I’ve got a Ti Powerbook (667Mhz G4) running OSX10.3. It’s got an Airport card, and I use an Airport Extreme base station (no external antenna option) for my wifi network. I live in a townhouse with identical townhouses immediately on either side (eight units total, in a row, in one big building).
The Ti PB never had nearly the reception that my wife’s iBook has, even though she’s got the same Airport card. Why? Because the goddamn titanium body shields the antenna, that’s why. Apple fixed this incredible oversight with the Al books, but fat lot of good that does me. Anyway, suffice to say the Ti book always had a relatively short range from the base station, and the all-plastic iBook kicks its ass at wifi.
But now it’s gotten worse. One of my neighbor has just installed his own wifi network (from what I can see on the pull-down menu on my machine, it’s a Belkin unit, though I don’t know the model number), and the problems started as soon as he turned it on. Whenever I get too close to his signal, my Ti book freaks out, and I lose my connection. This seems to happen in utterly random places in my home, and only trial and error (unless I’m in the same room as my base station) can tell me where it’s “safe” to sit.
I’ve tried messing with various settings (changing the channel, making minor “optimizing” tweaks in signal strength) to no avail.
Short of placing metal on all of my walls to screen out my neighbor’s signal, or breaking into his place and destroying his wireless router (I’ve been tempted), is there anything I can do to mitigate the effects of this interferance, or get rid of it entirely?