why is airport express SO BAD?!?

I just bought the Airport Express, and was very excited to get it. I plug it in - get it all set up - get the green light and my icon change on iTunes - start playing music...nothing for a few seconds then the music cuts in. Okay i tell myself it just has to connect. Then it plays for 5-10 seconds and cuts out again for like 2-3 seconds. Then it plays another 5-10 then cuts out again.

I AM EXTREMELY DISAPOINTED IN THIS PRODUCT. Its TERRIBLE! I tried everything to fix this solution. I am no using the internet at all and still it does it. This is so bad I am going to bring it back to Apple and tell them how bad it is. I can't believe this!!

Any ideas to why its so crappy ?

Mine works perfectly fine.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/airport42formacosx1042.html

Make sure you have it completely updated

Well I suppose it could be the actual unit, in which case you can have it replaced rather easily with warranty exchange.

However, it could also be your connection quality, or other interference.
Cordless phones, Microwave ovens, cell phones, wiring issues in the home...etc, etc, etc. could all factor in to why your signal is dropping.

I would try the unit in a few different places, to see if the signal improves at all. Also try turning off any of the afore mentioned devices in the house to see if that improves the signal.

If you are still getting a poor signal, take it to an Apple store and see if they will exchange it for you.

yes i have it updated and as far as those devices i have no:
cordless phone, microwave on, cell phone on, and i have full signal strength on my 802.11g router

doing a bandwidth test on the CNET Bandwidth test i get a speed of 407 kbps, which granted isn't great but should be good enough. No idea why this shouldn't be working!!!

Are you running it thorough a router or AP base-station and are you using 802.11b or 802.11g? When I run my music network as part of my main network (through a SNOW base-station 802.11b) I have the same problem but when I set up the express as it's own network, it works fine.

AFAIK, the 802.11b networks have trouble streaming the music and the 802.11g networks do not.

802.11b will have probs as the throughput will more than likely be 2Mbps if your lucky

I have a network of 1xAirport Extreme and 3xAirport Expresses. I had a similar problem which went away when I configured each of the Expresses as 11g only (The Extreme is still 11b/g). If you look at the Activty Monitor set to network you should see a fairly level line at (IIRC) about 120kB/s. I can play to two sets of speakers simultaneously without either cutting out. Not tried more but wouldn't anticipate a problem with three as it's within the network's bandwidth.

HTH

Sam

well i guess i figured out the problem! My router is a netgear that is capable of broadcasting both B & G signals because I have a G airport card in my powerbook but my room-mates still are stuck with B cards - we had it the router on b/g and i guess it kept picking up the b signal. i switched it to G only and it is working fine now. I had it join my exsisting network, becuase when i did create its own network i couldn't connect to the internet and its working great now.

however i gotta find a way to switch it back to the b/g thing for my roommates - does anyone know how to force the powerbook to only detect the G signal and not the B ?


Thanks for everyone's helP!!