Wireless Network Interference - Obvious And Not So Obvious Causes

If your wireless network is suffering from interference there's a chance there are both visible and invisible forces at work.  Here is an explaination of both.

Obvious Causes

Obviously any solid object is going to cause some difficulty for radio signal. Typically objects such as plaster, drywall and wood have little effect on wireless radio signals. On the other hand objects such as metal, concrete and glass can have a huge effect on your wireless signal. The human body which is made mostly of water can interfere greatly with a wireless signal. The absolute worst place to install a wireless router is an area that's full of metal objects such as a kitchen or laundry room. Strangely enough some wireless routers that are installed as part of the house during construction are surrounded by metal objects and are usually rendered useless.

Not So Obvious Causes

There are other types of wireless network interference that are not so obvious. If you live in an apartment building and are surrounded by neighbors who also have wireless devices in their apartments there's a good chance their wireless signals can be interfering with yours. An easy fix for this is to adjust the channel your wireless router is on. Wireless-G routers typically have 11 channels you can choose from. Most of these channels overlap with adjacent channels so if your neighbor is using channel 6 it's best to go with channel 1 or channel 11 on your wireless router. A lot of new wireless N routers and some G routers have an auto-switching feature which automatically detects the channel that's most open and switches to that.

A Wireless-G router basically lives on the 2.4 GHZ frequency band. Unfortunately a lot of your other wireless devices also occupy that frequency band. Microwave ovens, baby monitors, garage door openers and cordless phones also operate on the 2.4 GHZ frequency band and are capable of causing a lot of interference issues with your wireless router. It's best to keep your access point and your wireless devices at least 6 to 10 feet away from these devices.

As wireless technology becomes more mature interference is becoming less and less of a problem. We now have Wireless-N routers which enable us to use the 5 GHZ frequency band and avoid most of these interference issues altogether. Most Wireless-N routers and some Wireless-G routers use something called MIMO which sends and receives multiple signals at once and virtually floods the entire area with a wireless signal. This provides multiple paths for the wireless signal to follow which makes it less susceptible to interference.

If your wireless signal seems to work fine in some areas of the home and not in others you are probably experiencing interference issues. Make sure to check not only the most obvious and visible causes of interference but the not so obvious an invisible causes as well.

Hopefully this article has provided you with some insight into wireless interference, how to avoid it and what to do about it.