Spectrum Expert analysis - WIFI Problems

[m.s.rees1]

Hi,

We are getting intermittent wifi problems at a particular site and have been advised to use Spectrum Expert. Below is a screenshot of the area that is a problem. 

The access point in the room currently has 23 clients on it and is on channel 52. The channel is being heavily used. As you can see below, the swept spectrogram is showing this channel as mainly red. Could someone please let me know if what i'm see is normal (as it's just busy) or is there interference problems. Any info would be great. Thanks.

[Ric Beeching · Accepted solution]

Hi,

What are your enabled data rates for 5GHz? that spectogram looks pretty normal if you have 23 clients running off it at once. To speed it up you can try channel bonding to 40MHz or removing the lower data rates which will ensure anyone connecting has to be at a decent rate/modulation. The risk there is you may end up exlcuding some clients. In that case another AP in the area can help out.

Ric

[m.s.rees1]

Hi Ric,

Thanks for this, I couldn't find anywhere that clarified the results. I haven't used this software much and wasn't sure if I was seeing busyness or interference when seeing RED in the 'swept spectrogram', but what you say makes sense. We may try and use the channel bonding option as a trial to see if it improves things. Seems like a good idea.

Thanks again.

[Ric Beeching]

Yes the documentation/info is pretty woeful! Some useful resources I can recommend:

Jennifer Huber's guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-8H_XPA__M&t=42s

Meta Geek's Interference Explanations: https://support.metageek.com/hc/en-us/articles/200628894-WiFi-and-non-WiFi-Interference-Examples

Those two combined should help with a better understanding of the spectrum.

Cheers,

Ric

[m.s.rees1]

Ah thanks that's great. I'll definitely give them a look. 

[m.s.rees1 · Accepted solution]

We actually found out that the WiFi was never the problem, it was a windows adaptor issue in the devices which was resolved via a windows update.