Synthesis Studios

Many people don’t realize just how important the channel on which they run their wireless network is. Changing the channel can make all the difference for spotty performance; you might be trying to talk over someone. Imagine trying to have a conversation in a crowded room — when the person you are talking to misses a word, you have to repeat yourself. Your computer can have the same problem. I noticed this sitting even at my desk in Porter Square. Eight of the fifteen networks I can see are on channel 6! Every time one of these tries to communicate, it’s going to block the others.

Imagine trying to have a conversation in a crowded room — when the person you are talking to misses a word, you have to repeat yourself. Your computer can have the same problem.

So how do you pick the best channel? Most consumer grade routes, your DLinks and Linksi (is that plural?) will pick channel 6 right out of the box. Channel 6 is right in the center of the bandwidth available for 802.11g, so most WiFi antennae are tuned for it. If you don’t feel like scanning the area to see what’s around you can pick something slightly off of 6. Moving just one number is not always enough to help, as the way the protocol is structured channels within 10 MHz of each other may overlap. This means you’re best off going with something less than 4 or greater than 8.

You might be wondering why this matters. This November (hopefully) the IEEE 802.11n standard will be finalized and we should start to see a lot more devices using it. The added bandwidth and range will be nice, but it is going to amplify this problem. Not only can this reach further, but it has the capability to use two different channels for more bandwidth. Luckily for those of us who want to skirt this problem, all 802.11n transmissions have to be wrapped in an 802.11b header. Because of this we’ll still be able to see and avoid them with our current cards.

If you’re having trouble with your wireless network, it might be worth your time to check out iStumbler, a great tool for seeing what radios are around you. And if you like colorful graphs as much as I do, you’ll be happy to see they have a dashboard plugin to show you what’s in the air.

We’re really happy to announce that David Mellis is heading over to Denmark to join the faculty of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. He will be sorely missed around the office, but for all the reasons to move on, we can’t think of a better one — we’re thoroughly elated for him.

For sometime now, I’ve come to know and rely on the occupant of the first desk’s thoughts and guidance. Since David has joined our team, he has really helped me and Synthesis solidify our relationship with interaction and UX design for both projects we take on for clients, and for those that are our own. I will gladly credit portions of Synthesis’s design strategies for managing innovation, technology, and UX design to David’s presence in the studios.

David embodies the natural curiosity that every practitioner at Synthesis has.

He constantly asks, in his quiet way, what everybody is up to, loves to hear about all the projects (especially the ones he isn’t directly involved in) and isn’t afraid to throw his thoughts into the fray to either add to the conversation, or mix it up when he feels it could go a different way. We’ve learned a lot from him on how to step back and look at the larger picture of a project — not just on how to get a better picture of what we’re building, but also to get a better picture as to how we’re building it: Are we asking the right questions? What’s our role and relationship with the people who are going to be using the project? How do we make sure we’re “right” and not just from a technical perspective, but whether this project is going to resonate in people’s heads? David has been known to ask and challenge us all with the hard questions, but then stick around to help answer them too.

Synthesis is a close-knit family. When one of us leaves, it, or moves on, we all take a second to step back. David: Godspeed, and good luck. We’ll miss you, and come back and visit when you’re in town.