Hints and Tips - There seems to be a good signal but my wifi connection drops or goes slow - 1
Do you have nearby neighbours with Wifi?
If you installed your access point with more-or-less its out-of-the-box configuration and your nearby neighbours did the same thing you are probably using the same channel and interfering with each other
As a minimum please do at least the following when setting up your new access point:
- Before switching it on use your computer to see what networks are in use already and how strong they are. Do this in several locations at the extremities of your property. Now pick a channel which is unused or very weak. Note that channels overlap. If channels 1 and 3 are used and 2 is free don't use 2 as they will all interfere with each other. The ideal channels for complete isolation are 1,6, and 11 (or 1,7,13 if all your equipment supports channels above 11)
- Change its SSID from the default (Especially if it is "Linksys" or "NetGear")
- Set it to use the best wifi channel you discovered earlier. If there are no channels in use in your area but there is the chance that your neighbours may one day install wifi then change the channel from the default so if the neighbours later do an out-of-the-box installation they will not interfere with you.
- Set it to use WPA encryption
- Change the administrator password
- Disable "Administration from the internet" unless you specifically want this feature
- Don't bother disabling broadcast of the SSID (Broadcasting the name of the network). Some people suggest doing this as a security feature but it would only keep honest people out. If your wifi is in use it would take seconds for a local hacker to discover the SSID.
