Airport Extreme Poor Range

Question

Level 1

0 points

Airport Extreme Poor Range

I have an Airport Extreme which is at one end of my single floor condo. The building does not have a lot of steel...it is all wood. The wireless range does not extend into my bedroom at the other end of the condo, which is less than 50 feet away. It occasionally reaches, but the connection keeps dropping. Any suggestions? Are there settings I need to adjust? Please note that I am not tech savvy, so if you reply, please assume total ignorance of any technical terms. 🙂 Thank you!

Airport Extreme-OTHER, Windows 7

Posted on Oct 4, 2013 5:38 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

LaPastenague

Level 9

67,202 points

Oct 4, 2013 6:03 AM in response to windsurfrgal

There are no settings to really improve range..

Apple sell express but you can also use another Extreme as a repeater, located inbetween your bedroom and the current extreme location..

Wireless range can be affected by metal like insulation not just steel.. or pipes or wires.. or dampness.. there are many things that can block the signal.. if you have a laptop load a wireless analysis program.. eg for windows you use INSSIDer and do a wireless survey around the condo and see where the signal is disappearing.. sometimes you will find small changes in location make a big difference.

Reply

Answer 2

windsurfrgal Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 4, 2013 7:16 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thank you for your help. I have moved my AirPort Extreme away from my apple TV and Phone. It is sitting next to the Cable Modem. Would this cause interference?

I downloaded Airport Utility and inSSIDer and performed a scan on channel 11, where I assume that either the modem or the router is set (I am confused on which is the "access point" referred to in inSSIder manual), but cannot figure out how to change the channel on my access point. Are you able to tell me this?

Reply

Answer 3

windsurfrgal Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 4, 2013 7:16 AM in response to windsurfrgal

I should add that I am using Windows 7.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 4, 2013 3:37 PM in response to windsurfrgal

The wireless in the AE is set to auto..

when you scan wireless you do not scan for just one channel but all available wireless in the area.

I am not on a windows computer but most analysis software is about the same.

It shows you the channel and the various levels of all the different wireless.

Now what you need to do is open your airport utility ... this is the Mac version but it is very similar to the windows 5.6.

Go to the wireless tab.

Change the Radio Channel Selection over to manual and select edit.. then you can fix the wireless channels yourself.. update the AE and see if it works better.. you should test, 11, 6, 1 (europe you can add 13.. and in places with loads of wireless I have heard 8 can work).. those are the only non-overlapping channels for 2.4ghz.. you can also set the 5ghz to around 40 or around 150 .. the actual channel is not significant.. but 5ghz is probably not going to work for difficult to reach areas,, and of course the client must support it and not all do.

Reply

Answer 5

windsurfrgal Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 7, 2013 5:16 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thank you again. OK. I have maneuvered through this and manually adjusted my settings to the highest. I think I will have to set up a second router. Strangely my Guest Network seems to have better range than my regular network. Is there a reason for that? There is no security on my Guest network, but WPA2 on my personal network.

Reply

Answer 6

Oct 7, 2013 5:40 AM in response to windsurfrgal

That should not make a difference.. Guest network is just a time slice out of the main wireless.. so it is exactly the same wireless on exactly the same channels.. makes no sense to me.

But then it is wireless.. and the voodoo nature of it is about 4:1 against science.

Reply

Answer 7

Jul 9, 2014 10:41 AM in response to windsurfrgal

If you want to increase wireless range and coverage try mounting it on the ceiling or wall like with this product:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IRSDKX6

Usually if you put it in on the ceiling in the middle of your use you'll get better signal.

It optimizes the 11n/ac speed and throughput so that you can get great performance from your Apple Extreme throughout the entire house!

Reply