5 ms·

Crazy thought, but maybe communicate with them and try to work out a solution?

by throwaway8581 5y ago

devenblake 5y ago
And lose the chance to rant about it on the Internet?!
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
silly-silly 5y ago
I've had similar problems in my neighbourhood, I can't honestly find out who it is.. i kinda know the direction, and have tried talking to each of the units and everyone denies it is them.
- MikeTheGreat 5y ago
  First - that's definitely super frustrating and I'm sorry you're dealing with it. It's possible that the person who's causing the problem doesn't know they're the problem. Like, if the underlying cause of this problem is "not super techno-savvy" then they might not realize what they're doing :)
- lrvick 5y ago
  Drones are great for pinpoint WiFi mapping. :)
  - TeMPOraL 5y ago
    So is a Yagi antenna, and you can make the latter out of scrap :).
kwyjobojoe 5y ago
If a neighbour asks you to turn off half your devices indefinitely so their network works better, what exactly are you supposed to do?
- XorNot 5y ago
  There is literally no benefit if you are this person to acknowledging its you. From their perspective you might be a well informed tech person or just crazy, but either way you don't want to be dealing with them everytime anything goes wrong with their wifi. And it's pretty obvious the person ranting doesn't feel this problem rises to the issue of "spend $50 to get a 5ghz router and dongle".
  - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
    > And it's pretty obvious the person ranting doesn't feel this problem rises to the issue of "spend $50 to get a 5ghz router and dongle". I'm all for 5ghz, but where are you getting an AP and dongle for $50? Edit: To clarify, I'm skeptical, but if you're serious then links and/or model numbers would be appreciated:)
    - bscphil 5y ago
      Something like a TP-Link AC-1200 plus a $10 AC dongle should give you pretty good speeds for around $50 total. I'm not skeptical of people being able to get a 5 GHz router setup for that price, but I am skeptical that everyone can make 5 GHz work. There are still devices that are 2.4 GHz only and some apartments where 5 GHz doesn't cut through the walls correctly.
    - ajdude 5y ago
      I just bought a Cudy WR2100 for $30; 5ghz AC router with openwrt to deliver wifi to my second floor.
      - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
        Oh, that's lovely; I hadn't realized they'd gotten so cheap:)
  - fwipsy 5y ago
    I think he mentions trying 5ghz somewhere in the thread, but his house's internal construction interferes with the signal. It is a little odd how long it takes for someone to suggest that, though.
TameAntelope 5y ago
Yeah, I don't think I'd know if I were doing this. I really don't think I am, but default settings and shitty proprietary IoT devices make me unsure...
xvector 5y ago
If he does this, and the neighbor decides not to do anything, OP can’t run de-auth attacks later on to free up the network, or he will be immediately suspect. The only sure fire way to solve this is de-auth.
- crooked-v 5y ago
  That just gets you a neighbor running even more wifi stuff to try and fix whatever 'bad connection' problem is happening.
bscphil 5y ago
That might work, but also, it's possible 120 devices is simply too many for one person to be using in an apartment complex. Wireless spectrum is a shared resource, it's not okay to hog it. If not 120, imagine someone with 200 or 1000 devices. At some point you've eaten more than your quota of spectrum and you owe it to your neighbors to stop hoarding IOT devices. Edit: heh, not believing in scarce resources is peak Orange Site.
- PeterisP 5y ago
  In an ideal world that might be true, however, in our world currently there's no such thing as "your quota of spectrum"; wireless spectrum is a shared resource but people are allowed to hog it. FCC does not prescribe that the spectrum usage should be shared equally or equitably; within the allowed limits and without intentional harm (e.g. deauthers) you're each allowed to try and use as much as you can. The person running 120 or 200 or 1000 devices is entitled to assert that they don't, in fact, owe anything to their neighbours - on the other hand, they would be entitled to protection and FCC intervention if the neighbours attempt to deauth their devices as suggested in other comments. You're welcome to try and hog the shared resource yourself, but preventing others from hogging a lot of the shared resource is illegal. Sure, there are scarce resources; and what we're seeing is the expected results of the tragedy of commons for a shared resource.

Crazy thought, but maybe communicate with them and try to work out a solution?

devenblake 5y ago

And lose the chance to rant about it on the Internet?!

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

silly-silly 5y ago

I've had similar problems in my neighbourhood, I can't honestly find out who it is.. i kinda know the direction, and have tried talking to each of the units and everyone denies it is them.

MikeTheGreat 5y ago
First - that's definitely super frustrating and I'm sorry you're dealing with it. It's possible that the person who's causing the problem doesn't know they're the problem. Like, if the underlying cause of this problem is "not super techno-savvy" then they might not realize what they're doing :)
lrvick 5y ago
Drones are great for pinpoint WiFi mapping. :)
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  So is a Yagi antenna, and you can make the latter out of scrap :).

kwyjobojoe 5y ago

If a neighbour asks you to turn off half your devices indefinitely so their network works better, what exactly are you supposed to do?

XorNot 5y ago
There is literally no benefit if you are this person to acknowledging its you. From their perspective you might be a well informed tech person or just crazy, but either way you don't want to be dealing with them everytime anything goes wrong with their wifi. And it's pretty obvious the person ranting doesn't feel this problem rises to the issue of "spend $50 to get a 5ghz router and dongle".
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
  > And it's pretty obvious the person ranting doesn't feel this problem rises to the issue of "spend $50 to get a 5ghz router and dongle". I'm all for 5ghz, but where are you getting an AP and dongle for $50? Edit: To clarify, I'm skeptical, but if you're serious then links and/or model numbers would be appreciated:)
  - bscphil 5y ago
    Something like a TP-Link AC-1200 plus a $10 AC dongle should give you pretty good speeds for around $50 total. I'm not skeptical of people being able to get a 5 GHz router setup for that price, but I am skeptical that everyone can make 5 GHz work. There are still devices that are 2.4 GHz only and some apartments where 5 GHz doesn't cut through the walls correctly.
  - ajdude 5y ago
    I just bought a Cudy WR2100 for $30; 5ghz AC router with openwrt to deliver wifi to my second floor.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 5y ago
      Oh, that's lovely; I hadn't realized they'd gotten so cheap:)
- fwipsy 5y ago
  I think he mentions trying 5ghz somewhere in the thread, but his house's internal construction interferes with the signal. It is a little odd how long it takes for someone to suggest that, though.

TameAntelope 5y ago

Yeah, I don't think I'd know if I were doing this. I really don't think I am, but default settings and shitty proprietary IoT devices make me unsure...

xvector 5y ago

If he does this, and the neighbor decides not to do anything, OP can’t run de-auth attacks later on to free up the network, or he will be immediately suspect. The only sure fire way to solve this is de-auth.

crooked-v 5y ago
That just gets you a neighbor running even more wifi stuff to try and fix whatever 'bad connection' problem is happening.

bscphil 5y ago

That might work, but also, it's possible 120 devices is simply too many for one person to be using in an apartment complex. Wireless spectrum is a shared resource, it's not okay to hog it. If not 120, imagine someone with 200 or 1000 devices. At some point you've eaten more than your quota of spectrum and you owe it to your neighbors to stop hoarding IOT devices. Edit: heh, not believing in scarce resources is peak Orange Site.

PeterisP 5y ago
In an ideal world that might be true, however, in our world currently there's no such thing as "your quota of spectrum"; wireless spectrum is a shared resource but people are allowed to hog it. FCC does not prescribe that the spectrum usage should be shared equally or equitably; within the allowed limits and without intentional harm (e.g. deauthers) you're each allowed to try and use as much as you can. The person running 120 or 200 or 1000 devices is entitled to assert that they don't, in fact, owe anything to their neighbours - on the other hand, they would be entitled to protection and FCC intervention if the neighbours attempt to deauth their devices as suggested in other comments. You're welcome to try and hog the shared resource yourself, but preventing others from hogging a lot of the shared resource is illegal. Sure, there are scarce resources; and what we're seeing is the expected results of the tragedy of commons for a shared resource.