Originally Posted By: K447
Access Point channel allocation and channel mapping often is more important than raw WiFi signal strength.

Assigning WiFi channels to interleave with each other reduces interference and setting the channel overlaps to physically distant routers can make a big difference.

Do you use an app like this WiFi Analyzer to see what WiFi sources are using which channels and manage the frequency overlaps?

I often find a huge number of w24Ghz WiFi sources 'stacked' onto the same channel, sometimes a half dozen or more on channel 6, for example.

Even on the 5GHz band it is not unusual to find several routers using the exact same couple of channels rather than spacing themselves out. 5GHz band has some weirdness with some channels being regulated to lower power and some channels only being available in automatic mode, not manual settable.


As I understand it, in the 2.4 GHz range you want to limit APs to channels 1, 6, and 11 - so it does look stacked. Each channel actually overlaps a couple channels on either side, but only negotiates for time with other APs on the same channel. So, for instance, two APs on channels 6 and 7 will interfere rather than cooperate. That said, strategically balancing between those three channels and our neighbors is useful.

Channel bonding in the 2.4 band also causes overlap problems.

The channels in the 5 GHz band don't exhibit the same overlap, but oddly do still get stacked - I've seen it in condo buildings a lot. I live in an older, small-lot town, see 18 of the 2.4 GHz ssids, but usually detect only my two using 5 GHz.

(And everything I have that doesn't move around - media center, printers, storage - is hard wired.)

-jk