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Page 12 - April 2015 ~ Lafayette Today
Thinks like a CIO... Performs like the best tech. The best of both worlds when you need COMPUTER SERVICES. Great Team. Great Service. Serving Bay Area businesses and residents since 2001
COMMERCIAL MANAGED SERVICES: Servers • Office Moves • Remote Helpdesk COMPUTER SERVICES: PCs/Macs/ Tablets/Smartphones • Upgrades • Maintenance • Networking • Data Recovery • Virus/Malware Removal • Back-up Solutions • Email/Hosted Exchange
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helpdesk@theportablecio.com www.theportablecio.com Crowded Wi-Fi
By Evan Corstorphine, Portable CIO
Wi-Fi has come a long way in the last few years. As recently as 10 years ago, wireless networking was a luxury and a bit of a novelty. When smartphones came out, it coincided with an explosion in Wi-Fi hotspots. Today, wireless networking and the devices that use it are everywhere. We’re a little spoiled and expect to have broadband Wi-Fi access wherever we go. Wi-Fi is really just the combination of radios with data. One of the limitations with Wi-Fi is that there are so many devices vying for a connection that the radio frequencies are becoming crowded. A simple analogy would be one of the old-fashioned party lines for telephones. Many people may be connected on the line, but only one person can talk at a time, or nobody can clearly hear what is being said. Wi-Fi protocols work the same way, and the more people who need to speak, the longer it will take to get your message across while everyone takes their turn. Does this make sense? Wi-Fi crowding is most evident in congested urban areas. All of this is invisible to the ordinary person trying to use their computer, unless they have special tools to “see” the wireless network. Most people think it’s their equipment or their internet provider that is the problem, and a lot of time is wasted trying to “fix” something that is unfixable without new equipment. Business parks have a lot of Wi-Fi congestion, but our most challenging Wi-Fi clients are the sororities at UC Berkeley. They have the most intense network requirements of any of our clients -- residential or commercial. One house may have 75 young women and 200 “devices” connecting to the Wi-Fi network. And all the students stream Netflix videos at night, which uses a lot of network bandwidth per user. The worst congestion hours are from 5pm until 2am. Many of the sorority houses originally invested in off-the-shelf Wi-Fi equipment to provide service to their high number of residents. And when Wi-Fi was less common, that was OK to address their situation. But with the number of computers, smartphones, and tablets trying to pull data over Wi-Fi now, it’s not enough. What they couldn’t know is that their neighbors would eventually
crowd them out as well. There are so many people using so many different wireless networks in their densely packed urban environment that their Wi-Fi signals have effectively been jammed. Everyone is affected. To analyze networks you need the right tools. We use a special tool called a spectrum analyzer, and we use it to perform extremely accurate Wi-Fi site surveys. We observe how many networks are in a given area, how strong the network signals are, and what types of interference is affecting them. We have found in business parks and the aforementioned congested urban areas, standard Wi-Fi equipment cannot cut through the congestion and newer dual-band equipment is required. Even suburban neighborhoods in our area exhibit this congestion, as our neighbors all add Wi-Fi hotspots and Comcast installs more of their “Xfinity” access spots. In addition to network congestion,Wi-Fi radios aren’t able to penetrate walls very easily and use a protocol that will momentarily stop transmitting if it senses someone else trying to use the same channel. If you and your computer are conversing with the Internet, and someone else is doing the same thing on the same frequencies on another Wi-Fi access point next door, your speed was just effectively cut in half while you share that radio space. When you get too many people trying to share a limited radio space, the speed decreases dramatically. In these cases, you may try connecting your device instead with a network cable and see if that improves things. A wire connecting you to your network is always going to be more reliable than using Wi-Fi. There are many factors involved in a successful network environment, and congestion is just one aspect. There’s a lot of misinformation in the marketplace, and off-the-shelf retail solutions have significant drawbacks. If you’ve been noticing slower speeds accessing your network and the internet, it might be time to “listen” with the spectrum analyzer to seeing what is going on. Maybe it’s time for dual-band network equipment, or simply a different approach. If you need new equipment Portable CIO has partnered with Wi-Fi vendors that we know will provide reliable and robust products. Networking is tricky, and it saves time and money to have an expert accurately evaluate your situation. If you’d like to have your network reviewed, contact the friendly staff at Portable CIO via email at helpdesk@theportablecio.com, or call 925-552-7953. Advertorial