Wireless, NetStumbler, and the new handyman

Recently, our home network (Wireless Local Area Network, WLAN) started working really bad. Disconnects every few minutes, sometimes even every few seconds. After a lot of investigation (both real and virtual), Ana stumbled on http://www.easypeasy.com/guides/article.php?article=146 . It turns out that by using NetStumbler [ http://www.stumbler.net/ ] you can see who's connected to which 802.11x channel. Long story short: several of our neighbors were connected to the same WLAN channel (by several I mean more than 5), polluting the signal and causing our network to fail. Turns out we were cursing our neighbors for good reason (we were the first to have WiFi in this area). Ok, now for the take-home message: in the new world of hi-tech, WiFis, and neighbors as tech-dummy as yourself, the handyman (handywoman) needs to be equiped with google and serious WiFi abilities. Moreover, I argue that changing lightbulbs has become obsolete (our bulbs will still work in another 10 years, says their package).