Alternative solution for poor wireless performance due to over-saturation

Question

Performance of 2.4Ghz wireless networks, in dense housing areas, is generally quite poor. The only "solutions" I've seen are switching channels, or switching to 5Ghz. These aren't really viable solutions, because changing channels doesn't make much of a difference, and certain devices don't support the 5Ghz band.

Symptoms of noisy wireless areas include:

• Poor ping times
• Random packet drops
• Lower than expected bandwidth (especially compared to wired devices)

I invite anyone to suggest solutions that would work, or at least help improve performance, through reduction of outside noise. For example, cover the interior of the house in tin foil?

However, keep in mind the following devices:

• Playstation 4 (PS4) (doesn't support 5Ghz)
• Dell laptops
• Apple Macbook Pro

Answer 1

There are quite a few things you can do, and yes, one of the things is effectively "wrap your house in tinfoil".

*If you use a (preferably grounded) wire mesh around the outside of your place you can reduce the interference quite a bit. Also see here which is an advert for various fabrics which reduce RF signals. You also get paints which can help with shielding.

• WIFI penetration is about maximising the signal to noise ratio - you can improve performance by relocating the router to a more central point in your house and/or using a high gain/directional antenna. Note that high gain antennas don't actually increase the amount of signal, rather they change the shape of it, so it may work well if you occupy a single story. (Doing this effectively makes your equipment shout relative to other equipment).

• Get newer equipment - 802.11AC is better then 802.11n which is much better then 802.11g. Where equipment can take advantage of the newer standard it spends less time slices to send the same amount of data, using less frequency. Importantly, 802.11AC (and to a lesser extent 802.11N) use beam forming by using multiple antennas to try and cancel interfering signals.

• Get better equipment with more antennas (ties in with beam forming, and the ability to use more spectrum). There are huge differences in performance of different types of routers.

• Use multiple AP's - ie do more shouting in your place. You can probably like the AP's up using either 5 gig gear or Ethernet over Power.

• Use cabled solutions (and ethernet over power) where possible to reduce your reliance on wireless spectrum.

• Get rid of passive WIFI repeaters and replace them with bridges - you can free up spectrum that way.

• For best results, rather then try and shout louder then everyone, take the initiative and co-ordinate frequency usage - if you all share the same network you can get MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better performance - particularly if you manage the frequencies (and, ironically REDUCE) the transmission power - you can create overlapping bubbles which allow seamless roaming and blanketting the area with WIFI, but making sure that frequencies are seperated by larger distances. This is how commercial operators do it. Relatedly, make sure you only make use of the non overlapping frequencies to maximise signal to noise ratio).

• Build outer walls with materials which wifi finds harder to penetrate, while using easy-to-penetrate materials internally. Some mirrors (normally older ones) can reflect/block some WIFI signals.