Microwave oven causing problems with my wireless nertwork?

[wahnula]

Hello,

Has anyone experienced this, interference from a microwave oven that causes signal loss to two PC's on my small office 10-client network?

Our office is a double-wide trailer (24' x 60'), for clarity let's call the central long-axis dimension as 6:00-12:00. At 5:00, is my office, with cable modem, sonicwall, gagabit switch, and WAP #1. At 7:00 is the server room with my SBS2003SP1 server handling DHCP duties. It is hard-wired through conduit to and from my office's gigabit switch.

At 9:00 sits the microwave. The second WAP sits right on the short axis at 9:00/3:00. At 3:00 is a second sub-office with (4) clients. All have uninterrupted signal. The problem comes with the PCs to the north of the WAP (and the microwave. They are separated by maybe 12'.

Anyway the offices at 2:00 and 11:00 experience random dropouts of the signal, after much head scratching someone asked if I had a microwave, which is described above.

The question: Has anyone had this problem in the past and if so, how did you solve it?

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[rphips]

Yeah I did and I moved the microwave.

 

[TreyJ]

Or purchase a shielded microwave, but they're very expensive.

Do you have 2.4 Ghz cordless phones? Those can cause signal problems.

 

[wahnula]

Thanks all for the replies, now I at least know that it is possible.

Do you have 2.4 Ghz cordless phones?

We have (1) cordless phone for the Garden Center with the base located in the same office as the WAP, not sure if it's a 2.4GHz or other, we bought it from the folks that supply & maintain our phone system (one job I will not volunteer for!). I would think if that was the problem it would affect the (4) PCs in the same office with it, but it does not.

I moved the microwave.

In this case it would be easier to move the WAP, as the kitchen can't be moved. Do you mean to move it just a few feet, a different orientation etc. or removing it from the area? I assumed the latter. Thanks again!

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[JackCole]

'lo Tony,

Might be a good idea to check on that phone, as most 802.11 standards (except 802.11a (5 GHz) and 802.11n (2.4 & 5 GHz)) use the 2.4 Ghz band.

Microwaves can also emit RF interferance in the 2.4 GHz band, typically around 2.45 MHz which is similar to channel 9 in the 2.4 GHz band, but due to variences usually interfers with channels 8, 10, and 11 as well. I recommend you take a look at the back of the microwave to see which band it operates on, then adjust your WAP to the furthest channel from. For instance if your Microwave uses the usual 2.45 frequency, you should try setting your WAP to channel 1.

Either that or switch to an 802.11n network and run it in the 5GHz band on your next network overhaul.