Imortance of channel?

Router is set to channel 6 (forgettng the exact Ghz).

My 3945ABG is channel 1 by default. Still have fast wireless.

Channel 6 does nothing to benefit me, apparently.

whats up?

 

The more crowded a channel, the more likely you'll receive interference. Thereby cutting down range and speed.

The default channel for wireless access points from the factory is Channel 6. Use a program like NetStumbler to find the least populated channel in your vicinity, then set your wireless access point to that channel.

 

I'll just add a little anecdotal evidence.

a neighbour of mine recently set up a wireless network, and I started to have occasional disconnects. I changed from channel 6 to channel 11 and I haven't had a problem since.

 

When my Wifi seems a little sluggish I just quickly switch channels and it seems back to it's full power again.

And my 2.4Ghz cordless phone sometimes knocks out my Wifi if on the same channel. Switching channels fixes this easy. My cordless is an Autochannel phone so it's impossible to prevent furture disconnects. I wish it was manual, then I would know what channel not to use. Will a 5.8Ghz phone fix this?

 

Yes, as long as it's only your phone providing the interference to your network.

 

Well when the disconnects happen, I know for sure it's the phone. Being that it only happen when my phone rings. Not a huge enough problem for me to purchase another phone yet, but I'll make sure in the furture that my Router and Cordless phones Ghz is differ on next purchase.

As for the Sluggishness from time to time, I pretty sure it outside interference. There is like 60+ networks that my WiFi sees.

 

That is quite a lot of traffic. I can see a maximum of 24 networks from my apartment, and over half of them are on channel 6. I'm running on channel 3 along with 2 other distant networks.