Does weather affect wireless network?

Hi. I am new to wireless and network. I noticed last night, one of the
computer's USB NIC (DLink) for wireless has its signal very weak and
sometimes cannot find connection (no signal). The only difference was
that the weather was a lot cooler and raining.

I tried moving the NIC to higher on a bookshelf and the signal was a
lot better (60%).

I was told that this is normal. Is this true? Thank you in advance.
--
"Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (E-Mail Removed)NT or (E-Mail Removed)NT
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

(E-Mail Removed) wrote in news:OpCdnbR-mZdh1zmiRVn-(E-Mail Removed):

> Hi. I am new to wireless and network. I noticed last night, one of the
> computer's USB NIC (DLink) for wireless has its signal very weak and
> sometimes cannot find connection (no signal). The only difference was
> that the weather was a lot cooler and raining.
>
> I tried moving the NIC to higher on a bookshelf and the signal was a
> lot better (60%).
>
> I was told that this is normal. Is this true? Thank you in advance.

It's using radio frequencies and I would think anything can interfere with
it including bad weather.

Duane

Entity (E-Mail Removed) spoke thus:

> The only difference was
> that the weather was a lot cooler and raining.
Definitely water blocks electromagnetic waves, and 2.4 gigahertz is
especially finicky. Microwave ovens operate on this same principle.
Wet vegetation is the worst, refracting waves allover the place.

-- Gnarlie

If all of your stations are inside, the weather shouldn't make any
difference. It's more likely just temporary interference from some other
device, or a neighbor's wifi lan, or problems with reflection and absorption
that you fixed by moving the NIC to get better line of sight. If you have
any bluetooth devices, any 2.4Ghz cordless phones, and cordless keyboards
that use 2.4 Ghz, or an older microwave, they might cause interference. Wifi
lans are finicky.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:OpCdnbR-mZdh1zmiRVn-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hi. I am new to wireless and network. I noticed last night, one of the
> computer's USB NIC (DLink) for wireless has its signal very weak and
> sometimes cannot find connection (no signal). The only difference was
> that the weather was a lot cooler and raining.
>
> I tried moving the NIC to higher on a bookshelf and the signal was a
> lot better (60%).
>
> I was told that this is normal. Is this true? Thank you in advance.
> --
> "Thanks for giving me the courage to eat all those ants." --unknown
> /\___/\
> / /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
> | |o o| | E-mail: (E-Mail Removed)NT or (E-Mail Removed)NT
> \ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
> ( )

I have wifi link between two houses 70m apart. Originally the signal
strength fluctuated widely from 0 - 36% , but could not relate it to weather
or rain. Since I have moved the receiver up to 5" high to more direct line
of sight the fluctuation is now 10 - 42%, but mostly 30 - 38% and it never
losses connection anymore.
Still can't detect any weather interference.
Regards,
Martin

Martin² <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:

> Still can't detect any weather interference.

Rain fading is more of a problem in the 12GHz and up range.
For instance way back when NEAR Net used 26GHz DEC Metrowave
bridges I could easily tell when it was raining in Mass even
though I'm in California, heh..

Billy Y..

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hi. I am new to wireless and network. I noticed last night, one of the
> computer's USB NIC (DLink) for wireless has its signal very weak and
> sometimes cannot find connection (no signal). The only difference was
> that the weather was a lot cooler and raining.

> I tried moving the NIC to higher on a bookshelf and the signal was a
> lot better (60%).

> I was told that this is normal. Is this true? Thank you in advance.

Currently, it is very good signal. 95% to 100% signals. The weird part
is that it is cloudy and 84%+ humidity (as an hour ago according to
weather.com). No rain. It was at about 11:00 PM PST when I checked.
--
"There's an ant crawling up your back in the nighttime." --TMBG
/\___/\
/ /\ /\ \ Ant @ The Ant Farm: http://antfarm.ma.cx
| |o o| | E-mail: (E-Mail Removed)NT or (E-Mail Removed)NT
\ _ / Remove ANT if replying by e-mail from a newsgroup.
( )

if it is raining outside then the humidity is going to be higher, it
will also be higher in your house unless you live in a zip-lock bag...
2.4 ghz is the resonant frequency of water...the more water in the air
(humidity) the weaker your signal will be... so yes the weather does
affect it. like wise, your connection should be better on extremely
dry days. BUT more to the point is this, it should be very easy for
you to fix this problem by simply moving the ap to a better location.

cal-

(E-Mail Removed) wrote in message news:<gYGdnXKD3P1rzjqiRVn-(E-Mail Removed)>...
> (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> > Hi. I am new to wireless and network. I noticed last night, one of the
> > computer's USB NIC (DLink) for wireless has its signal very weak and
> > sometimes cannot find connection (no signal). The only difference was
> > that the weather was a lot cooler and raining.
>
> > I tried moving the NIC to higher on a bookshelf and the signal was a
> > lot better (60%).
>
> > I was told that this is normal. Is this true? Thank you in advance.
>
> Currently, it is very good signal. 95% to 100% signals. The weird part
> is that it is cloudy and 84%+ humidity (as an hour ago according to
> weather.com). No rain. It was at about 11:00 PM PST when I checked.

In article <(E-Mail Removed) >,
Calvin Paxson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
:2.4 ghz is the resonant frequency of water

Urr, no, it isn't.

http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/microwave.html

The frequency for maximum dielectric loss lies higher than the 2.45
GHz (0.0817 cm-1) produced by most microwave ovens. This is so that
the radiation is not totally adsorbed by the first layer of water
it encounters and may penetrate further into the foodstuff, heating
it more evenly; unabsorbed radiation passing through is mostly
reflected back, due to the design of the microwave oven, and
absorbed on later passes.
--
IEA408I: GETMAIN cannot provide buffer for WATLIB.

And in any case, unless it's so humid it's actually raining inside your
home, the humidity shouldn't make much difference. The water is in vapor
form and spread very thin. Contrast this with a tree, or a human body, which
more or less look like bags of water to a microwave transmitter.

"Walter Roberson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:boce86$2tc$(E-Mail Removed)...
> In article <(E-Mail Removed) >,
> Calvin Paxson <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> :2.4 ghz is the resonant frequency of water
>
> Urr, no, it isn't.
>
> http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/water/microwave.html
>
> The frequency for maximum dielectric loss lies higher than the 2.45
> GHz (0.0817 cm-1) produced by most microwave ovens. This is so that
> the radiation is not totally adsorbed by the first layer of water
> it encounters and may penetrate further into the foodstuff, heating
> it more evenly; unabsorbed radiation passing through is mostly
> reflected back, due to the design of the microwave oven, and
> absorbed on later passes.
> --
> IEA408I: GETMAIN cannot provide buffer for WATLIB.