Wifi Channel

[Exophase]

Okay, I know there are a bunch of threads on wifi and I know torpor actually commented on this (I had no idea what he was talking about at the time) but this seems significant enough to warrant a thread to draw people's attention to it.

Someone at work told me I should try changing the channel my router operates on to improve performance. Channel refers to the frequency slice being used. My router was at 1, which might well be a default. So I changed it to 10. Now I'm getting much better transfer speeds (~500KB/s instead of < 100) and more importantly to me, much better netplay performance. It seemed to be missing a lot of packets before, which is relative murder on synchronous streaming via TCP.

So if your wifi performance isn't that great I recommend experimenting with this. The options, if there at all, should be accessible via your router's web-based configuration. If this helps you please post in this thread about it.

One more tip - my coworker told me that channel 11 is reserved for Japan and not an option on all routers. It is an option on mine, so if it is on yours and all else fails you might want to give it a try, since it's much less likely that others in the vicinity will be using it.

 

[joseluisjazz]

Thanks Exophase for the info. When I tested the wifi on my pandora I found it had very good speed (>500KB/s), and now I just checked my wifi channel and I found it's set in the 11th.

 

[Exophase]

i'm a noob on that, but changing channel could improve speeds where you have other access points operating in the same channel, causing interferences and packet dropping.

Yes, but of course unless you live out in the country you could have other wireless hot spots all around you, and other protocols in the 2.4GHz range.

 

[MDave]

Is it possible to change the Pandora's channel?

 

[typs lik dis]

Do you know why changing the channel improves performance? Is the Pandora currently bad at connecting on low channels, or is there simply more interference from other APs on those channels in the places this has been experimented with?

BTW, I was always under the impression that channels 1-11 were available in the US, and 1-14 in Japan. Wikipedia says so, and that 1-13 are available in most of Europe.

 

[Sphinxter]

Wifi channels are not far enough apart so try not to use adjacent channels if you have multiple access points or wireless networks. So rather than 1, 2 and 3 you would use 1, 3 and 5 or 1, 6 and 10 even better.

 

[WizardStan]

:blink:
Brilliant! It's best to use non-overlapping channels whenever possible: 1, 6, and 11. 11 has been the default on every device I think I've owned, with a few third party routers being channel 6.
In a terminal window, type "iwconfig" and find the line that reads "Frequency=2.4XX" and match that number to this
It wouldn't surprise me if the Pandora were on channel 11 (2.462) by default, and anyone using a different channel was getting poor connection quality.
Although technically, if your router is 1 and the Pandora 11, there should be no overlap at all and they shouldn't even be seeing each other. Unless the Pandora's wifi does some kind of channel surfing that my wifi stick doesn't do. Is that a normal feature now?

 

[WizardStan]

Do you know why changing the channel improves performance? Is the Pandora currently bad at connecting on low channels, or is there simply more interference from other APs on those channels in the places this has been experimented with?

The 2.4Ghz spectrum is saturated. Wireless headphones, cordless phones, cellphones, wireless cameras, remote control cars. Each one can take a tiny slice of the 2.4Ghz pie, but it adds up, and if your router happens to be broadcasting on the same channel as your cordless phone, for example, you're going to lose signal every time the phone rings. I imagine there are more things at the low end of the 2.4Ghz spectrum than in the middle or upper end of it.

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

:blink:
Brilliant! It's best to use non-overlapping channels whenever possible: 1, 6, and 11. 11 has been the default on every device I think I've owned, with a few third party routers being channel 6.
In a terminal window, type "iwconfig" and find the line that reads "Frequency=2.4XX" and match that number to this
It wouldn't surprise me if the Pandora were on channel 11 (2.462) by default, and anyone using a different channel was getting poor connection quality.
Although technically, if your router is 1 and the Pandora 11, there should be no overlap at all and they shouldn't even be seeing each other. Unless the Pandora's wifi does some kind of channel surfing that my wifi stick doesn't do. Is that a normal feature now?

I think its standard that a wifi chip checks all channels for networks, and then sets its own channel when you connect, same for the pandora.

 

[WizardStan]

I think its standard that a wifi chip checks all channels for networks, and then sets its own channel when you connect, same for the pandora.

Yeah, I thought my wifi stick was doing something it wasn't supposed to. I'm going to have to kick it now. My Wii and laptop have no problem changing channels to match my router. Why my USB stick doesn't is probably a driver issue that I will sort out later. I'll imagine the Pandora is doing it right.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Do you know why changing the channel improves performance? Is the Pandora currently bad at connecting on low channels, or is there simply more interference from other APs on those channels in the places this has been experimented with?

The 2.4Ghz spectrum is saturated. Wireless headphones, cordless phones, cellphones, wireless cameras, remote control cars. Each one can take a tiny slice of the 2.4Ghz pie, but it adds up, and if your router happens to be broadcasting on the same channel as your cordless phone, for example, you're going to lose signal every time the phone rings. I imagine there are more things at the low end of the 2.4Ghz spectrum than in the middle or upper end of it.

Spectral assignment differs by country though. I know it's different here in the UK to the US.

 

[mali]

Nice find Exo, I hope MWeston reads this.

 

[Bosbeetle]

haha i am not going to change my channel its the only channel my desktop has a decent signal. havent had problems with my pandoras signal though

 

[Polossatik]

It might be usefull to have an option to set the "power mode" for a saved wifi network profile.

On my N800 i have for example set my "home wifi" profile to not use "low power" (there is an option in N800 to use 10mW or 100mW power for the wifi) but 100mW and I get far better connection seen here there are many 2.4Ghz sources where I live, so the extra "boost" allows my N800 to better suppress interferences.

the default is still "low power (10mW) " for all other/new/ non profile wifi connections seen when on the move battery life is actually more important then wifi speed and in situations where there is only one wifi point in the area the 10mW setting is enough

 

[fusion_power]

Hm, at the Moment, I use Channel 13 onto my Fritz!Box. These are optimized Channels for 300 Mbit/s at 2,4GHz. (I also could use 5GHz frequency but I guess Pandora can't use this)
I don't have my Pandora yet but maybe someone with such a Fritz!Box (Model 3270) can test the best Channel to interact with hte Pandora?

 

[tsh]

So far we've proved little. Interference from your neighbour's access point is likely to be the reason that changing channel improves matters. I guess if the chip is not functioning in spec, the adjacent or 2nd adjacent channel rejection will be worse, but maybe a better antenna might also result in more scope for overloading the rx.
My openwrt router firmware has a channel scan feature. just need to remember the password

 

[purplesky]

I'm afraid the wifi problem has got nothing to do with the rf channel. I have done some experiments with all channels and I've used 2 different routers. I've performed the tests where there is no rf congestion. All tests yield the same results - poor transfer. I can just about stream audio, however trying to surf the web at the same time usually ends up rebuffering the stream. Youtube is completely out of the question.

I think the focus now is going to have to be on good, reliable robust wifi.

 

[jdbye]

Channel 14 is Japan only, I think. Everything wifi I've had has had channel 1-13 (I think US only has up to 11)

 

[Javacat]

Just a weee tip, if you're worried about interference from other networks then you're best scanning to see what all the other networks in your area are using and choosing something away from them. For Windows users I'd recommend using inSSIDer and for Linux users the obvious choice is Kismet.

If your router supports it (and assuming that the Pandora does as well, although I think it may not) then switch to the 5GHz range, instead of 2.4GHz. It's currently more or less dead atm, although that will be changing.

 

[milkshake]

wifi issues be gone already I just want a fast reliable connection to my pandora the same as my xbox and iphone have when they are connected using the existing channel set up these are much faster so surly its a problem with how the pandora's drivers are working?