Multiple computers in same room and mouse conflicts?

Question

Multiple computers in same room and mouse conflicts?

I recently began teaching in a middle school with 60 iMacs in one room. We have a constant problem with mouse connections where one computer's mouse starts controlling another computer. We go in and unmatch them but it is a constantly recurring issue.

I know it was said here that once a mouse is matched to a computer that it cannot match with another but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

I am suspicious that perhaps this is an issue of different mice being on the same frequency (or whatever bluetooth uses) and problems crop up when computers are started before others.

All computers and mice are numbered so there isn't an issue of confusion there.

I am wondering if there is a systematic way to go through all the computers and rematch them with the mice and ensure that they are all on completely different frequencies. Is there a limit to the number of mice that can be in one room?

Thanks!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Nov 21, 2012 7:20 PM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

428,171 points

Nov 21, 2012 7:27 PM in response to Bruce Bridges

I don't know much about this topic in your context but I know i called my ISP once and pointed out there were a lot of unidentified signals being picked up my my high gain antenna. They said they were probably peripherals. That said, if they share the same characteristics as general wi-fi devices, there are in reality only 3 unique channels for wireless devices, 1, 6, and 11, since channels overlap to some extent. A device set to channel 3 overlaps with 1 and 5, etc.

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Answer 2

Nov 21, 2012 8:55 PM in response to Limnos

Yeah, I was wondering if there is a limit to the channels that can be used.

One solution I was considering was to have the students start their computers in the same order each day. The conflicts seem to come up because a computer starts up, finds a mouse it is matched to and connects, thus blocking the mouse it should be connecting with.

Another thought by a colleague is that this is all about weak batteries meaning a weak signal allows the computer to skip over its proper match. But it seems like the system should be more sophisticated than that.

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