This AM radio snooping malarkay..

[Andy1967]

As some of you may know I've been suffering with a real drop in speed on my connection.  I'd like to thank everyone who has made suggestions or provided advice.   I've also asked Simon at IDNet if he'd be willing to loan me a router so i can try and discount that being the source of my noise.   I'll see what he comes back with.

In the meantim, I've been reading around and seen in few places about using a portable AM radio to try and identify the source of any noise.

I'm keen to give this a go, and would like peoples experience of how effective this is...

1. Is there an ideal frequency to use (seem to remember seeing something about 631kHz on a page i now can't find again)?
2. Where do i trace?  Do i just wander around the house listening for noise?
3. What do i do if i find it?
4. Can I shield my router?  Wrap it in silver foil or something?
5. Is DECT as bad as some people say for interference?  (i've got a DECT 'phone but my signal was okay for a long time while i had this, so not sure it's the cause)
6. What are other major culprits in peoples experience?

thanks

Andy

[Glenn]

Andy,

Detune the radio, then trace along the route of the cabling to the router, as noise is generated, you will find the noise gets louder. If you find a source, switch it off and see if your connection improves. If you find nothing along the cabling route, check all the appliances that you have switched on, including the fridge etc.

[Steve]

 Noise can emanate from power supplies, transformers,refrigerators,electric motors. If you wrap your router in foil it will probably cook nicely. DECT phones have been blamed so it is advised to move the base station away from adsl connections and routers. Major culprits are ring or bell wire,sky boxes,using long extension leads for the adsl connection and poor or faulty filters.

[tehidyman]

This may help with your snooping!

http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/rein.htm