8 reasons to turn down the transmit power of your Wi-Fi

By +Warwagon
in Smart Home, Network & Security

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Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

I thought you guys might find this article interesting.

 

Quote

 

8 reasons to turn down the transmit power of your Wi-Fi

 

By default almost all WiFi access points transmit at full power (100mW on 2.4GHz). This gives maximum coverage and users see a good signal (“full bars”). However, there are good reasons to turn down the transmit power to a fraction of the maximum.

 

It even makes sense to start with minimum power and increase it until the necessary area is covered.

 

0. Wi-Fi is about sharing, not competing

 

In a congested environment it doesn’t matter if your access point is stronger than the neighbor’s. If your AP can receive other APs it will share the air time with them. All APs on the same channel will give other APs equal access to the spectrum. This is how 802.11 was written.


[Edit: I added this point as an afterthought, since this isn’t obvious to many users.]

 

 

https://metis.fi/en/2017/10/txpower/

Grand Master

Mindovermaster Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted

That sounds farfetched, really...

 

Why would you EVER need to turn down the transmit power of your Wi-Fi?

 

I'll wait for @BudMan, see what he thinks...

Veteran

+Biscuits Brown MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Actually most make sense. I've seen cases where some AMP routers were blasting out a huge signal in wifi  analyzer but couldn't connect because my phone didn't have the power to send the signal back. Think of listening to a long range radio signal (think HAM radio) . You may be DXing and able to hear it but if may not be able to respond back. 

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Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Mindovermaster said:

That sounds farfetched, really...

 

Why would you EVER need to turn down the transmit power of your Wi-Fi?

 

I'll wait for @BudMan, see what he thinks...

Definitely not farfetched and  is good advice. My APs work on medium and low transmit power. 

Grand Master

Mindovermaster Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted
14 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

Definitely not farfetched and  is good advice. My APs work on medium and low transmit power. 

I just never had that problem, so that is why I find it fafetched, that's all. *shrug*

Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 minutes ago, Mindovermaster said:

I just never had that problem, so that is why I find it fafetched, that's all. *shrug*

It’s a good idea even if not having issues. It’s pretty douchey to pollute WiFi space for neighbors if it doesn’t help you in any way. I’ve been asking people in my neighborhood to lower their transmit speeds for the last two years. Hasn’t happened, of course. 

Grand Master

Mindovermaster Global Moderator

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  • Global Moderator
Posted
7 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

It’s a good idea even if not having issues. It’s pretty douchey to pollute WiFi space for neighbors if it doesn’t help you in any way. I’ve been asking people in my neighborhood to lower their transmit speeds for the last two years. Hasn’t happened, of course. 

Might want to show them this article, eh? :laugh:

Grand Master

Circaflex

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

That sounds farfetched, really...

 

Why would you EVER need to turn down the transmit power of your Wi-Fi?

 

I'll wait for @BudMan, see what he thinks...

wait for him? hes already said this same thing numerous times on the board.

Grand Master

Mindovermaster Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted
47 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

wait for him? hes already said this same thing numerous times on the board.

He has? All I hear is "WiFi sucks"...

Grand Master

+BudMan MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

I have never said wifi sucks ;)  Wifi can be great.. Mine rocks..  When setup correctly, using the proper hardware and not trying to do things with it that make no sense...

 

What I might have said is wifi sucks COMPARED to a wire... Which is just plain fact...

 

Yes it is very common practice to turn down the xmit power on your AP.. I have 3 in the house and none of them are running at max xmit.. on either band.

 

powersettings.thumb.png.2d42f7f999d87ddc3104a3f0d9b9d8f6.png

 

If anyone wonder why the uptime is low - because I just updated them to the current beta firmware 4.0.1 yesterday.. They reboot on firmware update.

Grand Master

Mindovermaster Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted
2 hours ago, BudMan said:

What I might have said is wifi sucks COMPARED to a wire... Which is just plain fact...

Yeah, that might be what I meant. ;)

Grand Master

+Warwagon MVC

Posted
  • Author
  • MVC
Posted
10 minutes ago, ~InstaShock~ said:

while i agree that  the power should be lowered, if we lower the power the neighbors don't wouldn't it make your network more difficult to connect with ?

May want to try that post again. Not sure what you are asking. Are you asking if lowing the power to your neighborhood would make it harder for your neighbors to connect to your network or harder for you?

Community Regular

~InstaShock~

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, warwagon said:

May want to try that post again. Not sure what you are asking. Are you asking if lowing the power to your neighborhood would make it harder for your neighbors to connect to your network or harder for you?

what i meant was, if my router's power is lesser than those of my neighbors, wouldn't my neighborhood network's on higher power interfere with my network causing me to have more interference on my network causing me to connection issues.

Grand Master

Mindovermaster Global Moderator

Posted
  • Global Moderator
Posted
1 minute ago, ~InstaShock~ said:

what i meant was, if my router's power is lesser than those of my neighbors, wouldn't my neighborhood network's on higher power interfere with my network causing me to have more interference on my network causing me to connection issues.

If it's on a different channel then your neighbors, no.

Grand Master

adrynalyne

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, ~InstaShock~ said:

what i meant was, if my router's power is lesser than those of my neighbors, wouldn't my neighborhood network's on higher power interfere with my network causing me to have more interference on my network causing me to connection issues.

Yes. Which is why we need all people following this advice. You boosting your power would just increase that interference btw. 

Just now, Mindovermaster said:

If it's on a different channel then your neighbors, no.

Only 3 channels don’t interfere with each other on 2.4. 

Grand Master

nekrosoft13

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

It’s a good idea even if not having issues. It’s pretty douchey to pollute WiFi space for neighbors if it doesn’t help you in any way. I’ve been asking people in my neighborhood to lower their transmit speeds for the last two years. Hasn’t happened, of course. 

It will never happen...

Community Regular

~InstaShock~

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

Yes. Which is why we need all people following this advice. You boosting your power would just increase that interference btw. 

Only 3 channels don’t interfere with each other on 2.4. 

Hmm interesting, maybe i'll rename my SSID to "KindlyLowerYourTransmitPower" or something to that effect... lol 

Experienced

tmorris1

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Mindovermaster said:

Not always, mate. Unless you want to pay your electricity bill...

Who else is going to pay my bill?  I will agree that turning down the power can be good, but it isn't going to save you any measurable amount on your electric bill.

Experienced

tmorris1

Posted
Posted (edited)
4 minutes ago, LostCat said:

People still use 2.4?  Yeesh.  (I mean yeah phones but anything else I'd be using a wire to AC bridge or a USB or PCIe card.)

Most used band is 2.4.  A lot of devices don't support 5GHz. 2.4 has the best range too.

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