I have a wireless network at home using an Airport Extreme wireless router; the router was purchased in 2002. I have had perennial problems in maintaining a connection to this network. Things have been especially bad in my current residence, largely I suspect due to the 20+ other wireless signals that my computer can see.
Thanks to advice here and elsewhere I’ve given the router the freedom to pick a best channel for transmitting, and I do find that restarting the router can help somewhat. But afternoons and evenings tend to be pretty bad regardless – on a typical day I lose my connection every 5 minutes or so. My computer is only 6 feet or so from the router, so I don’t think distance is the issue. I use MAC address filtering on the router, so nobody is hogging my bandwidth (I hope).
Is there anything I can do to substantially improve the reliability of my connection? Could purchasing a more modern router help? Perhaps I can add an additional antenna to my computer?
Since your computer is only a few feet from the router, have you tried using a cable? At least try it temporarily. If your connection improves, you’ll know it’s a wireless problem, if not, you’ll know it’s a networking or connectivity problem.
I have a Netgear wireless router and it’s been rock solid, and I live in one of those places where there are dozens of other wireless in the vicinity, if that makes a difference (don’t know, really, not being an expert).
Question: How do I know which channels are good? I know how to change my channel, but I can’t tell which channels are congested. Is there a way I can see what channel other signals are transmitting on? Or is it just a trial-and-error situation? I’m running Windows XP and I know how to bring up the list of visible wireless signals, but I can’t tell what channel they are on.
Are there any microwave ovens around? 2.4 GHz cordless phones? Some routers have replaceable antennae, so you could put on a giant one. If you do a scan, are there networks in range on every channel? I’m running DD-WRT on my Linksys; it can also do channels 12-14 (I think), which are technically only approved for use in Japan. I have no idea if my other hardware would be able to see those channels, though.
After seeing the above question: Use software like Netstumbler to scan the networks. It’ll provide better info than the default XP chooser.
One thing to note about 802.11 channels–there are really only three usable channels (in the US), 1, 6 and 11. The frequency band is actually wide enough that any given channel will interfere with several neighbor channels–so channel 3, for example, will interfere with and be interfered by channels 1 and 6.
As mentioned above, Netstumbler will give you channels. However, constant loss a couple of feet away suggests something worse than that. I’m presuming that you’re broadcasting your SSID, if you turned off that option for some reason, turn it back on.
Also, make sure you don’t have anything else in the 2.4 Ghz range around (cordless house phones) that might be interfering.
I’m inclined to go with this answer (while incorporating the wisdom gained from the others to maximize my performance). 2002 was the dawn of the wireless age, and I’d bet that a new router would lead to a several-fold improvement in my wireless quality of life.
MAC address filtering can be defeated easily, so don’t assume that this is the case. Granted, it is not likely given the other information, but you really ought to be using encryption (WPA2 recommended).