User Manual

74 Fine-Tuning Your Experience
• Reduce interference.
Avoid windows unless communicating between buildings.
Place wireless devices away from various electromagnetic noise
sources, especially those in the 2400–2500 MHz frequency band.
Common noise-creating sources are:
– Computers and fax machines (no closer than 1 foot)
– Copy machines and cell phones (no closer than 6 feet)
– Microwave ovens (no closer than 10 feet)
• Choose your settings.
– Use a scanning utility including those provided with the
NETGEAR wireless adapters to determine what other wireless
networks are operating nearby, and then select an unused
channel.
– Turn off SSID broadcast, and change the default SSID. Other
nearby devices might automatically try to connect to your
network several times a second, which can cause significant
performance reduction.
Optimizing Your Network Bandwidth
As your network grows, it might consist of several segments of different
networking technologies, each providing different throughput. In
planning your network, you should first consider which devices will
have the heaviest traffic flow between them. Here are some examples:
• A Digital Entertainer Elite in one room streaming high-definition
video from a server in another room
• A storage device that is used for backing up your computers
Next, consider the throughput of your network devices. Where possible,
use higher-speed technologies to make the heaviest-traffic connections
with no lower-speed bottlenecks in the path.