PC Magazine - USA (2021-03)

(Antfer) #1

In that same vein, all modern routers can switch across different channels when
communicating with your devices. Most routers will choose the channel for you,
but if neighboring wireless networks are also using the same channel, you’ll
encounter signal congestion. A good router set to Automatic will try to choose
the least congested channel, but older or cheaper routers may just choose a
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networks are using. From the command prompt type netsh wlan show all, and
you’ll see a list of all wireless networks and the channels being used in your
vicinity. The aforementioned network analyzers can also show you this
information, often in an easier-to-read graphical format.


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neighbors are using channels 6 and 11. In general, for 2.4GHz you want to stick
to channels 1, 6, and 11 since they’re the only ones that don’t overlap with other
channels (which can degrade performance). 5GHz generally uses non-
overlapping channels, however, which should make selecting the right one
much easier.


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administrator interface, head to the basic wireless category, and try selecting
one manually (ideally, one that isn’t in use by many networks in your area). Run
another speed test to see if that provides a better signal and faster speeds over
the Automatic setting in your problem areas.

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