I'm not a radio scanner hobbyist, but I thought
you folks might be able to help.

I have an 802.11b wireless network in my house;
the access point is a Linksys DWL-1000AP. I also
have a pair of baby monitors, made by Safety 1st.

I believe the wlan operates at a frequency around
2.4 GHz, and the baby monitor at 49.8 MHz.

I suddenly noticed considerable degradation in
the performance of both of these devices. They
continue to work, but the network connection
is very spotty, and the baby monitor has lots
of noise.

Questions:

Is there one thing (possibly at neighbor's
house, I live in a townhouse) that could simultaneously
disrupt both of these devices?

Is there an inexpensive tool (scanner?) that can
search an arbitrary range of frequencies and report
the presence of signals and their relative strengths?
I don't have a need to listen to signal per se, more
interested in identifying it.

More generally: how does one approach the problem
of troubleshooting radio interference?

thanks for any information,
-usman

On 19 Oct 2003, Usman Muzaffar wrote:

I'm not a radio scanner hobbyist, but I thought
you folks might be able to help.

I have an 802.11b wireless network in my house;
the access point is a Linksys DWL-1000AP. I also
have a pair of baby monitors, made by Safety 1st.

I believe the wlan operates at a frequency around
2.4 GHz, and the baby monitor at 49.8 MHz.

I suddenly noticed considerable degradation in
the performance of both of these devices. They
continue to work, but the network connection
is very spotty, and the baby monitor has lots
of noise.

Questions:

Is there one thing (possibly at neighbor's
house, I live in a townhouse) that could simultaneously
disrupt both of these devices?

Is there an inexpensive tool (scanner?) that can
search an arbitrary range of frequencies and report
the presence of signals and their relative strengths?
I don't have a need to listen to signal per se, more
interested in identifying it.

More generally: how does one approach the problem
of troubleshooting radio interference?

thanks for any information,
-usman




Try disconnecting the Wireless Lan and see if the baby monitors work
better. Then try disconnecting them to see if the Lan works better. This
way you can find or eliminate them interfering with each other. If they
still don't work properly then look around to see if there's anything
else you have that can cause it. Moved anything electronic in the house
recently? New microwave or PC? Check all the possibles in your house
before you look elsewhere.

--
Alex Devlin
The Ham & Scanner Enthusiast Forum - http://tinyurl.com/qvl7

If you haven't already, make sure you change your Linksys from the default
settings:
- for the passwword at the setup page
- for the channel used for the connection

There may be another access point - a neighbor - using the same channel for
access. Users tend not to change the channel setting - "1" is the default.

There are also cordless phones in the same frequency range.

Your problem with the baby monitor could also be interference from another
monitor nearby, or a cordless phone. Anyone move in next store recently?

I have also seen reports from some radio hobbyists of interference from Linksys
power supplies to radio equipment. Some of the newer Linksys power supplies
have a filter in-line.

I have an 802.11b wireless network in my house; the access point is a
Linksys DWL-1000AP. I also have a pair of baby monitors, made by Safety 1st.

I suddenly noticed considerable degradation in the performance of both of
these devices. They continue to work, but the network connection is very
spotty, and the baby monitor has lots of noise.