Airport signal strength

Hi all. I'm rather surprised. I just installed my airport network behind
a dsl router, and even if my iBook is sitting just a few feet away from
the Airport base station, I'm always 2 or 3 bars down from the max on
the signal strength monitor.
Disi I do something wrong? Is the iBook a poorly receptive machine? The
signal strength is set to maximum in the base station setup btw...
Else, i'd like to understand what the "signal robustness" and encryption
options have as an influence on the overall performances... (sorry my
english' noy that good but I hope you understand my point)
Regards,

 

Le 18/02/04 10:23, dans
1g9ckm2.o59zl213mzse8N%, « Le Ming »

same thing for me, pareil, with a PBook 17", my PB is about 10 metres from
the base station, and the monitor is 3 bars down

however, just tested at 45 metres, outside, it works... so I'm happy

bonne journée

 

Et si tu es a 45 cm?
- And if you're 45 cm away from the ABS?-

 

Did you connect the AP antenna cable? This is necessary if you are using
the "regular" AP card; I don't know whether the "extreme" card has a
separate antenna cable. I forgot to attach the cable on my G3 PowerBook,
and got about 1meter range until I re-checked and found the cable.

 

I'll double check tonight, thanx for the input!

 

This is really good information (I'm not the OP, just commenting).

If the problem persists, you may eventually wish to experiment with
different channel settings (a second person and computer is VERY helpful
here!). In one location I worked in, I got a 10 point gain in signal
strength just by changing channels.

"10 points of what?" you ask? I use a very helpful utility called
MacStumbler (freeware, available at your favorite download site) to help
me determine signal strength and pattern, determine whether other
stations are in the area, and other things. It's strength scale goes up
to..the highest I've ever seen was 87-90, right next to the BS. On this
scale, 30 appears to be about the minimum strength for reliable
connection, so gaining 10 points can make a real difference. If you
don't use MacStumbler, something like it is absolutely necessary for
serious wireless troubleshooting.

[snip]

It doesn't always take much change in location to solve this problem
(should this be an issue for the OP), so it really is worth
experimenting a little bit.

Another important factor is the angle of the BS to the environment. The
emissions from the BS are not spherical, and are stronger in the plane
parallel to the bottom surface of the BS (at least on the old graphite).
Obviously the pattern of an external antenna might be different, but
adjusting orientation as well as location can have a real effect. Of
course the effect could be negative.

When experimenting with antenna location and orientation, the key is to
go slow, change as little as possible at any given time, and try other
things first. ;-) It's not hard, but it does take time and care so it's
a good idea to check the simpler things first (e.g. antenna connector,
channel number)

?????? I don't get this. If multipath is a problem, then you would want
to move your antenna (either on the BS, at the computer-i.e. the
computer- or both). Or are you talking about repositioning the antenna
on the BS itself? I've never actually worked with the new Extreme BS
with an external antenna, though I've worked with other antennas, etc.

 

Just FYI - My brand new iBook and Airport exhibit the same behavior.
The signal strength meter is always two bars down, no matter how close
to the base station it is. I have tried different channels and
locations - no difference, yet the range seems to be OK.

--
-Ernie-

"There are only two kinds of computer users -- those who have
suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure, and those who will."

Have you done your backup today?

 

If you are using an Airport Base Station, check yout Multicast Rate
setting. Setting it higher than 1 reduces my signal strenth drastically.

 

It is on 1 on my base.
I was wondering as well if the signal robustness and wep settings had an
influence on signal strength or quality...

 

I don't think so (stress on think, since my wireless networking
expertise is near zero). I can't tell any significant difference with
WEP enabled on my WiFi.

Maybe you have a hardware problem. MacStumber reports a signal strength
of 100 just a few feet away from my Airport Extreme Base Station and the
signal remains robust enough in my iBook (old 802.11b card) that I can
easily run Safari at the road in front of the house, at 95-100 feet
away, with WEP enabled.