hmm, airport extreme disconnects sometimes

[vollspacken]

I bought a airport extreme basestation 2 weeks ago and I have a problem that really bugs me... I'm not shure if it's due to misconfiguration or the network (college-LAN). maybe someone has had similar problems and solved it or knows what to do...

I use the basestation with my tiBook and a normal airport card (not AE!) and once in a while the connection breaks off (about once per day) and I cannot reconnect. the selected network is still checked in the airport status pulldown menu. if I turn airport off and try to reselect the basestation-network, it wants me to type my passwort. if I do, I get a message that it is not possible to access it. If I start the admin-utility, the network does not show in the list. if I use MacStumbler, it does... STRANGE!!! I have to unplug the power of the basestation. deactivate airport and activate it again, in order to reconnect... damn, what is wrong???

- is it a hardware failure?
- did I just misconfigure the thing?
- is the college-LAN unstable so that the network that the basestation is supposed to bridge to my laptop does not exist for a short amount of time?

I tried everything, checked apple knowledge base and the forum, but nothing could solve my problem...

...here comes the worst thing:
I will be graduating from college on sunday and be leaving to germany on monday... I pray it's not a hardware failure since it will be a pain-in-the-neck to solve that from germany (I bought it over here on amazon) because of US warranty and so on...

I'll be very thankful if someone could help me

vSpacken

 

[vollspacken]

thank you for your enormously helpful replies...

vSpacken

 

[mactastic]

I have the exact same setup, TiBook w/"b" Airport card, and an AE base station. Occasionally I have the same problems, nowhere near once a day though. It happened quite a bit around the time I initially set it up, and again around the time of the last airport update. Then it went away and only rarely surfaces now. I can't see how it is a hardwear problem, my gut is telling me it is a software issue that apple will hopefully adress soon.

 

[MacsRgr8]

Well, I've had my fair share of Aiport troubles... Aiport 1, Airport 2.... an did just got one AE BaseStation @ work, and it's running perfeclty for about a week now. About 4 802.11b clients, and 1 USB Epson printer (perfect!).
I've had software and hardware related issues on both type of BaseStations (prior to the AE one).
Usually the hardware related problems were the ones by which you can't define, nor understand the problem: sudden loss of Wireless coverage, trouble with Radius server (used for authentication).
Software related issues were different: Unable to "take part" in an existing Wireless network (using differnet channels), or slow connection speeds (<5 Mbps), and were mostly solved by the first coming Firmware update. Mind you, it was early days back then, so I suppose the software problems I had won't occur now.
But in your case it could be different.... Network problem? Check the admin.... it doesn't "sound" like a hardware failure.

 

[vollspacken]

thanks guys,

seems like it is a problem with the network since it only occurs when there is extremly high traffic or the network is close to break down...

I just take it home and set up a small home network and watch if it happens again...

thank you

vSpacken