I live in an apartment building, so I think half of my Wi-Fi problems are due to me fighting with other residents’ routers.
I want to change the channel, but I don’t want to do it randomly. How can I see which channels are already occupied?
Download a Wi-Fi analyzer and see what’s going on in the air around you. I usually use NetSpot (inspector mode) — it’s all very clear. It shows neighboring networks in real time, so you can immediately see who’s on what channel and where they overlap. It’s really more convenient than just a list of names, because you can see a graph showing where there’s a lot of interference and where there’s a clear “window” you can switch to. By the way, the Android version of NetSpot is really easy — it even has a channel recommendation feature. The program will automatically suggest which one to switch to to keep the internet running smoothly.
And weirdly enough, if there really are no free channels, it’s often better to choose one with full overlap than partial overlap. Sounds backwards, but fully overlapping networks can at least detect each other and share airtime, while partially overlapping ones tend to just interfere more destructively.
@No_Chart Got it. The point here isn’t to find some perfectly empty channel, but to simply pick a normal “window” where network overlap isn’t so critical.