Automatic channel selection on a router - How does it decide which channel to use?

erb

I have an O2 wireless box which is Thomson router.

When this is upstairs and plugged into the master telephone socket it nearly always selects 6 but when brought downstairs it nearly always selects channel 1.

My PC does not like channel 6 and will not get an internet connection on it.

I have set the router to manual selection but the router does not like that and does not give an internet connection on any channel with manual channel selection. I have set this up with O2 help so it was done right and they do not know why it does not work on manual.

What I am trying to achieve is the router upstairs plugged into the master telephone socket but selecting a channel other than 6.

SJames_3

Somebody may want to correct me here, but I believe that router select channels based on the availability of channels and strength of the signal on each channel.

Might be worth trying a firmware upgrade, can't help you anymore than that as I'm not fond of messing around with routers myself but if that doesn't work, I'm sure somebody else can provide some more helpful information.

espresso

erb wrote: »

I have set the router to manual selection but the router does not like that and does not give an internet connection on any channel with manual channel selection.

You can select any wireless channel (1-13) manually in the router, however depending on the wireless software running on the PC, you may have to remove that connection and scan again for wireless networks to pick up your router again. I have never seen a router that you cannot manually set the wireless channel. Change the channel and then run Netstumbler here to prove that you have correctly changed the channel.

erb

espresso wrote: »

You can select any wireless channel (1-13) manually in the router, however depending on the wireless software running on the PC, you may have to remove that connection and scan again for wireless networks to pick up your router again. I have never seen a router that you cannot manually set the wireless channel. Change the channel and then run Netstumbler here to prove that you have correctly changed the channel.

Yes I went through the manual set up with help form O2 and after having changed channel did the scan for networks and tried to connect to mine. I was able to get the connection between the PC and router but could not get an internet connection and surprisingly neither could my children using their laptops. The only way we can get the router to get an internet connection is to have it on automatic channel selection. This did have O2 baffled.

Having said that, I would like to focus on trying to get the router to automatically select a channel other than 6 so need to know what can influece the channel selection if anybody knows.

espresso

erb wrote: »

Having said that, I would like to focus on trying to get the router to automatically select a channel other than 6 so need to know what can influece the channel selection if anybody knows.

Your wasting your time trying to force the auto channel selection to pick a different channel, that is what manual selection is for! Use Netstumbler to survey your location and pick a channel five away from others in use and select it manually in the router. Then sort out why you can't get an internet connection, which is a separate problem.