Airplay drop out with airport express and time capsule

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Level 1

4 points

Airplay drop out with airport express and time capsule

Hello together.

I've a annoying problem with my airport express. I use it by playing my music from iTunes via Airplay in my living room. My wifi-router is a time capsule (2011) connected to a standard cisco router.

The problem is the drop outs when playing music. Especially when a few people are hanging around in my living room, the music immediately stops.

A few weeks ago I bought a second Airport Express hoping to solve the problem, but nothing was solved. Does anyone know whats to do?

Greetings

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jun 6, 2016 10:39 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 6, 2016 12:22 PM in response to LNVM

Do you have an App on your MacBook that will measure the SNR in your Lving room? Sounds like network to me and a low SNR could be the problem. Here's a good read on that. AirPort - Optimal Base Station Placement

It's a relatively common problem. Googling AirPlay dropping connection will bring up quite a few posts on the subject.

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Answer 2

LNVM Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 7, 2016 3:06 AM in response to Mike's Pad

Thank you Mike, for your advice. I measured that the signal strength is very poor and I consider, that perhaps the time capsule isn't the best solution. May be I should buy a repeater or a TP Link WLAN-router with antennas https://www.amazon.de/TP-Link-TL-WR941ND-Wireless-N-Standard-100Mbps-LAN-Ports-V PN-Passthrough/dp/B001954DPI.

What do you think?

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Answer 3

Jun 7, 2016 6:47 AM in response to LNVM

I am guessing the AirPort Express is connecting wirelessly to the Time Capsule? True? If that is the case I recommend connecting it to the TC using a Ethernet cable. Even if this wired connection is temporary it could very well prove a point, confirming the suspected problem. A cable of at least 7 meters should be easy to get. And not too expensive.

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Answer 4

Tesserax

Level 10

158,490 points

Jun 9, 2016 9:27 AM in response to LNVM

In addition to Mike's Pad's comments, I would suggest that if running an Ethernet cable between the base station is not practical or desirable that you consider using power line adapters instead. These adapters can create a pseudo Ethernet connection using your home's electrical circuit. You would need at least two of these, with one being place near the TC and the other near the Express.

You can then actually reconfigure the Express to extend the TC's wireless range by configuring both of the into a roaming network. This will still allow the Express to be used for streaming.

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