yann2
Senior Member
- Jan 24, 2012
- 414
- 48
(repost from my original thread at XDA Developers forum, in the LePan Users Area)
Just discovered that our LePan tabs can connect to wi-fi routers in frequencies not normally in use here in North America (where the legal range is channels 1 to 11).
European countries allow upper frequencies, opening up channels 12 and 13.In Japan it's even cooler, and they offer channel 14.
A mention on this post, lead me to this other thread - and soon I was tinkering.
I had tried previously using channel 13, but my laptop lost connection. The posts I read above showed how to enable the LePan to use the higher frequencies channels. The easiest way is a quick edit and adding a line to build.prop :
Rebooted, and LeTab connect fine. My laptop lost connection, but disabling wireless, and re-enabling got it to find the new channel 13 router freq.
Some wireless cards might have tweakable settings in their Device Manager controls - see this page for some info if interested.
Why this is interesting? Take you off the congested frequencies, specially if you live in a denser neighbourhood. Multiple networks in same or close-by channels will interfere with each other, slowing down traffic and reducing quality.
Here's a inSSIDer screenshot showing our current conditions :
From the graph, you can see that the routers in fact use more than one channel's width in transmissions, so you got to try and stay away from those other guys.
Notice in the graph the two networks duking it out on ch. 11 - where their owners set them, probably trying to avoid congestion and conflict. Head onto each other.
This scan taken at the front of the house, my Tomato-firmware router is at the back, in my office, and sees a neighbour router right on channel 6 (probably the most common channel, many times set as factory default in new routers). I had mine on ch.7, as I couldn't see any interference from my surveying from the living room.
Maybe this helps some of you?
EDIT :
In a later post in the original thread, I included this :
Tried something new - I edited build.prop on the tablet again, this time just changed the 'wifi.channels=' line, added channel 14 to it. So it became :
ro.wifi.channels=14
..and changed my router to that channel, right from the tablet. It never skipped a beat, continued connected without any pause. Yey linux! (I never even changed the ro.wifi.country=EU, it worked on the Japanese channel 14 just with the channels=14 edit)
My laptop's wireless G card though, doesn't seem to be able to operate in channel 14, or it's locked out of that mode somehow (Win XP pro, and I changed the Regional Settings, Location to Japan).
So, router and tab happy to use 14, but laptop breaks the deal, argh.
Today traffic was crazy in the mid band channels :
...so I moved back to channel 13.
** Disclaimer - regional regulations and authorities would frown on using bandwidth you were not supposed to be in.
Sadly, the allocated bandwidth for home networking and other wireless devices is quickly getting saturated. N-class wifi opens up 5 GHz band, but I don't have either the router or the adapters needed to use those new and less saturated frequencies.
Just discovered that our LePan tabs can connect to wi-fi routers in frequencies not normally in use here in North America (where the legal range is channels 1 to 11).
European countries allow upper frequencies, opening up channels 12 and 13.In Japan it's even cooler, and they offer channel 14.
A mention on this post, lead me to this other thread - and soon I was tinkering.
I had tried previously using channel 13, but my laptop lost connection. The posts I read above showed how to enable the LePan to use the higher frequencies channels. The easiest way is a quick edit and adding a line to build.prop :
...which tells our Android dvice we are now in Europe, and 13 channels are legit.
Rebooted, and LeTab connect fine. My laptop lost connection, but disabling wireless, and re-enabling got it to find the new channel 13 router freq.
Some wireless cards might have tweakable settings in their Device Manager controls - see this page for some info if interested.
Why this is interesting? Take you off the congested frequencies, specially if you live in a denser neighbourhood. Multiple networks in same or close-by channels will interfere with each other, slowing down traffic and reducing quality.
Here's a inSSIDer screenshot showing our current conditions :
From the graph, you can see that the routers in fact use more than one channel's width in transmissions, so you got to try and stay away from those other guys.
Notice in the graph the two networks duking it out on ch. 11 - where their owners set them, probably trying to avoid congestion and conflict. Head onto each other.
This scan taken at the front of the house, my Tomato-firmware router is at the back, in my office, and sees a neighbour router right on channel 6 (probably the most common channel, many times set as factory default in new routers). I had mine on ch.7, as I couldn't see any interference from my surveying from the living room.
Maybe this helps some of you?
EDIT :
In a later post in the original thread, I included this :
Tried something new - I edited build.prop on the tablet again, this time just changed the 'wifi.channels=' line, added channel 14 to it. So it became :
ro.wifi.channels=14
..and changed my router to that channel, right from the tablet. It never skipped a beat, continued connected without any pause. Yey linux! (I never even changed the ro.wifi.country=EU, it worked on the Japanese channel 14 just with the channels=14 edit)
My laptop's wireless G card though, doesn't seem to be able to operate in channel 14, or it's locked out of that mode somehow (Win XP pro, and I changed the Regional Settings, Location to Japan).
So, router and tab happy to use 14, but laptop breaks the deal, argh.
Today traffic was crazy in the mid band channels :
...so I moved back to channel 13.
** Disclaimer - regional regulations and authorities would frown on using bandwidth you were not supposed to be in.
Sadly, the allocated bandwidth for home networking and other wireless devices is quickly getting saturated. N-class wifi opens up 5 GHz band, but I don't have either the router or the adapters needed to use those new and less saturated frequencies.
