I recommend getting an app for your cell phone that will tell you how many different wifi broadcast signals it detects per channel. Since that's what most people have, you end up with a whole neighborhood living on the same channel and wondering why their internet connection sucks, even though the ISP keeps telling them they're getting full speed when they test from the Modem. If you have a cheap router, it usually defaults to channel 6 or 8 if you choose Auto. If you have a nice, quality router with updated firmware, "Auto" will do a quick scan for what channels have the least interference, and pick from the best option. With a few special exceptions like channel 14 in the 2.4 GHz band most channels partially overlap at least one other channel, so being as far from other channels that are in-use as possible will help reduce interference: As a special case, if you're using WoWLAN (Wake on Wireless LAN) on your network, you almost certainly want to go to the trouble of specifying a channel manually regardless, as WoWLAN will stop working if your router changes the channel while a device is offline, and any interference can cause issues with WoWLAN.Īlso, just a general tip when choosing a channel manually, try to find one that is as far from any other used channels as possible.If, on the other hand, you see multiple other APs on that channel or if another AP has a stronger signal than your router does in an area you need covered, you should probably look at manually specifying a channel instead of just letting the router choose one. If your router is auto-selecting a channel that's in active use by just one other AP and that other AP has a weaker signal in the entire area you want covered, you're probably fine. How much interference are you actually seeing? Ideally, grab a Wi-Fi signal analyzer app for your phone, and see what channels are being actively used in your area.If it's a cheap router though, 'Auto' is almost always one of a couple predefined channels (for example, in the 2.4 GHz band in the US, 'Auto' usually means channel 1 or channel 8, or on rare occasion channel 6 or 11), and in that case check the next point. Is it really a nice router? If so, it will probably do proper channel selection based on local usage/interference, and may even recheck when it restarts, in which case you probably want to set it to auto-selection.
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