Airport Extending Problems

[Heston]

For my Uncle's Home:

I have my Time Capsule hooked to our cable modem via ethernet and have one airport express downstairs set to extend the network and have one airport express on the second floor extending the same network. Problem is, when I connect to my network, it always shows that I'm connecting to the Airport express in the basement, no matter where I am and if I turn on and off the wireless connection on the laptop. What gives? I know it's connecting as it will show my IP address/MAC address connected to the one in the basement in the Airport Utility, giving me terrible connection upstairs when I should really be connected to the router on that floor.

Am I doing something wrong? Is it a faulty Time capsule? Under the newer Airport Utility, it looks like the routers are all connected in a chain sometimes, and then sometimes, if connecting to the wireless connection on the cable modem, the diagram will be correct with the Time Capsule connected to the internet and the two Airport Expresses connected in a tree beneath it.

 

[davidoloan]

At night we charge phones under the microwave. When we do this all all 3 iphones won't connect to the airport extreme about 7 feet away and instead connect to one 30 feet away.

This is the only time this happens. Move the phones 30cm out from the microwave and the phone connects to the nearer extreme. The extended network works perfectly with everything connecting to the closest airport device everywhere else.

Is there anything in the house causing interference on a larger scale than a microwave?