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Sudden loss of Wifi signal strength

F

Filipek

macrumors member
Original poster
I have been experiencing a sudden loss of wifi signal strength in the last days... Before this, it was perfect, as a matter of fact I am sitting now 1,5 meter (appr 4,5 feet) from the router and I have only 3 out of 4 'pieces' strength! It even gets worse when I am like 10 meters (30 feet) away, then I have only 1 or 2 pieces left.... Before this I was at full always, even at 10 metres away (with 2 doors between the router and my MBP... I don't know how this change could appear.

I have the new, low end MBP 13" (2011).
 
Does your router switch channels automatically, as this could be a cause?? Second the interference. Is someone in your area on the same channel and stepping on your signal??
 
I don't know about this interference, I have no further electrical devices (as far as I know) which could interfere with this (and especially because it's only a problem since a couple of days and I haven't changed anything)...

Apart from that I have no idea if my router switches automatically, can I change this at my router settings? (when I login into my browser with my IP code, or whatever code this is that lets me login into my router settings).
 
Believe it or not,cordless phones, BT headsets, certain mice, and neighboring Wifi towers and routers can cause interference. Yes it should be able to be changed in you router settings. Some routers are set to where when the client goes inactive or disconnects (say when you shut your computer down or it goes into sleep mode) that when the client reconnects the DHCP swaps the temporarily assigned DHCP address and changes the operating channel (it is usually to insure maximum and better performance, but if it changes to a saturated channel throughput could drop and interference occur).
 
OK, then just a stupid question, cause on my previous Windows machines, I was quite capable handling myself in dos (command prompt), with 'codes' to use like ipconfig etc. to be able to find out what adress I have to type into my browser to get into my router settings for example, but since I am new to the Apple world, I am totally not aware of how it could be done here, to find out these settings... Is there something similar to the command task which could be executed in windows? Or is there another way to find out about these adresses which I need?
 
Go to Applications>Utilities>Network Utilities This app will have lots of those commands built into it and you just need to plug in info and click on a button. It is a nice utility. Of course in the utilities folder is also terminal (which is the command line program for manipulating the back end through code line comments like command.exe, although you need to know Unix commands to navigate, DOS commands don't work.

You can also go into the System Preferences>Network and go into your Airport Settings to see things as well (such as your gateway IP, etc). I click the option to show it on the menu bar and then you can hold the Option key and click on the Airport readout and get further info such as channel, mode, xmit speed, etc (you can use the option click on lots of things to get more detailed info, such as battery, time, etc.)
 
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