thread. But... I'm not an idiot. It is the planes. My parents have been here for 10 years. I have observed the pattern often enough to be confident. Before streaming, it didn't really matter. It wasn't as noticeable. But now I want to solve it.

[blacksheep]

Really don't want to offend/seem like I'm not taking your observations into consideration but I really doubt it's the planes - they have wifi at the airport. Also found out that for Gatwick (assume would be same for Heathrow - can ask a pilot mate tomorrow) min altitude at your sort of range is 3000 feet ~ 1000m, I really doubt this is anything to do with planes. Have you checked for power surges or just tried some decent kit?

I remember an article in I think custom PC about building parabolic type arial add ons, I think they made the signal better but more directional or the canteen, could it be the receiving end? What's receiving it and does everything receiving have issues?

[evilsatan]

I think I got ring circuits confused with phases

[Geko]

Really don't want to offend/seem like I'm not taking your observations into consideration but I really doubt it's the planes - they have wifi at the airport. Also found out that for Gatwick (assume would be same for Heathrow - can ask a pilot mate tomorrow) min altitude at your sort of range is 3000 feet ~ 1000m, I really doubt this is anything to do with planes. Have you checked for power surges or just tried some decent kit?

I remember an article in I think custom PC about building parabolic type arial add ons, I think they made the signal better but more directional or the canteen, could it be the receiving end? What's receiving it and does everything receiving have issues?

I'd be happy to think it wasn't the planes. But it only happens when they are going over. The louder (older) the more interference. It's worse on takeoff over landing. They tend to take-off more often in this direction.

It happens to all devices receiving the signal. As typing this, it happened (a big plane went over) and then wouldn't reconnect until I got a lot closer to the router.

I'm hoping it is the shitty BT kit. So I am looking for something better. I have ordered a wireless repeater and I'm trying to spread as much N around the house as possible. I could need a few of them though.

[evilsatan]

IMO the HH3 was a big improvement so I'm not sure if that will cure it for you. The Asus AC68U is £135 on Amazon atm and is supposed to be excellent for signal, you can get another £5 off if paying with a MasterCard and using PRICELES5 at checkout.

I just bought it to try at a mansion house I'm working on trying to improve their wireless coverage.

[eblaster101]

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/prod...FcjLtAodNB8AEA

Have installed these for a client warehouse and they work really well on PoE. Have not skipped a beat, installed them 6 months ago.

[Geko]

IMO the HH3 was a big improvement so I'm not sure if that will cure it for you. The Asus AC68U is £135 on Amazon atm and is supposed to be excellent for signal, you can get another £5 off if paying with a MasterCard and using PRICELES5 at checkout.

I just bought it to try at a mansion house I'm working on trying to improve their wireless coverage.

Let me know how you get on.

I am also going to re-run the BT connection closer to the middle of the house. Currently, it's in one corner.