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Remote Buddy Forum

Overview 

AuthorThread
User

02.01.2009 17:27:49
Internet Connection
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This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
Remote Buddy seems to kill my Airport Wifi Connection! Whenever it is launched, the connection speed to the internet drops to around 300-400bps instead of usual 5000kbps!

Url to a screenshot of Azureus stats graph, however all traffic is affected not just bittorrent: 
http://cleanc.co.uk/az.png

That gap in the middle corresponds to launching and then quitting remote buddy. This is observed on every single occasion remote buddy is launched, and immediately returns to normal on quit.

This happens with ajax remote disabled, virtual hotkey remote disabled and no remote connected. The remote that is normally connected is a Wii controller. When I disable bluetooth, it works again, so it seems that bluetooth is interfering with the wifi signal. The problem disappears once the wii remote is connected, and comes back if you power down the remote, so it seems it only happens when searching for the remote.

Hardware is iMac G5 2Ghz 17 inch, Leopard 10.5.6 with all updates applied. Remote buddy is latest version with updates checked for.

Any suggestions appreciated. 
Alex Speller 

These entries from the FAQ may be relevant to this topic:

Hardware - Apple® Remote
Hardware - Wii™ Remote
Hardware - iPhone™ / iPod® touch / AJAX Remote
User

03.01.2009 01:29:17
Re: Internet Connection
View

This posting is older than 6 months and can contain outdated information.
Thanks for asking.

Let me send ahead that Remote Buddy itself is *not* affecting (or even 
"killing") your internet connection. The problem at hand is *physical* 
and not a software problem or a problem specific to or solveable by 
Remote Buddy. It's important for me to stress this point.

For basic information, continue to read the short answer, for an 
answer including more detailed, technical explainations, jump right to 
the long answer.

## Short answer: 
What you observe is a physical phenomen and not a software problem or 
a problem solvable in software (even the best software can't change 
physics). Bluetooth and 802.11 WiFi connections share the exact same 
radio frequency ranges. Therefore any Bluetooth traffic can have (but 
rarely does have) an effect on the quality of your WiFi connection. 
The Wii Remote (unlike other Bluetooth remotes supported by Remote 
Buddy) *requires* to be constantly searched for, so that Bluetooth 
traffic *has* to happen regardless of whether the Wii Remote is 
connected or not (for details, see the long answer).

For possible solutions, please see the "Possible solutions" list at 
the end of this post.

## Long answer: 
What you observe is a physical phenomen and not a software problem or 
a problem solvable in software (even the best software can't change 
physics). Bluetooth and 802.11 WiFi connections share the exact same 
radio frequency ranges.

Any Bluetooth traffic can have an effect on your WiFi connection. In 
the case of the Wii Remote, Bluetooth traffic is taking place 
regardless of whether the Wii Remote is connected or not:

1) When the Wii Remote is not connected: since the Wii Remote (unlike 
for example the Sony BD Remote) can't automatically connect to the 
computer by itself, it unfortunately _has to_ be constantly searched 
(polled) for - which of course causes Bluetooth traffic. This 
necessity is a direct consequence of how the Wii Remote works. You can 
stop / pause the polling by deactivating the Bluetooth Receiver in 
Remote Buddy through its pull-down menu.

2) When the Wii Remote is connected: button presses (and a constant 
stream of IR camera data whenever the IR mouse mode is active) is sent 
by the Wii Remote over Bluetooth to the Mac.

That the simultaneous operation of Bluetooth and WiFi at the same time 
can lead to degraded performance of both connection types 
is also documented by Apple at

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicedrivers/Conceptual/Bluetooth/BT_Develop_BT_Apps/chapter_4_section_3.html

Summary:

1) Since the Wii Remote can't connect to the Mac by itself, the only 
way to support it on the Mac is to constantly poll for it. This is a 
requirement of the Wii Remote hardware, not Remote Buddy. In fact, 
Remote Buddy goes a very long way to provide the best support for all 
Bluetooth remotes it supports. In case of the Sony BD Remote, for 
example, no polling is necessary and thus also isn't taking place. 
Polling will only take place after a Wii Remote has already been 
paired *and* the Bluetooth receiver in Remote Buddy is active.

2) Since Bluetooth and WiFi use the same radio frequency ranges (2.400 
- 2.485 GHz), they can interfere on a physical level. This is a 
physical problem (or hardware problem, if you so want) of the 
standards involved, not a software-level problem. Since Bluetooth uses 
frequency hopping, that interference is usually not noticable. I 
personally have never been able to reproduce that phenomen.

## Possible solutions: 
1) Bluetooth and 802.11b/g/n all use the same 2.4 GHz frequency band. 
Unlike 802.11b/g, the new draft 802.11n standard can also use the 5 
GHz band, which is not used by Bluetooth (=> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n) 
.. By configuring your 802.11n capable WiFi base station (like f.ex. 
the current AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule) to use *only* the 5 GHz 
band, you can avoid collissions between your WiFi and Bluetooth 
traffic completely. That, however, requires that all of your WiFi 
devices support 802.11a or 802.11n connections (AFAIK the iMac G5 does 
not - adding a Mac-compatible 802.11n USB stick to it could be an 
option, though).

2) Try to make your WiFi base station to use a different channel for 
your connection. This can, but not necessarily has to help.

3) Connect to the Internet via Ethernet.

4) And for the sake of completeness: stop using the Wii Remote (and 
unpair it in Remote Buddy > Preferences > Hardware > Bluetooth 
Receiver, so it's no longer being searched for).

Best regards, 
Felix Schwarz