Ask Slashdot: Overcoming Convention Hall Wi-Fi Interference? 251
bbowman writes "One of my job responsibilities is to set up the small network for our company's exhibit at the trade shows we attend. The mobile demo devices we use depend upon a reliable Wi-Fi connection to a router I have in the exhibit. In the days leading up to the opening of the trade show, W-iFi connections are reliable and work as expected. However, as soon as the show opens none of our devices can reliable maintain a Wi-Fi connection to the router. The devices we use at the trade shows are Windows-based laptops, iPods/iPads, Android tablets, and a variety of Wi-Fi enabled cell phones. I have tried using channels 1, 6, and 11 (as well as the others) and used different routers (Linksys, D-Link, Netgear) without success. I'm sure it is likely that there are poorly insulated electrical cabling, fluorescent lighting, and other issues that would contribute to Wi-Fi interference in the convention hall. A quick scan shows dozens and dozens of discoverable Wi-Fi networks nearby. If I take the router back to my hotel room, I have zero connection problems. How can I overcome this so that Wi-Fi works reliably in the convention hall?"
New Frequency? (Score:4, Insightful)
If your devices are 802.11n compatible, you could put your router in n only mode... The 5.4ghz band may be less crowded.
I know this problem well. (Score:2, Insightful)
My consulting business specializes in providing show management services to associations putting on large meetings. I work with Facilities to provide wifi zones, as well as information kiosks, and internet access kiosks for attendees. I recently did a large meeting in Chicago (30,000+) attendees. This presented many challenges but the biggest issue was on the exhibit floor where a site survey revealed 160 rouge access points on 2.4ghz. Not only was the building Wifi having troubles it was like the wild west among the exhibitors, most had to be within a few feet of their access points while some others used amplifiers or enterprise class APs to get the extra signal strength, if all exhibitors upgraded their signal strength everyone would be back to square one. I tried to alleviate the problem by setting up a secondary SSID on the building infrastructure for exhibitors with decent bandwidth and tried to encourage some of the exhibitors to use this instead of their own. I got the rouge access points down to 90, but certain areas of the exhibit floor where still flooded. This is an inherent problem with wifi that the more APs competing over the same radio frequencies the more noise and less throughput you will manage. Without a doubt the best solution is to move to another frequency, as I found very few were operating on 5ghz (802.11a), The real challenge is to make exhibitors and attendees aware of the shortcomings of this technology in an environment with so many users and competing APs.
Directional antenna (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not simply use a narrow-field directional antenna for your demo? If you're just feet away from it, it seems unlikely that other nearby networks would be strong enough to drown out the signal.
Get nearby booths or everybody on same network? (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like either forcing 801.11n only or using 801.11a is the only inter-operable alternative unless you can modify the devices and play with other parameters.
What about getting the convention hall organizers (or you and your nearby booths) to try and build a mesh, so everybody is on the same network (and can somehow tweak parameters to reduce interference)? Maybe coordinate the channels between nearby booths so they don't overlap? Not that there are than many channels to distribute.
Dish Antenna (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps the router could be connected to a dish above the booth pointed straight down like a street light. This could overpower other signals in your booth and reduce your interference to other users. Dishes at wifi frequencies aren't large.
Re:Nicolas Cage (Score:5, Insightful)