WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:07.200 This is one of the coolest gadgets I've played around with in a long time. It's 00:00:04.720 --> 00:00:11.519 an expensive prograde solution, but if you or a client is having an impossible 00:00:09.519 --> 00:00:16.240 issue with a wireless network, it could absolutely save your bacon. Oh, and I'll 00:00:14.719 --> 00:00:21.250 cover some more practical stuff for home users as well. Welcome to how to 00:00:18.080 --> 00:00:25.289 optimize your Wi-Fi. I 00:00:25.400 --> 00:00:30.640 guess the Flash Voyager GTX USB3 drive 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:34.640 from Corsair provides SSD- like performance and fits comfortably in your 00:00:32.559 --> 00:00:39.360 pocket. Click now to learn more. Now, in a perfect fantasy world, only two Wi-Fi 00:00:37.440 --> 00:00:43.280 devices would be in one place at one time, an access point and a single 00:00:41.440 --> 00:00:46.960 client. That would work awesome. Unfortunately, in the real world, that's 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:51.840 not really how it goes down. and you'll have sometimes dozens of devices 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:56.239 chattering at the same time. Now, Wi-Fi devices are designed to be very polite 00:00:53.920 --> 00:01:00.559 and not talk over each other. So, as long as they're all on the same channel, 00:00:58.160 --> 00:01:04.000 every device will wait its turn to communicate, which means there's a 00:01:02.239 --> 00:01:08.320 finite amount of communication that can be done per channel. Once you reach that 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:11.840 limit, you're pretty much done. There are a couple of solutions, though. 00:01:09.680 --> 00:01:16.000 Solution number one is to change the operating channel of your wireless 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:21.360 equipment. But that needs to be done with care. If you or an inconsiderate 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:25.840 neighbor chooses overlapping channels, that complicates communication because 00:01:23.439 --> 00:01:30.720 instead of every device waiting its turn to communicate, they'll all just kind of 00:01:28.080 --> 00:01:35.680 try to yell on top of each other. So, choose non-over overlapping channels. 00:01:32.720 --> 00:01:39.360 The problem is that in the 2.4 GHz band, there are only three non-over 00:01:37.040 --> 00:01:43.840 overlapping channels. So that's still a very finite amount of communication that 00:01:41.680 --> 00:01:49.040 can be done. Which leads to solution number two. Reduce other wireless 00:01:46.240 --> 00:01:53.280 signals. This can be done by asking very close neighbors to kindly turn down 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:58.880 their antenna strength, by turning off unnecessary Wi-Fi hotspots, and by 00:01:55.920 --> 00:02:03.119 wiring up as many devices as you can so not every piece of electronic gear in 00:02:00.880 --> 00:02:07.040 your house is competing for airtime. This kind of tweaking is actually pretty 00:02:04.960 --> 00:02:13.160 easy to do with either Metaggeek's in SSID or 4 tool or an Android app like 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:18.800 Wi-Fi Analyzer. But what if these solutions? What if these solutions don't 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:20.800 work? It's possible there's a non-ifi 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:25.040 device interfering with your network. Switching to newer dualband 5 gigahertz 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:30.160 wireless equipment is one solution that will probably work because while ranges 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:34.640 are slightly reduced, there are many more available channels and much less 00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:38.640 equipment that uses them. But in an office environment where you can't 00:02:36.160 --> 00:02:45.200 control what people are using or even in the home, it's not always an option. So 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.879 this is the Wispy DBX from Metgeek. This 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:51.360 professional-grade device combined with the Wi-Fi card in your PC and MetaGeek's 00:02:49.200 --> 00:02:57.200 channelizer software is a powerful spectrum analysis tool that lets you 00:02:53.360 --> 00:02:59.920 visualize the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz wireless 00:02:57.200 --> 00:03:05.680 activity around you, including both Wi-Fi networks and non-ifi compliant 00:03:03.120 --> 00:03:11.599 interferers. The device itself is pretty straightforward. Included in the box is 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:13.519 this little black box, an antenna, a USB 00:03:11.599 --> 00:03:17.680 2 cable, and a little clip that you can use to attach it to your PC. Like so. 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:22.080 This is the way I'd recommend using it since diagnosing interference is often 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:25.760 going to be a pretty active process with a lot of running around. Let's get into 00:03:24.159 --> 00:03:31.200 the software. So, first we'll take a look at both density and waterfall view, 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:33.680 which show real time and historical 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:38.000 wireless activity. and they both use the x-axis to show which channel the signal 00:03:35.840 --> 00:03:41.599 is being transmitted on, but you still use them a little bit differently. So, 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:46.799 density view shows us the amplitude of the activity on the y-axis, so how loud 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:51.680 a device is talking, and uses color coding from blue to red to indicate how 00:03:49.519 --> 00:03:55.760 often it's talking. This red blip right here is transmitting all the time, but 00:03:53.360 --> 00:04:00.480 it's not very loud. While the one here only transmits around 10% of the time, 00:03:58.400 --> 00:04:05.280 but is so loud that it's either very powerful or very close by. Waterfall 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:09.760 view works more like a seismma graph, where the amplitude of the signal is 00:04:06.799 --> 00:04:14.080 colorcoded now, and how often it happens is represented by how often the dots 00:04:11.760 --> 00:04:18.880 appear in a vertical line. So, back to our previous examples, that red spot now 00:04:16.160 --> 00:04:23.520 has a constant blue color code, and we see lots and lots and lots of activity 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:28.320 in that line, while the tall blue peak has less frequent but red color-coded 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:31.919 activity. One more trick here is that we can use the navigation feature on the 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:37.120 left as kind of a PVR to see anything from a short recent 30-cond snapshot for 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:41.360 on the-fly diagnosis of issues to hours of recorded activity to get a really 00:04:39.199 --> 00:04:44.639 clear idea of what's going on in that area throughout the day. Just don't 00:04:42.960 --> 00:04:48.000 forget to create sessions so you know where you were and what you were trying 00:04:46.400 --> 00:04:51.759 to monitor at the time. All right, so enough theory. I promise this was a cool 00:04:50.080 --> 00:04:56.960 gadget. Let's play with it, shall we? Here's the 2.4 GHz frequency range 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:01.120 around the office. Lots of SSIDs. We can see them broadcasting with that faint 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:04.160 blue halo. Um, some of them are strong, others aren't. None of them have 00:05:02.320 --> 00:05:09.199 particularly intense activity going on for now. One thing you might notice if 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:14.080 we overlay the Wi-Fi networks though is that the configuration here is a total 00:05:11.280 --> 00:05:18.160 mess. One of ours is on channel 2 and seems to have autoconfigured itself to 00:05:15.759 --> 00:05:21.759 40 MHz. A performance boost in theory, but with so much other traffic going on 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:26.400 around here, uh, it's probably not helping anyone. And there are a couple 00:05:24.080 --> 00:05:31.120 of other nearby networks on overlapping channels, too. But that stuff's easy. We 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:34.639 don't need a fancy tool for that. So, let's take a look at what different 00:05:33.039 --> 00:05:39.520 kinds of traffic look like. This is kind of cool. So, this is what low bit rate 00:05:37.440 --> 00:05:44.160 buffered video playback on a mobile phone looks like when we have our 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:48.400 spectrum analyzer. These short bursts mean that we're nowhere near saturating 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:53.280 our connection. This, on the other hand, is what high bit rate 1080p playback 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:57.120 looks like. Not nearly as many gaps between data transmission in order to 00:05:55.120 --> 00:06:02.320 build the buffer. Might have a hard time running multiple streams of this at the 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:06.800 same time. And then, haha, big leagues now. NVIDIA game stream. This is why 00:06:05.280 --> 00:06:11.840 they have a recommended list of highquality routers to stream games over 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:16.800 your Wi-Fi network. There is no buffer time in between transmission because low 00:06:13.919 --> 00:06:22.479 latency is key. So data needs to be moving constantly and without any 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:26.560 interruptions. But all of this is stuff that's relatively easy to diagnose cuz 00:06:24.400 --> 00:06:34.479 it's Wi-Fi gear. What about the real reason we got this tool? Non Wi-Fi stuff. 00:06:30.400 --> 00:06:36.800 Whoa there. What's that? Out of nowhere, 00:06:34.479 --> 00:06:41.360 we've got a device hopping around, thankfully outside of our Wi-Fi 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:47.280 channels, whose red color indicates at least 50% airtime use. This one, in this 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:52.080 case, it's a G930 headphone from Logitech wireless headphones. This one 00:06:49.520 --> 00:06:57.520 is well behaved, but many devices like baby monitors will accidentally jump on 00:06:55.120 --> 00:07:02.960 top of your Wi-Fi from time to time, causing interruptions. Now, you know, 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:06.960 switching over to 5 GHz, the first things that jump out are how little 00:07:04.880 --> 00:07:11.520 background interference there is and how many more channels are available. If I 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:16.479 had capable gear, I could actually spread right out and run a couple of 40 00:07:13.759 --> 00:07:20.720 MHz or even 80 MHz quadruple wide channel access points for massive 00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:24.639 throughput. Sweet, right? There's not much to see here otherwise, but just for 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:29.199 fun, let's have a look at what it looks like if I run IPF on my phone to 00:07:26.720 --> 00:07:34.720 simulate heavy network activity and then truck myself downstairs where the access 00:07:31.520 --> 00:07:36.639 point is. The intensity of the activity 00:07:34.720 --> 00:07:42.479 doesn't change in the density view, but you can see the amplitude increases 00:07:39.639 --> 00:07:47.039 dramatically. So, this hot and cold style of discovery based on the strength 00:07:44.880 --> 00:07:52.400 of the signal can actually be used in some really interesting ways. Let's pop 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:54.400 back over to 2.4 GHz for a second. What 00:07:52.400 --> 00:07:59.840 the heck are these two blue spikes here that don't look like Wi-Fi? They don't 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:02.000 have a Wi-Fi shape. The software lets us 00:07:59.840 --> 00:08:06.400 find out by using the inspector feature to highlight them and basically run 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:11.919 around with the laptop looking for the signal strength to increase or decrease. 00:08:08.639 --> 00:08:14.680 Turns out it was a 2.4 GHz RC airplane 00:08:11.919 --> 00:08:21.599 radio. It's things like this and other non-ifi 2.4 4 GHz and 5 GHz stuff that 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:25.520 can be infuriating to diagnose without a tool like this. But if at this point 00:08:24.080 --> 00:08:29.840 you're sitting there thinking, "Okay, Lionus, so I spend $1,000 on a piece of 00:08:28.080 --> 00:08:35.120 hardware and software license so that I can yell at the neighbor kid for flying 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:37.760 his dub plane. Are you dumb?" No. The Y 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:42.560 Spy, the less expensive 2.4 GHz only model, and the YSPY DBX are for pros who 00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:46.720 set up like Wi-Fi networks for a living. For normal people, there's the stuff I 00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:50.320 mentioned before or Wi-Fi Helper, which is a wizard-based $10 tool that walks 00:08:48.640 --> 00:08:54.560 you through optimizing your network. Probably a better bet, unless you've got 00:08:52.399 --> 00:08:58.080 like, I don't know, a microwave next to your computer that's constantly running. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:02.240 That's what it looks like, by the way. No wonder you can't stream video while 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:05.519 you're cooking your Hot Pocket. Am I right? Anyway, guys, thanks for 00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:11.680 watching. Like the video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it. Leave a comment with suggestions for future 00:09:08.640 --> 00:09:13.760 videos or comments or whatever else. 00:09:11.680 --> 00:09:16.640 Check out the uh support us link in the video description. You can buy a cool 00:09:14.880 --> 00:09:19.760 t-shirt like this one. You can give us a monthly contributions so we can keep 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:22.959 making awesome videos. And you can change your Amazon bookmark. This one's 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:27.120 actually more helpful than you know. Change your Amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so that we get a 00:09:25.760 --> 00:09:32.410 small kickback whenever you buy stuff. 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