I’ve been trying for a month to figure out why I get an intermittent wireless internet signal, and I came up with this theory this weekend:
Perhaps my boyfriend’s very giant brother, who is sitting 2 feet from the wireless receiver, is the one blocking the signal, and as he moves around his desk doing things, the signal comes in and goes out. If you drew a straight line from the receiver to my computer, it would go like this:
receiver > 2 feet > very large body > 50 feet > my computer
Sure, it’s possible. The human body is somewhat electrically conductive, so it reflects and absorbs a fair amount of RF. It’ll cast what’s called an RF shadow. At the microwave frequencies of WiFi, the human body is nearly opaque, and if someone’s standing right in front of the antenna, the signal will be strongly attenuated, although some signal may come through as reflections from nearby walls or other objects. Walls don’t have much water in them and don’t absorb microwaves that much. You could probably duplicate the effect experimentally but putting a medium-sized aquarium on a cart about where the big guy usually sits and move it around until the signal disappears.
This is actually a question I know an answer to, as I am a certified Wireless LAN Engineer with several years of large, enterprise-level implementation experience. The answer is, YES.
Here’s the why:
Water absorbs 2.4ghz energy very efficiently. 2.4ghz is the frequency at which most wireless LANs (at this time) operate, not to mention microwave ovens (which is why food heats up - the microwave energy excites the water molecules…there’s a much longer explanation out there, but that works for now). Not only do human bodies affect wireless LAN transmission, but also trees and concrete.
Speaking specifically, I have implemented a large number of Vocera VoIP (Voice-over-IP, also called voice over WLAN) installations in hospitals. The absorbing qualities of the human body are actually considered to be part of the design, since Vocera is a StarTrek-type communicator badge worn on the body, and makes it a semi-directional device. It’s really very cool…but like I said, the 2.4ghz-absorbing qualities of the human body are part of the design.
So again - YES, it is not only possible, it’s PROBABLE, since he’s so close to the transceiver.
Oh, yeah…I forgot. Move the transceiver somewhere ABOVE him, and it’ll cover the whole apartment/house usually just fine (standard transceiver can cover 1500-2000 sq.ft. under “normal” conditions).
Well, the aquarium thing wasn’t really meant to be a suggestion.
Anyway, yes, if you can move the antenna that ought to solve your signal issues. If it doesn’t, it might be worth trying a high-gain antenna on your receiver. Those are available for less than $20.
Wouldn’t moving the vlg be somewhat easier - Kick him out for a while and see how the connection holds up. If the wireless is ok, you need a more permanent solution.
As this has been kinda answered, I hope no one minds if I hijack a little. I also get an intermittent wireless signal. It actually seems to be the router that disconnects every so often (and as there’s only me in the house, it seems unlikely that I am blocking signals!). It only started happening in the last couple of months, and before that the signal seemed pretty constant.
Is there anything I can do about this, or is it likely to be the input that is the problem (and therefore something I should contact my ISP about)?
One of yours neighbors may have got a cheap gigahertz range telephone, that will sometimes be the interference. Do you know how to change your router’s wireless channel? If there is another router close by with the same channel number(there are 11 possible channels but really only three channels that are totally separate: 1,6, and 11) that might be a cause, set your router to a different channel and see if that helps.
If you want to do a little investigating NetStumbler is a nifty little utility that I use. It can detect and show you all the wireless connections that are in range, even some that you didn’t know about!
