Tech Forum

jdlessley wrote:Signal power can and usually does affect bandwidth. But it is the presence of noise coupled with signal strength that affects bandwidth. Low signal strength in a noise free environment could theoretically have the same bandwidth as a strong signal. But there is usually some noise from several sources in a Church meetinghouse. I would determine the minimum acceptable bandwidth and test for that.

I thought it might be useful to start this thread to help some of us who can get the equipment up and running, but don't know much about the technical details. What are some of these issues that can cause detrimental signal around the buildings... I know of 2 so far....

Microwave usage (which should be very minimal)
Building Firewalls (physical firewalls) in buildings, I have encountered them on the sides of chapels so that a wireless signal on one hallway doesn't penetrate to the opposite hallway causing me to use 3 WAP's rather than 2

any other things to be aware of?

Cordless phones in the 2.4GHz band is a possibility.

Other WAPs (perhaps in the neighborhood) on the same or nearby channel.

I have to wonder what a MiFi or simular device brought in by a member would do. I have no idea how the device selects the channel it operates on. (For those who have no idea what a MiFi is, it's a device that creates a local hotspot using a 3G or 4G cell phone connection.) Some smart phones have this functionality as well. Some members may be using it to get Internet access for their WiFi-only tablet.

There is a great deal of information available by doing a search on the Internet. A good starting place is an article by Cisco called 20 Myths of Wi-Fi Interference. While the article is addressing wifi in all environments, you can extract the situations that apply to a meetinghouse.