Xmas Lights Degrade Wi-Fi Signals, Better Shelve That Holiday Cheer

from the produce-more-celebrate-less dept

Wed, Dec 6th 2006 3:49pm — Karl Bode

It's Christmas season again, which means it's time for the newswires to be stuffed with company press releases that use yuletide gimmicks to bask their brand in (Christmas) lights. One wireless monitoring software vendor is gunning for press today by informing everyone that Christmas Lights deteriorate your Wi-Fi. Using the software they're trying to sell, the company concluded that light-up holiday decorations actually degrade your signal strength by 25%, and increase signal deterioration over distance by one-third. Of course there's an endless sea of things that can impact Wi-Fi signal strength, from low quality baby monitors and metal shelves, to microwave ovens and Bluetooth gear; hopefully the company doesn't deem it necessary to offer up an inane press release for each. Somewhere though, there's a grumpy bottom-line boss tearing down electronic Christmas cheer and plug-in cubicle Christmas trees in the name of productivity.

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20 Comments

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smokebreak, 6 Dec 2006 @ 4:29pm

Wifi cheer
An easy solution.......get a better set of antenna's (antteni?) to restore the 25% loss...... and when the lights come off the house you can blame more people for "stealing" your bandwidth :)
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dorpus, 6 Dec 2006 @ 4:35pm

Outlaw Xmas
Shit, I just bought a book at the store, and the cashier girl tried to trick me into giving a donation with the purchase. I called foul when she short-changed me, and of course she had to make a scene, asking everyone in the store how to give my money back. I didn't back down.

Xmas: The Season of Thievery.
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- Supord, 6 Dec 2006 @ 5:06pm
  
  Re: Outlaw Xmas
  pfft... go outside and make some friends so you don't have to vent your pointless stories on here...
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Jeff, 6 Dec 2006 @ 5:34pm

Homeland Security
I'm seeing Jon Stewart squinting and talking with his hands, doing his commander-in-chief impression: "And when you get over there talkin' to the Israelis... If you're ever usin' yer laptop com-pyoo-tur, make sure you take a couple boxes of these here Chrissmass Lights... wrap yourself and your laptop up in a couple of strings of 'em... that way Terr'rists usin' The Google can't be breakin' into our wireless networks." "Mister President... I don't think..." "Condi! Shuddup! I am The Decider! And what I say goes. You're gonna use them Chrissmass Lights, cuz that's what I've decided you're gonna do. The deciderings already been done, so don't try an argue it no more."
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mark, 6 Dec 2006 @ 6:18pm

Isn't this a positive?
Why buy the RF blocking paint when you can just display your preferred decorative holiday lights around....

Seems like a win win situation for GE. :)
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|333173|3|_||3, 6 Dec 2006 @ 6:33pm

I am not entirely sure that this is accurate. Mains electricity operates on eitheer 50Hz or 60Hz virtually worldwide. whilst the circuitry i some of the more fancy light strings might cause minor interfereence, this would be tiny. I find it unlikley that there would be any effect, but I am open to suggestions.
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- dorpus, 6 Dec 2006 @ 6:53pm
  
  Re:
  What about imperfect connections? Can sparks, or some microsurges of connections between the rough surface of the socket and bulb emit EM radiation?
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- An Electronics Guy, 7 Dec 2006 @ 5:30am
  
  Re: commnet by |333173|3|_||3
  It's the blinker bulbs that cause the interference. They generate all sorts of RFI as they turn on and off.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Dec 2006 @ 8:22pm

I have an idea.

Stop giving a shit about a 25% decrease in speed.

If you really want to get your download in 3 minutes instead of 4, go die, or better yet, hardwire yourself.

I know, it's a radical concept. Ethernet cables are extremely expensive these days.
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- JumperPunk, 6 Dec 2006 @ 8:58pm
  
  Re:
  its not the cost of the cable that one can make to any size that prompts us to use wifi, its the 3 floors between the dsl router and the pc.
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Boris Jacobsen, 7 Dec 2006 @ 12:06am

Flashing Christmas Lights
Use Christmas lights that flicker on and off. Surely, they'll only decrease wi-fi speed for the half of the time that they're on.

That should lead to a net wi-fi speed reduction of just 12.5% :)
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rstr5105, 7 Dec 2006 @ 3:12am

re: JumperPunk
Alright JP, I've got two floors between me and my router, I'm BOTH hardwired and wifi'd on this floor. The hardwire goes through my attic, down the chimney, into the basement, about 40 feet across the basement, into a 1Gb/s switch, up through the floor around a corner and to the router. Total footage upto switch: 100 Total footage to router: About 13. Total Cost: $100. (Mostly eaten up by the Gb/s Switch)

Wifi, is spotty at best, (and it's on my laptop, not my desk).

So, go out, buy a switch and $200 feet of cable, drill a couple holes, and have your full bandwidth.
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bob, 7 Dec 2006 @ 8:22am

http://www.searchjerk.com has a complete list of FREE THINGS to upgrade your wi fi signal
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a33a, 7 Dec 2006 @ 8:52am

ok
ok bob no need to advertise your aff site here
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- Maciej, 7 Dec 2006 @ 9:04am
  
  Re: ok
  When electricity passes through a wire, it induces and EM Field. You can use the right hand rule for this. The strength of the field is proportional to the electricity. Hence you can destructive interference. Also, people use a lot of xmas lights on their homes, this can create a Faraday cage effect. But 25% percent seems too high. I'm they used their statistical data very liberally.
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Ron's Log, 7 Dec 2006 @ 12:20pm

The Airmagnet press release only refers to "holiday decorations," which is considerably more than just lights. So we've got to take care of the little plastic snowmen, wreaths on doors, and dreydls too
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- Danny Carlton, 7 Dec 2006 @ 1:52pm
  
  Re:
  You forgot tinsel. That's sure to do something.
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Up North Ned, 8 Dec 2006 @ 6:06am

Dont forget those Reindeer with their big Antlers!
With all the heavy metal and tinsel free floating, these odd creatures sure mess things up. I'm giving up the internet until all this stuff calms down...
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JohnBoy, 11 Dec 2006 @ 9:26am

WI-FI intereference
My wi-fi is interfering with my christmas lights!
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Nov 2009 @ 1:04pm

That's some bad news =) well people can still download xmas mp3s and play them out load to mess with everyone around them =)
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