Re: Auto channel
I though and half decent WiFi router or AP had an auto select best WiFi channel?
Dunno about that (except for some mandated use at 5GHz), but if they do they seem only to choose (on 2.4GHz) between 1, 6 and 11. I've done some wandering around, trying to work out where best to place my APs, and I have only met one local user with WiFi on anything other than those three channels.
It wouldn't be quite so bad if they used 1, 5, 9, 13 which are also non-overlapping. I assume that as 12 and 13 aren't available in the US (though they are available just about everywhere else) it's easier for firmware writers to ignore them.
The situation is a little better at 5GHz because the four "easy to use" channels are already non-overlapping, and it's still quite underused, even more so on the "not-so-easy-to-use" channels, which simply aren't available on some APs.
Interestingly, quick scouts around using WiFiAnalyzer show that most local APs are 20MHz only, which is probably a Good Thing.
I know a bloke who got so fed up with poor WiFi that he made lots of new friends with his neighbours and reconfigured their WiFi for them, to benefit them all.
I also know an IT professional who insisted that multiple APs on the same network also had to be on the same channel, as mobile devices could not "roam". This lead to certain blackspots in the building where a reasonable - but equally powerful - signal could be seen from two (or three!) different APs, but the throughput was abysmal.
Oh, and why do some people leave their HP wireless printers broadcasting to the world and his dog using default credentials?
M.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
