What Is the Best Wireless Channel to Use?
Determining the best wireless channel to use isn’t difficult, but it does require some understanding of how WiFi networks work.
Virtually all consumer routers today broadcast on the 2.4 GHz band. Newer routers sometimes also broadcast on the 5 GHz in addition to the 2.4 GHz band, but you don’t really need to worry about that because the 5 GHz band is rarely responsible for a WiFi network performing poorly.
In North American, the 2.4 GHz band extends from 2,401 MHz to 2,473 MHz, and its divided into 11 channels, spaced 5 MHz apart from each other. Because each channel is 20 MHz wide, adjacent channels overlap with one another.
Overlapping leads to signal interference, so avoiding it is critically important. That’s why it’s recommended to only use channels 1, 6, and 11 since there’s enough separation between these three channels to guarantee no interference in any circumstances.
But which of these three channels is the best one? The answer is simple: the one that’s used the last, and that’s something any iPhone WiFi channel scanner can tell you. Once you know what the least used channel is, the only thing remaining is to learn how to change your WiFi channel.
