The Guide to Choosing Wi-Fi Channel for your Network

 

The wi-fi router in your house communicates over a wireless channel that has a designated number.  Although, wi-fi connection works fine on any channel, there are times when you might need to change the channel because of radio interference, congestion, slow speed and other reasons. This makes it important for homeowners to understand the difference between wi-fi channels. Let’s get started

2.5GHz Band

The 2.4 GHz band has 11 channels wherein 1 channel operates at a centre frequency and 11 channels operate at a higher frequency. The channel 1 operates at a frequency of 2.412 GHz and channel 11 operates at a frequency of 2.462 GHz. The other channels are separated at an interval of 2.412 GHz.

5GHz Band

The 5GHz band has more channels than 2.5 GHz with 36, 40, 44 and 48 being the most popular ones. Each of these channels is separated by 5MHz. This is technically an advanced channel that restricts the available channels to specific numbers just to avoid the chances of overlapping frequencies.

The channel 36 of 5GHz band operates at 5.180 GHz, 40 operates at 5.2 GHz. 165 is the highest frequency channel that operates on a frequency of 5.825 GHz.

The need to change the wi-fi channel number

The routers and parental control device that we use mostly run on 2.4 GHz. If the neighbouring wi-fi network is also running on the same channel, it could cause radio interference. Even the microwaves, bluetooth and other devices in our homes work on 2.5GHz frequency. This can slowdown the performance of the network. Changing the channel can improve the network performance.

Changing the channel

All the best parental control device routers or even the traditional ones have administrator settings. You need to login as admin and look for a drop-down list of the supported channel numbers. Choose a channel that you wish the network to work on, and viola you are done.

The advanced routers come with 5GHz band, giving homeowners the choice to change the settings and ensure they get uninterrupted Internet connectivity.