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  #21  
Old 4th March 2019, 02:32 PM
J i m s t e r J i m s t e r is offline
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Originally Posted by HPsauce View Post
If it's a modern patio door chances are the glass will have a thin metal film on it to reduce radiate heat loss; makes a good Wi-Fi signal blocker.
That would explain it.
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  #22  
Old 4th March 2019, 03:17 PM
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I realised that the Virgin "Super Hub" was a bit poor in the Wi-fi area, so I used the old Virgin hub as a repeater and this worked much better. Gave me all the cover I needed including the back garden and in the car at the front (VCDS updates as needed when I'm out the front).

Zyxel came up with some repeaters and I tried three. Scattered them around the house with the first alongside Super Hub. Left the super hub in normal use. This means I now have five wi-fi transmitters.
I used to have endless and continuous complaints from the kids and four grandkids but now never hear a thing.

Of course, I could be going deaf.

No headaches though.
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  #23  
Old 4th March 2019, 03:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MikkiJayne View Post
Well, wifi is in the microwave frequency band, and we're mostly water...

Frankly I'm surprised this isn't a more common phenomenon.
You can actually cook with much lower frequencies than those used in the typical microwave oven. In fact, RF ovens are far superior to microwave ovens and are set to replace them, once the technology matures and becomes more affordable:
https://www.mwrf.com/community/rf-en...inally-cooking





As for WiFi affecting humans, there's a simple test to check if you're affected: Have someone turn the source of transmission on/off randomly and make a note of when you feel any ill-effects. As far as I know, nobody has been able to reliably demonstrate that the ill-effects they feel coincide with WiFi transmissions. Ideally of course, you would need to conduct the test in a Faraday cage, since our modern environment is full radio waves, some of which are several orders of magnitudes greater than the humble WiFi access point. Even natural phenomena, such as cosmic microwave background radiation, will probably be present at higher energy levels than WiFi in some conditions.

Whether radio/micro-waves pose a risk is all about power and proximity really. WiFi power levels are very low (typically less than a tenth of a Watt) and, in most cases, routers and access points are likely to be several metres away at least. The transmission power levels changes very little from one WiFi router/access point to another (they're restricted by strict regulations), so it's usually the technology (eg MIMO) and operational bandwidths and frequencies that make some devices seem more 'powerful'. In fact, you're more likely to be affected by the WiFi transmissions from the device you're operating (laptop, mobile, etc) than your router's WiFi transmissions because they're typically operated at relatively close proximity. But even a few inches away, WiFi transmissions are just too weak to be the likely cause of any ill-effects.
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  #24  
Old 4th March 2019, 03:48 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tc4332 View Post
Zyxel came up with some repeaters and I tried three.
ZyXel is generally a good brand, and they make some good business-grade firewall/routers, but I would usually avoid WiFi repeaters altogether. The problem with repeaters is that they need a good WiFi signal in order to repeat it. Anything less than about 75% signal strength can have a detrimental effect on the reliability of the repeated WiFi link. Also, by retransmitting from one repeater to another, you're creating a WiFi chain, with the chances of connection drops increasing with every link.

My preferred solution for my business customers is to disable the router's inferior WLAN (or, preferably, purchase a business-grade router without WLAN) and use Wireless Access Points. For business-grade access points, Ubiquiti Unifi units are probably some of the best available in my experiance: https://www.ui.com/unifi/unifi-ap-ac-pro/

Ideally you will need to run a network cable to each access point, but I have had some success connecting access points via homeplug/powerline adaptors. You will also need a PoE adaptor (power 'injector') to power each of the access points (over the network cable) or a PoE network switch.
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Last edited by moltuae; 4th March 2019 at 03:51 PM.
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  #25  
Old 4th March 2019, 08:02 PM
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My Zyxel are MIMO access points , not repeaters.
The old Virgin router is cat 5 linked to the Super hub.
I was trying to keeping it KISS.
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  #26  
Old 4th March 2019, 08:42 PM
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Originally Posted by tc4332 View Post
My Zyxel are MIMO access points , not repeaters.
The old Virgin router is cat 5 linked to the Super hub.
I was trying to keeping it KISS.
Ah, all good then

I haven't tried Zyxel's WiFi products but I would imagine they're pretty good. I've mainly worked with their 'Zywall' USG series firewalls which I have found to be very robust and reliable.
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  #27  
Old 5th March 2019, 10:36 AM
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Interesting reading. I do wonder how 5G masts are going to make me feel.

https://www.aaemonline.org/emf_rf_position.php

Quote:
For over 50 years, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) has been studying and treating the effects of the environment on human health. In the last 20 years, our physicians began seeing patients who reported that electric power lines, televisions and other electrical devices caused a wide variety of symptoms.

By the mid 1990's, it became clear that patients were adversely affected by electromagnetic fields and becoming more electrically sensitive. In the last five years with the advent of wireless devices, there has been a massive increase in radiofrequency (RF) exposure from wireless devices as well as reports of hypersensitivity and diseases related to electromagnetic field and RF exposure.

Multiple studies correlate RF exposure with diseases such as cancer, neurological disease, reproductive disorders, immune dysfunction, and electromagnetic hypersensitivity.
I am no hypochondriac and usually a massive skeptic about how well these things are tested before rollout, due to the potential litigation issues involved (esp. in the lawyer-happy USA) but I definitely was getting discomfort from the router. I mean, why else would I, myself an IT geezer, turn down faster wifi?

Last edited by J i m s t e r; 5th March 2019 at 11:14 AM.
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  #28  
Old 5th March 2019, 11:45 AM
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Interesting.

Well, from a conventional physics point of view at least, I would certainly argue that there's no conceivable reason that weak RF signals such as WiFi could affect humans adversely. However, at the Quantum level weird stuff happens that we may never fully understand ...

Quote:
A quantum physics model is necessary to fully understand and appreciate how and why EMF and RF fields are harmful to humans. In quantum physics and quantum field theory, matter can behave as a particle or as a wave with wave-like properties.
Certainly if RF exposure is causing harm, with our ever-increasing reliance on wireless technologies, we're in big trouble.

Although I'm yet to hear of a documented case of anyone being able to 'detect' the presence of weak RF fields such as WiFi. There are plenty of cases of people claiming to be affected, but I've not seen any controlled experiments where those affected correctly identify the presence and absence of the RF field. Not saying that there aren't any (and I've done very little research on the subject to be honest), I just haven't heard of any.
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  #29  
Old 5th March 2019, 11:47 AM
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About 20 years ago I started working for an IT service provider in Leeds. Not long after I started with them, they moved in to a new building up the road which was directly under a 475KV power line (the really big ones). We moved all our kit in, and discovered that our CRT monitors were completely unusable due to the magnetic field from the power cables scrambling the displays. There was revolt from all the staff of course since we didn't fancy sitting in such a strong magnetic field. Some people suggested a Faraday cage in the roof void might help, but in the end management simply replaced all the CRT monitors with LCD and declared the problem fixed

I left after a couple of months.
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  #30  
Old 5th March 2019, 12:09 PM
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Originally Posted by MikkiJayne View Post
About 20 years ago I started working for an IT service provider in Leeds. Not long after I started with them, they moved in to a new building up the road which was directly under a 475KV power line (the really big ones). We moved all our kit in, and discovered that our CRT monitors were completely unusable due to the magnetic field from the power cables scrambling the displays. There was revolt from all the staff of course since we didn't fancy sitting in such a strong magnetic field. Some people suggested a Faraday cage in the roof void might help, but in the end management simply replaced all the CRT monitors with LCD and declared the problem fixed

I left after a couple of months.
Powerlines can certainly be an issue, but they're massively more powerful and emit radiation over various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. There are a few powerlines locally that I have frequently walked under when out hiking. There's a very audible hum, your hair feels like it's standing on-end and you can actually feel some of the energy passing though you. I certainly wouldn't want to work or live under any powerlines.

Have you ever held a fluorescent tube under a powerline? Pretty cool to see them glow, if a little unnerving ...

https://www.larkinweb.co.uk/miscella...wer_lines.html
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