Channel Hopping

[Clive]

I use a Netgear router supplied by IDNet and I've noticed that after downloading Netspot that out of 31 connections around me, most, including my own are on channel 11.  Is it easy to change my channel to one which is less crowded - say channel 1 as there is hardly anyone using that.  Or better still channel 2 which is empty? 

[Simon]

I don't have a Netgear, so I can't tell you where it is, but usually, there's a dropdown menu in the settings somewhere, which allows you to change channels.

[Simon]

This might give you a clue, Clive, even if it's not the exact same model:

http://documentation.netgear.com/wgt624v4/enu/202-10234-01/WGT624_RM-04-05.html

[Clive]

That's very useful Simon.  It seems that the default channel is 11 but is there a reason for that.  And why is 11 so popular?  We sometimes find that despite having ADSL2+ with a 14Mb/s connection, we still get buffering on iPlayer at peak times.  Hence my quest to change channels. 

[Clive]

OK, so I've managed to get into my router settings but I cannot see any way of channel hopping.  The router is a Netgear DG834G but there is no drop down menu to fiddle with.  It's set to channel 11 and that's it! 

[Clive]

Got it!  I had to click on settings.  Channel 2 calling.     Much better!   

[Simon]

 

[Clive]

There is a huge difference!  But there are now 48 connections in my vicinity as opposed to 31 last night. 

[Clive]

So I now have a latency of 16 ms and a 1 ms jitter if that is meaningful.  My speed is 13.75 Mp/s on ADSL2+.

[Clive]

This morning we watched Newsweek on BBC iPlayer and the difference is incredible.  No clunkiness or waiting for pages to load.  Everything was instant and we were watching the programme within seconds.  Previously, after the first few minutes it would stop and start from the beginning again. 

[nowster]

The best channels to use on 2.4GHz are 1, 6 and 11. They don't overlap each other.

[Clive]

Thanks for that tip.  Channel 1 is quite busy but channel 6 has only one user.  I'll jump on it too.