Channels - one way to optimize your wireless network speed

802.11x wireless networks work by transmitting data on one of 13 channels.

If your neighbour's network is broadcasting on the same channel as yours you may experience significant performance problems.

The quickest way to make sure you're not affected by this is to use a wifi network detection/discovery tool. I used to use Netstumbler, but it doesn't work properly on Windows 7. So I found that the easiest way is through the Windows command line.

You do this on a computer connected to your wireless network.

1. Open a command line
2. Type: netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid
3. Look for your own network name and find the channel number.
4. Then make sure it is not the same as any other network in the list.

(Look at this great wifi network info site to see many other similar tools)