Noise and RSSI

[connorm]

i have been looking at the wireless logs lately to see how everything is connected as 3 people in the house just moved downstairs alot farther away from the router, why does each wireless adapter show noise of -91 or -89 and why are the 5ghz devices all negative rssi and all the 2.4 are positive, yet the 5ghz have good connection and the 2.4 sucks
SSID: "McCaffrey2.4GHz"
RSSI: 0 dBm SNR: 0 dB noise: -90 dBm Channel: 1l
BSSID: 740:2B:86:75:78 Capability: ESS ShortPre ShortSlot
Supported Rates: [ 1(b) 2(b) 5.5(b) 6 9 11(b) 12 18 24 36 48 54 ]
HT Capable:
Chanspec: 2.4GHz channel 3 40MHz (0x1803)
Primary channel: 1
HT Capabilities:
Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 32 ]

Mode : AP Only

Stations List Rx/Tx Speed RSSI State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5C:59:48:63:10:XX 192.168.1.110 Chrisitian 65/39 Mbps 14 dBm assoc auth
CC:08:E0:70:0B:XX 192.168.1.105 Connors-iPhone ??/52 Mbps 13 dBm assoc auth
E0:CA:94:6F:9D:XX 192.168.1.103 Chris-PC 54/27 Mbps 33 dBm assoc auth

SSID: "McCaffrey5GHz"
RSSI: 0 dBm SNR: 0 dB noise: -89 dBm Channel: 36/80
BSSID: 740:2B:86:75:7C Capability: ESS
Supported Rates: [ 6(b) 9 12(b) 18 24(b) 36 48 54 ]
VHT Capable:
Chanspec: 5GHz channel 42 80MHz (0xe02a)
Primary channel: 36
HT Capabilities:
Supported MCS : [ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 ]
VHT Capabilities:
Supported VHT (tx) Rates:
NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9
Supported VHT (rx) Rates:
NSS: 1 MCS: 0-9
NSS: 2 MCS: 0-9
NSS: 3 MCS: 0-9

Mode : AP Only

Stations List Rx/Tx Speed RSSI State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
90:27:E4:F8:FC:XX 192.168.1.108 Ren 108/13 Mbps -77 dBm assoc auth
00:25:AE:65:00:XX 192.168.1.102 * 150/27 Mbps -71 dBm assoc auth
58:55:CA:1E:B4:XX 192.168.1.104 Apple-TV 58/19 Mbps -77 dBm assoc auth

 

[PrivateJoker]

Different companies will use positive or negative RSSI to mean the same thing, I know, it's weird. I actually saw the 2.4ghz/5ghz flip flop though just the other day myself, I'm guessing that the same company doing it both ways is a typo. The lower (closer to 0) the RSSI the better the signal.

Noise should be weak (ideally), high #s (further away from 0) for noise are good, and give you a better signal to noise (SNR) ratio (which some devices/APs will natively report).

The 5ghz speeds are better because 5ghz 802.11n & AC have more channels available to be used and can do more sophisticated stuff to increase speed with those extra channels, then they can on 2.4ghz. 2.4ghz and 5ghz also have very different properties in terms of radio frequency behavior. All other things being equal, each band has its pros and its cons, which one works better for you depends on the devices its connecting to, the surrounding RF activity, and the physical construction of the space you are in, for starters.

Also the #s that the wifi status screen reports (connection link speed, mainly) isn't the best indicator of connection quality. It's weird, but RSSI tend to be more helpful in comparing things and the actual speed at which you can transfer files from a wireless device to a wired one on your network (not just the speed it has agreed to attempt with the router) are the best indicators of performance.

Also it looks like you have wide (40mhz) channels on for 2.4ghz, but potentially none of your devices can actually implement it. I'd turn it off, it's hard for a router to deliver 40mhz on 2.4ghz if you have much surrounding RF traffic and can actually hurt your overall performance, and other people around you.