A good Mechanical Keyboard is something that almost every developer aspires for and I am no different. So, I was on the lookout for a good mechanical keyboard for quite some time now.
And while there are a few really good mechanical keyboards available in India, what I was looking for was a wireless mechanical keyboard. This made matters a little tricky, as the only one I was able to find here was the Keychron K6. However, since I am not really a fan of small (I think they are called 70%) keyboards, this did not work for me. I was looking for a full-size wireless keyboard for developers.
And last week, I finally chanced upon the GameSir GK300. It was almost everything that I was looking for, so I ordered it almost as soon as I was done doing some basic research on the keyboard.
Keyboard Interfering with BSNL Fiber Wifi Router
The keyboard was everything that I had expected it to be. In short, it’s very sturdy and totally worth the price. The keyboard has 2 connecting interfaces, Wifi (2.4Ghz) and Bluetooth. I first tried connecting it to my phone over Bluetooth and it worked fine. Then I connected it to my Windows 10 PC over Wifi via the dongle that comes with the keyboard. It immediately connected here as well.
However, I noticed that whenever I started typing faster, the keyboard seemed to malfunction, and keystrokes were missed. Sometimes, multiple keypresses were registered even though I had pressed a key only once. Sometimes, key combinations like (Ctrl + C) did not work. I thought I had received a defective piece however, I soon realized the keyboard is fine and it’s the Wifi signal from my router that was causing the problem.
How to solve wireless mechanical keyboard interfering with Wifi?
Since both the keyboard and the Wifi Router worked at the 2.4Ghz frequency, they were interfering with each other. The obvious solution here was to change the frequency of one of the devices. However, neither the BSNL Fiber router that I use nor my new wireless keyboard supported switching frequencies.
After some playing around, I thought that even though the frequency can’t be changed on any of the devices, the frequency itself is pretty wide so, I can at least try changing the channels (2.4 Ghz. frequency is divided between channels in order to avoid such situations where multiple devices on the same frequency might clash with each other).
I logged in to my wireless router via the router access page and changed the channel number there to 13. I then saved and logged out. This small trick did the job and there was no more interference between my wireless keyboard and my home wifi.
Channel Number | Range (MHz) | Frequency (MHz) |
1 | 2401 – 2423 | 2412 |
2 | 2406 – 2428 | 2417 |
3 | 2411 – 2433 | 2422 |
4 | 2416 – 2438 | 2427 |
5 | 2421 – 2443 | 2432 |
6 | 2426 – 2448 | 2437 |
7 | 2431 – 2453 | 2442 |
8 | 2436 – 2458 | 2447 |
9 | 2441 – 2463 | 2452 |
10 | 2446 – 2468 | 2457 |
11 | 2451 – 2473 | 2462 |
12 | 2456 – 2478 | 2467 |
13 | 2461 – 2483 | 2472 |
14 | 2473 – 2484 | 2482 |
Alternative Option to solving the Wifi interference issue
If my above approach would have not worked, I would have tried changing the channel width (refer to image above) and then switching channel numbers to see what works. Since the first approach itself fixed my issue, I did not actually go ahead and try out the second option.
If any of you guys are facing the same issue of wifi signal interference with your mechanical keyboard and would like to try the second option, do let me know how it goes and I will update your results in the post here, with your reference.
For now, all works well.