Virgin router next door suddenly switching to OUR channels

Can anyone offer suggestions or suffer from this?

We have just installed a TPlink "N" modem/router (very good!)
However, monitoring local channel useage (using inSSIDer) we have just
noticed that when the guy next door gets out of bed and switches his
router on, it initially comes up on a single channel nowhere near either
of the two that ours is using.
However, shortly after, it suddenly changes to be the same as our main
channel and, when it brings up it's second channel, it is obviously then
the same as both of ours.

Not really a problem for us as our signal around the house is quite
adequate. But I know he has problems upstairs and so must be suffering
(he he)

I wonder why it is doing this rather than trying an unused pair?

Anyone able to comment/or have experience of this?

Mike

"m" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Can anyone offer suggestions or suffer from this?
>
> We have just installed a TPlink "N" modem/router (very good!)
> However, monitoring local channel useage (using inSSIDer) we have just noticed that when the guy next door gets out of bed and
> switches his router on, it initially comes up on a single channel nowhere near either of the two that ours is using.
> However, shortly after, it suddenly changes to be the same as our main channel and, when it brings up it's second channel, it is
> obviously then the same as both of ours.
>
> Not really a problem for us as our signal around the house is quite adequate. But I know he has problems upstairs and so must be
> suffering (he he)
>
> I wonder why it is doing this rather than trying an unused pair?
>
> Anyone able to comment/or have experience of this?
>
> Mike

If it's anything like the D-Link DIR615 VM installed at my Son's student house it
has a stupid automatic channel selection mode that makes it impossible to do
meaningful channel allocations based on your own site survey.

It's easy to switch off the "feature" and assign a channel manually via the web interface
if he is willing to let you.

Why has it got 2 radio channels? I didn't know Virgin supplied routers that did that.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

In article <imola2$qp3$(E-Mail Removed)>, Graham. <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>Why has it got 2 radio channels? I didn't know Virgin supplied routers that did that.

From Virgin's website it looks like they supply standard 802.11n capable
routers. So if they're working in 40MHz channel mode in the 2.4GHz band
they'll need 2 channels.

Graham. wrote:
> "m" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>>Can anyone offer suggestions or suffer from this?
>>
>>We have just installed a TPlink "N" modem/router (very good!)
>>However, monitoring local channel useage (using inSSIDer) we have just noticed that when the guy next door gets out of bed and
>>switches his router on, it initially comes up on a single channel nowhere near either of the two that ours is using.
>>However, shortly after, it suddenly changes to be the same as our main channel and, when it brings up it's second channel, it is
>>obviously then the same as both of ours.
>>
>>Not really a problem for us as our signal around the house is quite adequate. But I know he has problems upstairs and so must be
>>suffering (he he)
>>
>>I wonder why it is doing this rather than trying an unused pair?
>>
>>Anyone able to comment/or have experience of this?
>>
>>Mike
>
>
> If it's anything like the D-Link DIR615 VM installed at my Son's student house it
> has a stupid automatic channel selection mode that makes it impossible to do
> meaningful channel allocations based on your own site survey.
>
> It's easy to switch off the "feature" and assign a channel manually via the web interface
> if he is willing to let you.
>
> Why has it got 2 radio channels? I didn't know Virgin supplied routers that did that.
>

It is a very new installation (with the street cables carefully threaded
THROUGH the bushes in that nasty green tube - so it can't be
buried/disguised neatly!!) so I guess it is their latest type.
Hence the "n" and requiring 2 channels.
I'm not going to get involved as he has already mentioned to me that
signal is very poor in the back bedroom. Hardly surprising as it
probably has nasty internal aerials and he has probably plonked it down
behind/under the tele so as not to be too obstrusive.
He was already unhappy as Virgin don't of course supply a dongle" for
his PC.
I would suspect that they have also hi-jacked the old BT phone cables to
provide the phone wiring. Like another on another elderly neighbour who
might liek to return to Bt but of course all their cabling has been
ripped out by Virgin.

Mike

"Mike Civil" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:38o568-(E-Mail Removed)...
> In article <imola2$qp3$(E-Mail Removed)>, Graham. <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>>Why has it got 2 radio channels? I didn't know Virgin supplied routers that did that.
>
> From Virgin's website it looks like they supply standard 802.11n capable
> routers. So if they're working in 40MHz channel mode in the 2.4GHz band
> they'll need 2 channels.

I thought they occupied more than just two channels in RF bandwidth, I don't
understand why Mike saw a second channel pop up in inSSIDer, as if they
were discrete Access Points, like BT FON.

The shape of the occupancy graph that inSSIDer draws it purely derived from
the access point type information, it's in no way a real spectrum analyzer.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Meanwhile, at the uk.telecom.broadband Job Justification Hearings, m chose
the tried and tested strategy of:

> I wonder why it is doing this rather than trying an unused pair?

Consider a Venn diagram with your respective routers at centre of each
circle. The routers' coverage may overlap in places, but they may not be
able to hear each other. Perhaps his router can hear a third router that you
can't hear with your laptop.

Something else: the mere presence of an AP on a channel doesn't necessarily
indicate utilisation of the channel. Actual levels of traffic will determine
how much interference there is between systems on overlapping channels. I
don't know if any bog-standard APs will account for this, high end managed
wireless systems certainly do.

> Anyone able to comment/or have experience of this?

You might want to mention the model if you're looking for people with
experience of this. Maybe it's just a bug and needs a firmware update. Maybe
it's a bug but the product only has a 6-month commercial lifetime so it'll
never see a fix.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
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"I am utterly appalled at how I have been treated like a criminal"
-- Andrew Crossley, ACS:Law, 13 August 2010