Why Does Running My Microwave Kill My Wi-Fi Connectivity?

[Elrod]

There are a variety of household devices and electronics that can interfere with your Wi-Fi signal, but most don’t have the ability to do so quick so spectacularly as a microwave oven. Read on as we explore how a microwave can wreak havoc on your wireless network.

http://www.howtogeek.com/171869/why-does-running-my-microwave-kill-my-wi-fi-connectivity/

[Guest Taxed]

When i first got a Wifi router replacing my hard wired Linksys router I would lose connectivity every time I answered my cordless phone.

Called Tech support and they said to replace the cordless phone because it used the same frequency range that the mifi router used. Did that and problem solved.

BTW my main computer which has the Tax prep software is still hard wired to the router.

[Catherine]

Being married to an electrical engineer whose specialty is microwave-band communications, we bandy all kinds of odd words about, with disgusting regularity, in this house. Faraday cage. Gigahertz range. 50db. Ground plane (not a plane on the tarmac). Impedance. Lossy. Non-ideal. Non-linear. RF. Plus lots more.

We have a wireless network that works within the confines of the office, roughly. The house was built in 1952/53, during civil defense days. The walls are 3/8" rock lath, covered by 3/8" of a very sandy, brownish cement, covered by 1/4" hard plaster. Ceilings (basement and first floor) have expanded metal lath. The whole house is basically a set of interconnected Faraday cages. To download books to my Kindle, I cannot be farther away than the dining room. My daughter's laptop regularly loses its connection from the living room. All the business hardware (and much of the non-business hardware) is hard-wired to the network -- and will stay that way! I've worked in plenty of office buildings with fewer pieces of equipment and simpler network configurations than what we have here...

Yes, you do have to be aware of the frequency bands of the various other bits and pieces around your wireless network. You need to be aware of metal studs in office building walls, expanded metal lath, and more. Plus with a wireless network you also have to have security protocols. It's best to have the network locked down so that only equipment with approved MAC addresses can even see the network. Anyone coming here with a wifi laptop can see several of the neighbors' networks (only *some* of which are secured) -- but even sitting right next to the hub, cannot see ours.

[ILLMAS]

How old is your equipment? Maybe is time to upgrade, you know there better routers now a days.

[mcb39]

My main computer is not hard wired to the router. My old computer is. I have no issues with connectivity. However, I do know about the telephone frequencies as I replaced my phones with Uniden Dect 6; which eliminated that problem. With a new office addition, I have not had any issues with Wi Fi, but often have to go out on the deck to get cell phone reception: a steel roof is the culprit.

When sitting in the living room with my tablet, I often have to switch to Telephone mode as the Wi Fi is iffy. Again, I blame both distance and the steel roof. Crazy stuff, eh, Catherine?

[JohnH]

I think it's because the microwave is made in China. When it runs it sucks all the data out of my computer through the router, beaming it to the Chinese military. Yesterday they learned I have exactly $2.36 in my checking account and my house payment is due next week. But I have a simple solution. I've fashioned an aluminum foil three-corner hat that I wear to disperse the transmissions & connect a 6-ft long ground strap between my wrist and the water pipes while typing. This ground fault interrupts the process and causes their Beijing server to crash. See? It's working right now, because you can read this but the ChiComs don't have a clue what I'm up to. It works - trust me.

[Guest Taxed]

>>> I think it's because the microwave is made in China.

My IBM computer says made in China on almost all the parts except the CPU.

Last time I checked 99% of the electronics in my house and office was made in China!

[Margaret CPA in OH]

JohnH, please send a photo of the hat and construction instructions, if you would. I think it might be useful for many of us and deter NSA from prying, too.

[JohnH]

The instructions can only be passed along verbally, unless you have the decryption key for the secret version. But here's a picture you can use to fashion one that works pretty well.

Also, here are a couple of my friends wearing variations on the basic design.

I don't have any data on how effective these versions are:

[Guest Taxed]

Sort of a Napolean hat or is it from wizard of Oz.

[ILLMAS]

The instructions can only be passed along verbally, unless you have the decryption key for the secret version. But here's a picture you can use to fashion one that works pretty well.

Tin_foil_hat_2.jpg

Also, here are a couple of my friends wearing variations on the basic design.

I don't have any data on how effective these versions are:

When I seen your hat, I got so excited just like the guy on this video

http://youtu.be/zHDJhCMg2Dk

[Lion EA]

Hubby lost his internet every time he was on the phone and blamed our router and me for moving my office within our house. Finally a techie he was complaining to asked him if it was a wireless phone! He now uses a hardwired phone and has wifi and internet all over our small house.

I, however, am running out of desk space and have items closer together than they should be and get some feedback and static type issues. House phone, office phone, router, CPU, a rheostat type of switch to a floor lamp, a printer, but everything else on separate stands.

[Guest Taxed]

For those of you in a metal cage type room with poor wifi signal there is a solution. I used to work in such an office and we had these little gizmos called an Access Point installed inside each room on the ceiling. It is a little box with two small antenna sticking out. That gizmo is connected to the router. The signal strength was excellent.

May be Catherine can ask her husband what those gizmos are officially called and what they cost?

[Margaret CPA in OH]

JohnH, thanks so much for the great photos! I had to step out after posting and just checked in again. That's what makes this forum the best ever! All I had to do was ask and the caring community that is ATX responded! I forgot to ask whether this is heavy duty foil or will the regular strength suffice, maybe doubled.

[JohnH]

Single ply only. If you double it, the waves get trapped in the interface and can get reflected directly into your brain. Have you ever seen what happens if a piece of aluminum foil gets left in the microwave? Don't want that happening to your cerebellum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIdv8uiGacI

[Guest Taxed]

1982, I put a Swanson fried chicken TV dinner in the microwave and walked away without realizing that I was suppose to take the foil off. 10 Minutes later it was burnt charcoal black.

I can only imagine what happened after watching this video.

The microwave smelled burnt for a month!

[Eric]

When I seen your hat, I got so excited just like the guy on this video

Thanks for sharing that. My son (2 years old) is obsessed with trains. He'd rather watch an hour-long YouTube video showing train after train after train than any movie or cartoon. I guess now I know what he'll sound like as an adult. Poor kid.

[Guest Taxed]

I like to watch trains too. I don't mind at all when the lights are flashing at the rail crossings.

[Catherine]

JohnH, please send a photo of the hat and construction instructions, if you would. I think it might be useful for many of us and deter NSA from prying, too.

Best way to deal with the NSA is to bury them in useless and spurious data so that all their unConstitutional "collection" activities are useless. Add "sarin" or "ricin" to every text. Put "plutonium" in your sig line. When calling your spouse's cell phone to ask them to fetch a half gallon of milk on the way home, ask for milk and a set of RPG's. Have FUN with it!!

[Catherine]

I've got some friends who are train nuts; they would probably sound JUST like the guy on the video in the same circumstance!

[Catherine]

For those of you in a metal cage type room with poor wifi signal there is a solution. I used to work in such an office and we had these little gizmos called an Access Point installed inside each room on the ceiling. It is a little box with two small antenna sticking out. That gizmo is connected to the router. The signal strength was excellent.

May be Catherine can ask her husband what those gizmos are officially called and what they cost?

They are called "wireless extenders;" there are a couple of flavors of them. There are USB and ethernet based wireless extenders. There are types with internal and external antennas as well. Internal antennas can be better in multi-path situations -- but external antennas are better when you need more gain.

Go to New Egg and poke around after putting "wireless extender" in the search box. Lots of choices.

[Cathy]

Catherine,

I've live about 800' from a train track since 1979 and would love to talk to your friends about trading houses for vacation each year, but you must warn them that I AM NUTS after being woken up from sleep night after night after night.

There is one engineer that all of the neighborhood would love to meet face to face one day. He is the one who lays on his horn 2 miles prior to the crossing and continues to blow it for another 2 miles once he passes the crossing!

The night Desert Storm began, he never let up on his horn....at all! With the train and a local F-15 fighter buzzing his Dad's house (another neighbor) to tell him he was leaving, needless to say, my den was home to many Moms (with their kids) whose husbands were working the dog shift

at the local plants. My husband was a contractor and was the only man left in the neighborhood and was old enough to be a father and grandfather to our "guests". I've never told all those Moms their "father" was more afraid that night than all of them put together! He just knew that retaliation was quickly coming by way of all of the oil refineries (many located not far from our neighborhood) being blown off the face of the earth.

[mcb39]

Catherine,

I've live about 800' from a train track since 1979 and would love to talk to your friends about trading houses for vacation each year, but you must warn them that I AM NUTS after being woken up from sleep night after night after night.

There is one engineer that all of the neighborhood would love to meet face to face one day. He is the one who lays on his horn 2 miles prior to the crossing and continues to blow it for another 2 miles once he passes the crossing!

The night Desert Storm began, he never let up on his horn....at all! With the train and a local F-15 fighter buzzing his Dad's house (another neighbor) to tell him he was leaving, needless to say, my den was home to many Moms (with their kids) whose husbands were working the dog shift

at the local plants. My husband was a contractor and was the only man left in the neighborhood and was old enough to be a father and grandfather to our "guests". I've never told all those Moms their "father" was more afraid that night than all of them put together! He just knew that retaliation was quickly coming by way of all of the oil refineries (many located not far from our neighborhood) being blown off the face of the earth.

Welcome to the train track club. Our answer was that if you don't like the noise, you shouldn't build near a train track. My husband's father owned this land long before they decided to erect a Power Plant across the road with trains coming and going at all hours. And, yes, even though there are lights and gates at the crossings, they still lay on the horn. We escape to the Northwoods as often as possible. Serenity and total quiet.