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Joe Pelonio
10-28-2010, 10:37 PM
Checking to see if anyone else has this issue or can explain it. We often (like now) use a little Acer Aspire One notebook while watching TV in the evening,
in the family room which is next to the kitchen. The computer with the router
is upstairs approximately between the microwave and the couch. When the microwave is running the computer loses loses the network, when turned off it comes right back. The microwave does not affect another computer on wireless in my shop, also upstairs but at the other end of the house.

Joe Shinall
10-28-2010, 10:59 PM
Joe, we also have the littler Acer netbook and I have a Toshiba laptop. My wife constantly loses signal during rain storms and other things where I keep full signal all the time on my Toshiba.

My guess is the wireless adapter in the Netbook just isn't as good as a normal one. I am in IT, you would think I could explain it better than that.

Mike Henderson
10-28-2010, 11:05 PM
Microwave ovens work in the 2.4GHz band (or really close to it). You're using WiFi in the 2.4GHz band. The oven leaks some RF energy and that signal is interfering with your WiFi signal.

You can try a different microwave oven to see if that oven is better shielded (doesn't leak so much signal) but I doubt if it will help. The WiFi signal is pretty weak and microwave ovens are allowed to leak a certain amount.

Mike

Ken Fitzgerald
10-28-2010, 11:11 PM
Mike nailed it. You could try moving your microwave too. The signals escaping tend to be directional so if the door of the microwave is pointed in a different direction, they may not interfere with the laptop wireless connection.

Another possibility is to take a little brillo pad and scuff up the edges of the door to clean the metal a little bit and get it to seal better.

Leakage around the door is the likely culprit.

Would you believe we have the same problem with MR scanners and leakage around the door of the scan room? Most of them operate around 63.86 MHZ and get radio signal interference which can cause artifacts in patient images. The doors on MR scan rooms have little metal fingers or a movable metal flap that acts as an rf seal. These metal doors have to be cleaned using scotchbrite pad.

Eric DeSilva
10-28-2010, 11:23 PM
Microwave ovens work in the 2.4GHz band (or really close to it). You're using WiFi in the 2.4GHz band.

More than close to it--the resonant frequency of water is 2483.5 MHz--precisely the upper end of the 2.4 GHz ISM band where Wi-Fi operates.

Joe, you might also have better luck if you switch the channel your access point operates on. WP has a good explanation of the channelization scheme (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels), which illustrates why you should only use 1, 6 or 11 in the US. That said, channel 1 is the furthest away from your microwave...

Joe Pelonio
10-28-2010, 11:57 PM
Wow, there really is someone here that can help with just about anything. I just got some kind of Virtual Private network software on my laptop at work and will bring it home for the weekend and see if it does any better. I wanted to be able to work from home if we get a nasty snowstorm this winter. It's
a Lenovo. After that I'll see about cleaning the microwave seals. It's a very powerful one, 2.2 CU FT and 1250 watts which may make it worse. I could consider moving it across the kitchen and swapping it with the coffee grinder, espresso machine and my wife's syrup collection.:rolleyes:

glenn bradley
10-29-2010, 7:12 AM
As stated 2.4GHz is the band that both use; so do older cordless phones. If your laptop and home AP offer 5GHz (802.11a or 5GHz 802.11n) you could switch to that. "N" draft radios are becoming pretty common and many offer 2.4 and 5GHz bands. Not so common in service provider's wireless units however. My fairly new U-verse "2-Wire" unit does not offer it for example.

You could also just not work while the microwave is running. How long can it be? I'm one of those people that stand in front of the microwave and wonder why it is taking so long so, I have no room to talk :D:D:D.

Curt Harms
10-29-2010, 7:45 AM
....................
You could also just not work while the microwave is running. How long can it be? I'm one of those people that stand in front of the microwave and wonder why it is taking so long so, I have no room to talk :D:D:D.


You too, huh? :p

Gene Howe
10-29-2010, 8:17 AM
Funny. We had a counter top micro that interfered with the TV. Actually, with the Direct TV receiver. The Micro sat on a wall in a direct line with the outside dish. Never had a problem with the wireless network in that room or nearby. My laptops are Toshiba and HP.
We remodeled the kitchen and installed a larger, under cabinet model in approximately the same location, just rotated 90 deg. No more TV problems.
BTW, I figured it had to be interfering with the dish as it affected all three TVs in different parts of the house.

Joe Pelonio
10-29-2010, 2:56 PM
We don't usually cook large meats or anything in the microwave, that's what the BBQ is for! :D

The worst is maybe 5 minutes for a frozen burrito. Still annoying and worth looking into. I don't see any way of changing the router which was provided by Comcast.

David G Baker
10-29-2010, 6:09 PM
Joe,
My router is not wireless but I bought it off of Ebay for half the price of what my cable company would have charged me per year for rental. Find out the brand and model number of the router provided by your Comcast unit and you may be able to stop the monthly rental fee if you have one.

Robert LaPlaca
10-29-2010, 9:03 PM
Microwave ovens work in the 2.4GHz band (or really close to it). You're using WiFi in the 2.4GHz band. The oven leaks some RF energy and that signal is interfering with your WiFi signal.

Mike

Absolutely, 'wireless site surveys' used for corporate WiFi implementations ask if there are microwave ovens on site...

Jim Becker
10-29-2010, 10:03 PM
"N" draft radios are becoming pretty common and many offer 2.4 and 5GHz bands.

802.11n was ratified in late 2009 and non-draft "official" radios have been available for some time now. Not all the 802.11n devices support the 5ghz band, however, especially the lower cost ones. Both of my Apple Airport Express APs support N. The Actiontec router that came with my FiOS service is a rev F and can support N, but not with the current firmware. (I don't use it for wireless anyway, so it doesn't matter to me) The rev G Actiontec that is slowly rolling out will support N with the Verizon image supposedly.

Jerome Stanek
10-30-2010, 7:00 AM
Try changing the channel on the router. We had that problem with a cordless phone and had to go to a different channel to fix it