The growth of WiFi
in [UK Mac]
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From: Gareth John on 22 Mar 2010 07:00 Once upon a time I thought I was pretty smart having a set of LocalTalk cables running around my house. Then came wired ethernet, and now a combo of wires and wireless. Sitting at home here (in a West London suburb) iStumbler can see thirteen other active networks beside mine, all clamouring for airspace - and almost all on either channel 1, 6 or 11. Signal strengths range from '91%' to 19%' (whatever that means). I feel a bit smug, because mine's the only one using a unique channel. For now. But is 15 a record? How busy is the air where you are? Gareth. -- From Gareth John Please pull out the plug if you want to reply by email
From: Jim on 22 Mar 2010 07:10 On 2010-03-22, Gareth John <g.john(a)PLUG.btinternet.com> wrote: > > I feel a bit smug, because mine's the only one using a unique channel. > For now. > > But is 15 a record? How busy is the air where you are? As a rule I don't see any others. I can _very_ occasionally see one from next door, but only in one small part of the house. A few years ago I walked around my estate with my iPod touch in scanning mode just to see how many networks I could see and, more to the point, how many were open. The answer was something in the range of 30-ish networks, about 20 of which had neither WPA nor WEP. A couple of months ago I did the same thing, and although the number of networks was up (something in the 40s) they were almost all closed with at least WEP, and mostly WPA. Quite a lot were Sky. Jim -- Twitter:@GreyAreaUK "[The MP4-12C] will be fitted with all manner of pointlessly shiny buttons that light up and a switch that says 'sport mode' that isn't connected to anything." The Daily Mash.
From: David Kennedy on 22 Mar 2010 07:10 Gareth John wrote: > Once upon a time I thought I was pretty smart having a set of LocalTalk > cables running around my house. Then came wired ethernet, and now a > combo of wires and wireless. > > Sitting at home here (in a West London suburb) iStumbler can see > thirteen other active networks beside mine, all clamouring for airspace > - and almost all on either channel 1, 6 or 11. Signal strengths range > from '91%' to 19%' (whatever that means). > > I feel a bit smug, because mine's the only one using a unique channel. > For now. > > But is 15 a record? How busy is the air where you are? > > Gareth. Only 4 here and two of them only appear when - presumably - their users want to go on-line which seems to be in the evening for an hour or so and at the weekend. Only one not encrypted... -- David Kennedy http://www.anindianinexile.com
From: T i m on 22 Mar 2010 07:13 On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:00:59 +0000, g.john(a)PLUG.btinternet.com (Gareth John) wrote: >Sitting at home here (in a West London suburb) iStumbler can see >thirteen other active networks beside mine, all clamouring for airspace >- and almost all on either channel 1, 6 or 11. Signal strengths range >from '91%' to 19%' (whatever that means). > >I feel a bit smug, because mine's the only one using a unique channel. >For now. Did you (/also) try it with your router turned off (out of interest). I've sometimes 'seen' other routers / AP's on the same channel but were initially swamped by the power of my own router? Cheers, T i m
From: Woody on 22 Mar 2010 07:13
Gareth John <g.john(a)PLUG.btinternet.com> wrote: > Once upon a time I thought I was pretty smart having a set of LocalTalk > cables running around my house. Then came wired ethernet, and now a > combo of wires and wireless. > > Sitting at home here (in a West London suburb) iStumbler can see > thirteen other active networks beside mine, all clamouring for airspace > - and almost all on either channel 1, 6 or 11. Signal strengths range > from '91%' to 19%' (whatever that means). > > I feel a bit smug, because mine's the only one using a unique channel. > For now. Wouldn't feel that smug, they all overlap quite excessively the channels either side, unless they are wireless N, then they are on two channels overlapping the other sides of those,. > > But is 15 a record? How busy is the air where you are? One other. But when i was in new york last time, I went to connect to a free wifi spot, and the list wouldn't stop updating. There were a very large number The network was really slow, and I am not suprised! -- Woody |