Wireless Signal Issues

Somebody please, this is driving me crazy!

I am having a hard time getting a wireless signal more than 10 feet from the wireless router in our living room. This NEVER used to be an issue for me before, and my buddies using crappy PC's don't have the issue at all. I just took my macbook to the apple store to get a new wireless card and the problem is still happening. I can't figure out what to do next!

I've tried rebooting the router, get a new signal sent from comcast, turning airport on/off, resetting the wireless router, etc.

10ft?? When you say getting a signal - what does that mean? Does that mean connected - or actually seeing an RF signal? When you option click the 'airport' or soon to be known as wi-fi icon on the menu bar - what does it tell you?

BrianLachoreVPI said:

10ft?? When you say getting a signal - what does that mean? Does that mean connected - or actually seeing an RF signal? When you option click the 'airport' or soon to be known as wi-fi icon on the menu bar - what does it tell you?

Click to expand...

When I'm sitting in my living room, the wireless router is about ten feet away from me. If I try to go into the dining room or upstairs (10-15 each way) the signal drops according to my wireless router from like 70% signal strength to 33%, and then I can't access the internet moments later.

I attached a photo when I option+clicked the airport icon.

Hmmm. Troubleshooting wireless issues can be a serious pain - just a little warning on that. Recommend you download iStumbler - and take a look at what else might be jamming you. Do you have 2.4 GHz wireless phones? You're either dealing with a chipset that is suffering from a lack of sensitivity - or you're just in a noisy environment - or a little of both. iStumbler will at least let you see what other Wireless networks are nearby - but unfortunately it doesn't let you see all radiation sources in the spectrum of interest. I'd love it if there was an affordable SW spectrum analyzer for the Mac.

At any rate - most likely changing the channel will help. Try 1, 6 or 11 for starters.

We do not have a cordless phone, and even if our next door neighbor did, I can't understand why my roommates have never had issues with this.

Anyway, I'm looking at iStumbler and this is what I see...

jtknisely said:

We do not have a cordless phone, and even if our next door neighbor did, I can't understand why my roommates have never had issues with this.

Anyway, I'm looking at iStumbler and this is what I see...

Click to expand...

Odd - that's showing channel 6 and your earlier screen capture showed channel 3? Edit: That's also a completely different network than you showed being connected to in your first screenshot.

I reset the router during our discussion and this is my new option + click:

Much better - now you're on the right network. Hows the performance?

Still awful, no change. I walk upstairs and no connection, instantly. I walk into the dining room, no connection.

Interesting. Also interesting is that you were connected to a different network initially - yet iStumbler wasn't showing that network in the screenshot you showed me.

Is the iStumbler picture still the same - showing just one network? What signal strength does iStumbler show when you go around the corner and lose connection?

Here's what's going on: I've been playing around with my wireless network settings all throughout this discussion, so you've been seeing the one and only wireless router, just being toyed with. Between posts, I'm trying everything you're saying as well as trying other things from other forums. I'll upload two screenshots for you, one from beside the router, one from 12 feet.

The problem I'm confused by is that is not the network you're looking for according to your other post. Something is haywire. Even that network is showing as being on ch 8 whereas earlier it was ch 3. The network you're looking for Dlink is on ch6 - but not being shown by iStumbler in those last two shots. Something is a little odd here. What kind of router?

Are you changing the SSID??

Our network name was always 225 E, when I reset the router, it defaulted back to dlink. It's all the same thing. Here are two more screen shots, having changed nothing except I'm sitting beside the router right now...

Why is your channel continuing to change? I'm thinking your router is screwy - if you're not changing those channels.

I think it was because in my router settings I had "auto channel scan" because I just checked it again and it was on 6 now. I turned it off

jtknisely said:

I think it was because in my router settings I had "auto channel scan" because I just checked it again and it was on 6 now. I turned it off

Click to expand...

Well - one thing is for sure - troubleshooting wireless can be a royal pain the ...you know what. So doing it systematically and keeping variables to a minimum is pretty important.

The bottom line really is this. The initial analysis holds. You're either dealing with a faulty chipset - or you have something seriously interfering. You could try repositioning your router - to give you a stronger signal when you change rooms. The 38% is ok - I have less than that currently - but still have a good connection. If you have a noisy environment or if there are other radiators in that spectrum (non-wifi) then the signal strength will be come a critical factor.

You do seem to be dealing with an RF problem - which means it's rcvr sensitivity, path loss due to blockage or other, or noise overwhelming the rcvr making it difficult to decode symbols which causes 802.11 to first back off data rate and then could disconnect you.

The fact that none of these other computers have any issues implies that its not your router.

Not sure there's much else to do but take it back and have them check that card again.

Are you able to switch the router so that it just provides a G rated network rather than N?

If so, are the results the same?