So is there any reason anyone can tell me about for a wireless signal to be really really weak for one computer and really strong for another, both in the same location? I'm having a hell of a hard time with my wireless connection since the installation of the cable service. The modem had to go in a room at one end of the house, and I'm at the other end. The funny thing is that when I bring the old iBook into the same room where I have the desktop G4, the laptop has no problems, but the desktop does. The signal on the desktop keeps going up and down, almost like a heartbeat. Sometimes it disappears entirely and I lose the connection completely.<br><br>Any suggestions?<br><br>

check the antenna connection, orientation, etc.<br><br>signal strength is all about the antennas.<br><br>think of it like a pair of rabbit ears on a TV.<br><br>[color:blue]All your sock puppets are belong to us</font color=blue>

Reseat the card, make sure the antenna is plugged in good.<br><br>Swap the card with the iBook to see if it's the card.<br><br>HTH<br><br>

oh, <br><br>make sure Interference robustness is turned off on the Power Mac <br><br>[color:blue]All your sock puppets are belong to us</font color=blue>

Interference robustness is an Airport Extreme thing, isn't it?<br><br>

It's right in the pull down menu on the airport menu bar thingy.<br><br>I guess it works ok when close to the base station, but when the distance increases, I've found it to drop the signal.<br><br><br><br>[color:blue]All your sock puppets are belong to us</font color=blue>

I don't have it on either of my pull downs. I have airport cards (not extreme) and a Netgear router.<br><br><br>My Stuff

whoops, I guess I'm too extreme here <br><br>[color:blue]All your sock puppets are belong to us</font color=blue>

It's on my son's iBook, with the Extreme card, but not on my G4 or on the other iBook, both with non-Extreme cards.<br><br>

see what objects can disrupt the signal. a mobile phone, a speaker, etc. can all weaken the it. i noticed that my scanner when placed next to the card makes the signal drop to half.<br><br>

Do you have the base station set to a specific channel, or Automatic? You might try experimenting w/different channels. I was beginning to see some uneveness in the signals on my DT and PB on Automatic channel selection — especially since a new network (a neighbor, I think) began showing up in the AP drop-down. After some trial & error, I found that ch. 9 gave me a steady 5x5 signal on both machines — even on the PB outside on my stoop.<br><br>

true, at one point i had to change the channels on my wireless phone to make airport working.<br><br>

Nice logo. <br><br>

I'm connected to a D-Link router, and I'm not sure of how to change the channel. I'll putz around with it for a bit and see what's possible (although right now I've got a pretty steady signal )<br><br>

Don't forget to swap the cards if messing with the channel doesn't work.<br><br>

As others have mentioned, there's an awful lot around the house that can be running at 2GHz. I use VTECH cordless phones in my house and they share the same frequency as WiFi. I noticed that if I have my computer near one of the phone base stations, the WiFi communication ruins the reception on the phone; so it must work the other way around too. As long as I have my WiFi base station on one wall and the phone base on the opposite wall, with my computer not near the phone's base station, I haven't had a problem since.<br><br>As an extra piece of advice on WiFi signal: Try to pick a central point in the house for the base station/router so that no matter where you are in the house the signal between the computer and the base station have to travel through as little building material as possible. If you put the base upstairs on the North side of your house and you're working downstairs on the South side of your house—even if it's theoretically within range—you're going to get a highly degraded signal. This is because the signal is "cutting" a very shallow angle through all the materials in your sub-flooring, electrical, plumbing and ceiling materials. If the base were in a central location upstairs or downstairs, no matter where you went, the signal will cut through walls and flooring at greater (closer to perpendicular) angles and therefore have less degradation in quality.<br><br>

Fortunately we're old fashioned enough to have only the 900MHz phones <br><br>

Have you tried playing with the channels on the base station/phones. We have WiFi, and a Panasonic 2.4GHz phone side by side and don't have any problems with them. There are actually two 2.4GHz phones in the house and none of them interfere.<br><br>

I believe the phones don't allow manual selection of the channel, so it's best for me to just leave them be. I haven't had a problem except for the time that my laptop was open directly in front of the base station.<br><br>

thanks! that's quite a compliment coming from you!<br><br>