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Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi

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On Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 12:30:46 PM UTC+10, Otto Pylot wrote:
> I'm almost embarrassed to ask this but is there anyway to block my
> neighbors WiFi signals from intruding into my home? I have an AEBS
> (4th Gen) router. We have numerous WiFi devices that have always
> worked perfectly for a long time. About a month ago I bought an iPhone
> 5. WiFi worked great with a nice strong signal. My daughter has an
> iPhone 4 which has always worked equally as well. When she was home
> for the holidays she was complaining that she couldn't connect to our
> network.  I noticed that my iPhone was also having the same issue
> (from the same location in the house btw). Firing up iStumbler I
> noticed that there were a lot more WIFI signals detectable from the
> same location in my house than there used to be. Some quite strong and
> all protected.  Moving the iPhones around the house resolved the
> connection issues. So I'm thinking that in the family room, there are
> very strong neighborhood signals that are causing the iPhones to
> search and attempt to lock on to. The other WiFi devices in the family
> room don't seem to be having connection issues. So, is this 1) an
> issue unique to the iPhones? 2) an AEBS setup issue? 3) true
> interference from the neighbors WiFIs? 4) can I make my WiFi signal
> (2.4GHz) stronger to "overpower" the other signals? and 5) is there
> really anything I can do about it or is this just life in the WiFi
> age? Oh, and we have a utility SmartMeter on the same side of the
> house but I've never noticed any interference issues with it. Thanks.

Apple's devices are more discerning than others when it comes to
connecting to WiFi networks, in that weaker signals or signals with
more noise are often ignored / filtered out because connecting to them
would result in a connection that does not perform well.

If you have a lot of competing access points in the vicinity, and your
router is located in a room that is far enough away from the family room
that the signal to noise ratio is bad there, you could extend your
network into the family room by adding another Airport Extreme/Express
configured to extend the network, which would give you a much stronger
signal in that room. That's what I've done  with a pair of Airport
Extreme access points while living in crowded apartment complexes where
there can be 20 or more competing access points in close proximity, and
it does a decent job of ensuring a good connection in all rooms.

You might try mapping your network with a tool like this to get a visual
indication of signal strength and noise ratio in different locations in
your home:

<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/netspot-wifi-survey-wireless/id514951692?mt=12>

As far as blocking competing signals, that can be done as well, but
requires physical shielding with a metal material that blocks WiFi radio
frequencies. You'd basically have to use a tool to figure out where
competing signals are strongest, and then place blocking material in
between to block those unwanted signals. I haven't ever had to bother
doing anything like that myself. See:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage>

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi scibur314r8t@gmail.com - 2015-12-27 06:29 -0800
  Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-12-27 19:02 +0000
  Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi "Happy.Hobo" <Happy.Hobo@Spam.Invalid> - 2015-12-27 20:35 -0600
    Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2015-12-27 21:40 -0500
      Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi "Happy.Hobo" <Happy.Hobo@Spam.Invalid> - 2015-12-29 15:08 -0600
        Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2015-12-29 16:23 -0500
          Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi "Happy.Hobo" <Happy.Hobo@Spam.Invalid> - 2015-12-29 16:01 -0600
      Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi nellylove690@gmail.com - 2020-09-13 16:19 -0700
        Re: Blocking the neighbor's WiFi Chris Schram <chrispam1@me.com> - 2020-09-14 00:31 +0000

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