Crowded Wifi

[Greatguardian]

Hi BGTech,

I recently moved into a new apartment complex which offers free, open wifi to all residents. Because I wasn't a big fan of the consistency of this free wifi, I went ahead and purchased my own cable internet service for my unit. I have an N-class wireless router set up in the center of my apartment so I'm a maximum of 10'-15' from the router at any given time.

The problem I'm having is that there don't seem to be any unused channels on the 2.4Ghz band. The apartment's public wifi is broadcasting on a minimum of 3 channels which reach my location (1, 5, and 11 ofc), and the private wifi of other units is being broadcast on intermediary channels.

The result is a wired network that sits around ~115 Mbps without any trouble and a wireless network which can barely push 0.7 Mbps through all the interference.

My lapop is all thin and shit so it doesn't have an ethernet port at all, otherwise I'd readily wire this baby up and call it a day.

What are my options here? Am I going to have to spend multiple hundos of dollars on a fancy shmancy 5Ghz wireless router?

Thanks

[Sumy]

If you have an Andriod device, you can download an App from Farproc called "Wifi Analyzer" that can at least tell you which of those channels have the LEAST interference. It's free (well, ad supported).

[Salodin]

Surprised your current modem/router can't do 5ghz already. 5ghz is your only real solution, sans a usb-ethernet adapter.

[Greatguardian]

If you have an Andriod device, you can download an App from Farproc called "Wifi Analyzer" that can at least tell you which of those channels have the LEAST interference. It's free (well, ad supported).

This is actually how I figured out that my terribad wifi speeds were being caused by interference from other networks. This is a snapshot of what I'm dealing with.

Spoiler: show

Ch1 looks clear in that image. It's only temporary. They're all crowded af.

The modem-router I picked up is this one here. Originally I didn't think I needed anything fancy to push a 100 Mbps connection a whopping 10'-15' into my bedroom but this is really bad.

edit: Running a hard line from my modem-router to a cheapo 5Ghz-capable wireless router should be fine, no?

edit2: Apparently the integrated wifi card in my laptop doesn't support the 5Ghz band anyways. This is frustrating.

[orinthia]

Bigger solution: Get 5ghz capable router, turn it to access point mode (or ethernet bridge, or some other method; there's a couple), plug it in, setup new 5ghz network, and upgrade your laptop's wifi card (or get a usb 5ghz dongle). Be aware that 5ghz tends not to travel through walls very well, or at least cheaper routers/cards/dongles might not.

One-off solution: get a usb-ethernet dongle and string a cable.

[Salodin]

Usb Ethernet is your best bet honestly. For like ten bucks and two days with prime your problem can be solved.

[Greatguardian]

I'm going to try setting up a cheapo 5Ghz router as an access point so I'll have something for any additional devices (phones etc) that don't have USB input or aren't worth running a dedicated line to. It's certainly cheaper than replacing the whole modem-router.

Thanks, y'all.