can microwave knockout WiFi.

littlerock

I am currently staying in a pub I Birmingham area which advertises free WiFi throughout. Need this to pick up awaited email. Only it isn't working.

Asked in bar and they said restaurant busy tonight means heavy use of microwaves which knocks out wifi. Not too concerned for myself as it is only two nights and I am on top floor of a separate annex.

But does this mean their microwaves are leaking? Could this have impact longer term on health of kitchen staff? Is there any research on this?

System

It does sound like the microwave has an RF leak and yes there is a health risk to the staff using it. RF has a habit of affecting soft tissue. Eyes are one of the areas that could be affected adversely together with reproductive organs in both men and women

stator

Microwaves and Wifi use the same frequency, 2.4ghz, but they shouldn't interfere becuase microwaves are heavily shielded.
I would doubt it is the cause, more likely the interference coming from somewhere else.
If it is the microwaves they should get them fixed ASAP

grumbler

!!!!!! wrote: »

It does sound like the microwave has an RF leak and yes there is a health risk to the staff using it. RF has a habit of affecting soft tissue.

We live surrounded by RF. All depends on the power.

boo_star

!!!!!! wrote: »

It does sound like the microwave has an RF leak and yes there is a health risk to the staff using it. RF has a habit of affecting soft tissue. Eyes are one of the areas that could be affected adversely together with reproductive organs in both men and women

Unless their skin starts cooking, they'll be OK.

esuhl

Maybe it was easier to say that they can't fix the problem as it's caused by the microwaves, rather than because they're busy and don't know how the wifi works...? (Or am I just being cynical?)

bsod

yes it can

GwylimT

It can, however only over a tiny distance with a rather hefty supply of microwaves, I very much doubt each one is broken.

Swipe

I recently changed the wifi channel on my router and had terrible buffering
and stuttering problems when casting local content via videostream on my chromecast which heavily relies on wifi. This only happened when the microwave was on. I then changed to a different channel on the router and the problem went away.

System

boo_star wrote: »

Unless their skin starts cooking, they'll be OK.

By which time the water filled soft tissue is already on its way to being destroyed

System

grumbler wrote: »

We live surrounded by RF. All depends on the power.

Not at the levels a leaky microwave puts out if it is capable of taking out wifi. Don't forget that people will be working very close to the source before inverse square law starts making any sort of effect to the power density