weve got a coulpe of access points in a shared office building and teh Wi-Fi is unreliable. lots of neighbouring networks visible. default channel settings on both APs.
how do people approach channel planning in a crowded environment?? and what else should I check besdies channels?? :D around 15 people use it daily, mostly laptops and phones, calls freeze a lot.
ok so to add some context: do a quick survey first. A Wi-Fi analyzer app on a lpatop or phone will show neighbouring networks, their channels and signal strength. walk around teh office and note where your own signal is weak. that tells you whteher the issue is intefrerence, coverage, or both.
been there man surevy shows about a dozen neighbouring networks on 2.4 GHz. 5 GHz is much quieter. APs are both at max transmit power, the office is one floor, roughly open-plan.
On 2.4 GHz, stick to channels 1, 6 and 11 only. Theyre the non-overlappnig ones; anything in between overlaps two of them and makes interference worse. Give ur two APs different channels from that set, ideally the ones least used by your neighbours.
better yet, push as many clients as possible to 5 GHz. there are far more channels there and less congestion. hope that helps :)
turn down transmit power on the APs. it sounds counterintuitive, but two APs at full power overlap heavily, clients cling to teh far one, and they also interfere with each other. moderate power encourages devices to roam to the closer AP. comibned with good channel separation, it often helps more than anything else. lmk how it goes
@eschmidt-2ss did the survey, moved both APs to clean 5 GHz channels, and enabled band steering. Most clients are on 5 GHz now. Huge improvement.
if teh behaviour persists, more detail about the environment would help.
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