Help needed with Airport Extreme Dual Band Base Station 802.11n.

[pdaly83]

I have recently bought an Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n Dual Band Base Station.

I have connected it up following the airport utility feature and it seems to work as a wireless provider.

However, the signal seems to have a ridiculously weak range, so I'm thinking it's configured wrong. (Possibly the wrong channel?)

I'm using a Mac Book Pro 2.8 Ghz, 4 MB Ram. All software is updated.

I live in a single floor apartment in Dublin, Ireland and the base station is connected directly to an Ethernet cable providing 7 meg broadband.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[waw74]

are you connecting to the N network or the G network.

I don't know the defaults, but 5GHz (which is probably what the N defaults to) doesn't go through things such as walls very well. You'd probably have better range using the G network or making sure you are on 2.4GHz N (also called B/G compatible)

most range issues have to deal with how your building is constructed, the thicker the walls, the worse the signal. also local interference can play a part, cordless phones come in 2.4 and 5GHz varieties. Microwave ovens can cause 2.4 interference.

 

[pdaly83]

I think that it automatically assigns itself to N, especially with a corresponding macbook.

I was thinking that with the walls, but my friend has the old Base station and that works all over his 3 bed house and even on the street outside, so I hope it's not the wall, coz then I've a hardware problem.

I changed the setting and checked 'Robustness', so hopefully if there's external signal interference that'll sort it out, but I've a feeling it won't!

 

[waw74]

if you have the dual band model, then you should have 2 networks (hence the dual in the name), one N and one B/G, unless it's been disabled in the settings

you should be able to join either network from your macbook.

 

[pdaly83]

Just resolved the problem.

I move the base station to my kitchen and it seems to work perfectly.

It was sitting on a Granite tabletop beforehand in a sort of alcove, so I can only assume that the granite was sucking up all the signal.

Works fine now, thanks for all the help.