# Tanks blocking WiFi?



## Majsa (20 Jan 2021)

With the lockdown, we have to work from home and have had issues with the WiFi lately...my partner called the provider and the employee said “you don’t have an aquarium, do you, no signal goes through those...” Never heard of this before! As he didn’t seem to expect an answer my partner didn’t mention we have a tank in all the three rooms we are working...

Hopefully the problems are solved now (they updated some settings on the provider’s side) but is this a real issue? I’d reckon it could be if you have a huge tank between your work place and the router.


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## dcurzon (20 Jan 2021)

yes, wireless frequencies run don't travel well through water.  You could set router to 2.4ghz and that might perform a little better (most run at 5ghz these days, but can be switched or run both)


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## DeepMetropolis (20 Jan 2021)

Best to put a antenna in your work room then.. I have multiple hubs trough the house..


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## LondonDragon (20 Jan 2021)

You can get Wireless extenders that plug straight into a 3pin power socket, they work OK most of the time.
In order to get decent coverage in all of my flat I need 3 access points, but I have a lot of concrete walls which are 30cm thick! nothing to do with the 5 tanks I have running at the moment lol

Like @dcurzon suggests, you could run two SSID's one for 2.4Ghz and one for 5Ghz, if your router supports it its best to run two so you know which one the device is using, as most devices will prefer 5Ghz even if the 2.4Ghz signal is better!


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## The grumpy one (20 Jan 2021)

You need to place your router so the signal does not pass through the tank, Line of sight. The tank will cause a shadow behind itself. Like the reduction of light as it passes through the tank. So router to device should not intercept the tank. 
Microwaves work around 2,4GHz and they heat the water in the food to work. Hence the Wifi carrier wave is absorbed into the water in the form of heat. Wifi will not noticeably heat your tank water, the power is far to low. Microwave ovens run at 800W Wifi and bluetooth are only allowed to transmit to a maximum of 100mW, that is 8000 times weaker.

Wi-Fi Router Location | 802.11 Coverage | Electronics Notes (electronics-notes.com)

It's a problem which ever Wifi frequency you use.
5GHz Wifi is more readily adsorbed by water. This means, if you have two radio devices, one at 5GHz and one at 2.4GHz, then more of the signal will be adsorbed by the water in the air by the 5GHz device If the air is damp then it makes matters worse.
2.4GHz Wifi, because it is a lower frequency, is absorbed less in water. But Bluetooth devices, all those app controllable LED aquarium lights, runs at 2.45GHz.
So you tend to get interference and bandwidth reduction from side bands, between Wifi and Bluetooth. It does not help that a lot of Bluetooth devices are badly made and the stability of the carrier frequency of 2.45GHz is dubious. 

If you just try the line of sight cure or try changing between 5GHz or 2.4GHz on your wifi devices


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## Majsa (20 Jan 2021)

Thanks for all the tips, will need to look into all this (not my strongest subject). Looks like we're on 2.4Ghz now. We have a router downstairs, the line of sight can probably be improved. It is connected by a cable to another router upstairs in a bridge mode. I understood the customer support changed the channel...will see tomorrow if it is any better. Won't go moving tanks


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## LondonDragon (20 Jan 2021)

Majsa said:


> I understood the customer support changed the channel


That's a good call, if they are both on the same channel it will cause interference and in most cases worse connection, more is not always better if not configured correctly


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## not called Bob (20 Jan 2021)

LondonDragon said:


> You can get Wireless extenders that plug straight into a 3pin power socket, they work OK most of the time.
> In order to get decent coverage in all of my flat I need 3 access points, but I have a lot of concrete walls which are 30cm thick! nothing to do with the 5 tanks I have running at the moment lol
> 
> Like @dcurzon suggests, you could run two SSID's one for 2.4Ghz and one for 5Ghz, if your router supports it its best to run two so you know which one the device is using, as most devices will prefer 5Ghz even if the 2.4Ghz signal is better!


This did not work for our place as the electricity is on a number of ring mains, solved with 3 mesh units, so now have WiFi all over the home and garden.


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## not called Bob (20 Jan 2021)

Can also get a signal testing apps and find out what bits of the unit send out the best signal and position so the duff area goes to your neighbour/wall


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## LondonDragon (21 Jan 2021)

not called Bob said:


> This did not work for our place as the electricity is on a number of ring mains,


That's because you were using the powerline adapters which transport the network over the mains, you can get extenders that just work using wifi signals and do not rely on the mains ring.


not called Bob said:


> solved with 3 mesh units, so now have WiFi all over the home and garden.


That is a good option nowadays if your budget can stretch to that, best solution for a large house.


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## DeepMetropolis (21 Jan 2021)

I use  https://www.tp-link.com/nl/business-networking/omada-sdn-access-point/eap245/. Not too expensive and works like a charme..


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## LondonDragon (21 Jan 2021)

DeepMetropolis said:


> I use  https://www.tp-link.com/nl/business-networking/omada-sdn-access-point/eap245/. Not too expensive and works like a charme..


I actually prefer the Ubiquiti Unifi solution, because of the management interface and you can control/monitor your network from your phone too 









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Here is a topology of my setup, one router, 3 POE switches in 3 locations in the house and 3 APs, I have under floor cabling for the switches which help. If I can use cables I prefer for the time being specially from my NAS, Plex server to my TV, 4K content over wifi is hit and miss!


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## milla (21 Jan 2021)

Router or booster in ceiling of room with tanks solves all line of sight issues. unless you have tall racks of tanks creating walls of water.


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