Filed under: Wireless, How-tos, Tips and tricks, Airport
Improving your AirPort reception, MacGeekery How-To
MacGeekry has just published a truly epic post discussing best practices for maintaining a strong and relatively interference free AirPort Network. The article, full of pretty graphs and shiny charts, explains how to use three free programs to check your network for issues, and how to fix any issues you might find. Although intended for owners of AirPort base stations, I imagine much of the information in the article applies globally for all wireless routers and access points. I haven't tried any of the suggestions yet, as I'm not at home, but I'd be interested to hear from you readers if this stuff really works.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rolphus said 10:59AM on 7-08-2006
I've just had a play, and found out that my wi-fi network (Netgear router) was on the same channel as my next-door neighbour's.
I just switched it to the other end of the spectrum (Channel 1 to Channel 13), and as soon as I reconnected, I noticed 2 important things.
Firstly, the "dead spot" in one room of my apartment is gone, and secondly, the network is reacting a little quicker. As I only really use wi-fi for browsing, I haven't tested throughput.
All in all, this is a good tip, so thanks Dan!
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lucian said 11:49AM on 7-08-2006
omw home to try
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Radford Harrell said 1:33PM on 7-08-2006
Rockin! I got a substantial improvement in coverage and speed...excellent tips. Thank you.
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007 said 1:34PM on 7-08-2006
checked it out saw that my wireless was on the sae channel as my neighbors changed it ..noticed a slight speed change buts that it..i guess it helped.
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George said 3:10PM on 7-08-2006
Hmm I changed my Netgear router to a diff channel and the MacBook would see the network, but for whatever reason would not connect to it. When I switched back to the factory default (ch. 11) all worked fine again.
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Bjorn Nitmo said 3:47PM on 7-08-2006
Mac users require a needlessly wordy article to tell them that they'll improve their wireless connectivity by using a channel (frequency) that nobody nearby is already using? Oh brother. Perhaps there is something to the stereotype that most Mac users are computer illiterate, hipster doofuses.
Here's another important tip: If your Mac's display is dark and it isn't responding to input you might consider turning it on. Of course, YMMV.
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Rolphus said 11:07AM on 7-09-2006
Bjorn: Many thanks for the sarcastic and patronising response.
Personally, I wasn't aware of iStumbler, and as such, had no easy means of telling what networks were causing interference near me.
Not knowing about a moderately obscure piece of software and how to use it to diagnose Wi-Fi problems that you may not have even known you had doesn't imply stupidity.
Coming up with snarky comments when helpful advice is posted... well, that implies a certain lack of social grace, to say the least.
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MarkZ said 11:43AM on 7-09-2006
Reasonably helpful article and software - though you could use just about anything to find out what channel others are using - you don't need a fancy graph for that at all. The other software seems pretty cool - haven't tried it out yet though.
Second - what's with that chart with the x-axis labeled "minutes ago" and the indices labeled -5 through 0? Wouldn't -5 minutes ago be 5 minutes from now? I guess it's not a coincidence that the next section has a reference to "Back to the Future"....
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Jeremy Smith said 9:25AM on 7-10-2006
Thank you. Clear speak and it helps.
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special cars said 8:29AM on 10-05-2006
MacGeekry's informations are always very important for me.
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