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A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

arstechnica.com

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Re: A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

#151

Post by Klathmon »

digler999 wrote: post #150
Klathmon wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to live about 1/4 mile away from any other houses, and I never got why people always complained about wifi. In my experience it always worked well, was fairly fullproof, and had fast enough speeds that it was never an issue. 2 years ago I moved into a condo that has 25 wifi APs within range of me right now. Now I get it. Getting one of the high-end tri-band routers as you said did help, but it's still a diffic…

If they haven't done so already, maybe we'll see copper-clad drywall or flooring for such environments ? Guess that would take down cellular service too though.

I'm just waiting for a standard which smartly reduces transmit power so they all don't need to shout over each other.

Re: A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

#152

Post by bbcbasic »

davidgerard wrote: post #38

My loved one went for a junior sysadmin job. They'd decided to remove all the wiring and use wifi for everything because of just the sorta hype mentioned here. Loved one pulled out a Palm Tungsten C and proceeded to crack all their WEP passwords there in the interview. Got the job too ... and the task of putting quite a bit of wiring back.

Lucky he/she didn't get arrested.

Re: A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

#153

Post by teddyh »

wolfgke wrote: post #145
dijit wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a partner who hates wires. Wifi is a very normal thing for TV's, Games consoles, Chromecasts... etc;

The question rather is: What would you rather be willing to give up: Ethernet or your partner? :-) (a smart girl knows that it is a bad idea to urge nerds to make a choice between her and his PC).

Casual sexism is casual.

Re: A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

#154

Post by geggam »

willidiots wrote: post #9

I build public Wi-Fi networks, you've probably used one of them. AMA if you have Wi-Fi questions. To say it "sucks" is a bit harsh. It's delivering multiple hundreds of Mbps to you via an unlicensed contention-based medium. The air interface is like sending packets over a noisy Ethernet hub; it's impressive it works as well as it does. That said, this article's a good primer on some of the protocol's fundamental chal…

and then someone turns on a leaky microwave oven and you get nothing

Re: A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

#155

Post by Eiriksmal »

willidiots wrote: post #9

I build public Wi-Fi networks, you've probably used one of them. AMA if you have Wi-Fi questions. To say it "sucks" is a bit harsh. It's delivering multiple hundreds of Mbps to you via an unlicensed contention-based medium. The air interface is like sending packets over a noisy Ethernet hub; it's impressive it works as well as it does. That said, this article's a good primer on some of the protocol's fundamental chal…

Wow, that article taught me that our office is probably using the wrong setup for optimal VoIP performance. When I started, I bought us an Asus RT-N66U to replace the ancient 802.11g router that was powering the 5 computers, 4 smartphones, 3 ethernet VoIP phones and 1 printer. Fast forward two years and now we have 12 computers on wifi using soft phones, 3 engineering rigs on ethernet, 11 smart phones, and that lonely printer.

I'm now thinking that our occasional VoIP issues probably aren't Time Warner (er, "Spectrum," whatever)'s fault, but might be caused by overwhelming the physical capabilities of our router.

So what sort of hardware should I plead with our CEO to let me purchase? Is there any way I can test, calculate, or prove that upgrading the infrastructure will prevent the operational staff from saying "Hello..? Hello..? Can you hear me?" on a phone call?

It sounds like, from hopping over to the linked CNet article, that maybe putting another router with the same network name and password, hardwired into the opposite corner from the existing router, would let us split the load across the office. But the end of Anand's article says I should throw up my hands and quit because the back room where a new router would go can still hear the original Asus transmitting loud and clear, so client devices would still have delays caused by picking up other networks.

Re: A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

#157

Post by jakub_g »

ff7c11 wrote: post #156

Is there a way I can just not obey the collision domain and transmit over someone else anyway? Would that allow me to skip the queue or would nobody get any service?

More likely, not obeying the rules would lead to collisions -> damaged packets -> retransmissions -> higher channel utilization -> bigger probability of further collisions; and hence lower speed for everyone.

Re: A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

#158

Post by gonzo »

willidiots wrote: post #9

I build public Wi-Fi networks, you've probably used one of them. AMA if you have Wi-Fi questions. To say it "sucks" is a bit harsh. It's delivering multiple hundreds of Mbps to you via an unlicensed contention-based medium. The air interface is like sending packets over a noisy Ethernet hub; it's impressive it works as well as it does. That said, this article's a good primer on some of the protocol's fundamental chal…

> I build public Wi-Fi networks, you've probably used one of them. AMA if you have Wi-Fi questions.

Interesting. I helped start Wayport (now AT&T WiFi Services) and subsequently worked at Vivato for a while.

Which public WiFi networks are you responsible for?

Re: A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

#159

Post by krallja »

Eiriksmal wrote: post #155
willidiots wrote: post #9

I build public Wi-Fi networks, you've probably used one of them. AMA if you have Wi-Fi questions. To say it "sucks" is a bit harsh. It's delivering multiple hundreds of Mbps to you via an unlicensed contention-based medium. The air interface is like sending packets over a noisy Ethernet hub; it's impressive it works as well as it does. That said, this article's a good primer on some of the protocol's fundamental chal…

Wow, that article taught me that our office is probably using the wrong setup for optimal VoIP performance. When I started, I bought us an Asus RT-N66U to replace the ancient 802.11g router that was powering the 5 computers, 4 smartphones, 3 ethernet VoIP phones and 1 printer. Fast forward two years and now we have 12 computers on wifi using soft phones, 3 engineering rigs on ethernet, 11 smart phones, and that lonel…

You can put the twin APs on different channels, and the two collision domains shouldn't overlap.

Re: A deep dive into why Wi-Fi kind of sucks

#160

Post by coleca »

I once had the opportunity to listen to an extremely talented WiFi expert from Aruba Networks explain on a whiteboard to a rapt audience of infrastructure engineers how this works. And how adding multiple SSIDs is a contributing factor to this problem.

The most fascinating piece was what he called the "butter factor". The closer a substance is in consistency to butter, the more it will absorb WiFi signals. Aruba had one heck of a challenge installing a WiFi network in the Land O'Lakes manufacturing facilities. They had to use directional antennae mounted mounted at eye level down each aisle of the factory.

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