Troubleshooting Wi-Fi Issues: Channel Interference and Solutions

Too much Wi-Fi can create traffic jams, severely slowing down connections in crowded environments.

### Troubleshooting Wi-Fi: Understanding Interference and Optimization Strategies
* 📶  Longtime viewers are aware of the ongoing challenges faced with the tech setup in the new house, particularly with the **Wi-Fi connectivity issues** that have arisen.
* 🔌  Initially, the problems were attributed to interference from smart home devices, but the root cause was traced back to **all access points defaulting to channel one** in the 2.4 GHz band, leading to a **significant traffic jam**.
* 📉  The 2.4 GHz band, while offering advantages such as **range and compatibility**, can create a nightmare scenario due to **overlapping channels**, which results in **reduced speeds and connectivity issues**.
* 🔍  Utilizing a spectrum analyzer reveals that even without active connections, access points generate **significant background traffic**, complicating the wireless environment.
* 🚦  To improve Wi-Fi performance, it is crucial to **change the channel settings on routers** to avoid crowded channels, while also considering the **transmit power of access points** to reduce interference among neighbors.
* 📡  Transitioning devices to **5 GHz or 6 GHz bands** can further alleviate congestion, as these bands offer **higher speeds and better performance**, especially with Wi-Fi 7 technology that supports **dynamic switching between bands**.
* 🤝  Ultimately, collaboration among neighbors to optimize their Wi-Fi settings can lead to a **more efficient use of the wireless spectrum**, benefiting everyone involved.
* 🎧  For those interested in enhancing their audio experience, the video also features a sponsor segment about the **Open Run Pro twos**, which utilize **innovative sound technology**.

longtime viewers will know that I've had my fair share of problems with all of the tech that I've stuffed into my new house. But one of the biggest pain points has been the wi-fi. At first, I thought it might be random interference from dodgy smart home gadgets, and then I blamed the devices themselves, which would just disconnect and then refuse to reconnect seemingly at random. But as it turned out, the answer was both more complicated and also simpler than I thought. Every one of my access points had defaulted to channel one in the 2.4 GHz band, which meant that even though I never configured that, I had a traffic jam of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi around my entire house. Which got me thinking, is it possible to have too much Wi-Fi? How bad would that be? And it's already completely bricked our video streams. Turns out, pretty bad. So if you want to improve your Wi-Fi at home, the answer is not to put an access point in every room. Though you know what you could put in every room? Wa no, not

that our sponsor Ridge. They're doing a massive sweepstakes now until September 13th with prizes like a gold-plated cyber truck, a Hennessy Velociraptor, which is also a truck, or $100,000 in cash. Enter for free or grab a mystery wallet at ridge.com Linus mystery for just $69. Nice. As fun as it would be to start here first, we need to back up a little. We have a full video on this EMC Chamber from Raymond DMC, but the TL;DR is this room blocks radio waves, creating an absolutely ideal environment for testing manufacturer claims. So, we've got our one access point here configured to 2.4 GHz Channel 1, and we've got our Wi-Fi 7 laptop over there, which we'll be using to complete a 10 GB file transfer and go, Wow, that's really impressive, but it's still going to take a while. So, while we wait for that to complete, I should probably explain why you would never see these results at home. 2.4 GHz

has been in use for Wi-Fi since 802.11b hit the market back in 1999. It has some major drawbacks these days, but also a few key advantages that keep it in use, namely its legacy compatibility, its superior maximum range, and its very low implementation cost. Unfortunately, it's these very same advantages that can turn 2.4 GHz into such a nightmare. Allow me to demonstrate. Well, I just did. I bet those speeds dropped to like half, right? Uh, they're all... oh, now they're going down. There they go. Yep, took a second, but they're about half now. Cool, right? But not scientific. Let's get the door closed and show you what happened in a controlled environment. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say you probably don't live in an electromagnetic isolation cell, so let's try to create a more real-world environment within our cell. In our scenario, you live in a windowless apartment with neighbors on all six sides, and those will be represented by the six access points that we're going

to position around the room. I'm going to assume that your internet service provider negotiated an exclusivity deal with the builder, so all of your neighbors have the same default router running factory default settings. And would you look at that, seven Wi-Fi. Let's do the same file transfer. Yeah, it's not bad. Oh, but it sure as heck isn't 20 megabytes a second. No problem, you say. As long as we aren't all streaming Netflix at the same time, it shouldn't be a problem. And yet it is. It's not the slowest thing ever, but it's definitely slower than what we saw last time. So, what's going on? Meet the ypy dbx. While you can use a free app on your phone to see all of the wireless networks around you, including which channels they're operating on, which goes a long way, you need a spectrum analyzer tool like this one to see just how busy the airwaves are. These new U7 Pro Max devices also have a built-in antenna just for spectrum analysis, meaning that

once you install them, you can then actually check where they're conflicting, which channels are issues, and the waterfall effect, just like the Y spy. You can actually see right here on channel one where all of our access points are loaded up. We are looking at anywhere from 35 to 45% utilization. And what's really wild is the traffic you're seeing isn't from them doing anything; it's just from them looking for devices that might want to connect to them. So, let's kick things up a notch and play a YouTube video. And as expected, basically no difference. I mean, if you couldn't watch a YouTube video when you had six neighbors, Wi-Fi wouldn't work at all. So, this shouldn't be a surprise. But what happens if your neighbors all get home and start streaming video as well? I can see the utilization changing. Wow, that's a lot more traffic already. Yep, I don't even have all of them connected yet. There you go, all six of our neighbors. That's a lot spicier, basically.

red equals bad, and what's really interesting is that even though our utilization isn't 100%, you can see frequent hitches in our phones here. Oh, oh, that one's really bad. Now, Parseek, being a real-time streaming application rather than loading in chunks like YouTube, is a worst-case scenario, but it's also a real-world one. So, let's see what our file transfer looks like with all of those running at the same time. Actually, that's better than I expected, but definitely slower. What's even more interesting, though, is the way that now, instead of just this one hitching all the time, they're all doing it as they wait around for their turn to transfer data. But wait, hold on a second, Lonus. What are the phones waiting for? Each phone is connected to just one of our six access points. They're not sharing the connection with anything else. Ah, but to use a classic networking analogy where data payloads are cars and wireless spectrum is roads, you can actually see in the utilization here that because they are all using the

factory default configuration. They're all sharing the same road. This limits the maximum total bandwidth across all of these devices in spite of the fact that they're all connected to different access points. This creates traffic jam situations as the APS and the connected devices fight to decide whose turn it is to go. Now, the obvious solution would be to add more roads for these guys to drive on, and they do do that in most cases. The 2.4 GHz Spectrum has three non-overlapping channels, but this only helps if everyone works together to avoid using the same channels as each other, and even then, it only helps to a point. While most real apartments don't have neighbors on every single side, because of 2.4 GHz's incredible wall-penetrating power, it's still common to see as many as a couple of dozen nearby access points that are clogging up the airwaves. And we're about to kick things up another notch to show you why that can be such a problem after we check on that file transfer. Oh, I'm going to make

it's oh God. I didn't make it. It is much slower. Yeah, I don't feel like waiting around for this. You're going to get... I'll get the actual times of them. You'll make graphs and stuff. Yeah, nice. Let's put in some more APS. Let's do [Music]. It now, courtesy of ubiquity. Instead of six neighbors, we're going to have 50. Now, we didn't have 50 phones to pair of them, but as you're about to see, just having this many APS in a room together is going to cause some serious problems. Are these ones here plugged in? They're boing up. Yeah, no, I see them flashing, and it's already completely bricked our video streams. The thing to remember here, guys, is none of the access points we just put in the room are actually connected to anything. But what about our file transfer, Elijah? I don't even think you'll get it started, but go for it. I'm still connected to Wi-Fi, which is more than some of my devices could do at home. Yes, they would.

disconnect and simply not be able to reconnect. Maybe that's good news then. I doubt it. It already lagged at the beginning. It hasn't even figured out that it's the same file. That's right because it would ask for the copy replace. It hasn't even prompted me if I want to overwrite it. Oh hold on let's uh let's fire up the Spectrum analyzer. This will still work because it doesn't rely on being connected to Wi-Fi. Oh we've exceeded their default scale uh which is at minus 80 DB. Ah here we go. I didn't know it went that color of red. That is a very very swamped Network and what's really interesting is Elijah go ahead and kill the attempts at Parx streaming here. Look at this even with all the parex streams dead that utilization is still 100% and most of these don't have any devices connected to them and even the ones that do aren't transferring anything. So what's on the road a lot of things sending out

multiple pings a second to check for devices to connect to, uh, checking for devices it might have lost a connection to, or sometimes they're even trying to adjust their settings based on detecting traffic that might be in the air. And when you get enough of this background noise traffic, this results in an environment where we can't even begin transferring a file. So, what can we do to fix it? We can start by changing the channel. Very fun, funny. Now, your interface is probably going to look a little bit different, but nearly every wireless router or access point has a similar option buried somewhere in the admin control panel, allowing you to select another channel. There are a couple of things to watch out for, though, and the first one is selecting the right one. We'd recommend downloading an app such as Wi-Fi man to see which channels are most utilized in your area so that you can select one that is, well, not those ones. Another thing to watch out for is not getting tempted by the in-between channels. They might look less utilized, but because of the way they

overlap with channels 1, 6, and 11. They can end up causing more problems than they solve. Now, I can practically hear you asking, Lonus, why would I do any of this when I can just enable automatic channel switching? And that's a good question. Sometimes, as a set-and-forget solution, it can be great, but depending on your device and, more importantly, your neighbor's devices, they might only scan for access points while they're booting up, which can lead to them accidentally ending up stuck on suboptimal overlapping channels. While you're in here, by the way, load balancing between channels is the most important step, but a surprisingly effective strategy to help everyone around you out can be to lower the transmit power of your access point. If everyone in an apartment complex did this, everyone's speed within their unit would probably be the same, but they'd be much less likely to interfere with their neighbors outside of their unit. The last big fix is to move any devices that you can off of 2.4 GHz. For me, this unfortunately wasn't

possible since I have a handful of smart devices that only work on 2.4 GHz. But for everything else, 5 GHz and especially 6 GHz offer multiple benefits, which is a huge advantage of Wi-Fi 7 devices like the UniFi lineup that we used. Wi-Fi 7 capable devices are able to dynamically switch between 6 and 2.4 GHz bands to adjust for latency or any other factors that may be affecting your connection, with some devices even supporting MLO or multi-link operation, allowing your client devices to connect using all three bands at the same time, which aggregates their bandwidth together for greater overall performance. The only drawback is that compared to 2.4, they don't offer the same range. That's why the best installations configure their APs to use a combination. Let's say you're in a pretty big house or a small business, and you've got an AP right in the middle. You need to extend your 5 GHz range to the far reaches of the building. So, okay, you add two more APs, but now

your 2.4 GHz devices are all talking over each other. Well, no problem. Most APS allow the 2.4 GHz radio to be turned off so you can have your range and eat your speed too. In the real world, nailing down all of these optimizations can be challenging, though, especially if you aren't on the best terms with your neighbors. But who knows? Maybe if you show them this video, they might see how if we all cooperate, there's enough Wireless Spectrum for everyone. And now for a word from our sponsor, Shocks. The open run Pro twos are a unique design using both the power of bone conduction and air conduction to produce crisp highs and un-muddied bass. The magic behind it all? Their dual pitch technology. It's fine-tuned to provide premium sound quality while reducing leakage to keep that audio for your ears only. Octopushy. From Russia with Love. The unique design sits comfortably and unintrusive on top of your ear but stays nicely in place, making them shockingly

great for sports like running, cycling, working out, competitive tic-tac-toe. I don't, I don't know what you're into. Plus, it has all the features you'd expect, like wind resistance, noise-cancelling mics, on-device controls, and an IP55 sweat and water resistance rating. Electrify your life, get your own pair of Open Run Pro twos using our link in the description. If you guys enjoyed this video, maybe check out the one where I first set up Wi-Fi 60 access points in my house and, uh, forgot to disable 2.4 on some of them. Maybe it's time to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7. Is it time? Let's do it. I noticed we have a bunch of APs in there.

Can You Have Too Many WiFi Routers?

Linus Tech Tips is a passionate team of "professionally curious" experts in consumer technology and video production who aim to educate and entertain.


Linus Tech Tips

The author has struggled with Wi-Fi problems in their new house, initially blaming smart home gadgets and device disconnections.

The real issue was all access points defaulting to channel one in the 2.

4 GHz band, causing a traffic jam of Wi-Fi signals.

The video explores the drawbacks and advantages of 2.

4 GHz Wi-Fi, highlighting its legacy compatibility, range, and low cost, while also demonstrating how too much Wi-Fi can lead to decreased speeds.

Shared Wi-Fi networks in a building can lead to slower internet speeds due to multiple users and overlapping channels.

A spectrum analyzer tool can help identify conflicting access points and busy channels.

When multiple neighbors start streaming video simultaneously, it can cause frequent hitches and delays in data transfer, affecting the overall performance for everyone.

The Challenges of Wi-Fi Device Connectivity

Multiple devices sharing the same road (frequency) limits total bandwidth, causing traffic jams despite being connected to different access points.

4 GHz spectrum offers three non-overlapping channels, but coordination is needed to avoid congestion.

Adding more access points in a room can exacerbate the problem, leading to significant connectivity issues and slow data transfer.

The network is experiencing 100% utilization, even with no devices actively transferring data.

Background noise traffic from multiple devices sending out pings is causing interference and preventing file transfers.

To fix the issue, changing the Wi-Fi channel is recommended, and using an app like Wi-Fi Man can help identify the least utilized channels in the area.

Overlapping Wi-Fi channels can cause more problems than they solve, and automatic channel switching may not be effective.

Lowering the transmit power of access points and moving devices off the 2.

Wi-Fi 7 devices offer dynamic switching between bands and multi-link operation for better performance, but a combination of bands is ideal for extending coverage.

4 GHz devices interfere with each other, but turning off the 2.

Cooperation with neighbors may optimize wireless spectrum usage for everyone.

The Open Run Pro twos offer a unique design for premium sound quality and are great for sports, with features like wind resistance and water resistance.