this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2026
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Other people's wifi can affect yours, and vice versa, if they are occupying the same channel(s).
Most likely something on that channel is spamming multicast. That kills most consumer wifi routers (in default settings). Usually something like a sonos or Google home broadcast group.
Could also be a camera that's constantly transmitting, also occupying the channel for a long time.
But really, it could be anything.
Use an app like PingTools (Android) that can graph what is on each wifi channel. Check to find the cleanest channels in your area and configure your router to use that channel.
Failing that, if it's on your network and you don't know what it is...change your Wi-Fi password to kick everything off, then slowly re-add devices with the new password until you find the culprit.
If you're curious and technically-minded, I highly recommend this write up: https://www.wiisfi.com/
Also, you may be able to get better speeds by using narrower channels. Especially in busy areas. Easier to find 40-80MHz of clean spectrum than it is to find 160MHz. And even easier if you are open to using DFS channels (but these should generally be avoided). Doubling channel-width also doubles the noise, adding 3dB to the bad side of your SNR.
What causes speed drops and packet loss is almost always interference/weak signal. Getting high packet loss on an 80 or 160Mhz channel will be slower than a solid, clean signal on a 40MHz channel.
If you are closing your laptop, don't. The antennas are usually located in the monitor bezel and are intended to be vertically-oriented, like they would if you were using the laptop. Having it shut means a lot of the signal is directed into the laptop chassis and your desk, which would especially impact upload from the device.
I might (i.e. I definitely do) have a non-ideal setup at home that contributes to this, with the router/WPA, a RPi running HA with a Zigbee antenna just next to it, my server in the shelf next over and a Sonos above it. Worst of all, the server is running on WiFi and it is sat in immediate vicinity to my router. Why? Because I could not for the life of me make the ethernet transfer speeds be more than somewhere around 1-5 MiB/s, so I gave up. But considering these issues are so infrequent from this location I assume it is mostly due to outside interference.
And adding to that, ....
... this scan shows that all discovered networks are occupying the same channels (98-114 it looks like). I have still not figured out what OpenWRT option to go for (the OpenWRT One, which I had originally planned, quickly became very expensive with imports and tolls that I ended up not buying, despite having decided to go for it). So I am using the stock ISP router, which I assume everyone else in my building are as well. And I have been unable to locate an option to change channels in its interface.
That is a resource I didn't know I needed! Thanks :)
That's probably a physical cable issue.
Check the connectors and / or different cables.
It's esp. more important for 1Gbps connections as they're more sensitive than 100Mbps