Over my many years in business, whether the business of the military or the business of commerce, one of the core threads of weakness in almost all but the best managers/leaders I have worked with has been an inability or perhaps an unwillingness to communicate. All too often I have witnessed poor management communication not only down through the command structure but also, quite frequently, within what would be considered the first tier of communications. Their direct reporters.

Many such businesses have, it seemed, succeeded or perhaps survived, in spite of rather than because of these individuals for whom communication should be the centrepiece of their toolbox. Usually in these situations, the intentions are top drawer but the reality is bargain basement. Individuals in such positions of authority resting on their past achievements or being reasonably content with the status quo and pulling up the drawbridge to their rarefied level perhaps feel like they should maintain an authoritative distance or refrain from fraternising with the ranks. Ridiculous as such a stance may sound on paper, it is all too often manifest in management positions in all levels of business with the reality for the organisation far more serious than any ridicule may reflect.

Directionless authority figures who fail to capitalise on the talent within their organisations because of their inability to communicate beyond their own lieutenants can lay waste to layer upon layer of that which makes an organisation truly prosper, its people. This is especially true in the world of the startup where those in authority and indeed in control have the greatest of vested interests in seeing the business boom.

As managers, and most especially as managers within small businesses for whom hierarchical structures are not best fit, communication is what ensures that our own value systems are properly superimposed on the wider team around us. We need to accept our weaknesses. Work on them. Learn by placing ourselves in the uncomfortable situations we could easily avoid and the best way to measure this and truly understand it is to get down and dirty every day. Do sweat the small stuff. Truly understand the small stuff because when we get the small stuff right and we can communicate down and listen up effectively, communicating all the way down and listening all the way up, we will find ourselves at the centre of a team that really will begin to reflect the hopes and dreams we all have for our own organisations.

As the worlds journey through the second industrial (Internet) revolution carries on apace, todays businesses face an emerging challenge. Unless your company has its own "in-house" network professionals it is likely that the demands the Internet places on your business, whilst clearly a massive opportunity are also the source of what can seem like spiralling overhead costs in terms of personnel and knowledge.

 

Back in the mists of history during the first industrial revolution, the electric light bulb was causing a stir. The new technology was clearly a fantastic opportunity for business of the time to increase productivity and improve working conditions. It was basically a new fangled technology which could enable businesses to "work smarter".  Now where have we heard that before?

The first electricity installation companies were small bands of highly educated and highly paid technical afficionados who were evangelists of the technology rather than being more akin to the matter of fact electricians of today. The technolgy has nowadays moved from invention to commodity to utility and that process probably took 10 to 20 years to fully complete. There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between that revolution and this one.

Heres one cast iron fact. Businesses today need networks. Whether it is to connect their towering office blocks in each corner of the world into one great corporate network or just to connect their office computers to their printer and the internet to read their emails, they all need their networks. We have tried to think of one single business that wouldnt put itself at a disadvantage in todays world by ignoring everything related to the internet such as emails and websites and we have failed. From the sole trader window cleaner to the corporate giant, all of them now need their networks.

 

 The technology is now moving into the realms of utility rather than being "a great new invention". Nowadays your average Granny in Scotland is just as likely to switch on the laptop as they are to switch on their central heating. Ok thats a dubious fact I'll concede but you get the picture. The world has changed forever and the Scottish business community as well as the residential community now need their networks. The technology is now thought of more like a central heating boiler than the hubble telescope to the average consumer. They just want it to work.

Todays networks now need plumbers. Todays Scottish businesses now need network plumbers and not the techie evangelist types of the last 10-20 years. They need matter of fact network tradespeople who they can call upon to get things working properly when they arent. They dont need an inhouse plumbing enthusiast who does plumbing for a hobby and thinks theyre a bit handy with a pipe bender and they certainly dont need a plumbing department full of plumbers in their overalls ready to fix a boiler at a moments notice. 

 

Ok weve stretched the plumbing analogy a little too far here but I believe the point is made. When it comes to network plumbing and you need the system to just work. When you need a no nonsense expert in the trade to advise you on the best systems for your requirements or just to make your existing systems do the job that you need them to do for you, day in-day out, give us a call at Rustyice Solutions. The network plumbers.

If you want to know how to fix your Wi-Fi, first you need to understand how it works

Before you set about fixing your Wi-Fi, it helps to know how the technology works.

That way, you can make an informed decision about the equipment you need to solve your issues, or whether a change of settings might help.

It’s a complicated subject, and we won’t attempt to cover everything (such as packet data, TCP/IP, or the ins and outs of wireless security), but by the end of this section, you should have a firm grasp of Wi-Fi’s fundamentals.

Signals and spectrum

Wi-Fi’s core premise is pretty simple – routers and adapters send and receive data using radio waves. It’s the same basic technology that’s used by radio and TV to receive terrestrial signals, mobile phones to make and receive calls, as well as video senders, baby monitors, and all sorts of other wireless devices.

In effect, all a wireless router or adapter does is translate the data it receives into a radio signal, which is decoded back into data at the other end.

Specifically, wireless routers use frequencies of 2.4GHz (or the range 2.412GHz-2.484GHz to be more precise) and, in the case of more expensive dual-band routers, 5GHz (4.195GHz-5.825GHz) to send and receive information.

But there’s far more to it than simply slinging streams of data to and fro. Each of these bands is further divided into channels, of which your router can use one or two simultaneously (when two are used simultaneously, it’s called channel bonding – see below for more details). In the 2.4GHz band there are up to 14 channels available, and up to 42 in the 5GHz band.

The idea is that by using different channels, neighbouring networks avoid stepping on each other’s toes. In an ideal world, for maximum performance and stable operation, your router should be running on a channel that no other network in range is using.

In reality, the true number of available channels is lower than these theoretical maximums, depending on where you live and which router you’re using.

In the UK and Europe, you’re legally allowed to use only channels 1 to 13 in the 2.4GHz space, and you’re restricted to 18 of the 42 in the 5GHz space. A Netgear router we use in our office, meanwhile, makes only four channels in the 5GHz space available for use.

This is compounded by the fact that when your router transmits on each channel, the effective width of its signal is about 20MHz, which, in the 2.4GHz space, means it can overlap up to eight neighbouring channels.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out that when more than three wireless networks are in close proximity to one another, co-channel and adjacent channel interference can become a problem.



Channel bonding (the ability some routers have to group two channels together, doubling the potential throughput) makes the congestion even worse – with several 40MHz wide channels hogging such a narrow spectrum, it’s like trying to squeeze several 21-stone men into a small lift.

Why 5GHz?

There is a solution to hand, however – 5GHz wireless. The advantages it holds over 2.4GHz are threefold. First, it’s far less congested. Fewer people own dual-band 5GHz routers and devices, so the chances are you’ll be able to set up your network on a completely congestion-free channel, which you perhaps wouldn’t over 2.4GHz.

Second, since the channels are further apart than in the 2.4GHz band (with 20MHz between each, compared with 4MHz or 5MHz) there’s much less opportunity for adjacent channel overlap. Even in the unlikely event that many 5GHz routers and devices are in close proximity to each other, maintaining a steady signal should be much easier.

Finally, and potentially the biggest bonus of all, there are relatively few non-networking devices currently using the 5GHz space.

Where users of 2.4GHz must contend with all manner of domestic interlopers, from microwaves to cordless phones, 5GHz networks are comparatively clutter-free.



Physical barriers

It isn’t all rosy in the 5GHz garden, though. Since the signal is of a higher frequency than 2.4GHz, it deals less well with walls, windows and floors, and this hits its ability to transmit and receive speedily at long range.

In Rustyice tests, we’ve routinely seen routers perform well over 2.4GHz, flawlessly transferring files wirelessly at a distance of about 40m, with two walls in the way.

When tested in the same location over 5GHz, most suffer a significant drop in transfer speed and weaker signal reception. Some fail to maintain a solid connection entirely. That means the more objects blocking your signal path, the worse the reception in the 5GHz band gets. It isn’t only building materials that get in the way – everything from humans to heavy rain can attenuate a wireless signal.

Choosing a 5GHz router

Restricted range isn’t the only problem afflicting 5GHz routers. Many devices, such as smartphones, internet radios and games consoles, don’t send or receive signals in that band.

It’s really only laptops and PCs with premium wireless cards that will take advantage of the 5GHz band.

That’s why high-end routers typically offer the choice of 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, but you should take care when choosing a dual-band router.

Some routers can transmit on both bands simultaneously, while others require you to manually flick between the two. Needless to say, the former is the better choice.