WiFi noise ratio

[xsquared_uk]

Hi all,

I'm running an older Cisco Aironet 340 access point at home just as a test, and it works OK apart from me not being able to administer it without a Cisco branded card (unless anyone knows a way to do it from a Mac or a PC laptop with built in WiFi...?)

Anyhow, running MacStumbler shows I have a noise level of 52 on average, dropping to 50 sometimes but otherwise fairly constant and to me that sounds quite high. I don't have much experience of WiFi though so this may be normal.

Anyone else want to let me know what their noise ratio is? Or any ideas how to deal with it?

Cheers!

[Ddruid_SMP]

I am not familiar with MacStumbler so I do no know what it measurement is. If it's measurement is in dB, as in you are seeing -52dB of noise, that is absolutely horendous.. I do not believe you are getting an acurate result, if it was truely that bad I doubt it would work at all.

[xsquared_uk]

Looking on the Mac Stumbler site at the screenshot (http://www.macstumbler.com/screenshot.gif), he seems to be getting 6 or 7 for noise - does that sound more like a correct reading for db? Mine is still saying 50 - 53, I've moved the access point and I've moved around the house with the laptop and it's always the same. I can't think what would be causing this!

Interestingly though, his signal strength is very low whereas mine is quite high - 96 right next to the point down to about 60 where it seems to lose the connection - I'm wondering if maybe that's showing some kind of threshold rather than dB - in other words, if my strength gets down to 50 - 53 then the noise will swamp the signal. Does that sound feasible?

[xsquared_uk]

I'm using KisMAC now instead, which seems to make more sense - it's giving me a signal strength of around 15 and I'm not far from where the network usually cuts off. This doesn't seem to have a noise monitor though, but it seems like a better app if anyone with OS X is looking for a stumbler!

[Ddruid_SMP]

Originally posted by xsquared_uk
Looking on the Mac Stumbler site at the screenshot (http://www.macstumbler.com/screenshot.gif), he seems to be getting 6 or 7 for noise - does that sound more like a correct reading for db?

No, for a dB reading you are likely to see a number like -90 or -50, whereas -50 is a stronger signal than -90. dB is a ratio of log10 to 1mw. I suspect that as long as your signal is portraid as a number greater than the noise you should be ok.. The numbers themselves mean nothing..

[xsquared_uk]

Cool, cheers for taking the time out to reply mate!