Can MBL impact WiFi signal?

Ever since connecting MBL onto a UK ISP issue BT HomeHub, the signal strength on my son’s PC upstairs connected through a Belkin n300 micro dongle has dropped down to 3 bars or less. He’s… not too happy =)

Can someone recommend some basic troubleshooting steps - I’m not the world’s expert on home networks so maybe I’m being a muppet here - could it be that the MBL connected by ethernet doing smartware backuping is just sucking up so much bandwidth that it causes wireless devices at the edge to suffer?

Many thanks for your time

Not possible.   It can affect the THROUGHPUT, but it’s impossible for the MBL to affect signal strength.

This is a real long shot, but if the MBL was put on the shelf next to the router, could it possibly affect the signal strength in a narrow direction just by physically blocking the signal? If that happened it would be coincidence that it was the MBL; it could also happen if you put a book next to the router.

I doubt that’s the case though; I thought that modern wireless routers use multiple antennas to bounce the signal all over the place, avoiding dead spots.

Hmmmm…

Thank you both! The MBL is literally only 5 cm away from the hub (next to each other on the edge of a shelf) so maybe it’s physical interference. Or even just the tin (I gather metal interferes?). I guess I’ll spend a little time tinkering tonight, setting WiFi to a different channel seeing if it’s the neighbours, moving the MBL onto the floor & seeing what happens. 

Odd thing is though that as soon as I plugged this thing into the hub, the signal in my son’s room dropped by 2 bars, whilst throughput is slower too. Throughput I understand, the signal bit is a mystery =).

rocketscientist wrote:

This is a real long shot, but if the MBL was put on the shelf next to the router, could it possibly affect the signal strength in a narrow direction just by physically blocking the signal?

Absolutely.  

Lots of electronics are build with RF “Cages” or “shields” around certain components or even the entire chassis to prevent them from radiating RF “noise” and potentially failing FCC (or other international authority) certifications.

While the shields are designed to prevent RF emission from its own hardware, it can certainly directionally block it from a source in close proximity.