Metal water tank causing wifi problems?

[bononos]

Would big metal rainwater tanks say 2-3kL or something similar cause wifi issues? A big rainwater tank is just outside the house from the room where the phone and dsl modem/router is located.

I was thinking at first that internet/phone provider was dropping the connection until I realised that the big rainwater barrel outside was steel. My laptop could not get a good connection outside when I got somewhat near the barrel.

 

[gsaldivar]

Likely, yes.

 

[cmetz]

Would big metal rainwater tanks say 2-3kL or something similar cause wifi issues?

Yes, it's nearly the ideal device to absorb wifi signals.

The 2.45GHz ISM band was originally set aside because it's a frequency that's perfect for absorption by water to cause it to re-emit as heat (915MHz and 5.8GHz have similar properties, and are similarly set aside as unlicensed bands. Microwave ovens generally operate on 2.45GHz). Basically, these bands interact with water in such a way that water - or anything with water in it, like trees and clouds and people - absorb a significant amount of the signal, and so these were considered to be "junk" bands for reliable communications, so they were set aside for unlicensed random device uses.

One of those unlicensed random device uses just happens to have gotten very popular - 802.11.

If, for some reason, the water doesn't kill your signal, the big metal thing that's probably grounded will also do a great job of absorbing it.

So it's entirely expected that the water tank kills your signal. The est solution I can think of is to have a wired connection to another AP on the far side of it.

 

[bononos]

You're right, the network is g class (2.4ghz) as well. The wifi works but it cuts off at seemingly random times. Oh well I'm on wired LAN now.

 

[ericloewe]

Wow, a metal tank filled with water. Sounds perfect for ruining Wi-Fi. cmetz has made the point quite nicely...