Poor airport express reception

[Kernow]

I've had my Airport Express for a while now and just accepted the way it was, but was browsing the forums and saw that people were getting full reception at 50m away, so I started to think that maybe mine wasn't great.

My Airport Express is in my living room, about 15m away from my dual 2.0GHz G5, which is under my desk in the study. There is an open corridor leading to the study, but if you went as the crow flies, there would be 2 or 3 walls in the way.

I very rarely get over two bars reception in the indicator guide on the menu bar, and the connection drops out not exactly frequently, but regularly enough to be noticeable and irritating.

Is this normal given my setup and therefore I would have to live with it, or is not pumping out the power it should be and should I be thinking of taking it back to the Apple store?

 

[dcv]

Have you tried using a different channel number? This might help a little.

 

[Kernow]

Thanks DCV, channel 2 is marginally better than the rest, but the reception is still pretty poor.

I might try and find someone else I know who has one and borrow theirs to see if it is my Airport Express, or whether I have a strange radio frequency blackhole between my living room and study.

Any other explanations gratefully accepted.

 

[Brandhaus]

I have a similar problem. How is wireless reception in general in your area? Mine sucks here. It's so bad, I don't even use my airport anymore. I use a 20 ft ethernet cable lol. Maybe your area is just bad for wireless? I can barely use my cell phone in my apartment without it dropping a signal at least once.

 

[Kernow]

I have a similar problem. How is wireless reception in general in your area? Mine sucks here. It's so bad, I don't even use my airport anymore. I use a 20 ft ethernet cable lol. Maybe your area is just bad for wireless? I can barely use my cell phone in my apartment without it dropping a signal at least once.

Could be it - my mobile phone has terrible reception in the house too. I don't know what would be causing it though - general interference, shielding in walls ?