Airport Extreme Base Station Help

[Kristofer]

Hi there. I've used an Airport Extreme base Station for about a year now. It's always worked absolutely flawlessly and beautifully. I recently moved, and now, the ONLY way to keep my PC connected is to bypass the AirPort Extreme completely, because plugging my modem into it causes me to lose almost all of my connectivity until I unplug/re-plug either the router or modem. Did my AEBS decide it was time to magically break, and mistakingly think that I was itching to buy an overpriced twin, or is there something else I can do to make this stupid thing work the way it used to?
(I've done the obvious - installed updates. I need other ideas.)
(I haven't tried a hard reset because I didn't think there was any chance a hard reset would do anything. Am I wrong?)
(Could it have something to do with interference from neighbours?)

 

[Kristofer]

Oh, and in case you didn't figure it out, this AEBS is hooked up to a windows machine. I heard something about setting the channel to six or something, but no one elaborates anymore than that.

 

[hogfaninga]

I would do a hard reset and change the channel to either 1, 6, 9, or 11. Just mess around with the channels to see one that works. I had a similar problem 2 years ago and that solved it for me.

 

[aristobrat]

Do you have other computers besides the PC using the Extreme? Is the PC the only one having a problem?

In regards to channels, WiFi in the US uses channels 1-11. Most WiFi routers, by default, use channel 6. If you have a bunch of neighbors with WiFi using the same channel that your WiFi is on, there's a chance it may cause a problem.

There's a free Mac program called iStumbler. If you run that (and wait a minute or two), it will show you every wireless network around and which WiFi channel they're using. If you see a lot using the same channel as you, you can try using the Airport Utility to switch your Extreme to something else. Channels 1, 6, and 11 are typically the best choices as the frequencies used for those channels don't overlap other channels.

 

[Kristofer]

Thanks guys. Changed it to channel 6 and it seems to be working. I'll report back if anything goes funky again.