❄ Your Christmas Lights ❄
Could be Interfering
With your Wi-Fi Connection
It's the most wonderful time of the year.
ANDREW SMITH - DEC 2015
This article was written by Andrew Smith from The Open University, and was originally published by The Conversation.
Ofcom, the UK’s independent telephony regulator, has just released a Wi-Fi checker
app for your smart phone. At the same time, it warned in its press
release that your Christmas tree fairy lights could affect the quality
of your Wi-Fi connection.
Before the terrible jokes start and we all declare that this is a fit
of "Bah Humbug!" from the telephone regulator, the warning is
correct – your fairy lights could indeed be a Wi-Fi downer. But then so
could many other devices. Ultimately, it is a matter of how much of a
problem they actually cause.
The science behind the warning
The whole press release describes how microwave ovens, fluorescent
lights and other devices could also play havoc with your wireless
connection.
Casting your minds back to science at school, you may recall your teacher describing the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum covers radio waves, microwaves, visible light and radiation. It is
around us all the time. Our phones, radios, televisions and desk lights
all depend on this principle from physical science.
Wireless networks typically work on the 2.4 Gigahertz microwave radio spectrum.
The term Hertz means the number of waves per second, so 1 Hertz is one
wavelength per second. Your FM radio station may use 100 Megahertz, or
100,000,000 waves per second, while 2.4 Gigahertz, used by wireless, is
2,400,000,000 waves per second, making the radio waves used by Wi-Fi considerably shorter. Essentially, this means that they are 'weaker' than FM radio waves – as they require greater power to cover the same distance.
Your wireless router also uses considerably less power than a
public FM transmitter. We expect the maximum reach of a domestic Wi-Fi
signal to be 100 metres, while FM in the right conditions can easily be
obtained at up to 10km and beyond. (There are also public forms of Wi-Fi called WiMAX, which can work in larger areas, but it is important to note that this is unrelated to the Ofcom press release.)
Because your wireless network is much less powerful than a big FM
transmitter and its waves are weaker, where you place the router and
what you have in your house will have an impact. Home electrics,
microwaves, steel girders, concrete cladding and foil insulation all can
have an effect. Older properties with their thicker walls make a difference, too, as the lower-powered, high frequency Wi-Fi radio waves struggle to penetrate them.
But while many different factors can dull your Wi-Fi signal, I
can’t recall anyone yet getting miffed about their festive laptop
watching of Dr Who being affected as soon as the Christmas lights go on.
What should you do?
But it is possible. Most fairy lights have unshielded wires, which
means there’s no radio frequency insulation to protect radio-based
devices from the electromagnetic effects of the power cables trailing
around your tree.
Nevertheless, it would take a considerable volume of lights to
create enough interference to seriously degrade your Wi-Fi network. In
fact, you would have to be lighting up your tree like a small sun –
which perhaps some of you are planning.
Do consider downloading the Wi-Fi checker app offered by Ofcom,
however – it may help you discover that it’s the service provided by
your phone company, rather than the fairy lights, that’s to blame for
all that endless buffering.
You should also think about where you place your wireless router
in your home. Hiding it under a tin can inside a cupboard insulated with
tin foil will ruin your Facebook fun. As will decorating your wireless
device with holly and fairy lights.
There are domestic devices that will degrade the wireless signal –
although it’s not often you’ll be running your microwave 24 hours a day
– but don’t rush to throw away your fairy lights just yet. Christmas is
coming, after all.
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