Neighbour has installed high power WiFi that's taking my network down. What to do?

[The Tiger]

Our old neighbour moved out and the new neighbour has installed a high power WiFi router (probably the 1000 mW TP link one with 9 dBi antennas.) As if the 10x power atrocity wasn't enough, the bandwidth has been set to 40 MHz.

Now, I invested in a new router a few days ago - TP Link Archer C60, which is a normal 100 mW power one. All over my house, my own network's signal varies, but the neighbour's signal is effing strong and full all around my house and in the streets too. Much stronger than my own WiFi network. Neighbour's stupid router changes channels often, and often I find my own network down. I can't even open my router's page without waiting a few minutes to load the page. Once I change my channel, my network works fine, until that effing router again changes its channel with planned precision to overwhelm my network. I am so pissed off. Once the interference starts, I can't even manually change my router's channel because the router page itself takes a long time to load.

Is there a way out of this, except telling the neighbour to fix a channel? She seems a recluse and has never talked to anyone in the locality ever since she moved in, and I am not comfortable asking about tweaking her router.

I haven't upgraded my WiFi adapters to 5 GHz AC yet, but is there a way to stop this interference at 2.4 GHz itself? Because our phones and smart TVs still operate at 2.4 GHz.

 

[scout_03]

check where you live if there are not some sort of law like fcc or similar that prohibit them to do this you might be able to file a complaint for this .

 

[kanewolf]

There is not a technical solution to bad neighbors hogging the 2.4Ghz band. You will have to move to 5Ghz or wired.

 

[electro_neanderthal]

The first thing you may want to do is talk to your neighbor and ask if they can do something about it. They could just be an enthusiast who doesn't quite realize how strong their signal is.

If they don't turn it down... is that even legal for a private home to own such a powerful receiver? Around here once you get a strong enough signal you need a radio operator's license (I think), and they have to abide by laws. Check your local laws to see if this also applies where you live.

The joke answer (please don't do this) is to just steal his internet. The serious answer is to peacefully talk about it and ask if they can reduce the power of their signal (I would think equipment that strong has adjustable signal strength).

 

[ko888]

The FCC maximum allowed output power for the access point is 1 Watt (1000 mW).

 

[SgtScream]

First find out if your neighbor's wifi is the conflict. Next time the problem replicates, go over to your neighbor's house and ask him if you could test by temporarily unplugging his wireless router. It sounds like you think that is the problem, but you haven't proven anything.

 

[bill001g]

That is kinda strange I though every manufacture transmitted near the legal maximum which is different by country.

When I went to look through the specs the c60 is the only one I can find in their whole list that only has a output power listed for CE and not both CE and FCC. I would be more inclined to think it is mistake in their documentation rather than be the only router that I can find that does not support the FCC values.

So 30db or 1000mw is the legal maximum power in the USA and many other countries. The 20db which is a 100mw is for countries covered by the CE but I thought it was ETSI for the EU.

The FCC really cracked down on equipment a few years back. You used to be able to set yourself to russia so you could use illegal values and use channels on the 5g band that are not allowed. The radio chip manufacture worked with the FCC to prevent this.

I don't know how they now restrict routers by country. I know it is technically illegal to import a device that violates the local laws but it is pretty easy to buy from a foreign country including china directly. You can get lots of illegal stuff out of china.

Still if you live in a country where the limit is 100mw and your neighbor really has a device that puts out 1000mw you can only report them. I know it is pretty much a waste of time to report things to the FCC. You would need to have fairly fancy equipment to really prove they are transmitting a levels that are not legal.

Now if 1000mw is the legal allowed transmit level then there is nothing you can do. It is "unlicensed" so there are no rules on sharing it your neighbor can use all he wants just like you can.