Q: I heard that microwaves interfere with Wi-Fi. What's the real story?
A: Microwaves do cause interference with Wi-Fi systems deployed in the 2.4GHz band. They don't cause interference with Wi-Fi systems deployed in the 5GHz band.
Wi-Fi is designed to work in an environment where other equipment is operating in the same frequency band. Therefore, Wi-Fi can operate in the presence of interference caused by microwave ovens and other devices, such as cordless phones.
Deploy APs at least 10 feet away from microwaves
If you're deploying Wi-Fi in an environment that has microwave ovens such as a cafeteria, you should deploy your Access Points (APs) at least 10 feet away from them.
For Wi-Fi deployments where there is a lot of interference from other sources, you should set the option on your AP to fragment the packets. This will minimize the number of packet retransmissions.
