Man of steel

By Anonymous - 26/09/2023 00:02

Today, my wife and kids all yelled at me because I was stood at the bookshelf looking for a book, blocking the Wifi router with my body, and their signals all dropped to almost zero, and had stopped them watching videos. FML
I agree, your life sucks 641
You deserved it 137
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Top comments

MamaChey 24

What kind of cheap-ass router do you have? WiFi signals go through walls, floors, & ceilings

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Comments

MamaChey 24

What kind of cheap-ass router do you have? WiFi signals go through walls, floors, & ceilings

19 0
Justkidding100 41

that's not how WiFi works. period. it just doesn't

8 3
Billsonhamsen 17

Wi-Fi signals are blocked at least partially by walls and trees and beds and human bodies. These things can absorb and reflect the signals. The signals don't go through everything. You can think of it like light passing through a window that is not that clear. One window is fine but does reduce the signal a little but if you have a thousand windows it's going to be very dark in that room. When you combine that with potentially slow internet and a cheap router and the fact that at least three people were using it to watch videos at the same time it's definitely possible that blocking the router with your body could cause signal problems. Higher strength signals have the potential to send more data because the phase of the signal can be detected more easily in a higher signal strength. The router can automatically detect and negotiate the speed between itself and the devices it's servicing. Reflections can also cause issues but that's another discussion for another day.

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Justkidding100 41

again, one person blocking a WiFi signal physically is not possible. he's not a faraday cage

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Billsonhamsen 17

I have a degree in electronics engineering. I worked for the department of defense for years designing satelite transmitter and receiver stations. I spent several years working with software defined radios of various power levels.I recently designed a tracking system very similar to the Apple Air tag that used a low power signal similar to Bluetooth. I definitely understand how are signals are transmitted and received both high and low power. The fact is that the human body does absorb radio waves quite readily especially in the frequencies used by current Wi-Fi technologies. Generally the higher the frequency the more it's absorbed by random things in the environment. This means that the newer 5G technologies is a harder time penetrating things that the older technology didn't. This is because it's at 5 GHz but that's not what 5G means. The older Wi-Fi signals were figure hurts lower. The signal doesn't have to be completely blocked to dramatically decrease the data rate. It's true that he is not a Faraday cage but depending on where the router is placed he might be creating a situation that blocks much of the signal. Antennas today are also much smaller than antennas have been in the past. Without getting into it antennas essentially have to be some fractional size of the signal. These very small antennas mean that the signal is only coming from a small area. Wi-Fi signals travel like all electromagnetic waves which mean they travel line of sight. If the antenna is blocked by a large mass that contains a lot of water not much signal can come through. Signals can be reflected around but they're still line of sight. They don't just go everywhere. Think about the light in your living room. You still have dark spots in your room but they're not entirely dark. These reflections can be helpful or harmful depending on the situation. I won't be posting again cuz I don't think you willing to learn but maybe somebody else learned something.

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Billsonhamsen 17

Please ignore the errors here. I used voice to text. There are several issues. The only one worth fixing is the statement that the antenna needs to be a fraction of the signals wavelength. Creating an antenna like this traditionally has been challenging because that means antennas only work for a set of related frequencies. Today some antennas have more complex shapes that allow them to be used for a wider range of frequencies.

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HayNow 11

Right....I have a plant, a lamp, a picture frame and telephone in front of my WiFi next to a wall and it works just fine. Sounds like they have slow internet speed, cheap router or an old router that needs upgrading.

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Billsonhamsen 17

Initially I was thinking you should have just unplugged the router and taking it away. If they're going to scream at you for blocking the router then they don't get a router that day. But then when I was responding to someone else's incorrect comment I calmed down a bit. I guess I'm just having a rough day.

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