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If you live in an apartment complex, you’ve probably noticed more than just the passive-aggressive network IDs that your neighbors use—very likely you’ve had problems with your wireless connections dropping out, or just not being as fast as you’d like. This often has to do with the Wi-Fi channels in your area.
If you’re on the same Wi-Fi channel as a lot of your neighbors, you’ll experience a lot of interference with their networks—so it’s best to choose a different channel with fewer people on it. When you do, you’ll reduce that interference and improve your WI-Fi signal.
The first step, though, is finding out which channel is least congested in your area. These tools will help you identify which nearby networks are using which channels.
Note that Wi-Fi channels overlap with nearby channels. Channels 1, 6, and 11 are the most frequently used for 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, and these three are the only ones that don’t overlap with each other.
Finding the best WiFi channel with Vistumbler If you are having trouble with your WiFi connection you may have heard that it is a good idea to connect to your WiFi router on a quiet WiFi channel to avoid interference from other WiFi devices.
![How To Find Best Channel For Wifi Mac How To Find Best Channel For Wifi Mac](https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/choose-best-wifi-channel-with-wifi-analyzer-on-android.png)
Windows: NirSoft WifiInfoView
We previously recommended inSSIDer for this on Windows, but it’s become paid software. You probably don’t want to pay $20 just to figure out which Wi-Fi channel is ideal, so use a free tool instead.
Xirrus Wi-Fi Inspector is very powerful, but it’s a bit overkill for this. We liked NIrSoft’s WifiInfoView instead — its simple interface does the job and it doesn’t need any installation. Launch the tool, locate the Channel header, and click it to sort by Wi-Fi channel. Here, we can see that channel 6 looks a bit cluttered — we might want to switch to channel 1 instead.
Mac: Wireless Diagnostics
Believe it or not, macOS actually has this feature integrated. To access it, hold the Option key and click the Wi-Fi icon on the menu bar at the top of your screen. Select “Open Wireless Diagnostics.”
Ignore the wizard that appears. Instead, click the Window menu and select Utilities.
- Today’s video shows you how to use the Wireless Diagnostic app within your Mac and a cool third party app called Wi-Fi explorer. It shows you how to find the best wireless channel to operate on and how to improve the signal to noise ratio to get the fastest speed.
- The reason this happens is that the mac reads all wifi signals and takes country code from the strongest one, setting it as global. If it's transmitting a country code which has a blocked 13/14 channel, these channels will be blocked globally.
- Find the best Wi-Fi channel with Wireless Diagnostics. Pursuant to my earlier Wi-Fi troubleshooting post, Michael Birenbach suggested via Twitter using OS X’s built-in Wireless Diagnostics to find the best (i.e. Most interference free) channel to use for your Wi-Fi network.1. The following instructions are for Yosemite, but the principles should be the same for most recent versions of OS X.
- How To Access The WiFi Scanner In macOS Sierra Published by Fabio Virgi on September 30, 2016 September 30, 2016 macOS Sierra has a built-in WiFi Scanner, making it easy for you to find the best WiFi channel to use for your network.
Select the Wi-Fi Scan tab and click Scan Now. The “Best 2.4 GHz Channels” and “Best 5 GHz” Channels” fields will recommend the ideal Wi-Fi channels you should be using on your router.
Linux: The iwlist Command
You could use a graphical app like Wifi Radar for this on Linux, but you’d have to install it first. Instead, you might as well just use the terminal. The command here is installed by default on Ubuntu and other popular Linux distributions, so it’s the fastest method. Don’t fear the terminal!
Open a Terminal and run the following command:
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan | grep (Channel
Read the output of the command to see which channels are the most congested and make your decision. In the screenshot below, channel 1 looks the least congested.
Android: Wifi Analyzer
How To Find Best Channel For Wifi
RELATED:How To Get a Better Wireless Signal and Reduce Wireless Network Interference
If you want to search for Wi-Fi channels on your phone instead of your PC, the easiest-to-use application we’ve found is Wifi Analyzer on Android. Just install the free app from Google Play and launch it. You’ll see an overview of the wireless networks in your area and which channels they’re using.
Tap the View menu and select Channel rating. The app will display a list of Wi-Fi channels and a star rating — the one with the most stars in the best. The app will actually tell you which Wi-Fi channels are better for your Wi-Fi network, so you can go straight to your router’s web interface and choose the ideal one.
How To Find Best Wifi Channel Mac El Capitan
iOS: Airport Utility
Update: We’ve been informed you can do this with Apple’s own AirPort Utility application. Enable and use the “Wi-Fi Scanner” feature inside the app.
RELATED:Jailbreaking Explained: What You Need to Know About Jailbreaking iPhones and iPads
This isn’t possible on iPhones and iPads. Apple restricts apps from accessing this Wi-Fi data directly from the hardware, so you can’t get an app like Android’s Wifi Analyzer on Apple’s App Store.
If you jailbreak, you can install an app like WiFi Explorer or WiFiFoFum from Cydia to get this functionality on your iPhone or iPad. These tools moved to Cydia after Apple booted them from the official App Store.
You probably wouldn’t want to go through the trouble of jailbreaking just for this, so use one of the other tools here instead.
How to Change Your Router’s Wi-Fi Channel
RELATED:10 Useful Options You Can Configure In Your Router’s Web Interface
https://newcraft504.weebly.com/what-is-the-best-torrent-downloader-for-mac.html. Once you’ve found the least congested channel, changing the channel your router uses should be simple. First, log into your router’s web interface in your web browser. Click over to the Wi-Fi settings page, locate the “Wi-Fi Channel” option, and choose your new Wi-Fi channel. This option may be on some sort of “Advanced Settings” page, too.
RELATED:What’s the Difference Between 2.4 and 5-Ghz Wi-Fi (and Which Should I Use)?
If there are too many other nearby networks interfering with your signal, try getting a router that supports 5 GHz (like a “Dual Band” router). 5 GHz Wi-Fi channels are farther apart and won’t interfere with each other as much.
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One way to optimize a wireless network is to change the router Wi-Fi channel to take advantage of high-speed internet access. When wireless signals run on the same channel as the router, the signals interfere with the Wi-Fi connection. If you live in an apartment complex, the channel used with your wireless router is probably the same as the channel used on your neighbors' routers. This causes spotty or dropped wireless connections or slow wireless access. To improve your Wi-Fi connection, find a channel for your wireless router that no one else is using.
About Choosing the Best Channel for Your Router
For the best wireless experience, choose a wireless channel that isn't used by your neighbors. Many routers use the same channel by default. Unless you test for and change the Wi-Fi channel when you install the router, the router could be using the same channel as someone nearby. When several routers use the same channel, performance decreases.
The likelihood that you will encounter channel interference increases if the router is older and of the 2.4 GHz band type.
Some channels overlap, while others are more distinct. On routers that operate on the 2.4 GHz band, channels 1, 6, and 11 are distinct channels that don't overlap. People in the know choose one of these three channels for their routers. However, if you are surrounded by technically savvy people, you may still encounter a crowded channel. Even if a neighbor isn't using one of these distinct channels, anyone using a nearby channel can cause interference. For example, a neighbor who uses channel 2 could cause interference on channel 1.
Routers that operate on the 5 GHz band offer 23 channels that don't overlap, so there's more free space at the higher frequency. All routers support the 2.4 GHz band, but if you bought a router in the last several years, it was likely an 802.11n or 802.11ac standard router, both of which are dual-band routers. They support both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. The 2.4 GHz band is crowded; the 5 GHz band is not. If this is the case, set the router to use the 5 GHz channel.
How to Find the Wi-Fi Channel Numbers
Wi-Fi channel scanners are tools that show which channels are in use by nearby wireless networks and your network. Once you have this information, choose a different channel to avoid channels that are currently used. They include:
- NetSpot: A free application for Windows 10, 8, and 7, and for Mac OS X 10.10 and higher.
- Acrylic WiFi: A free application for Windows 10, 8, and 7.
- WiFi Scanner: A commercial application for Mac.
- linSSID: A free graphical Wi-Fi analyzer for Linux.
- WiFi Analyzer: A free Android app that gets Wi-Fi information.
These applications provide information on nearby channels and information about your wireless network.
If you have a Mac running a recent version of macOS and OS X, obtain information about your computer by holding the Option button and clicking the Wi-Fi icon on the menu bar. Then, select Open Wireless Diagnostics to generate a report that includes channels in use nearby.
If you want more channel options, try custom router firmware such as DD-WRT or Advanced Tomato. Both offer a wider range of available channels than most stock router firmware. Tomato has built-in functionality to scan channels in your area and automatically select the least congested channel.
Whichever method you use, look for the channel that is least used to find the best Wi-Fi channel for your network.
How to Change Your Wi-Fi Channel
After you know the wireless channel that's least congested near you, go to the router administration page by typing its IP address in a browser address bar. Depending on the router, this will likely be something like 192.168.2.1, 192.168.1.1, or 10.0.0.1. Check the router manual or the bottom of the router for details. Go to the router wireless settings to change the Wi-Fi channel and apply the new channel.
Best Wifi Channel To Use
You don't need to do anything on your laptop or other network devices. This one change may make all the difference for your wireless network performance.