Losing Signal Strength at Night?

[airwalke]

I've got an Airport Express sitting on the other side of the house. For the majority of the day, where I usually sit my laptop, I have great signal strength. Occasionally, the signal strength will suddenly drop down to 1-2 bars during the day, and almost like clockwork at night. Has anyone else had this problem?

There aren't any parental controls that might've gotten switched on through the router, but are there some for the airport card I might've unwittingly changed?

My other thought is that the airport card connection to the motherboard is bad, or not securely fastened in, but I don't know how to check this myself. I've got a Powerbook G4 15" 1.67ghz I got about 3 years ago.

 

[gsahli]

First guess is that you have a neighbor with a portable phone or router on the same or nearby channel. Try changing channel on the Express - move by 3, ie if on channel 1, move it to channel 4 or 5.

 

[SDLSteve]

Other thought, what type of internet connection do you have. When I had cable internet, there was a significant difference during the evenings and was explained to me that there were more people using the same "line".

 

[apfhex]

When I had cable internet, there was a significant difference during the evenings and was explained to me that there were more people using the same "line".

... which has absolutely nothing to do with wifi signal strength.

At my old apartment I also noticed an extremely regular change in signal strength between day and night. As if the change in atmosphere were to blame.

 

[GGJstudios]

... I also noticed an extremely regular change in signal strength between day and night. As if the change in atmosphere were to blame.

This is a common phenomenon. During the day when your neighbors are at work, you have less interference from other wireless networks and devices in the area. In the evening, when they're home, more networks, microwaves, etc. are in use, creating more interference.

 

[airwalke]

Thanks for the help. It happens pretty commonly at night at about 11 pm... so unless my neighbor is concocting some massive microwave experiment, I'm still clueless as to what causes this. I had a friend suggest that it might be the nearby airport, something about increased wavelength activity at night from the airplanes. Any search about this on the web turns up the Apple AirPort, though.

Most likely a bad wireless card or the card is connected poorly in my computer. My laptop just went out of warranty in July, so Apple wanted $300 to repair/replace the card. Looks like I'm out of luck, or I just might have to resort to home remedies.