What is Reddit's opinion of
inSSIDer?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
➔ inSSIDer website
By popularity on Reddit, this Service is:
25 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
It works in 2 ways:
- It sends the wifi power in 1 direction
- The aluminum around the WAP rejects noise (unwanted wifi signals, etc.)
It absolutely works. It's measurable with things like InSSIDer.
im no specialist but
if you know how to connect to your router you check out the internet diagnostics
Mine is in the DOCSIS WAN tab
look at the signal noise db levels in all your channels they should all be roughly the same ideally lower than -60 (lower is better) mine are all -38db which is good
you can change channels if one of them is bad
Also InSSIder is an program you can use to manage wi-fi
Do the 2 networks have the same name (SSID)? Would need to change the name of one of them in the router (append -5g or -regular or -2.4g to the current name on one).
Make/model of router? It may need a firmware update.
Is anything else using the 2.4g/regular network? Try disabling it.
Where is the router in relation to the computer?
Could be interference. Change the channel of each network (2.4g: recommend 1, 7, or 11, 5g: need to analyze your area with inSSIDer or WifiInfoView to find best channel)
If cable is not an option for whatever reason, I would suggest looking at interference.
Make sure there are no Microwaves ovens or Cordless phones too close to your devices. You can download an app like InSSIDer to check what other WIFI networks are around, and what channels they are operating on - and change yours to one of the less-busy channels/bands..
(EDIT - Typo)
If you can try one of those with an Ethernet connection to see if it’s a problem with the WiFi on the router.
Changing channels my be a solution if you are getting interference. If you have a laptop download this and scan your house. https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/index-2.html
You could try downloading and running inSSIDer on your laptop. See how strong the signal is in your room versus right next to the router. If there's a big difference, you're struggling to get a signal; if there's no real difference, you probably need a wifi dongle for your laptop.
Have you checked your environment for any wifi interference?
https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/
This will show you what channels are open or which are being used. It will help you pick a good channel. I would look at this to start off with and go from there. Also make sure the ISP router and your Access Point is not sitting right on top of each other. Try that and see what you find.
You can also download InSSIDer (create a free account) and see what your signal levels are, as well as anyone operating another access point on the same channel you are using.
Is your router in the same room as the Quest, and connected to your PC over ethernet cable? These 2 things are pretty much essential, then make sure your are using a 5GHz band, preferably set to a channel with nothing else on it (use https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/ or something similar to see which bands are free)
Then probably check what channel is your Wi-Fi using. If it is overcrowded, then go to your router settings and change it. You can check what channels are used where with this: https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/
I have fiber as well, and a big thing I've noticed with Speedtest.net (and its apps) is that not all of the host servers are created equal! The one that's auto-selected most often for me rarely shows over 500 Mbit. So it's not necessarily an issue on your end.
Try the "Change Server" button on the Speedtest app, and manually try a few different servers. Just now, for example, my PC connected via Ethernet is testing at 500 Mbit on the auto-selected Speedtest server, but 935 Mbit on a server I manually selected. It shows a higher ping time (which is probably why it rarely auto-selects that one), but a much, much higher throughput.
See if that helps before trying to fix your wifi connection; it may be fine. ~~Also, if one of your computers has an Ethernet port, try testing it with a cable to the router. If that's much faster, only then would I bother investigating the wifi.~~ (Nevermind, I see you already did that.) If it's also slow, then it's your fiber connection or (my theory) the speedtest node to which you're connecting.
As for 802.11ac, 300-350 is a little low for being right near the router. 500-550 is what I would expect, so if it's not a Speedtest issue above, then I'd suspect channel interference. If you haven't already, download a wireless spectrum tool like InSSIDer that can show you what channels are in use in your area, and see if you can find a quieter one.
>... because there is a ton of WiFi interference in my house (neighbors have strong routers) and 5G only seems stable within the same room as the respective routers regardless of what channel I set them to.
That's exactly the issue I had with my Netgear router. When I looked at the WiFI spectrum using InSSIDer, I found that the only two 5GHz channels it supported were both packed with other networks.
Normally, an 802.11ac router uses 80 MHz of bandwidth for one "channel," which is four channels' worth of spectrum. Whether I choose channel 36, 40, 44, or 48, for example, it doesn't matter -- my router is going to essentially combine all four of them. The problem is, so is your neighbor! So even though my router offered 8 channels to choose from, effectively it was just two. The vast majority of routers have the same issue, which is why that bit of the spectrum is so congested. (The other channels it offered, 149/153/157/161, have the same issue.)
If you're in a congested area, I strongly suggest looking for a router that can use a couple of what are known as the "DFS" channels. This article has some of the technical explanation, and a list of routers at the bottom that support DFS channels. In particular, look at the channel chart on the right side. It's likely that your older router only supports the "green" channels, and in the 80MHz column, there are only two of them.
I ended up buying an Asus RT-AC86U, and it solved my congestion problem completely. I have two entire 80MHz channels available to myself, because apparently nobody near me has a router that supports them. And without that interference, it's very possible you won't even need that second router anymore.
5GHz is a function of the router and WiFi card, not of your internet plan (unless you're renting a really shitty router from your ISP, which is a bad idea in several ways, and you should get your own router and/or modem). Also, if you are stuck on 2.4GHz, the points about increased range, fewer channels, and interference from neighbors all work against you. If you fire up something like inSIDDer and see more than three 2.4GHz networks, there are no non-overlapping 2.4GHz channels free in your immediate area, and someone watching Netflix on one of those could impact your internet. Not to mention all the other non-802.11 2.4GHz devices that don't show up on something like inSIDDer but can still cause problems.
There's a great guide to Wi-Fi on Arstechnica. It says it's about access point placement, but it really covers almost everything.
I would start with downloading inSSIDer and checking your RF environment.
https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/
If you can't fix it by playing with your Wi-Fi settings, you might need an additional access point.
Check which channel(s) your router wifi sit on. Check the neighbourhood to ensure that you're on either channel 1, 6 or 11, and with the least amount of neighbour wireless interference.
You can use something like inSIDDer for free to determine how busy your current channel is.
I haven't used a sniffer/analyzer in a long time, but you need a wifi sniffer to see whats going on in your environment and make changes. Usually the first thing you want to check is channel congestion.
I've used this one in the past.
Your ISP will have minimum upload and download speeds specified in your contract, use an online speed checker to make sure you're getting what you're paying for. If your connection is ADSL, it's also worth running a line check to make sure there's not too much noise on the line as that will also cause speed degradation. Most telcos will have a way to test that from their website.
Aside from that, are there times when you get particularly bad ping? It could be that there's network congestion, either from people who share your connection (my kids watching Netflix / YouTube has a noticable effect on my ping), or it could be your neighbours firing up their internet enabled devices when they get home from school / work. If it is your neighbours, again that's something to take up with your ISP.
Do you connect to your router wirelessly? If so, make sure you're using band 1, 6 or 13 (explanation). If there are lots of wifi networks around (neighbouring properties), it might be worth switching to one of the other bands above, as if they're set to the same or a nearby band, it can interfere with your signal. You can check this with this handy tool.
Auto options, even in many modern routers, still pick a non-optimal channel. Best to use a tool like https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/ to see which channel has the least amount of co-channel and overlapping channel networks to make an informed decision.
Depends, 6 can be very viable as well. User inSSIDer (free) to see which channel is optimal to use at your location - https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/
Depends on if there are other networks on the same channel. In general, any 5 GHz channel has better potential than a 2.4 GHz channel. But, you would be best to broadcast on a 5 GHz channel that few neighboring networks are using.
Check out inSSIDer (free) to see what channels your neighbors are broadcasting on and the select the one with the fewest other networks.
ask her to get pc in arm's reach to the wifi router, reboot rooter, do tests
​
also check neighboors wifi strenght and channel - https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/free/ or any other
Maybe a wifi site survey would shed some light. Inssider is a useful tool if you have a laptop. If you have an android device, there are a bajillion different wifi survey tools. Don't bother with iOS. Apple locks the wifi hardware away from applications, so it can't be done properly on that platform.
Sounds like a no brainer, but I like to visualize the data and these tools help me do that.
Try running a speed test with your phone or other device connected to the wifi while in the same location as your computer. If the result is the same, it's an issue with the router; if it works fine, it's an issue with the computer.
You can use a program like inSSIDer to check the local wifi channels. On the 2.4 Ghz band, every network should ideally be on channels 1, 6, or 11. Those 3 are the ones that can be used without overlapping part of another channel. Multiple routers (from neighbors, etc.) on the same channel isn't too bad, but slowdowns and latency issues can happen when there are partial overlaps.
I just picked up two A62 APs to replace / test against my previous A60’s. The initial performance wasn’t good so I did a lot of adjusting today. I’m running beta firmware but like to play around at home, I have close to 50 open-mesh APs at customer sites.
Seems the 802.11r feature still doesn’t work, I disabled it, as I did with my A60’s. I saw one of their KB articles saying it’s still not ready for prime time.
I’m running 6.5 beta firmware which added 802.11k roaming “help.” Saw no benefit so turned it off for now, it’s a newly added feature with 6.5 beta so hopefully it will improve. I didn’t put too much time into testing though. I decided to turn off auto channel selection anyway, and you have to have that on if you want to use 802.11k.
6.5 lets you disable older / slower bandwidth technology, “lower legacy data rates” in the Radio config menu. I turned the legacy data rates off for both 2.4 and 5ghz. I don’t have any 2.4ghz devices so set SSID to 5ghz only anyway afterwards.
With auto channel config I was still getting lackluster speeds so I set the channels myself after scanning my area with inSSIDer Free from Metageek. https://www.metageek.com/products/inssider/
Then I enabled VHT80 channel width for both 5ghz radios. https://help.cloudtrax.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000257084?mobile_site=true
Speed is double for me now bouncing up and down between 350-550mbps.
Just use inSSIDer to move the Wifi channel to one not interfered with by the CCTV or the other way around. Also don't use 5ghz if it has that enabled as the range is shit use 2.4 instead. If that doesn't work you are better off making the BT router work in modem mode and using another router to pass that connection over the wifi rather than the other way around.