Airport Extreme - Weak Signal

[Moosey10]

Good morning -

I have an iMac G4 800 and a PowerBook G4 133, networked with Airport Extreme. I connect to the internet via DSL with a Siemens Speedstream 4100. My ISP claims download speeds up to 6Mbps although it's usually closer to 4 or 5 (I don't know if this info is relevant but thought I'd include it).

The Airport signal at the PowerBook, only 50 feet away and inside the house, is very weak - no more than 1 or 2 bars. This is a relatively recent development - perhaps the past two or three months at the outside.

I have a closed network, so I don't think there's any additional drain on the signal. I thought the microwave might cause interference, but I unplugged it and still had the weak signal. I moved the Airport to provide a more direct line to the PowerBook, and rebooted both the modem and the Airport - all with no change in the signal power.

A friend was visiting with his PowerBook and noticed the same problem, so it's not just me.

What am I doing wrong? Actually, more to the point, What can I do right?

Thanks!
Adriana

 

[Ric]

Hi there,

first thing to check...see if there are any new networks nearby that are on the same channel as you. They maybe interfering with your signal.

You can use MacStumbler to do this.

regards

Ric

 

[Moosey10]

Hi, Ric, and thanks
I downloaded and ran MacStumbler and did find that several other nearby networks were on the same channel as I was (Channel 6). I changed to Channel 1 because I don't know what difference it makes, but I'm still at one bar on my PowerBook.
It may be possible that a closed network (not detectable by MacStumbler) is on that channel - is that right? I'll continue to cycle through other channels to see if it helps, but is there something else I can check?
Gracias
-Adriana

 

[Moosey10]

OK, here's an update:
I've tried all channels 1-11, and no difference. The strongest signal I get on the scale that MacStumbler uses is 29, which qualifies as "low". Incidentally, all the networks identified by M'St. are in the low range.
I increased the Transmitter Power to 100% and changed the Multicast Rate to 11, since I don't need the range to be especially broad, but again I'm still mighty low.

BTW, what is the "Mode"? It's set to 802.11 b/g compatible. Would that setting have an impact on my situation? Since I don't know what it is, I don't much want to play with it just yet...

That's all for now. Happy Sunday.
-Adriana

 

[Kyomii]

Hi Moosey,

The 802.11b/g setting just relates to speed in that, the older 802.11b wireless was capable of up to 11 Mbps transfer rate, and 802.11g a faster rate of 54 Mbps.

Your powerbook should be 802.11g, but not sure about your older machine. If you were to set it to 11g only, that means that it will only accept wireless devices capable of the 11g speed.

If your older system is only 11b, it could be that one that is slowing the network down, because on wireless networks, if you are running both systems at once, the slower machine will always slow down the network. However, this should not have much bearing on the signal, although you never know with computers!

Turn off completely your older system, then try setting it to 11g only via powerbook, save and reboot your router/wireless access point, (a save is essential otherwise it makes no difference), reboot and then power up the powerbook and see what signal/speed you get.

Also, it depends on the speed of your broadband as 54 Mbps is only useful for faster file transfer via LAN (non-internet) at the moment.

 

[Moosey10]

Thank you, Kyomii. I've made the changes and there appears to be a bit of improvement. I'd like to clarify a couple of things about this whole question:

1. The iMac (the older system) doesn't have an Airport Extreme card (Apple no longer makes them for this model) so it's cabled to the Airport base station. It seems to me that, since it's not using the Airport signal, it will not have an impact on the signal at the Powerbook. Is that correct? No?

2. Do I understand correctly that, when my internet connection speed is slower, then the signal at the PowerBook will also weaken correspondingly? I'm a little hazy on this, since I would have thought that the Airport signal would be dependent on the base station, rather than the internet connection, but as you can see, I'm pretty confused.

I don't think I've asked these questions very clearly, but I thank you for your previous help and for any additional light you can throw on this conundrum.

All the best
-adriana

 

[Daydreamer]

1. The cabled computer shouldn't have any impact on the wireless connection.

2. I believe she was referring to that your wireless connection is much faster than your internet connection, and therefore you cannot use the speed to/from the internet as a measure of how fast the wireless network connection is, you need to do that measurement by for example copying a large file (or many smaller) between the computers in your local network.

How far is it between the powerbook and the airport base station? Right now I don't remember the limits on how far the wireless signal travels before degrading too much to be usable, but if they're very far apart this could be the problem. Try moving the powerbook so it's just a few metres away from the base station to see if the signal gets stronger, then move away until it gets weak again.

Looking up info about the networks (on wikipedia, loads of technical info if you're into it), I found this:
The maximum range of 802.11g devices is slightly greater than that of 802.11b devices, but the range in which a client can achieve the full 54 Mbit/s data rate is much shorter than that of 802.11b.
And also that the range supposedly should be up to about 30 metres (98 feet), so the 50 feet distance you have should be good, still, I'd try checking if it makes any difference when you move the airport and powerbook closer to each other. Also measure the speed you get on file transfers between your computers.

 

[Moosey10]

I did change the mode, and it didn't seem to make any difference, but now, a day or so later, I find that the signal appears much stronger. I don't know if the mode change made the difference or if it was something in the neighborhood, but now I seem to be moving along pretty well, so I'm not going to question it too deeply.
Thanks to everyone who posted an answer to my questions!