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I have a home network with two Wi-Fi access points:

Both are on the same SSID as per this answer, and are backhaul connected by Powerline adapters.

From time to time I have flakiness in my Wi-Fi network - disconnects, slowness, etc., and have been trying to diagnose and fix this. I’m relatively sure the Powerline adapters aren’t the issue, because when I connect machines directly to the Ethernet connection, everything is robust and fine and internet access is nice and fast.

One theory I have is that this may be because both Wi-Fi access points are set to “Auto” for the channel, which in theory means they search for a good channel periodically, settling on ones which don’t clash with much else.

However, I’m in a busy apartment block with lots of Wi-Fi networks, so I’m guessing from time to time they may clash by picking either channels close to each other or the same channel. Is this theoretically possible, and might it explain Wi-Fi disconnects?

I’ve now tried manually setting them both to separate channels—1 and 11— so will see if these issues go away. Because they are sporadic problems, though, it would be nice to know if my theory makes sense.

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  • 802.11ac supports 5GHz, right? It's definitely worth considering. Can I check what 5GHz networks are already around me to see what the bang for my buck might be if I get a 5GHz access point?
    – Andrew Ferrier
    Oct 10, 2015 at 18:09

1 Answer 1

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You say this:

However, I’m in a busy apartment block

And this:

I’ve now tried manually setting them both to separate channels—1 and 11—

Abandon 2.4Ghz. Its horrendously polluted in dense dwellings. 5Ghz is the only decent solution here.

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  • I appreciate you're trying to help, but this doesn't really answer the question. I'm trying to understand if setting both the routers to Auto will cause clashes with each other, or not.
    – Andrew Ferrier
    Oct 10, 2015 at 18:11
  • Its really a moot question. Even if they do or they dont, there are three "useful" 2.4 bands, 1, 6 and 11. Rest overlap. In an apartment block with 10+ APs you're totally overlapping anways so whether its yours or not is irrelevant. The bursts of problems may even be a microwave oven. That all said, yes, if you lived in a standalone dwelling I would be advising fixed channels, auto tends to be pretty basic and makes mistakes regularly.
    – Linef4ult
    Oct 10, 2015 at 18:19
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    I have upgraded to 5GHz since asking this, and to be honest, you were right - it has greatly helped stability and speed.
    – Andrew Ferrier
    Dec 22, 2015 at 13:38
  • Glad you got it sorted
    – Linef4ult
    Dec 22, 2015 at 22:45

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