WLAN Channels

Most like me leave the wifi channel at auto. From what I am reading we can get better performance by selecting a channel. The following page has some info on channels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels The thing that confuses me is it best to pick from 1, 6, or 11 OR 1, 5, 9 or 13? I mean who uses wireless B anymore? The following link has a post half way down the page that explains it. http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showthread.php?t=7415. We don't realty know if our neighbors are using B. If they are then only 1, 6, 11 are safe. If we all stopped supporting B then 1, 5, 9 or 13 would be best.

There are a few ways we can detect what channels are being used (ours and our neighbors). From cmd prompt on windows 7 we can see channels using the following command

netsh wlan show all

The WLAN Autoconfig service needs to be running to make this work and we need to have a wireless card. So run it from a laptop with wireless. On my Dell Laptop the Dell Wireless LAN Card Utility has a Site Monitor Tab that Lists Channels and Signals. Yet another option is to download inSSIDer. The funny thing to me is none of the tools seem to agree on what is the next strongest wifi signal strength. From my readings I and all my neighbors seem to like 1 most. 11 Next. No one is using 6. The thing is the most important factor is not signal strength it is use. If someone is streaming video on channel 1 we want to switch to channel 6 or 11. The problem is we can't detect use directly. We can only detect signal strength. Still with this information if we find no one on channel 6 then we should use it.

I have tested more and noticed that neither of my WAP routers stick to a set channel on auto, so all of this information on the internet must assume really old equipment. My RT-N66U moved it self to channel 6. My RT-N15 has also adjusted itself on the fly to an area with less channel activity. They both must have the same capability inssider has to detect what channels are in use.