Field Electronics Setup Guide FTC_FIELD
Rev 10 1/23/2013 11 ©2012 FIRST Tech Challenge
USING A “WIFI SNIFFER” TO DETERMINE A QUIET CHANNEL.
The Linksys wireless routers are set up into 11 channels. A good analogy is 11 rooms with fairly thin walls all lined
up in a row. When the router communicates on any given channel, it’s like a few people having a meeting, and
that meeting can be heard about 2 rooms in either direction. More routers using the same channel adds people to
the party and therefore the noise that can be heard nearby. Using a WiFi sniffer can help you find the ‘quietest’
rooms (channels). NOTE: FTC_FIELD and FTC_PIT must be on different channels.
“inSSIDer” is a free program for windows machines that can detect the noise levels across the channels. It is a
free, downloadable program that installed on a windows machine with an active wireless card. No other
hardware is required to use this program. To download, go to: http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider
Clicking the download button will download the
installer. After running the installer, go to the start
menu->Programs->MetaGeek->inSSIDer 2.0.
Open the program. This screen will appear:
Hit F10, and the view will change to mini mode.
Click on the “2.4 GHz Channels” tab, and then “start” in the top right corner.
After a few seconds, data will start to populate the graph. Below are examples of a fairly noisy and fairly quiet
area. Note the noisiest channels fall on 1, 6 and 11. A good choice for your channel would be 5 or 8.
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