On 12/31/2009 3:58 PM, Jorden Mauro wrote:

On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 8:56 PM, Frank Sweetser<fs@wpi.edu> wrote:

On 12/31/2009 3:47 PM, Jorden Mauro wrote:

I've never been able to find a channel free from microwave oven

interference, sadly. I'm convinced my ancient microwave puts out a

wide spectrum and leaks plenty.

Between cordless telephones, microwaves, bluetooth, and neighbors, the only

reliable channel I've found is to ditch 2.4 altogether and use something in

the 802.11a band.

That's quite a bandwidth sacrifice if you've designed your network for n.

Huh? 802.11n, unlike the a/b/g operating modes, isn't tied to one particular band - it'll happily operate in either 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz. Some particular models only support one band or the other, but that's an implementation limitation, not one in the spec.

In fact, since the 5Ghz band has 19 non-overlapping channels, as opposed to 3 in 2.4Ghz, you're far more likely to have two adjacent clear channels available, giving you the option of running a 40Mhz wide channel instead of just 20Mhz, and therefore twice the bandwidth.