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Escaping WiFi Interference In The Modern Dorm Room?
j.cherney writes "I recently moved my son up to a dorm at Michigan State University. We set up a wireless router (D-link) and everything worked well-until the rest of the dorm moved in. Now he is getting intermittent outages which I am quite sure is related to the large numbers of cordless phones on the 2.4ghz frequency. So my question to everyone is: Is there anything that I can do to make wireless work in this environment? Obviously I'm not willing to buy everyone in the dorm a new cordless phone! Is one brand more resistant to interference than another? Is there a filter than can be installed? Or is he S.O.L.?"
1) Switch to 802.11a (in the 5.4Ghz range, so the cordless phones will not bother it)
OR
2) Wallpaper the dorm room with tinfoil (has the added benefit of blocking government mind control rays)
Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
I'm a 3rd year junior, I've since moved off campus but this is my suggestions.
1. The, IMHO,most logical suggestion. A dorm room isn't that big, buy a 50 foot cable. If you insist on keeping a wireless network around, try going for 11a equip. Kinda hard to find but a week or 2 ago, worst buy...er i mean bestbuy had a sale for a dual band 11a/b/g router.
2. See if there is a campus wireless, and if it covers the dorm areas. If yes, convince EVERYONE to kill their AP and use the campus wireless. As for the phones, not much you can do if you're not buying everyone a new phone.
3. You could try a game of "my transmitter is more powerful than yours" and use ext antennas to put out a stronger signal...but not that practical.
Grump
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
First: I'd guess that some of the interference is coming from other 802.11b/g gear, not necessarily cordless phones. It all defaults to channel 6 from the factory, so try 1 or 11. Or load the ETSI firmware and use 14, and just don't tell the FCC.
Second: Try some FHSS gear, it seems tougher in noisy environments than DSSS. The old Proxim RangeLan equipment is cheap.
Third: Get out of 2.4GHz entirely. Go go 5GHz with 802.11a, or 900MHz with older Aironet gear.
Fourth: It's a dorm room, and worse than that, it's an MSU dorm room. What is it, 4x8 feet? Stick with wired. Get a real patch cord that uses stranded conductors, as the solid stuff is too stiff and will stress the connectors.
> Sadly Outta Luck
Really? Seriously, I've always heard/said "Shit outta luck" , which really doesn't make any more sense, except that there is a reason to abbreviate it. Once you say it a million times tho' it doesn't seem to be anything odd.
Not that I'd claim my version is the authority however.
"...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."
You probably already read the AUP for MSUnet. It specifically addresses the issue of NAT devices, a common concern at universities. The issue is that normally a person must register their MAC on the network to gain access. Then any nefarious activity that occurs on the network can be tracked to the individual user who registered that MAC address. For now, let's ignore the possibility of being able to change the MAC address on some ethernet cards.
By introducing a NAT'd device, you open an entry point to the network to anyone, even those not with proper access, and you rely on the good will of these nameless souls not to do bad things in your name. So if anyone ever becomes evil while connected to your basepoint, it becomes your responsibility to deny access to your AP or remove it from the network.
You like splinters in your crotch? -Jon Caldara
FCC Part 15 rules state that this device must accept any interference, including interference that might disrupt its operation.
This means that any other wireless routers, cellphones, microwave ovens, etc... are free to wreak havoc on it, and vice versa.
Having said that, you can always spend more money to upgrade to the newest 802.11 wireless protocols that operate in a different range. It will still be another 6 months before prices drop enough for students without rich parents can afford them.
Honestly, as a young man, I am sure he can tough it out with a CAT5 cable like we did in my day and age, before these new fangled wireless things made life easy. It won't be chic, and it is certainly very old-fashioned, but it gets the job done. Its quite possible your son might never have seen a CAT5 cable before, so now its time for you to show him how Daddy use to do it.
Or you can have Grandpa come down and show him how they did it with 10base2.
We huddled around a 110 baud acousticoupler, and if you read something that was funny the laughing would generate errors in the connection.
I work in a noc doing cpe (customer provided equipment) support for small companies in pop in downtown Toronto. Since we've introduced cpe enabled wifi, I've turned on snmp polling for stats on connectivity, signal strength etc, and its open my eyes as to where things can go wrong with wifi in a chaotic enviroment. We have about 64 + access points in a building that is less that 300 feet long, and 80 feet wide, that is two stories, and we have no radio interference. 99% of the cases of lost ip transit to wireless endpoints like laptops, bridges or a/ps were due to either Trojans/spyware/malware/viruses swamping the cpe's wan interface, nat process or someone cracking wep and swamping the connection with Kazaa traffic. Either way, I suggest you stick a network sniffer like snort on the wan ethernet interface of the dlink inline (an old p200 w/ 128 megs of ram and an 8gig disk makes a great sniffer, running linux, freebsd or openbsd), and watch what traffic patterns you see. Your son will be able to see what traffic is being used, and will have the tools he needs to take responsiblity for his own connection. Isn't that what great geek dads are supposed to do for their kids ? It might save you a few rolls of tinfoil.
This device is the simplest solution to your problem.
No, I'm not kidding.
My god, you live in a *dorm* and you need wireless networking?
You're the wifi version of the idiots I lived next to in college with GIGANTIC STEREOS jammed into little 8ftx8ft rooms. Did you know ALL music sounds the same when filtered through the low-pass filter known as "the walls"? I didn't!
Yeah, when you're in college, you're king of your world and entitled to everything. Whatever.
Besides, with the wireless, you're just letting that freaky Linux guy next door who wears a cloak see what kind of porn you like to hit it with.
You don't need a cordless phone either, by the way. You live in a damn CLOSET!
(Oops, this was the guy's dad. Adjust pronouns appropriately.)
Remove the magnetron from and old school 1500 wattmicrowave. Mount it in focal point of an old Primestar (or other satellite dish). Install a pistol grip and a trigger and you are good to go. Get a nice long extension cord and sweep the entire dorm with cleansing 2.4ghz waves. As long as you shield you AP before you begin you should be the only one left on the 2.4ghz frequency. Save your rig, it makes a nifty hot dog cooker. One warning, line you shorts with lead before you start so as not to cook your own frank and beans.
SD
PS Don't try this anywhere, ever.
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â