Overview

If you’ve recently installed a wireless network or a new set of cordless phones, you may be experiencing issues with signal reception, dropped connections or static on calls.

Background

Some cordless phones operate on the same frequency as wireless networks (2.4GHz), which can cause interference between the two connections.

Solutions

A non-technical solution is to replace your cordless phones with models using a different frequency. 900MHz and 5.8GHz phones are available, and don’t conflict with wireless networks.

You can also try changing the wireless channel for your router. This may have the benefit of decreasing interference with neighbouring wireless networks, as well. To change the channel, you’ll need the following information.

EdgeLink Consulting customers should have received a Wireless Information sheet with the information provided by the consultant. The sheet may be taped to the bottom of your router, with your router box or packaging, or nearby your computer.

• Router IP Address. On Linksys routers, this address is 192.168.1.1 by default.
• Router Administration Username. On Linksys routers, there is no username by default.
• Router Administration Password. On Linksys routers, the password is “admin” by default, but in all installations performed by EdgeLink Consulting, this value has been changed and will be listed on your Wireless Network Information sheet.

Once you have this information, follow these steps to change the wireless channel. These instructions are for Linksys routers with stock firmware.

1. Open an Internet browser (generally Internet Explorer or Firefox on the PC, or Safari or Firefox on the Mac) and type in http://, followed by your Router IP Address. For example, if your router IP address was 192.168.1.1, you would type in http://192.168.1.1.
2. When prompted, enter your Router Administration Username and Password and click OK. If this screen appears again, try again and make sure you’ve typed the username and password correctly. (Still having issues? Contact us.)
3. Click the Wireless tab in the top navigation bar.
4. Select an alternate channel in the Channel dropdown box. By default, this channel is 6; you can try changing it to 1 or 11 to determine if this fixes your issue.
5. Click the Save Settings button at the bottom of the page.
6. Have all wireless devices (laptops, video game consoles, etc…) reconnect to the network.

Resolution

If changing the wireless channel solved your problem, remember to write the new setting on the Wireless Network Information page.

If changing the channel did not solve your problem, you can try selecting a different channel from the Channel dropdown box. For example, if you chose 1, you could try choosing 11.

Still not fixed? Contact us and we’ll work out a solution.