poor time Capsule signal strength?

[Virgil-TB2]

How does one test the signal strength on a Time Capsule and how does one know how strong it should be? I mean I know about the four bars display, and I have even searched for signal graphers, but I can't find anything that really does the job, or give you any hard information that can be easily understood.

My problem is I just replaced my Linksys (wireless g), setup with the Time Capsule (wireless n), and everything seems to work fine, except every once in a while I only get three bars on the Airport menubar widget. And I am using a brand new MacPro workstation set up barely 8 feet from the Time Capsule in the same room. And there is not much in between me and the Capsule.

I got a utility called AP Grapher which seemed to be the best of a bad lot, but while it gives you some neato graphs, it doesn't really have anything that allows you to interpret what you are seeing if you don't already know all about this stuff. How do I know how high a line needs to be to be "good." I am not an idiot so the "four bars" icon is a little too simple, but I am not a geek either and don't have the time to understand industry standard metering processes etc.

Isn't there something useful in between these extremes? Something graphical?

 

[SpinThis!]

Are you running TC in 2.4 ghz mode or 5 ghz? What else is (or might be) on your network? Especially if it's on 2.4 ghz, any number of factors, such as phones, microwaves, could be messing with the signal. You might want to try playing with the location of TC and see if it improves. If you're running a completely N network, switch TC over to allow N devices only. Do you have any other wireless device to test? (iPhone/iPod Touch, laptop, etc).

One other thing that strikes me as odd... why not just use a wired connection? Especially with a Mac Pro, you're not exactly moving it around and your TC is in the same room... if you can, tweak your setup and run a cable.

you might want to try kismac for monitoring... should be able to show you the signal strength and more.