WiFi (engine interference)

**Shagzter** · 03-18-2007, 03:25 PM

I've got a few questions... so i'll just list them here, and then give as many details as possible.

1.) Does anyone else have issues with engine noise interfereing in the car's WiFi connection?
2.) will a Signal Strengthener in the home raise the signal enough to blur out the noise?
3.) will connecting a larger antenna to the PCI card in the car fix the problem? if so, can anyone recommend one?

My problem is that when i'm sitting in the car outside my place with the car running, i can't even SEE my access point.. but i can see 8 others in the general neighborhood.

When i shut the engine off. I can finally see my access point, i can conect it up. i get half-bars of signal strength (but 10% quality). and i can't browser web.

My access point is the standard Linksys 54mbs A/B/G. the card in the car is also a linksys G card. The only possible things i can think of, are that the entenna on the pci card is too small, the signal comming from my home AP is too week, the engine is making too much noise. (or all of the above).

What bugs me is that i can see SO many neighbors' networks, but not mine, and i'm sitting about 30x30 feet away from my access point. (30 feet from the room, and 3 floors down... so i'm averageing about 45 feet diagnally)

~Shagz

**Shagzter** · 03-19-2007, 06:18 AM

Just figured i'd follow up on what i've found. this site, actually has a lot of interesting facts. http://www.radiolabs.com/Articles/wifi-antenna.html

Evidently, some car's motion sensing alarms also produce a large amount of intereference.

and, lastly. the site above does sell numerous external antenna. Linksys seems to have jumped on the bandwagon too: http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satel...=3978991233L00

I've ordered one from the radiolabs site. and will most-liekly place it at the rear of the Vibe, with the radio & satelite ones. this should hopefully keep it away from the engine enough to fix my problem.

~Shagz

**BarryWoods** · 03-20-2007, 01:50 PM

A car engine won't make any interference on the 2.4Ghz spectrum. The most likely problem is the antennas. Your access point is three floors above your car. Both have omni-directional antennas attached. In a perfect world the signal would come off the antenna as a sphere. It's not a perfect world though, and the signal actually looks like a doughnut with the antenna going up through the hold in the middle. Now with that image in your head imagine the two doughnut and your equipment. Both the car and your access point's signals need to touch each other's antennas. An external antenna on the car will help, a couple small directional antennas will help even better. Getting your access point closer to an outside wall will also help. An amp might make things worse.