Christmas lights degrade WiFi signals

If you’ve been experiencing poor wireless connectivity over the Christmas period it could be those Christmas decorations that are causing you sleepless nights according to a report from AirMagnet.

While the study was mainly focussed on business environments it is also applicable to homes that have been decorated for Christmas. In fact, if the rport is true I would argue that a home may suffer more signal degradation simply because of the sheer volume of lights inside and outside. Let’s face it, we tend to decorate just about every room we can!

The AirMagnet study showed that signal strength decreased by 25% when Christmas decorations were introduced into a space. Signals decreased by 1/3 more as you move away from the wireless router. However, degradation of the signal was not constant, in areas with more decorations the signal strength dropped a further 10%.

So while your office or home may look a sparse after you take down your Christmas decorations, at least you can look forward to a stronger wireless signal and typically higher QoS if you use a WiFi phone such as the Netgear SPH101 or Linksys WIP320.