Is it dangerous to sit near a Wifi Router and/or Wifi Extender

SFTPhotography

SFTPhotography

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Got a new Wifi router but needs an extender to really make it sing. It's one of these 2.4gz / 5gz ones.

The extender is only 4 feet away from me at the moment. Insanely good and reliable wifi but is that actually a good thing in terms of radiation etc?
 
No idea of the longer term implications but have these actually been around long enough to know this with any amount of certainty?
 
Are you worried about carrying your mobile in your pocket? I wouldn't worry about it, there is no avoiding it even if you don't use any devices with radios.
 
Its bad from what i understand.

So is living by the coast where the Gov have put all the RAF Radars.

I worked on one of those places for 10 years and people were getting Cancer left right and center including several of my friends.
 
SFTPhotography said:
Thing is I am right next to it for quite long periods....that's my concern.
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Your right next to your mobile all the time though aren't you.
If you install an app on your phone it will show you all the WiFi signals and their strength, I have about 10 different ones from all the neighbours.
 
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We live in an ocean of radio waves. I doubt that sitting next to a Wifi router will harm you any more than sitting next to your WiFi equipped computer.
 
SFTPhotography said:
That would be logical but then I'd lose a bit of signal strength which will kill 4k streaming and the fact I need high strengh/high speed for my work
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Cable it?

I use a mesh system to spread the signal round the house and then cable from the mesh box to my PC. In room cabling is pretty neat and tidy it's going room to room that gets messy.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Cable it?

I use a mesh system to spread the signal round the house and then cable from the mesh box to my PC. In room cabling is pretty neat and tidy it's going room to room that gets messy.
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I could put the mesh extender behind the wall in the adjacent room to the PC - run a network cable to the PC and use the works laptop which only has a wifi card. Firestick would still pick up the 5ghz band probably and certainly the 2.4ghz band

How close are you sat/situated for any extended period from your extenders?
 
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SFTPhotography said:
That would be logical but then I'd lose a bit of signal strength which will kill 4k streaming and the fact I need high strengh/high speed for my work
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If you’re worried move it. I can stream 4K from an extender in the hall & don’t have any problems with work. If you have speed issues with it in the next room have a look at other reasons why
 
SFTPhotography said:
How close are you sat/situated for any extended period from your extenders?
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About 2 metres.

I can understand not wanting to spend money on a work machine but if your Infosec allow it, you might like to try one of the hubs that adds ethernet and more monitor ports to your laptop. In fact if you have a genuine health concern that means you don't want to use WiFi you could discuss it with your firm's H&S team. Since it's cheap and easy for them to fix I can't see why they wouldn't add an external ethernet for you - then you could use a HomePlug.
 
JonathanRyan said:
About 2 metres.

I can understand not wanting to spend money on a work machine but if your Infosec allow it, you might like to try one of the hubs that adds ethernet and more monitor ports to your laptop. In fact if you have a genuine health concern that means you don't want to use WiFi you could discuss it with your firm's H&S team. Since it's cheap and easy for them to fix I can't see why they wouldn't add an external ethernet for you - then you could use a HomePlug.
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I feel fine - and I am maybe 1.5m away from it. In fact, in the other room due to where the plug is it would be closer to me. I might buy one of these shield things that go over it when I am working - it'll still get wifi - just not as long range for when I work, then remove when watching the TV where I am sat a good 5m away from it.

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No danger to talk about.
It's just as dangerous to walk outdoors and be bombarded by the background cosmic radiation - it's the same frequencies. and less strength.
The non-ionising wavelengths that are longer than light tend not to be dangerous.
Your microwave that's in the same band is around 100000 times the strength.
 
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It has been estimated that you get a bigger dose of microwaves from one 20-minute phone call than from a year's Wi-Fi. (at a normal distance - about 4 -5 feet)
Inverse square law applies.
 
robj20 said:
Are you worried about carrying your mobile in your pocket?
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kendo1 said:
Inverse square law applies.
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Ultimately it all comes down to this for any type of electromagnetic radiation. Essentially the main way to protect yourself is to put as much distance in between yourself and the source.

In most cases you would be mostly concerned with the end user devices in or near your pocket... Phone in the pocket is not such a great idea. Phone in the camera bag or on the table is much better idea. Likewise it is probably not great idea to hold it right next to your ear for prolonged periods every day. Obviously don't put the router under your bed and don't climb cell towers, etc...

In terms of wifi, the main exposure will come from the laptop or desktop you are using. Putting it on our lap would be not a great idea... All else is similar to using phone. Or you can plug the eth cable and have slightly faster speeds, but that is not always practical.

Finally, and this could be a big one, the signal power from your device will largely depend on the quality of connection. I.e. the worse it is the harder it tries to communicate, so I would much rather have full bars on either phone or PC. You can tell it in practice when in the middle of nowhere your phone battery goes down in a couple of hours vs a couple of days...

I'd watch what you eat and drink in the first instance.
 
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Bobsyeruncle said:
Get one of these.... :LOL:

Amazon.com: Archie McPhee Tin Foil Hat For Humans: Accoutrements: Toys & Games

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Wake up sheeple! Everyone knows commercial tinfoil hats have been deliberately compromised with tiny holes that allow the rays to penetrate. You need to craft your own using a survival knife and a roll of high quality Bacofoil. And if you have to ask whether the shiny side should face in or out, you are probably already under Their control.
 
I have been involved with radio for a long time and can remember a CB radio band at 934mhz ( a lot lower than 2.4ghz) handheld radios ( walkie talkies) were banned at this frequency because of dangers of it radiating near to your head ( exactly what mobile phones do !) If you can connect via a wire link I would do that ,I've never been to happy being close to transmitting antennas.
 
BADGER.BRAD said:
adiating near to your head
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Another worthy mention is the bloodytooth headsets. You can feel they all heat up your ear for one reason or another and that is simply not a great feeling. I just put the phone on speakerphone if I need to talk for more than a couple of minutes. Other benefits include ability to work with other things with both hands, and so on.
 
SFTPhotography said:
It's on - but not always transmitting data
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It's not receiving if its not transmitting, the only way the cell tower or WiFi knows its there is and ready to receive if it transmits, however the transmission will just be shorter bursts.

If you are really bothered about it get "home plugs" rather than the wireless extender but any risk is tiny, the inverse square law applies and its probably in the low 100's of mW if you are literally sat on top of it.
 
It depends on the output power of the devices and frequency. I just ran an EMF calculation at 2.3GHz and 2w (I imagine all these things in the home are putting out milliwatts), and the OfCom near field separation recommendation is 0.2m but that is a minimum distance, the actual near field is less than 0.1m, so there is no calculable risk. (Don't hold me to it, the calculator I used is experimental based on current work by OfCom and some uni researchers).
 
All electrical devices emit some kind of electromagnetic field they don't need to be transmitting even lamps and certainly TVs do it.
A router is running on very low power indeed so minimal risk of anything.
BTW mobile phones are constantly 'chatting' online to maintain link to networks whenever they are on - it's not just while talking on it.
 
I’ve met a lot of people who talk about fluoride in toothpaste giving you cancer and then refuse to wear sun cream because of carcinogenic chemicals and them light up a smoke. Radio waves don’t cause cancer - they’re too low energy to damage cells. On the electromagnetic spectrum radio waves are the lowest energy - it then moves up to
Microwaves, infra red, then visible light (radio waves are exactly the same as the light we see just different wavelength), then up to UV (now we’re getting to the stage where the photons have enough energy to damage the cells and cause cancer), then you have x-rays, and finally gamma rays. All these things are just photons with different wavelengths. The really dangerous ones are gamma, x-rays and to a lesser extent UV. Radio waves are right at the other end, on the other side of visible light.
 
I wouldn't worry about it. They know exactly where you are when you go out anyway. ;)
 
Tom Pinchenzo said:
I’ve met a lot of people who talk about fluoride in toothpaste giving you cancer and then refuse to wear sun cream because of carcinogenic chemicals and them light up a smoke.
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To be honest you will always find such examples if you look for it. I'm not sure why somehow this must discredit the fact fluoride is toxic https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/MSDS/M...ich.com/catalog/product/sigald/201154?lang=en or that sunscreen prevents you from naturally getting Vitamin D (most are deficient) and possibly containing some unfriendly chemicals (like many other personal "hygiene" products on the supermarket shelves). Limit your initial exposure, use hat, shirt to moderate the effects of your first sun in the spring... Costs zero too.
Strangely enough there are some heavy smokers that manage to carry on this 80 or 90... I absolutely hate smoking and would not recommend it to anyone but that is maybe just an observation that sometimes even very harmful things take a mighty long time to show any real effect... Perhaps we are trying to adapt with varying degrees of success.

Tom Pinchenzo said:
On the electromagnetic spectrum radio waves are the lowest energy - it then moves up to
Microwaves, infra red, then visible light (radio waves are exactly the same as the light we see just different wavelength), then up to UV (now we’re getting to the stage where the photons have enough energy to damage the cells and cause cancer), then you have x-rays, and finally gamma rays. All these things are just photons with different wavelengths. The really dangerous ones are gamma, x-rays and to a lesser extent UV. Radio waves are right at the other end, on the other side of visible light.
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Essentially what you are saying is that only the really short waves well beyond UV-B are classed as IONISING radiation. That is correct, and this is the type that can cause immediate and severe damage and must be avoided at all costs
Certain frequencies in the longer end (non-ionising radiation) have very different properties and it just happen so that the microwave portion around 2.4GHz is very good at heating and boiling anything containing water. It energizes and vibrates water molecules, or perhaps anything with O-H bonds in it. Thus we have microwave ovens operating specifically in this way. You can carry out some incredible reactions in microwaves, like C-H to C-D exchange or at the very least speed up processes 100-1000X+ times. Ok, they run at ridiculous power, but it is not to say that even at low power there won't be any effect on your cells, and this may accumulate over long time. Of course, the mmWaves (~36Ghz, not yet available in Europe, but soon) will be a completely different story once again and is used at much higher powers to disperse crowds by superheating skin and causing burning sensations. If your assessment says it is tolerable level, then that is that and at least you made your decision yourself based on real hard facts. What is not acceptable is to be told to just listen to "science" without any, data, proof or discussion allowed. This becomes an occult at the point of such statements.
 
This is where Youtube experts are so much more knowledgable than scientists who have spent their entire careers on their disciplines.
Always believe the Youtube experts...
 
Besides, life is a 4 letter word, a sexually transmitted condition and eventually fatal to us all.
 
Nod said:
Besides, life is a 4 letter word, a sexually transmitted condition and eventually fatal to us all.
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There is also the title of a rather naff book I read in the 1970s: "Evil is Live Spelt Backwards".
 
I remember being in a hotel near Darlington in the mid 1990‘S. (irrelevant for the story, but though I’d just add detail) and they delivered a copy of the Daily Mail rather than The Times. Possibly The Times wasn’t available in the Darlington area back then?

The front page was a classic Daily Mail: Mobile Phones cause brain Cancer! Epidemic on its way.

well, here we are 25 years later, with mobiles ubiquitous, and there has been no change in the level of brain cancers.

Never went back to the hotel. Daily Mail, pah!
 
Don't forget, if you have electricity cables running to sockets near your head whilst you sleep that also let's of an EMF.
 
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