A household appliance, such as a microwave oven or cordless phone, reduces interference with a wireless network by requesting control of the network's channel during a period of time when the appliance will be emitting signals that may interfere with network communications on that channel. Some embodiments contend for the channel before transmitting the request by using standard protocols, while other embodiments simply transmit the request during a detected idle period. Some embodiments don't bother sending a request if no activity is detected on the channel.