Industry Forums > Wireless Service Providers > problem with customer wifi

problem with customer wifi

I wouldn't be surprised to find a video transmitter at one of the neighbors houses.

You're going to need to use a spectrum analyzer such as the AirView to see what is happening.

reply to gudly
Could be something inside their own house. Baby monitor, wireless camera, cordless phones, etc. Either get an analyzer, or have them go around and shut off EVERYTHING wireless in the house.

reply to gudly
I would try making it unsecured and see what happens, then step up to WEP, then try WPA.

I find that the free wifi routers that our incumbant issues here, have issues with mac computers, iphones and ipads, and i need to turn the security down to WEP to make them work.

reply to gudly
The OP states that the customer "started having trouble with their wifi"...implying that the system -was- working, but now has mysteriously stopped working.

Perhaps he could clarify as to whether or not that is the case...

Yes the wifi was working and then stopped. Our laptops and phones would not see a connection while at their house. We brought the router to our office plugged it in and all our laptops and phones connected right up. (the same devices we brought over to their house for trouble shooting)

We also tested at the opposite end of their house 3500 sq ft single story house to test for local interferance. and the same problem. What ever is going on is in their house. None of the neighbors (also our customer are having this issue)

We are wondering if it might be a power issue, do these devices shut off the wifi if the power is too low.

At this point we're shooting in the dark.

reply to gudly
A directional Ubiquiti M2 device running AirView is awesome for locating interference. A Loco M2 should work well.

reply to gudly
We had this situation in one room of a customer of ours. He had a bunch of wireless SPEAKERS!!!! hooked up and could not figure out why he got no signal in that room.. Turned them off and problem was solved..

There was another post where a customer had a wireless backup camera in thier car that was set to be on ALL the time causing issues..

My bet is something was added recently. Just ask them any cameras, wireless speakers, baby monitors etc. Do they have teenagers? maybe they added something without the parents knowing.

Could be hidden wireless cameras the government is using to watch them? hahaha
--
»www.accelwireless.com
ComTrain Certified Tower Climber.
Wireless and IT consultant.
Proficient in Mikrotik

reply to gudly
Another idea I find,

If you buy an Access point in New Zealand, we have 13 channels avaliable. But most laptops sold here have USA radios in them that only have the 12 channels.

So if an AP is set to auto channel, and decides to use channel 13, it goes offline for 99% of all laptops that would try to connect to it.

Probably not happening with your customer, but a possibility something similar is happening.

Went back over today to run airview on a ubiquiti and found a broken Hawking extender to be the source of interference. Unplugged the Hawking and everything started working again

reply to gudly
Hydro Smart-meters! Tons of people getting randomly disconnected from their home routers since they installed those around here.
Also had a guy with direct line of sight to our AP, worked great for 5 years. Installed smart meter (same side of house as CPE) and the AP on CH1 just completely disappeared! Gone!
Lucky for him we had a 2nd one on Ch11 we could switch him to.

that seems like BS as the BCHydro smart meters operate on GPRS/EDGE or 1xRTT mobile phone data frequencies. You can look at the RF specs for the units on ITron's website (the manufacturer).

reply to gudly

reply to the mammal