Wireless networks are truly ubiquitous. If you live in any moderate residential density area, or just take a stroll down a city block, it wouldn’t be uncommon to come across dozens of wireless networks broadcasting their whereabouts for any and all to receive. From a single location you can probably see at least a few networks with a strong signal strength. The prevalence of WiFi comes at a cost – too much in the airwaves can result in an unstable wireless connection, not unlike a dropped call on your cellphone.
While there are many tweaks available to aid in maintaining an excellent wireless connection, sometimes the simplest can be just changing your network channel or the frequency your network transmits on. Current WiFi utilizes the 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz bands but within the bands there exists segments, or channels. The more wireless activity on a channel, the harder it is for your wireless connection to remain solid.
Changing your wireless channel is straightforward and generally involves a visit to your wireless router’s admin web page. To determine the appropriate channel you must first survey the existing networks that are broadcasting.
inSSIDer is an excellent free utility that can accomplish just that.
Once installed and executed, inSSIDer automatically begins monitoring all wireless activity in order to map the existing networks. You may find it interesting to see that the utility uncovers all SSID’s in the vicinity irregardless of whether they are broadcasting their SSID. A hidden SSID is not an improve in security!
After a few moments you can begin to see all the channels that contain network traffic. In my area, it appears I would want to stay away from channel 6 or 10 as they occur the most often.
Changing your wireless channels will require you accessing the web administration page of your router – as mentioned above. If you are unsure of your wireless router’s address likely your default gateway address in Windows. Open a Command Prompt and issue the command ipconfig. Identify your Default Gateway and visit that address within your web browser – note that many routers require a physical connection to the router in order to access the configuration!
At this point, the admin interface will be unique to every router be generally you can find the information you wish to change under Wireless Network or Wireless Network Settings. I would caution, when in doubt, or if this is confusing to you, do not attempt the changes before consulting your router’s manual!