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CaptPretentious@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

Wifi is just radio. So, having your access point or wifi enabled router surrounded by things is bad for your wifi experience.

To a certain degree, you can do a “poor-mans” way of figuring out how good your wifi would be by just putting a speaker where the wifi should be coming from, then go someplace else in the building and ask yourself, “Can I hear the music still?”. You get an idea of how the wifi is moving about. (Keep in mind, it’s not perfect, but if you don’t want to use apps or specialized equipment and want to wing it… this will work in a pinch). Sound is better than light because wifi will penetrate walls/floors/etc, where light won’t, so you can listen against said surfaces and close doors, etc, to get a general idea of things.

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rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
So neat thing about WiFi, 2.4G Blows through drywall like it’s plastic window screen. 5G is dampened a little by it.

Brickwork/masonry blocks 5G mostly, and 2.4G a lot, but not completely

Most Low E glass blocks 2.4G a lot and 5G almost completely, so a glass wall is horrible for wifi, but if there’s just a window, it’ll easily go through the wall next to it.

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blind3rdeye@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Yeah, sound is better than light for that kind of test - but also still not good; because there are many things that block sound but don’t block wifi, and visa versa. (eg. a well insulated double-glazed window is good vs sound, but doesn’t stop any wifi; and a metal mesh can block wifi while stopping very little sound.)

I remember one time I spent ages trying to debug a wifi problem with my laptop. I was messing around with computer settings and router settings for ages trying to work out why my wifi had stopped working. But in the end, I found that it was entirely due to where I was sitting. I sitting in front of my desktop computer’s very large monitor, and the router directly behind the monitor on a shelf in the room next door. The monitor was blocking the wifi. If I move the laptop or the monitor, it worked fine.

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- CaptPretentious@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  Yeah, that method isn’t intended for enterprise work. But someone who isn’t technical can use it to help figure out what’s going on. Not a single person I’ve ever helped with wifi issues wants to map out things with a wifi analyzer. But ask them to use music and people are far more interested. Even as a thought process since (most) people understand how sound works, if they start thinking of wifi as “noise” they can better understand it.
  
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