Wifi signal strength close to the router

[ghcharters]

Using "Wifi Analyzer and Scanner" on my laptop, What should I expect to see as the signal strength (Quality dBm) on my laptop sitting right beside the router?  It's CGN3ROG modem/router.

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[RogersTony]

Hello @ghcharters,

I know how important a strong Wi-Fi signal is these days especially with so many of our devices reliant on Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet.

There are many factors which can affect the strength of a Wi-Fi signal. Since you are right next to the modem you do not need to worry much about the degradation of the signal due to attenuation however you may still run into issues with interference from other Wireless devices using the same channels as your modem. To answer your question in the best of situations a -30 to -40 dBm is considered very good, up to -60 dBm is still usable but as you get towards -80 to -90 dBm it becomes unusable. 

Some of our RE's may be able to provide a more definitive answer I will be sure to tag them into this post @Datalink, @Gdkitty, @gp-se.

RogersTony

[gp-se · Accepted solution]

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@ghcharters wrote:

Using "Wifi Analyzer and Scanner" on my laptop, What should I expect to see as the signal strength (Quality dBm) on my laptop sitting right beside the router?  It's CGN3ROG modem/router.

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@ghcharters 35-40ish?

I'm getting around 35 RSSI sitting 7 feet from my access point.

[ghcharters]

Thanks to both of you for your answers. These numbers are consistent with what I am seeing. I was getting slower download speeds on wifi than I had been accustomed to. My speeds with the laptop connected to the router via ethernet were very much higher, as I would expect. As a result, I suspect the cause of the low speed that I see occasionally is not a problem with the router or its placement. 

[Datalink]

@ghcharters have a look at the following post:

http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Internet/slow-wifi/m-p/399949#M47222

Check your wifi settings and also your wifi environment.  The receive signal level is only part of the issue.  The question is, who else are you competing with for clear channel space.  When you look at the wifi environment with Acrylic, you can see the competing channels and determine from there what the best channel might be.  In terms of 5 Ghz channels, you will probably be better off running Channel 149 and above as the base channnel, as the channels in this range are allowed to use 1 watt for a maximum output power level.  Everything else is 50 or 200 milli-watts depending on when the device was approved by Industry Canada.  So, the higher power levels will help with signal levels and ultimately with data throughput, even if you happen to have competition from other nearby networks.  You can test this by selecting a channel in the lower group, around channel 44, and then at channel 149.  Run a speedtest with those channels set and see how the result turn out.  Use the www.speedtest.net Toronto or Montreal Rogers servers, whichever is the closest. 

Another change that you can make is to the wifi power settings.  If you drill down into the laptops power settings, you can turn off the low power setting for the wifi when the laptop is running on battery.  That makes a considerable improvement in the data throughput.  There should also be a setting in the wifi adapter settings to allow the laptop to turn off the adapter, which you can also turn off or disable.  Run a speedtest with the laptop on battery, with its current power settings, then at the same location, plug the laptop in to its charger and run the same speedtest.  What you should see is the powered test will produce better results.  That's not due to any additional power being available to the laptop, but due to the change in the power usage rules when the laptop is plugged in.