Can somebody help explain what I am seeing in this screenshot

I seem to have something accros the entire band. I am not sure if it is jusst noise or what. I can see my 2 APs on channels 3 and 11, and a nearby one on 6, but what is al lthe blue between -60 and -30. .and the yellow and red from -90 to -70? is that normal? or lots of noise?
any help will be apreciated. I am just trying to learn how to use it properly to understand what it is I am looking at.
Stu

http://www.metageek.net/files/images...09.preview.png

Thanks for sharing this screenshot.* Your environment is unusally noisy.* The bands you see every 2 MHz across the entire spectrum are probably caused by a frequency hopping device.* The office next door to ours has a lot of wireless Plantronics phone headsets, which create a similar pattern.* I also once had a 2.4GHz baby monitor that hopped in a similar fashion.* Between -50 and -30 in the topo view you can see what looks like a wifi adapter scanning through all 11 channels.* It is transmitting at a very high amplitude, so it is very close by, possibly even the adapter in the computer you are running Chanlyzer on.

thanks for the responce. I will look around for what I find. Looking around where the chanalyzer is I dont see anyhting nearby but my xbox360 and PS3 which is off. So it could be the adaptor, which is on, or the bluetooth on my blackberry perhaps? but why would my wifi on PC channel hop?

Hi Stu,Your Wi-Fi adapter on your PC won't channel hop. The interference is being caused by another device that implements a channel hopping protocol, such as bluetooth or zigbee. You mentioned that you have a blackberry. Its possible that it could be the source. *Try to isolate the source by moving around with your Wi-Spy while its collecting data. As you get closer to the transmitter, the signal level should rise, and when you move further away, the signal level should decrease. If its feasible, try powering down any device that you suspect is causing the interference. If you power down the source, you should see an immediate change in the Wi-Spy spectrum data.*You might also check your bluetooth settings on your PC.*I hope this helps.*-Steve*

Ok, I turned off all three xbox 260s and the PS3, turned off my blackberry bluetooth, and the WiFi adaptor in mine and my daughtor's laptop. This is what I still have. looks like something accros all the channels.

ok check this out. I cut the main breaker to everything, turning off anything AC powered in the house. and still got the same thing. Sooo, it is either one of my kids battery powered toys... or somehting outside the house doing it.


[img_assist|nid=1188|title=2.4GHz in my home 2-22-09|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=63]

A battery couldn't live too long transmitting non-stop like your interferer, so I think it's outside your house.* If you wander the neighborhood with Chanalyzer running, you should see the amplitudes bump up when you get closer to the source.


*Good luck!

yea I think I will do that. I live on a busy street with no neighbors. both houses next to me are empty and any busisness is at least 100 to 200 yards away. I will drive around them though and see what I find.

Actually we have had a couple of recordings sent in from customers with either broken wireless cards or just cards actively scanning on every channel, some stronger than others.


http://metageek.net/recording/trent-80211b-1


http://metageek.net/recording/trent-troubleshoot-2


http://metageek.net/blog/faulty-wifi...-news-everyone


Brian made a good point, -30dBm is extremely close to the Wi-Spy.* So from -60 to -30dBm I would guess that it is the Wireless card.* Try this out:

<ul>
[*]Lock the time frame at 2 minutes, see: locking the time frame*
[*]Take notes (using Chanalyzer's notes feature), for each time you power off the wireless card.* [/list]

That should at least help determine if it is the wireless card at the higher amplitude, and it looks like you figured that out in the next recording/image.


If you send the recordings to support at metageek dot net, I will attach them to the forum post.

Oh this is interesting.

I put the channelizer on my Dell 6500, and measured with lenovo on.
I then turned off the lenovo altogether.
Pattern went away after resetting the data and measuring again for a bit. Then I turned on the WiFi scanner on the sidebar. It showed up again. Turned it off, and reset, gone again.
Could I be reading the WiFi adaptor scanning from Channalyzer?

I think that is exactly what is happening.* If you start a download, you should be able to watch changes occur in Chanalyzer, and likewise an upload.* The upload will have a stronger signal due to the location of the wireless card.