Troubleshoot wifi interference

[Cleo]

Hi friends.
Mods please relocate this to a more appropriate board if there is one.
I have noticed a strange WAP showing up in my home. viz "DIRECT-D3D00593"
It follows the channel of my ISP issued modem's 2.4GHz WAP. If I get the ISP to change the channel (can't do it in firmware at my end), then this strange "DIRECT-D3D00593" network immediately follows to the new channel. My 2.4GHz network seems to get a lot of interference. Is this some fancy "internet of things" smart light bulb my brother has installed? Could it be a surveillance device?

 

[Ink]

Devices that support Wi-Fi Direct.

What Is Wi-Fi Direct, and How Does It Work?

More and more new devices are using Wi-Fi Direct.

www.howtogeek.com

Wi-Fi Direct

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct® enables Wi-Fi devices to connect directly to each other, making it simple and convenient to print, share, sync, play games, and display content to another device. Wi-Fi Direct devices connect to one another without joining a traditional home, office, or public network.

www.wi-fi.org

 

[Digerati]

If I get the ISP to change the channel (can't do it in firmware at my end)

Really? Note this setting is not set in the firmware itself. It is similar to making changes in the BIOS Setup Menu of your computer. The firmware data is set in the BIOS firmware. But you, as the user, can make changes to the BIOS (or UEFI) defaults (like date and time, drive boot order, etc.) in the Setup Menu and those changes are saved in the CMOS device. When the computer boots, the firmware is loaded, then user changes to that firmware coding, saved in the CMOS, is loaded.

You typically can change the channel in the wireless router's admin menu - in the same way you can set your own SSID or wifi passphrase. Even with ISP owned devices, this is typically a user option. At least, I have never seen where the user cannot change the channel manually. Being able to do so is almost a necessity for those who live in large apartment complexes where there tend to be many wifi networks. I certainly have not seen how every ISP everywhere works. So I am not saying you are wrong. It would just be uncommon users cannot change the wifi channel.

If you note Spawn's first link and scroll down to the Wi-Fi Direct image, you will see a Roku device in that example. That is exactly what I see when I run a network sniffer. If you (or your brother) have a streaming device connected to your network, I suspect that is what you are seeing.

If you don't have a streaming device, then I recommend taking the simple precaution of changing your wifi network passphrase.

 

[Cleo]

Really? Note this setting is not set in the firmware itself. It is similar to making changes in the BIOS Setup Menu of your computer. The firmware data is set in the BIOS firmware. But you, as the user, can make changes to the BIOS (or UEFI) defaults (like date and time, drive boot order, etc.) in the Setup Menu and those changes are saved in the CMOS device. When the computer boots, the firmware is loaded, then user changes to that firmware coding, saved in the CMOS, is loaded.

You typically can change the channel in the wireless router's admin menu - in the same way you can set your own SSID or wifi passphrase. Even with ISP owned devices, this is typically a user option. At least, I have never seen where the user cannot change the channel manually. Being able to do so is almost a necessity for those who live in large apartment complexes where there tend to be many wifi networks. I certainly have not seen how every ISP everywhere works. So I am not saying you are wrong. It would just be uncommon users cannot change the wifi channel.

If you note Spawn's first link and scroll down to the Wi-Fi Direct image, you will see a Roku device in that example. That is exactly what I see when I run a network sniffer. If you (or your brother) have a streaming device connected to your network, I suspect that is what you are seeing.

If you don't have a streaming device, then I recommend taking the simple precaution of changing your wifi network passphrase.

Yep, my ISP locks people out of the router's deeper settings. I have access to the menus to set passphrase and a few other basic hings but many settings have the edit panel grey'd out even in admin mode.

 

[Cleo]

Devices that support Wi-Fi Direct.

What Is Wi-Fi Direct, and How Does It Work?

More and more new devices are using Wi-Fi Direct.

www.howtogeek.com

Wi-Fi Direct

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct® enables Wi-Fi devices to connect directly to each other, making it simple and convenient to print, share, sync, play games, and display content to another device. Wi-Fi Direct devices connect to one another without joining a traditional home, office, or public network.

www.wi-fi.org

Thanks. We didn't turn up anything googling that device name ourselves. Turns out it was my bro's Office Epson which our router sits on top of.

 

[Digerati]

Yep, my ISP locks people out of the router's deeper settings.

Wow! Except I would not consider the wifi channel a "deeper setting". The channel has absolutely no effect on the data seen on the ISP's side of your gateway device (typically the modem) so I don't see why they would care. And the channel is for the wifi side only having absolutely nothing to do with any of your Ethernet connected devices. And changing the channel is not one of those settings that, if done wrong, will break a wifi network. Changing the channel is a common practice used to improve performance in crowded wifi neighborhoods. So I see no advantage for the ISP to lock users out. In fact, it seems to me allowing users to change that setting would even relieve some of the workload from the ISP's tech support.

In fairness, most WAPs use an automatic channel selection process to determine and set the device to the least "busy" channel. But we have found here that the least busy channel is not always the best option. For example, if the adjacent channels are busy, a different channel might offer better performance with less interference. So having the option to do it manually is nice.

This is just another reason I recommend users buy their own wireless routers and modems - when possible. Sadly, that type of "Consumers Rights" is not an option in some countries.

Anyway, I am glad you figured out it was the Epson and not a nosy neighbor. Thanks for posting your findings.