Which WiFi channel is best for Linksys & Mac together

[agentphish]

So I have 3 macs in the house, 2 powerbooks of similar vintage, and one PowerMac G5 (with that small external apple-supplied WiFi antenna.)

All three have airport extreme wireless G cards in. I have a Linksys WRT54GX-v2 wireless router (one of the few linksys ones that ISN'T compatible with DDWRT) that is positioned in my office room upstairs where the G5 is. It is currently broadcasting on Channel 11.

I have been running AirRadar to see what kind of signal strength I am getting, what I'm seeing concerns me a bit with regards to the fact that the G5 is literally within 3 feet of the Linksys router (it's got MiMo, meaning it has 3 antennas on it) and it only gets 60-70% Signal.

My powerbooks downstairs are getting just 49-59% signal.

However, even with these numbers I don't seem to be experiencing speed issues.

So I guess my question is, if I change my channel, might I get better signal, and what channel have people had the best signal experiences with on Mac.

I know that when I first set this router up a year ago, It was on like channel 4 or something like that and my powerbooks were having difficulties downstairs.

Thanks

 

[EricNau]

It depends entirely on the nearby sources of interference: the frequencies used by appliances in your house (microwave, telephone, etc.), and the wifi channels used by your neighbors.

Using AirRadar, scan the area for other wifi signals and avoid those channels, and out of the remaining available channels just experiment to find the best option.

 

[agentphish]

As far as stuff in my house goes, really there's nothing even close to the router, probably 30 feet away is a microwave.

15 feet below me is a 42" LCD tv. That's it.

The two networks my neighbors have are on Chan 6. One managed, one not.

 

[ashjamben]

why dont you just try some out?

i remember going through hell with stupid people in india (no offence) call centres who were 'specifically mac trained' who couldn't get my wireless router working.

i tried lots of different channels to no avail, it was only when i read that channels 12 and 13 will only work with some devices i decided to try it, and to my surprise it worked (or i also clicked something else that made it work)

so at the moment i believe i'm on channel 12 with full strength when i'm about 20m away

 

[operator207]

As far as stuff in my house goes, really there's nothing even close to the router, probably 30 feet away is a microwave.

15 feet below me is a 42" LCD tv. That's it.

The two networks my neighbors have are on Chan 6. One managed, one not.

Anything unshielded will cause interference. I broken flyback converter in a microwave will cause a TON of interference up to 60 feet away. But only if its running.

Use air radar, find any other APs using channels, and get at least 2 channels away.

If something is using channel 6, it is also using channel 5 and channel 7. So if the AP using channel 6 is present, you want to us channel 9 since channel 9 will also use channel 8 and channel 11.

 

[noodle654]

Download the widget Airport Radar at www.macwireless.com. Go through all the channels and it will show you which is the strongest. The best channel to use is 11 and I recommend putting your Linksys router to Wireless G Only or Wireless B/G. Using "Mixed" will include wireless N and there is a HUGE problem with Linksys and Macs wireless N.