[NPMUG] WiFi channels and 2Wire modems/WiFi Routers

[Fozard]

FYI :

Subject: WiFi channels and 2Wire modems/WiFi Routers
From: Mike Bailey
Date: 02/11/2009 07:52 EST

I'm not sure whether to classify this as venting, a warning to others, 
or suggesting a workaround to solve problems.

A good friend of mine recently installed AT&T's UVerse service (which I 
cannot get and according to the installer is unlikely to ever be 
available in my neighborhood because AT&T is not spending any money to 
expand or improve services in existing service areas - mutter, mutter, 
grumble, grumble).

Anyway he has been plagued by dropouts on his wireless network so he 
asked me to come troubleshoot since AT&T was taking a "so what" 
attitude. I took my MacBook Air and used AirRadar to test the WiFi 
signal in his home and discovered no fewer than eleven WiFi network 
signals were reaching his home with signal strengths, as measured by 
AirRadar, running from 0% to 40% and the signal strength in his office 
hitting around 60%. Three of the other networks were stacked on channel 
8, the same channel my friend's network as on. 

That was an easy problem to solve. At least that is what I thought at 
first. Channels 2, 3, and 4 were clear while all the other channels had 
existing networks. So I configured his 2Wire modem/wireless router to 
channel 3. Everything worked beautifully. His network was rock solid, no 
dropouts, excellent data transfer rates, everything just as it should be. 

Twenty-four hours later the network was dropping connections, data 
transfer was dead slow, it was back to the beginning. Not only that his 
network was back on channel 8 along with the three other competing 
networks, one of which was hitting his house with almost the same signal 
strength as his own network. Then we discovered in the manual there is a 
"feature" in the 2Wire modem where IT will decide the optimum channel on 
its own and override the manual setting. A telephone call to AT&T got an 
answer on the order of, "Yes that is a premium feature of our UVerse 
modems and there is no way to override the automatic channel switching. 
If that causes you a problem you are on your own to correct it."

Our next plan of attack is to purchase an Airport Extreme Base Station 
and attach it to the 2Wire modem via ethernet, disable the wireless 
network feature of the 2Wire, configure the firewall in the 2Wire to 
pass the network signal through to the Airport Base Station unfiltered, 
and then use the Airport Base Station to configure and drive his 
wireless network on the channel of his choosing. Other than the cost of 
the Airport Extreme Base Station this is not all bad because it will 
also enable him to use Back To My Mac which the 2Wire will not support.


_________________________

Mike Bailey
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