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srudenko's profile

Mentor

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46 Messages

Sunday, June 7th, 2015 10:44 PM

Neighbors RG WiFi Stronger Than My Own

I am not sure how this is possible but one of the neighbors has an Arris NVG gateway and their WiFi signal is so strong that I am picking it up in my house and its nearly the same strength as my own signal coming from an 802.11 AC router. I don't know exactly which of the neighbors has this device but I am using WiFi Analyzer and it shows up as ARRIS and has an ATT SSID.

 

How in the world is this possible? I have been struggling to boost my signal inside the house and this one Arris NVG is sending out a signal so strong that the whole street picks it up with 'Good' strength. You can't even hook up hi-gain antennas to the NVG and I tested mine with various settings and it was OK but not great which is why I got my own router. Another thing is that in our neighborhood the houses are not right next to each other...there is some distance between them (maybe 100-200 feet).

Expert

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10.1K Messages

9 years ago

My u-verse modem has a power setting in the GUI. Find out who it is & ask them to turn it down a few notches. Maybe you need att to help you find who it is.

 

Of course, if they put a power booster on it to assure good coverage, that can be an issue for the FCC.

Mentor

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46 Messages

9 years ago

When I was testing the wireless settings in my Arris NVG gateway I saw that power was set to High by default but even with that my signal wasn't even as good as this neighboring NVG.

That's why I am curious how they are doing this. Not only is this coming from another house and has to go the distance plus through walls, etc...but in the end the signal strength is same as my network. That's crazy.

It's like they are using commercial boosters and have them on the roof or something! I'm not sure which neighbor it is but have the MAC of the NVG. I know one neighbor right next to us has Xfinity and I don't really want to ask others.

I'm not sure how they are amplifying their signal or if it's legal, etc...I want to do the same...hehe

Mentor

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42 Messages

9 years ago

I could easily buy a real router that has real antennas or even SMA or TNC connections and use high gain antennas to get my signal some distance.  I could name my SSID to say ATT937 or whatever I wanted and even put it on the same channel as yours. Oh yeah and I could make the WiFi Mac Address that of ARRIS brand if I wanted as well.    So definately possible, but not likely for the typical consumer.  The actual AT&T Uverse equipment WiFi is weak in comparison to almost any store bought router with real antennas on it.

 

New Member

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25.7K Messages

9 years ago

It could also be the AP for the wireless STB's.  My neighbor had them before I got mine and his was WAY stronger than my WiFi.

Mentor

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46 Messages

9 years ago

I have a wireless STB as well and the AP is Cisco and operates on 5 Ghz.

The ATT signal that I am picking up is coming from ARRIS and is on CH 1 of the 2.4 Ghz band.

 

Maybe the neighbor installed their gateway on the roof and hardwired some directional antennas to it and pointed them at my house 🙂

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