Ars Technica: Primer on WiFi Networks and Access Points

The folks on this forum have been helpful with information about all the different things that go into having a successful WiFi connection. This could be a good resource for people to understand that it can get a little complicated, much more than just turning things on and getting the password right.

Would be good to have some comments from those with more technical experience to assist in parsing out the issues in this article.

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Thanks so much for this resource! So far my Wifi has been rock solid (fingers crossed) but I’d better bookmark this just in case.

I learned a few things there, like channel overlap and the latency of a distant device eating up the airtime slowing everyone down.

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Thanks! :sunglasses:

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I have a much less nuanced recommendation: get rid of the piece of crap router you got for free with your last oil change, and buy a mesh system. Any mesh system.

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Ok, I’ll check it out. I’m the only person in this house. It basically a 60 x 60 x 20’ cube, and I don’t experience any issues. But at work it is a different story. We are upgrading our internet from DSL to cable. Yay. Now we need to do something with our WiFi which is now just one router.

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Mesh is definitely the way to go. But be careful not to put the nodes too close together - it’s almost as bad as too far from each other. Too close and if you’re moving through the building the device may stay locked onto a weaker one further away than on the nearer stronger signal.

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Kinda thought that was the whole point of Mesh. The router will bump you between nodes. Otherwise you could just use non mesh extenders and get the same effect.