The good news is that current 802.11ac routers use "cognitive radio" technology. Just remember that current 5GHz implementations only have enough room for TWO (yes, 2) 160MHz channels, so choose wisely. And with 802.11ac (5GHz only) you may wind up using 80MHz or even 160MHz channels. On your 5GHz radios 40MHz channels are perfectly acceptable (again, your Apple router takes care of this for you). Plus, Apple made the decision years ago to not support these wide channels at 2.4GHz, so even if your router allows you to enable it your iPhone and MacBook won't use it.
#BEST ROUTER FOR MAC BLUETOOTH#
Bluetooth lives here, too, and will appreciate the breathing room. The problem is this band is so congested that you'll likely just wind up making things worse instead of better. Some routers (not Apple's) will allow you to use "Wide" channels on the 2.4GHz band. Don't use "Wide" 40MHz channels on 2.4GHz. (See for Tips on Wi-Fi Network Names and Mitigating Congestion)ģ. : Wi-Fi Tips #3 and #4 - Channel Width and Aiming Antennas Next: When to use Wide channels and Antenna Orientation. The higher frequency band doesn't go through walls as well and may be exactly what the Wi-Fi doctor ordered in highly-congested areas (and when we get 60Ghz Wi-Fi, that'll be even more helpful!) We recommend using Powerline adapters to connect all of your access points together to avoid the headaches of just extending Wi-Fi.Īnother helpful option is to use 5Ghz channels where possible.
It's good if your neighbors do this, too, of course, but it will help even if it's just you. In response to a listener's query about how best to deal with having lots of access points in a small location, say an apartment building, the best thing to do is to actually increase the number of access points but lower the transmit power on each so as to keep them from interfering with each other. Deal with congestion with more access points using less power. Make all the Wi-Fi networks in your home the same. If you have the network name/SSID the same then it will chose the radio that it predicts will give the best throughput (which isn't always the one with the best signal, but that's an even geekier discussion you can hear in the show).
#BEST ROUTER FOR MAC MAC#
If you have multiple networks of different names your Mac or iPhone will always choose the first in your iCloud-synced "Preferred Networks" list even if this one isn't going to give you the best bandwidth. If you have one network in your home but have either multiple routers/access points for better coverage or multiple radios in one access point, the advice is the same: use the same SSID (wireless network name) for all of them and let the client devices each decide which is best to use.Īpple devices choose networks by your preferred order. Use same SSID for all radios on the same network (be they 2.4GHz or 5GHz). and make sure you read, erm, listen to the whole thing, too. Think of this as the MGG 509 Cliff's Notes. The episode contains a bunch of juicy Wi-Fi tips and I highly recommend you give it a listen, but for now our four favorite tips are listed below.
Alf Watt, former Apple Wi-Fi engineer and creator of the fantastic Wi-Fi utility, iStumbler, joined us on this week's Mac Geek Gab 509 to talk all things Wi-Fi.
0 kommentar(er)
