Why does wireless LAN interfere with Bluetooth?

[-Ryan-]

I've got an Aluminium Macbook 2.4ghz and when I'm using the internet wirelessly at home everything is great. However, when I use my wireless LAN at home to transfer movies or songs or whatever between my iMac which I now use as a server, and my Macbook, my Apple wireless keyboard and mighty mouse drop their connection frequently, or there is a lag with the mouse across the screen. My Macbook has been like this since the day I got it on the 6th of November 2008 and I've recently begun to wonder if this is normal.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

[mkrishnan]

Wireless b/g/n (n doesn't have to, as it has two frequencies) and Bluetooth both use the radio same frequency spectrum (2.4GHz). Anytime you use the same spectrum, you can get interference (and thus microwaves, cordless landline phones, etc, that produce 2.4GHz spectrum can also cause interference).

Usually it isn't a problem between bluetooth and Wifi, but if you're having problems, there are two major options:

1) Move your wireless network over to 5GHz. If you have 802.11n, you can pull your wifi off of 2.4 and move it over to 5.0, which should resolve the issue. You have to make the change at the router.

2) Wifi also has a channel which can be set (also in the router). The channel is just a sort of strip within the 2.4GHz band -- not a completely different frequency. Often if you try a different channel, the problem can be managed that way, too. You can do this regardless of whether you have an 802.11n router or a G-class one.

OTOH it's odd that it would be bandwidth constained in the sense you describe -- it's odd it works fine until you try to transfer a big file. I've never personally seen that before.

 

[-Ryan-]

OTOH it's odd that it would be bandwidth constained in the sense you describe -- it's odd it works fine until you try to transfer a big file. I've never personally seen that before.

I can download off the internet at 2000kbps, yet when I'm transferring over my network at what seems to be around 700kbps to my other computer there is lag. This *never* affects my internet connection, ever. I've tried changing the channel and stuff on the router, but to no avail. Unfortunately I don't have, (and really think I don't need) an N router, so unless there was the potential that this could be permanently fixed, I wouldn't invest in one.