Which wireless UPC channel ?

SeantheMan

When I was talking to someone from UPC a few months back they told me to set it to "11"
Recently the speed and signal hasn't been what it used to be.
What channel does everyone else use or suggest ?

FSL

Download and install INSSider to check which channels are being used around you. Then if possible choose one which is six away from any of the others. Adjacent channels cause more RF interference than ones further apart.

It's impossible to suggest a channel without knowing the what the other wireless devices in your vicinity are using. Ideally you'd want to keep as far away from them as possible but it's not really something you have control over. Also, on 2.4 GHz some of the channels overlap. In a perfect world, using channels 1, 6 and 11 is recommended to avoid interference due to overlapping channels, but you can't be sure that the other devices are sticking to this.

SeantheMan

I will have a go at this now , thanks.
I'll take a screenshot if possible to determine which is the best

MrVestek

It's been my experience that no matter what you set this to on that UPC router garbage that it'll eventually reset itself and go back to the default of 6 anyway.

Get your own wireless router and save yourself the hassle of having to use their junk.

*ninjaedit*

Alot of routers in the area will more than likely be using 6 also hence your slow speeds and signal issues. Seriously do yourself a favour and buy something half decent.
I bought one of these recently and I love it:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-WR1043ND-Ultimate-Wireless-Gigabit/dp/B002YETVTQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330704971&sr=8-1

If you're that way inclined you can also install custom firmwares on it based on Linux for even better control over the device.

SeantheMan

It doesn't seem to bad according to this.
Below is the link to the screenshot I took, the setting is 2.4ghz
Mine is UPC500

Devices using the wireless at present are my computer (though it also has a wired connection) and the ipad
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2083/upc500.jpg

FSL

There are two operating on channel 11 so they are likely to interfere with each other.

I would change your security to wpa2 and choose a long password which contains non alphanumeric characters.

SeantheMan

They are both mine I think , as you can see they basically have the same MAC address

SeantheMan

SeantheMan wrote: »

They are both mine I think , as you can see they basically have the same MAC address

This seems to be a quirk of the 2425, I've seen it several times on other 2425s too. If you change your channel, that blank SSID will change too.

You could set it to 12 or 13 for best protection but make sure that you're not using any US-spec wireless devices as these won't be able to use 12 or 13.

SeantheMan

I did change the channel to 4 yes, and the blank SSID as you said changed with it

GreenWolfe

SeantheMan wrote: »

It doesn't seem to bad according to this.
Below is the link to the screenshot I took, the setting is 2.4ghz
Mine is UPC500

Devices using the wireless at present are my computer (though it also has a wired connection) and the ipad
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/2083/upc500.jpg

You're UPC500? I'm surprised you're still using WEP. Take a look at how many devices are using your router in the web config page. I wouldn't be surprised if people are using your router without your permission - WEP can be broken very easily.

Unless you have a really good reason to stay on WEP, switch to WPA2.

EDIT: Looks like FSL got there first. Check the DHCP section to see what's using it.

allybhoy

Hi GrahamG,
Its not neccessary to install any programs to find out that info,there is a DOS command that allows you to see all info that you need

From an elevated prompt run netsh wlan show all.

It shows all wireless networks in your vacinity,including channel number, signal strength, transfer rate and encryption\radio type

Output:-

======================================================================
======================= SHOW NETWORKS MODE=BSSID ======================
=======================================================================


Interface name : Wireless Network Connection
There are 3 networks currently visible.

SSID 1 : BLUE
Network type : Infrastructure
Authentication : WPA2-Enterprise
Encryption : CCMP
BSSID 1 : 00:21:d8:c0:2b:e1
Signal : 18%
Radio type : 802.11g
Channel : 6
Basic rates (Mbps) : 5.5 11
Other rates (Mbps) : 6 9 12 18 24 36 48 54