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Thread ID: 145969 2018-03-19 09:57:00 WiFi reception distorted by spiral stair case. mzee (3324) Press F1
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1447487 2018-03-19 09:57:00 We recently had Fibre installed, and the router was placed in a convenient spot close to a spiral steel staircase. WiFi was erratic, and very sensitive to distance from the router. The Router was moved away from the stairs, and the speed has increased by 300% and steady. The stair rail has vertical bars, with horizontal bars top and bottom. Strange things are happening !! mzee (3324)
1447488 2018-03-19 19:25:00 I think the signal went round and round the spiral and got so dizzy it fell over. linw (53)
1447489 2018-03-19 19:58:00 Nothing strange about metal objects affecting radio waves, really rather expected. dugimodo (138)
1447490 2018-03-20 20:48:00 Not really surprising but no doubt damned annoying. I wonder how WiFi behaves in these steel framed houses we see advertised on TV. Jayess64 (8703)
1447491 2018-03-20 22:54:00 Not really surprising but no doubt damned annoying. I wonder how WiFi behaves in these steel framed houses we see advertised on TV.

Wifi isnt the perfect marvel most expect. Its really a best effort sort of thing.
Wifi doesnt work in my small wooden house , unless in the same room as the router .

It may not even be the staircase causing issues (I doubt it is), that area may just be a wifi blackspot .
Every wall wifi goes through = 50% wifi power loss (more or less).
Then you can get neighbors running illegal power levels that kills off other peoples wifi.
Ive been to many Offices where wifi was pretty much unusable.
1101 (13337)
1447492 2018-03-21 05:57:00 Not really surprising but no doubt damned annoying. I wonder how WiFi behaves in these steel framed houses we see advertised on TV.

Our neighbour has a steel frame house and has no issues with wifi
gary67 (56)
1447493 2018-03-21 19:10:00 Our neighbour has a steel frame house and has no issues with wifi

There is nothing like enough framing steel to turn the building into a Faraday cage and cellphones still work from inside a vehicle so it is most unlikely to cause a problem. I have wondered how they get on if struck by lightning though.
CliveM (6007)
1447494 2018-03-21 19:37:00 There is nothing like enough framing steel to turn the building into a Faraday cage and cellphones still work from inside a vehicle so it is most unlikely to cause a problem. I have wondered how they get on if struck by lightning though.

Well I hope it never happens but if it does I'll report back
gary67 (56)
1447495 2018-03-21 22:33:00 I have wondered how they get on if struck by lightning though.

Lightning rod ?
Given the power of lightning, steel, wood, human, wont make much difference ?
1101 (13337)
1447496 2018-03-22 00:11:00 Wifi isnt the perfect marvel most expect. Its really a best effort sort of thing.
Wifi doesnt work in my small wooden house , unless in the same room as the router .

It may not even be the staircase causing issues (I doubt it is), that area may just be a wifi blackspot .
Every wall wifi goes through = 50% wifi power loss (more or less).
Then you can get neighbors running illegal power levels that kills off other peoples wifi.
Ive been to many Offices where wifi was pretty much unusable.

From your description, it doesn't look obvious that you should have WiFi problems. However, remember that wireless connection depends on a receiver as well as a transmitter. Our house is a 60's wood frame gib-lined construction on two levels. The WiFi router is on the lower level (not the recommended position) but we get a good signal over the whole house. However, a few years back I bought a new laptop and the WiFi performance was pitiful. It was fitted with a mediocre Qualcom WiFi adapter and when I replaced that with an Intel card, the problem went away.

Recently my wife has been experiencing WiFi problems with her (newish) laptop - dropping the connection and sometimes re-connecting immediately, sometimes not. This behaviour first appeared in the last few weeks (after a Windows update...). I updated the WiFi driver and so far it looks as though this problem also may have been fixed.

Sometimes it is worth looking a bit beyond what seems obvious.
Jayess64 (8703)
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