Wifi interference

J

JamesTXSD

Active member
Those of us who use any kind of wifi hot spot (Mifi card, phone as hot spot, wireless broadband card in a wireless router, etc) know the convenience of such a device. Nice to be able to be online with more than one device while mobile. Recently, we ran into a situation in an RV park that may be becoming more prevalent: interference with the park's wifi broadcast. Many marinas are now providing wifi, so this isn't just a land based situation.

With 11 channels for wifi broadcast, two competing stations in close proximity can cause interference for each other. We have run into the interference situation in one large RV park and have heard of other parks that now have "no personal hot spot" rules.

There is a free app available for Androids and iPhone/iPad called Wifi Analyzer that lets you see what wifi signals are nearby and what channel they're on. Easy enough then to set your device for an unoccupied (or least busy) channel.

That said, we have now been using the Droid Bionic as our hot spot for about a month; it is much faster compared to the Mifi card (two years old) that we were using previously. We ran side-by-side comparisons with the two, and the Bionic was consistently 30-50% faster. Of course, a current Mifi card may be faster than the 2 year old card we were using.

In the past couple weeks, we have come across some 4G areas... the download speeds with the Bionic as a hot spot are up to 10 times faster than the 3G areas. And, if you believe the advertising, Verizon (and I'm sure all the others) are adding more 4G all the time. Nice to have an unlimited plan.

We will be dropping our Mifi data plan, in favor of the Bionic as a hot spot... only $30 per month (on top of the $30 required data plan for the phone) compared to the $60 data plan for the Mifi. One button press on the phone to fire up the hot spot, so no difference in ease compared to the Mifi.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
Thanks Jim for the write up. I too have the bionic and have noticed the speed is greatly improved. In my location we are stuck with 3g but it's ample for my needs. Really looking forward to 4g if you say it's 10 times faster.

I have been thinking about firing up the Hot spot as I don't have an internet connection in my home in Brookings when I'm on the coast. It sure would be handy getting off the cell phone and using the laptop.

I also have used Androids WiFi Analyzer in several locations and as you say it too is very handy looking for unused channels.

H :wink:
 
Jim
Technically there are only 3 Channels available. This is because there needs five channels of separation. Leaving channels 1, 6, 11. If someone set there WIFI to 3 it will interfere with 1 and 6. The strongest signal wins. Try setting up a WIFI network over an entire city. You have to move the towers around to get rid of the interference or boost your signal so it stomps on the other guy. Then after you get it all up and running the new guy moves in and it's time to start over. I have one of the old MIFI's with a 5 gig limit. My Iphone has the hotspot but if I turn it on I lose the unlimited data plan. So here I sit trying to decide if I want to save $30 bucks a month and lose the unlimited data.
 
Using PDANet on the iPhone, more often than not tethered, it is faster and keeps the battery charged on the iPhone. Also no WiFi interference obviously.
 
PDANet is available through Cydia for jailbroken iPhones, but I'm sure your carrier wouldn't approve of you using it. That said, I've been using it for several months now and it has worked out great and no complaints from AT&T so far.

By enabling tethering this way, I was able to keep my unlimited data plan too.
 
Bob, my particular verizon plan is unlimited for data but if you use your phone as a "hot spot", you're limited to a certain amount per month throuth it to another device. 2GB I think.

Charlie
 
Captains Cat":1w8rvocn said:
Bob, my particular verizon plan is unlimited for data but if you use your phone as a "hot spot", you're limited to a certain amount per month throuth it to another device. 2GB I think.

Charlie
Click to expand...

When we checked (then, double checked) with Verizon, we were assured that we have unlimited data when using the Droid as a hot spot (it even says "unlimited" on the data icon on the screen). May be because the initial data plan on the Droid is unlimited, but I did buy my first Droid on the first day they were available... grandfathered in? Joan's data plan on her iPhone4 is definitely for only 2gb, for the same price.

She is REALLY enjoying the iPhone, especially while traveling.

In checking our data usage with the Mifi, it was a very rare month that we went over 5gb.

I was told that if we were to upgrade our Mifi to a 4G model, we would lose our unlimited plan. Interesting how they pull the strings on that.

Best wishes,
Jim
 
Yes Jim , I am a grandfathered user of an unlimited data plan .But the question in how much data can a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck data .Good for the wanderers though . Its a lot of electrons.......
BTW the Droid RAZR was announced today . 4G and very sexy form factor with nice screen,latest system and fast processor .
Maybe my next device .
Maybe.
Marc
 
PDANet is indeed available from junefabrics.com, and is available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows and Palm. You do need to jailbreak your iPhone and get PDANet from Cydia. Jailbreaking is not illegal, it only allows you to install non-Apple approved software on an Apple device. PDANet is probably the main reason (but certainly not the only reason) to jailbreak your iPhone. A trial version is available for free, it works for a couple of weeks, and then requires you to buy it ($20) in order for it to log on to sites requiring a log on. Works both as a WiFi hot spot and for USB tethering, and it works flawlessly. PDANet, we have to acknowledge, probably violates the "terms of service," although as I see it, a byte of data is a byte of data is a byte of data, no matter how you use it. As far as I know, nobody has reported any issues using PDANet on Verizon.

I do tend to use the Verizon MiFi most often, though, since we are paying for it, and we would normally never exceed the 5 GB limit - did once but that was a month I downloaded two Ubuntu CD images, will probably not do THAT again! PDANet on the iPhone is very convenient though, and in truth, we could do without the MiFi and only use PDANet if we were not already signed up for the MiFi.
 
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