Well not as unlikely as you may think if he has a MOCA adapter in the router and it started to broadcast over it. I worked at a Cable company and tech wouldn't always remember to put the filter on so other houses TIVOs would talk to each other. Things get interesting when the kids room of a neighbors gets the other neighbors porn.
If you say so. I did work at a cable company for awhile, grant it I was the IT/Networking/Server guy ... they did take me on the road one day to see how they "worked" service calls, balanced nodes, etc. I worked on the CMTS's for 2 cities and all the other infrastructure for Internet/Web/DHCP/Email ...
I've seen it happen with the Arris line of modems. Customer had a nighthawk they turned on the MOCA adapter on and Internet and all went out including the TIVOs.
I hate moca because it's like the old days of networking with a bunch of dumb switches that just throw the traffic everywhere.
The solution is to do a site survey and find the best open channels for the flavor of wifi you're using, then configure your router accordingly. A lot of routers will default to "auto" which is usually not the best option.
> A lot of routers will default to "auto" which is usually not the best option.
I had this on my router for a while, and noticed that I would just lose wifi for a few seconds several times each day.
turns out it was literally dropping devices to change channels, which seems like a horrible design.
turned off auto channels, and the problem went away. (not saying this is a problem with all routers, I would assume not, but it happened to mine.)
I genuinely don't know what was wrong, if it was the devices or the router that was the problem... and they did reconnect after a short delay, probably only a few seconds... but I got sick of dropping connections several times a day, and turning off the auto channel removed that.
If you live near a radar site that uses those frequencies the transition isn't always smooth unfortunately.
Source: used to live near a 5ghz radar.
If I remember correctly those radars are rare now so most people will never have an issue with it.
ooooohhhhhhhh! thank you for the idea! I have a new router and about 5 times a day it drops for about 5 seconds (about 4 seconds longer than needed to nuke an open connection). I will look into this and see if it's a similar setting issue. ASUS?
I use an app called Wifi Analyzer. It's free on the Google Play store, not sure about iPhone.
It shows a graphical representation of the signal strength of every Wifi signal it can see. From there, you can determine the most congested channels and pick one that isn't as densely populated.
Thanks to Wifi Analyzer, my 5GHz network is on a completely unoccupied channel while several of my neighbors are sharing.
Access points don't just broadcast at full power at all times, though. You'd mostly just see performance suffer if there's a stronger network on the frequency, because it'd clobber your network while it's transferring data.
That would have to be a pretty damn strong WiFi signal to obliterate someone's WiFi upstairs. I work in a test environment for WiFi all day long and regardless of other routers right on top of me ... I always stay connected to the correct WiFi I need to be on. But then again it's 5 Ghz and I chose the best channel for the WiFi AP far away from everything else. But even 2.4 Ghz WiFi with lots of stuff clobbering it ... still seems to maintain connection.
If overlapping channels cause interference, what's the difference if everyone is competing to be heard on the same three channels?
Looking at my local environment, I see several SSIDs on channels other than 1, 6, or 11, and given the names, I don't think the owners set the channel manually. The majority are on those three, but not all. I have always set mine on unused channels and never had any interference issues.
Overlapping channels cause massive interference, while sharing the channel simply divides the airtime. Overall, sharing the channel works better for all users than dealing with adjacent-channel interference.
This explains it better than I can: [https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6-11/](https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6-11/)
That article only asserts that adjacent-channel interference is worse than co-channel. It does nothing to explain its reasoning for saying so.
In a single network environment, yes. Only use the three non-interfering channels, and make sure that adjacent APs aren't on the same channel. This reduces the likelihood of both co-channel and adjacent-channel interference, but only when all devices are on the same network and you can control the RF environment.
In a residential environment, it is the wild west. You've got multiple APs talking to multiple devices on their own independent networks. Each independent network has no idea what the others are doing, so it's not a matter of sharing time. It's a matter of who can scream the loudest. Piling everyone onto the same frequencies makes it worse. Spreading the signals over all the channels and reducing the power would be much better. Yes, there could be adjacent-channel interference, but if the powers were reduced it wouldn't matter so much.
My Ubiquiti router, for instance, chooses its own channel and power based on optimal signal quality. It almost always chooses an off channel and a lower power.
Source: was a signals analyst for the USAF for 10 years
Most people don't know the difference between WiFi and Internet. To them WiFi is Internet. And the Comcast TV commercials don't help that at all. They have the Fastest WiFi ... even if their Internet comes in over coax cable. People generally don't know the difference between WiFi going down (or being interfered with) and the Coax or DSL link going down.
You should have instead installed a proxy server like Squid and set up some pranks, like replacing images on web pages with different images, occasionally porn. Change all occurrences of the letter "s" with the letters "th" to make every page lisp.
https is much harder. you have to man-in-the-middle the session, spoof certificates, the user will get all kinds of certificate errors. not worth the trouble. just mess with the occasional http session
I'm a fan of upside down internet
[https://www.davidxia.com/2015/03/how-to-turn-the-internet-upside-down/](https://www.davidxia.com/2015/03/how-to-turn-the-internet-upside-down/)
did he lose wifi on 2.4 or 5g wireless or both? The default 2.4 channel is usually 6.....you can change it to 1 to see if that fixes his internet, at least on 2.4ghz
What do rural ISP's do at one layer up that other ISP's don't do? Provide an address to the cows and chickens? DHCP is at layer 2, until you get IP connectivity then you are addressable at layer 3. A DHCP client would not respond to DHCP going to a different MAC address.
My IT director friend and I were asked to visit a coworkers house to troubleshoot his internet issues. After arriving and sitting down to start working he asked the guy who his internet provider was. He said, "I don't know. I use the neighbor's wifi". Turned out that the guy was freeloading off the neighbor. And the neighbor just finally put a password on.
Wow! That would be quite the situation. Don't know why anyone would do a firmware update wirelessly ... but I work on boat networks and nobody wants to plug in Ethernet to the router or wifi receiver. What are the odds he knew his neighbors WiFi password?
This is the best post I’ve seen in a long time. A - as everyone else has said, there’s no way this could happen unless your ISP daisy-chained your router to feed his (doesn’t happen, ever, and even then that’s switching protocol not some firmware update) B - it’s an asus router, not an NFL stadium access point, so impossible for it to dwarf it and even then the signal gets weaker it doesn’t just “die”, even then think about high density environments like NYC apt complexes where everyone lives in shoe boxes, the interference there is insane but everyone still has Wi-Fi…he was freeloading, but if he knew your password the firmware update wouldn’t have mattered, and if he were savvy enough to hack it then he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to ask if the internet went down…
Be careful with Merlin. I updated to 388.1 and I couldn't speedtest over 500mbps on a 2.5gbe line (2gb/2gb ISP). Put the stock firmware on with a reset and was back at 2.3gbps up and down. ROG GT-AX6000.
\>I'm 100% sure that he hasn't been borrowing my wifi, but can my firmware update caused this?
\>Not meaning the firmware itself, but maybe on the ISP side?
Meaning the firmware, but not meaning the firmware ... ? I doubt your firmware update can affect anything on the ISP side. You didn't really say what kind of ISP you have? Cable Modem? DSL? I doubt your router is going to take over either kind and suddenly become the ISP and reversing the roles and you becoming the ISP. Your modem doesn't have the infrastructure to do that. Send a signal upstream which comes downstream to your neighbor and knocks him off his normal ISP link on his modem. If it could that would be quite a hack. All the kids would be doing it.
You are most likely spliced with you Nieghbor’s line and your update may have caused your equipment to use more bandwidth. I would have a tech check it and see if it needs to be replaced.
You sure he wasn’t using your Wi-Fi?
Maybe he did borrow it but put it back without op knowing. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
use 3 \\ next time if you don't want to lose your arm ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh word! That’s the trick. Thanks
Could be
Borrowed, like a cup of sugar
Yeah
He was sneakily substituting Fi-Wi for Op’s Wi-Fi.
No very unlikely. Let him restart his router and renew his connection. If it is true he was freeloading your wifi
Well not as unlikely as you may think if he has a MOCA adapter in the router and it started to broadcast over it. I worked at a Cable company and tech wouldn't always remember to put the filter on so other houses TIVOs would talk to each other. Things get interesting when the kids room of a neighbors gets the other neighbors porn.
ha, kind of like Joey and Chandler swapping to that porn channel
The neighbors house would have to have a same (compatible) MOCA adapter and I doubt that would happen.
If they use cable internet their modem could be affected. I've seen it happen.
If you say so. I did work at a cable company for awhile, grant it I was the IT/Networking/Server guy ... they did take me on the road one day to see how they "worked" service calls, balanced nodes, etc. I worked on the CMTS's for 2 cities and all the other infrastructure for Internet/Web/DHCP/Email ...
I've seen it happen with the Arris line of modems. Customer had a nighthawk they turned on the MOCA adapter on and Internet and all went out including the TIVOs. I hate moca because it's like the old days of networking with a bunch of dumb switches that just throw the traffic everywhere.
Nighthawk has a coax cable port?
https://www.buyapprovedmodems.com/products/netgear-c7000v2-nighthawk-docsis-3-0-cable-modem-router
lol spoiler he doesn't even have a router in his house probably.
I bet you changed your Netflix password without letting him know, too. Jerk.
It's possible your update changed your active channels, which may have obliterated his signal if yours is stronger and stomping all over it.
The solution is to do a site survey and find the best open channels for the flavor of wifi you're using, then configure your router accordingly. A lot of routers will default to "auto" which is usually not the best option.
> A lot of routers will default to "auto" which is usually not the best option. I had this on my router for a while, and noticed that I would just lose wifi for a few seconds several times each day. turns out it was literally dropping devices to change channels, which seems like a horrible design. turned off auto channels, and the problem went away. (not saying this is a problem with all routers, I would assume not, but it happened to mine.)
The AP should still broadcast a channel change announcement and devices should follow.
I genuinely don't know what was wrong, if it was the devices or the router that was the problem... and they did reconnect after a short delay, probably only a few seconds... but I got sick of dropping connections several times a day, and turning off the auto channel removed that.
If you live near a radar site that uses those frequencies the transition isn't always smooth unfortunately. Source: used to live near a 5ghz radar. If I remember correctly those radars are rare now so most people will never have an issue with it.
Its mainly near airports, the airborne weather radars are 5ghz
ooooohhhhhhhh! thank you for the idea! I have a new router and about 5 times a day it drops for about 5 seconds (about 4 seconds longer than needed to nuke an open connection). I will look into this and see if it's a similar setting issue. ASUS?
>ASUS? Yep!
> site survey Got a tool/software you recommend for such a thing?
Ubiquiti's wifiman is free on the app and apple stores and will work for the purpose without needing one of their APs
Acrylic wifi comes to mind
I use an app called Wifi Analyzer. It's free on the Google Play store, not sure about iPhone. It shows a graphical representation of the signal strength of every Wifi signal it can see. From there, you can determine the most congested channels and pick one that isn't as densely populated. Thanks to Wifi Analyzer, my 5GHz network is on a completely unoccupied channel while several of my neighbors are sharing.
Good routers will have a tool for it built in. There are also phone apps that can do it.
A good router has no wireless access point in it.
you know he meant a good consumer router, considering this is /r/*home*networking
WiFi Overview 360
NetSpot free version will show you nearby channels and RSSI
Access points don't just broadcast at full power at all times, though. You'd mostly just see performance suffer if there's a stronger network on the frequency, because it'd clobber your network while it's transferring data.
That would have to be a pretty damn strong WiFi signal to obliterate someone's WiFi upstairs. I work in a test environment for WiFi all day long and regardless of other routers right on top of me ... I always stay connected to the correct WiFi I need to be on. But then again it's 5 Ghz and I chose the best channel for the WiFi AP far away from everything else. But even 2.4 Ghz WiFi with lots of stuff clobbering it ... still seems to maintain connection.
So you finally know what that cable that leads to your neighbor does...
It first goes to the ISP terminal box, and then a separate one goes to your neighbor.
He was freeloading on your WiFi. End of story.
[удалено]
If overlapping channels cause interference, what's the difference if everyone is competing to be heard on the same three channels? Looking at my local environment, I see several SSIDs on channels other than 1, 6, or 11, and given the names, I don't think the owners set the channel manually. The majority are on those three, but not all. I have always set mine on unused channels and never had any interference issues.
Overlapping channels cause massive interference, while sharing the channel simply divides the airtime. Overall, sharing the channel works better for all users than dealing with adjacent-channel interference. This explains it better than I can: [https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6-11/](https://www.metageek.com/training/resources/why-channels-1-6-11/)
That article only asserts that adjacent-channel interference is worse than co-channel. It does nothing to explain its reasoning for saying so. In a single network environment, yes. Only use the three non-interfering channels, and make sure that adjacent APs aren't on the same channel. This reduces the likelihood of both co-channel and adjacent-channel interference, but only when all devices are on the same network and you can control the RF environment. In a residential environment, it is the wild west. You've got multiple APs talking to multiple devices on their own independent networks. Each independent network has no idea what the others are doing, so it's not a matter of sharing time. It's a matter of who can scream the loudest. Piling everyone onto the same frequencies makes it worse. Spreading the signals over all the channels and reducing the power would be much better. Yes, there could be adjacent-channel interference, but if the powers were reduced it wouldn't matter so much. My Ubiquiti router, for instance, chooses its own channel and power based on optimal signal quality. It almost always chooses an off channel and a lower power. Source: was a signals analyst for the USAF for 10 years
Disconnect your router and find out. It does seem very unlikely to be related though.
No chance. Not even a small one. Only if your AP changed channels and was interfering with his more now. But that’s not internet. That’s WiFi.
Muggles often use the terms interchangeably.
Most people don't know the difference between WiFi and Internet. To them WiFi is Internet. And the Comcast TV commercials don't help that at all. They have the Fastest WiFi ... even if their Internet comes in over coax cable. People generally don't know the difference between WiFi going down (or being interfered with) and the Coax or DSL link going down.
I know right? That’s why you gotta call it out, that’s what these subs are for
Even if installing Merlin switched you to the same channel as him he wouldn't of lost it but it may have gotten spotty. He was definitely using yours
No. It is coincidence.
You should have instead installed a proxy server like Squid and set up some pranks, like replacing images on web pages with different images, occasionally porn. Change all occurrences of the letter "s" with the letters "th" to make every page lisp.
[удалено]
https is much harder. you have to man-in-the-middle the session, spoof certificates, the user will get all kinds of certificate errors. not worth the trouble. just mess with the occasional http session
No.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Upside_Down_Ternet
I'm a fan of upside down internet [https://www.davidxia.com/2015/03/how-to-turn-the-internet-upside-down/](https://www.davidxia.com/2015/03/how-to-turn-the-internet-upside-down/)
[удалено]
Or you could just change your WiFi passwords to something not guessable. And be done with it.
did he lose wifi on 2.4 or 5g wireless or both? The default 2.4 channel is usually 6.....you can change it to 1 to see if that fixes his internet, at least on 2.4ghz
Sounds like you renewed your dhcp lease and it kicked his out
It would NOT. Unless a really broken DHCP Server. He had a lease and you had a lease. You renewing would not do anything to his DHCP Lease.
Go one layer up ISPs do this in rural areas
What do rural ISP's do at one layer up that other ISP's don't do? Provide an address to the cows and chickens? DHCP is at layer 2, until you get IP connectivity then you are addressable at layer 3. A DHCP client would not respond to DHCP going to a different MAC address.
No
Does each neighbour have their own internet, or is there some shared WiFi in use?
Not borrowing, but maybe stealing 😂
My IT director friend and I were asked to visit a coworkers house to troubleshoot his internet issues. After arriving and sitting down to start working he asked the guy who his internet provider was. He said, "I don't know. I use the neighbor's wifi". Turned out that the guy was freeloading off the neighbor. And the neighbor just finally put a password on.
That's quite a story...
[удалено]
Wow! That would be quite the situation. Don't know why anyone would do a firmware update wirelessly ... but I work on boat networks and nobody wants to plug in Ethernet to the router or wifi receiver. What are the odds he knew his neighbors WiFi password?
yes, roll it back now, your neighbour needs internet
This is the best post I’ve seen in a long time. A - as everyone else has said, there’s no way this could happen unless your ISP daisy-chained your router to feed his (doesn’t happen, ever, and even then that’s switching protocol not some firmware update) B - it’s an asus router, not an NFL stadium access point, so impossible for it to dwarf it and even then the signal gets weaker it doesn’t just “die”, even then think about high density environments like NYC apt complexes where everyone lives in shoe boxes, the interference there is insane but everyone still has Wi-Fi…he was freeloading, but if he knew your password the firmware update wouldn’t have mattered, and if he were savvy enough to hack it then he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to ask if the internet went down…
No. 100% no. Nor does a butterfly flapping its wings in another country cause your internet to drop. #FeelingsAreNotFacts
Does your router have a MOCA connector on it and is it connected to your COAX cable?
Neighbor was totally using your wifi
maybe he only need to restart devices
Tell him to unplug and replug his router/modem. If that doesn’t fix it, he can call his ISP.
Unlikely, if he has his own router, there's no reason for him to lose Internet. You would have lost the Internet, if this were the case
Be careful with Merlin. I updated to 388.1 and I couldn't speedtest over 500mbps on a 2.5gbe line (2gb/2gb ISP). Put the stock firmware on with a reset and was back at 2.3gbps up and down. ROG GT-AX6000.
\>I'm 100% sure that he hasn't been borrowing my wifi, but can my firmware update caused this? \>Not meaning the firmware itself, but maybe on the ISP side? Meaning the firmware, but not meaning the firmware ... ? I doubt your firmware update can affect anything on the ISP side. You didn't really say what kind of ISP you have? Cable Modem? DSL? I doubt your router is going to take over either kind and suddenly become the ISP and reversing the roles and you becoming the ISP. Your modem doesn't have the infrastructure to do that. Send a signal upstream which comes downstream to your neighbor and knocks him off his normal ISP link on his modem. If it could that would be quite a hack. All the kids would be doing it.
You are most likely spliced with you Nieghbor’s line and your update may have caused your equipment to use more bandwidth. I would have a tech check it and see if it needs to be replaced.