Computer messing up phone reception?

I've developed a wild theory based upon a few facts.

For the longest my wife & I have had problems talking on our cell phones or our wireless home phone from our desks. Since we are in a rural area and the cell signal isn't the strongest we've just put it down to dead spots in the house.

But now we've found those same dead spots follow our computers around.

We've switched desk to places that were our strong reception areas and now those are the weak spots and our old desk spots are strong reception.

We'd had a little cutting in & out of our wireless home phones (VOIP) and so we began to notice that only happens near our computers as well.

Could the wireless internet from the computers be messing up our phones?

Yes, they use some of the same frequencies (2.4Ghz and 5Ghz).

Well I'll be danged, I didn't know that. Explains (possibly) some of the things we've experienced as well.

Sorry just double checked, they are actually not on the same frequencies (GSM < 1.9Ghz) but it's still possible to get interference anyway due to the way the cell phone transceiver works, it can pick up noise from frequencies it doesn't actually use and be affected by 2.4Ghz signals.

sometimes you can get interference if the frequencies are multiples of eachother

Whatever it is, we're getting it.

It would seem that if we were near the main wireless router it would be even worse, but it's not. It's only near the computer end.

If you must know, the computers are running a secret program that diverts part of the signal to the NSA for surveillance purposes, leaving you with a weak signal and your privacy invaded.

If only it were that much less bad and easy to defeat...

It's pretty unlikely that your laptops generating radio frequency interference (RFI) that's whacking down the cell phones. The FAA has pretty strict regulations about RFI specifications on computers, so unless you've taken the case off and removed the metal shielding, it won't do that. (If you have taken the case off, then yes, it's likely).

Wifi runs on "part 15", unlicensed spectrum, and one of the big requirements for unlicensed gear is that it not interfere with licensed users of the radio spectrum. License holders pay the government money to get that license, so they get priority over unlicensed users. Wifi frequencies are totally different from cellular frequencies.

1988RedT2 wrote: If you must know, the computers are running a secret program that diverts part of the signal to the NSA for surveillance purposes, leaving you with a weak signal and your privacy invaded.

the NSA is tapped right into the computers that the cell companies use, so they don't need to tap into yours...

a few years ago, i started to notice that i would hear some weird noises over my computer speakers from time to time- every few minutes there would be a pattern of static sounding noises... couldn't figure out what it was... then i noticed that the noise would increase when i got a call or text on my phone. turns out that my cell phone operates on a frequency that either my computer or my speakers pick up on.. once i figured that out, i realized that i could actually answer my cell phone before it actually rings or even vibrates if i was quick enough...

The land line with wireless handset is most certainly in conflict with the wireless access point. The vast majority of wireless handsets these days operate at 2.4GHz. Your microwave runs pretty close to this, too. Two signals in conflict - only one will win. I specifically went out and purchased a 5.8GHz wireless handset to resolve this.

The cellphone probably doesn't care much about these signals - there are a lot of other factors that come into play for that transmission link.

In reply to novaderrik:

Mine does that too, everyone I tell about it thinks I am crazy! Glad I am not alone

I have noticed more interference with audio ( car and house speakers and baby monitor) depending on what is plugged in to the same outlet.

So for example if I try to charge the laptop in the same wall outlet as the baby radio, the baby radio goes nuts with static. Unplug the charger for either one and the noise is gone. Then if one is plugged in in the other room ( on a different circuit) and an extension cord is used everything is normal.

11110000 wrote: The land line with wireless handset is most certainly in conflict with the wireless access point. The vast majority of wireless handsets these days operate at 2.4GHz. Your microwave runs pretty close to this, too. Two signals in conflict - only one will win. I specifically went out and purchased a 5.8GHz wireless handset to resolve this.

Yep, had to get new cordless phones when we finally set up a wireless net work last year.

Also any device that outputs a radio signal will have what are called harmonics that are 2x, 3x, 4x, etc of the frequency it is using. Being a amateur radio operator I have had lots of experience with harmonics causing problems.

I also had a problem where my neighbor was hearing my radio on his stereo system. Changing the length of the wires from the stereo to his speakers fixed the problem. The speaker wire were just the right length to act as an antenna on the frequency I used the most.

In reply to carguy123:

Who is your service provider?

Bumboclot wrote: In reply to carguy123: Who is your service provider?

ATT & Voice Pulse on a broadcast internet service.

novaderrik wrote: a few years ago, i started to notice that i would hear some weird noises over my computer speakers from time to time- every few minutes there would be a pattern of static sounding noises...

Yeah, that's what happens with a time division multiple access (TDMA) radio, like those used on the 2G GSM radios that AT&T and T-Mobile used in the late 90s/early 2000s. It's not actually the signal you're hearing, it's the transmitter in the phone being turned on and off really quickly to use the time slice that it's been allocated by the base station.

The CDMA systems never had this problem, and the 3G/4G GSM systems have gone to a similar encoding system that also doesn't do it.