Hi
We live in a Residential Building and i can see that there are a lot of traffic in the wifi channel that our Airport extreme base is connected, can I change the channel of my airport extreme and How?
AirPort Extreme 802.11n (5th Gen)
Try to locate your wireless router as far away from any outside walls or windows on your home to help shield it from other nearby networks. An AirPort Express can help extend the range of the AirPort Extreme, but the same rules apply to an extender if you want to try one.
To change the wireless channel on your AirPort Extreme
Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the AirPort Extreme, then click Edit in the smaller window that appears
Click the Wireless tab at the top of the page
Click the Wireless Options button at the bottom of the page
The setting for the the 2.4 GHz Channel is here. The setting should be on Automatic now, but you can change it to select a channel manually. It's pretty much of a guessing game at this point, and even if you find a channel that seems to work OK at the time, you will likely be changing it again soon. Gets pretty tedious.
That's why I use the Automatic setting and simply restart the AirPort Extreme when things start to slow down, usually every evening since that is when wireless networks around you are busiest.
You don't need to change the channel for the 5 GHz band.
Try to locate your wireless router as far away from any outside walls or windows on your home to help shield it from other nearby networks. An AirPort Express can help extend the range of the AirPort Extreme, but the same rules apply to an extender if you want to try one.
To change the wireless channel on your AirPort Extreme
Open Finder > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the AirPort Extreme, then click Edit in the smaller window that appears
Click the Wireless tab at the top of the page
Click the Wireless Options button at the bottom of the page
The setting for the the 2.4 GHz Channel is here. The setting should be on Automatic now, but you can change it to select a channel manually. It's pretty much of a guessing game at this point, and even if you find a channel that seems to work OK at the time, you will likely be changing it again soon. Gets pretty tedious.
That's why I use the Automatic setting and simply restart the AirPort Extreme when things start to slow down, usually every evening since that is when wireless networks around you are busiest.
You don't need to change the channel for the 5 GHz band.
The AirPort Extreme will automatically scan to find the best available channel to use at the time, if you simply power it off, what a few seconds, then power it back up again.
If there are a lot of other wireless networks around, you may need to perform this task almost on a daily basis.....since other wireless routers are also scanning to find a good channel to use, and things are changing all the time.
While it is possible to manually choose a Channel....and some users swear by doing this.....how will you know which Channel to choose?
Even if you manage to find a good channel at the time, because other routers are changing their channels, a "good" channel this morning may well be an overcrowded channel this afternoon.
Since you asked how to change the channel, we will answer, but most users will get better results with a lot less effort, if they simply restart their router when the wireless seems to be slowing down.
You do not indicate whether you have a Mac or PC, or you want to use an iPhone or iPad to change the channel. If you have a Mac, we need to know what operating system that it is using. If you are not sure, click the Apple icon in the upper left corner of the screen, then click About This Mac and post back with the OS X Version number that you see there.
Hi Bob,
Thank you for your response.
I am using a MacBook mid 2014 pro with the latest OS X Version 10.10.3
Do you have any suggestion on how we can improve our wifi with this condition? Our Internet goes up to 5mbps but the wireless gets bagged down and this is why I was thinking of changing the channel but you are right our neighbors are also thinking the same I guess. Other than our airport extreme we also have another router located at the 3rd room, my original plan was to have this 2nd router as a repeater in the living room since our Airport extreme is located in the master bedroom and it does not really throw the wireless signal clean enough to the living room where the hallway is near and the neighbor's wifi router signals cross (probably).
:-/
Hi Bob,
Okay I will try to set both 1st to automatic (2.4GHz & 5GHz) if this still no change I will try to manually set the channel of the 2.4GHz to the less crowded one.
Thank you, will update as soon as I can.
regards,
How do I change the channel of my airport extreme base station?
