How to Block a Neighbor’s Wi-Fi?
Like the Michael Myers of those Halloween movies, some things in life are (seemingly) inevitable. Taxes. Politics. Your neighbor’s Wi-Fi networks that are strong enough to send you a useless signal in your home or apartment, wherever you are.
I’ve talked a lot about Wi-Fi at Tech 911 lately and will give advice until you – the mighty readers of Lifehacker – still have questions about this type of connection. Wireless networking can be confusing and frustrating, especially when you feel like you will have a better connection to your neighbor’s Wi-Fi network than your own.
As Lifehacker reader Sean writes:
“Hi, here’s the question, I live in an apartment building, in some places in my apartment my neighbor’s Wi-Fi has a stronger signal than my own. What can I do to isolate or mute other signals? “
Certainly! Turn to face your neighbor and assess which walls are between you and them. Line those walls with concrete and that should stop your neighbor’s annoying wireless signals. Maybe hang a bunch of mirrors ?
I’m kidding, there are a lot of materials that can interfere with Wi-Fi signals that might be worth keeping in mind if you ever plan to remodel your apartment. I suppose you could try Wi-Fi blocking paint , which looks more like a gimmick than anything else. You can also go crazy and trap your apartment in a Faraday cage , which will further destroy your cellular signal. (I hope you are using Wi-Fi calling.)
What I would really do, first of all, is to check the actual signal strength of your neighbor’s Wi-Fi network. You may be seeing it pop up on your devices as a connection option, but this is a weak or insignificant signal because you are at the edge of the Wi-Fi range. Get a free app that lets you scan for wireless signals and watch them appear. I bet your network looks like a much stronger signal than your next door, unless they’ve installed some insanely powerful router or hotspot right next to the nearest wall to your apartment.
If you and your neighbors are on good terms, you can always walk up and ask them to take a look at the advanced settings of your router and reduce its transmit power – if there is such a possibility at all. (Not all routers allow this). This should push the Wi-Fi bubble back a bit and not impact your neighbor’s performance much. I assume they get excellent communication in their apartment if you see a fairly strong signal in yours.
You can politely ask them to move their router to a more central location in their apartment. Depending on their settings, this may or may not be. However, you can always tell them that this will provide a good signal for their entire living space.
At the very least, you can ask them to bind the closest router or access point to you on a specific wireless channel , or you can simply use a different channel for your own wireless setup. You will still be able to see their network (unless you politely ask them to ” hide ” it), but it shouldn’t hinder your own speeds much, if at all. I would choose this solution as it guarantees the best possible coexistence, which means you maintain good neighborly relations and still get a great connection for your own devices.
You can also gain territoriality: Install a wireless mesh system around your apartment that gives every inch of space an incredible wireless signal, and let your neighborsfigure out your setup. Or switch as many devices to 5 GHz as possible (and make sure your network is not running on the same channel as theirs).
To check your settings, you can always go to fast.com, to test their speed from one and the same place, when Wi-Fi is turned on your neighbor, and not when it is switched off – if they give in to the experiment – or any other clever configuration, which you try.
Overall, though, my advice would be to negotiate the channels and, if you don’t, just get another access point (or a more powerful router) that gives you the connection you need wherever you are. Don’t worry more about your neighbors than you do, and be grateful that you don’t live in an apartment complex full of competing networks with decent power on all channels.