Guide Improving WiFi Stability with Too Many Networks

rushi1607

rushi1607

Contributor
Hey everyone,
I have recently relocated to a new apartment complex and my WiFi connectivity has been quite erratic, with frequent dropouts, weak signals in adjacent rooms, and strange ping spikes. Initially, I thought the issue stemmed from my router, but it turned out to be caused by channel congestion. When I scanned with WiFi Analyzer, I discovered more than 20 networks active on the 2.4GHz band.

This is what i did :
  • Changed my router settings to 5GHz only
  • Set the channel to 149, which had the least interference based on my scan
  • Disabled legacy modes (b/g) to streamline operations
  • Turned off auto channel switching

My teams and Gmeet calls are working fine with this fix. Thought would share, Cheers!
 
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5ghz has more bands/less noise but lower penetration vs 2.4
If you change your router to 5ghz only, devices at some distance from the router will get no connectivity at all .

Instead of disabling 2.4G altogether, try enabling band steering on your AP (if supported)
Else create a separate SSID for 5ghz and use that for specifically for devices that are near to the AP
 
rushi1607 said:
Hey everyone,
I have recently relocated to a new apartment complex and my WiFi connectivity has been quite erratic, with frequent dropouts, weak signals in adjacent rooms, and strange ping spikes. Initially, I thought the issue stemmed from my router, but it turned out to be caused by channel congestion. When I scanned with WiFi Analyzer, I discovered more than 20 networks active on the 2.4GHz band.

This is what i did :
  • Changed my router settings to 5GHz only
  • Set the channel to 149, which had the least interference based on my scan
  • Disabled legacy modes (b/g) to streamline operations
  • Turned off auto channel switching

My teams and Gmeet calls are working fine with this fix. Thought would share, Cheers!
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing this! I’ve been facing similar issues in my new place too — lots of overlapping networks on 2.4GHz. Unfortunately, my router doesn’t let me manually set the 5GHz channel; it’s always stuck on auto and grayed out in the settings. Super annoying, especially when I know exactly which channel would work best. Any solution?
 
Shini said:
Thanks for sharing this! I’ve been facing similar issues in my new place too — lots of overlapping networks on 2.4GHz. Unfortunately, my router doesn’t let me manually set the 5GHz channel; it’s always stuck on auto and grayed out in the settings. Super annoying, especially when I know exactly which channel would work best. Any solution?
Click to expand...
Which router is that
 
chetansha said:
Which router is that
Click to expand...
It’s the default router provided by Airtel — model AOT-4221SR from Sercomm. Seems to be a provider-locked device, so a lot of the advanced settings like manual channel selection on 5GHz are either missing or grayed out. Pretty limited in terms of customization. Any workarounds?
 
Shini said:
It’s the default router provided by Airtel — model AOT-4221SR from Sercomm. Seems to be a provider-locked device, so a lot of the advanced settings like manual channel selection on 5GHz are either missing or grayed out. Pretty limited in terms of customization. Any workarounds?
Click to expand...
thats an ONT if you are talking about Airtel Fiber, best way to deal with that would be to buy a separate router and disable wifi on the ONT altogether, thats what I have done
 
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Shini said:
It’s the default router provided by Airtel — model AOT-4221SR from Sercomm. Seems to be a provider-locked device, so a lot of the advanced settings like manual channel selection on 5GHz are either missing or grayed out. Pretty limited in terms of customization. Any workarounds?
Click to expand...
Ah company modem+router. I thought own router
altair21 said:
thats an ONT if you are talking about Airtel Fiber, best way to deal with that would be to buy a separate router and disable wifi on the ONT altogether, thats what I have done
Click to expand...
+1 for this.
 
altair21 said:
thats an ONT if you are talking about Airtel Fiber, best way to deal with that would be to buy a separate router and disable wifi on the ONT altogether, thats what I have done
Click to expand...
Yes, I'm talking about Airtel Fiber so it must be an ONT (I have no idea what that is—will read up on it later). If I buy a new router, what exactly would I need to do to replace this ONT? Since it uses fiber directly, I'm a bit confused. Also, is the WiFi on these custom routers actually better than what the ONT provides?
 
Shini said:
Yes, I'm talking about Airtel Fiber so it must be an ONT (I have no idea what that is—will read up on it later). If I buy a new router, what exactly would I need to do to replace this ONT? Since it uses fiber directly, I'm a bit confused. Also, is the WiFi on these custom routers actually better than what the ONT provides?
Click to expand...
you just need an ethernet cable from your ONT to your router and thats pretty much it, and yeah ONT wifi range is pretty much shit, I dont use Airtel in my home, but atleast on Jio, My router gives me pretty much 3x the range of the Jio ONT.
EDIT: for more context, this was the router I bought https://www.amazon.in/D-Link-DIR-2640-Internet-Compatible-Assistant/dp/B08R1FR1X5
 
altair21 said:
you just need an ethernet cable from your ONT to your router and thats pretty much it, and yeah ONT wifi range is pretty much shit, I dont use Airtel in my home, but atleast on Jio, My router gives me pretty much 3x the range of the Jio ONT.
EDIT: for more context, this was the router I bought https://www.amazon.in/D-Link-DIR-2640-Internet-Compatible-Assistant/dp/B08R1FR1X5
Click to expand...
Just to confirm — so all I need to do is connect an Ethernet cable from the LAN port of my ONT to the WAN port of my new router, and then enable the SSID on the new router, right?
Also, does this kind of setup have any impact on speed or increase packet loss, since it involves passing traffic through another device (the new router) over Ethernet? Just trying to understand if there are any downsides before setting it up.
Thanks!
 
Yes just connect an lan cable to your wifi router wan port. change your wifi router mode to access point. Or request airtel to enable enable bridge mode for your ont. In your WiFi router use username password provided by airtel to connect to Airtel
 
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Shini said:
Just to confirm — so all I need to do is connect an Ethernet cable from the LAN port of my ONT to the WAN port of my new router, and then enable the SSID on the new router, right?
Also, does this kind of setup have any impact on speed or increase packet loss, since it involves passing traffic through another device (the new router) over Ethernet? Just trying to understand if there are any downsides before setting it up.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
yep that's pretty much it and no there's no loss/jitter as long as you use a high quality cable and not those cheapo ones that local shops sell
 
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