Monday, March 8, 2010

Fixing a Weak Airport Extreme Signal

If you notice that the signal from your Apple Airport Extreme or your Time Capsule has suddenly got weaker, it's not a hardware failure but very likely interference from neighbouring devices. I switched from a Linksys router to an Airport Extreme about a year ago and the signal strength has been superb. I get great wireless access throughout three floors.

However, recently the signal strength on my Airport Extreme has been getting weaker and suddenly to the point where the signal was being dropped regularly. At first I thought it was my MacBook Pro overheating but I tested the wireless on my iMac which is normally wired and it too had almost no connectivity. I changed the wireless (WPA/WPA2) password, which is always a good thing, thinking that someone had tapped into my network. I also re-cycled the power on the Airport Extreme but that did not help.

Finally, I searched for similarly related issues on the Apple Support Forum other users were having. Many users attributed it to the Airport Extreme being sub quality hardware. But at the end of the day, the Airport Extreme is a wireless router and it has to broadcast a signal. So it made me think about potential interference as I noticed a sudden increase in the list of wireless networks in my neighboured. Using the Airport Utility App in the Applications | Utilities folder I changed the Radio Channel Selection as follows:
  • Double click on the Airport Utility.app.
  • Select your Airport Extreme (AE) to the left of the Airport Utility window.
  • Click on the 'Manual Setup' button at the bottom of the window.
  • Click on the 'Wireless' tab to display the wireless settings of your Airport Extreme.
  • Change the 'Radio Channel Selection' option to 'Manual'.
  • Click on the 'Edit' button which displays the different channels.
  • If you have the current version of the Airport Extreme it has two channels, the 2.4 GHz Channel for devices like your iPhone and 802.11b/g Macs and the 5 GHz Channel for devices like the newer Mac using 802.11n.
  • If you have an older Mac with 802.11b/g change the 2.4 Ghz Channel from 'Automatic' to one of the larger numbers like 10-15.
  • Click the 'Done' and then the 'Update' buttons to reboot your Airport Extreme.
You should now see the signal strength on your Mac increase dramatically. If you still have a weak signal, change the 'Radio Channel Selection' until the signal strength has increased and there is no interference from neighbouring devices. Let me know if this helps to increase the signal on your Airport Extreme or Time Capsule?

Posted by at 6:19 PM
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20 comments:

  1. This article is so incorrect it hurts my mind. The 5GHz network is for 802.11n devices, such as your mac. The 2.4GHz network is for anything operating on a 802.11g network (such as an iPhone). Please check your facts.
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  2. Thanks Elliot for pointing out the typo, it has been corrected. In addition the 2.4GHz network is not only for iPhone but older Macs with 802.11g network cards.
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  3. Thank you! I have tried almost everything else and this really made a difference!
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  4. That's the ticket. Monkeyed around with this problem for a couple hours and this fixed the issue.
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  5. Good to hear that some of you out there are having success with fixing your Airport Extreme's weak signal.
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  6. Yup, worked for me.
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  7. Wireless A technology also uses 5ghz frequency but is much slower and has a smaller range than wireless N 5ghz.
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  8. The 2.4GHz channels range from 1-11 in the US. The common, non-overlapping channels are 1-6-11 in the 2.4GHz spectrum. By manually selecting a different channel it MAY have an impact on the airport performance especially if you have an active neighborhood with many users on one channel.
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  9. worked for me. Thanks for your help.
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  10. Glad some of you out there found this post useful.
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  11. I have been having issues with signal strength since setting up the Extreme a few days ago. It worked for a bit and then the signal strength went down to zero. I did a 2 factory restore setups, which seemed to work for a while, but after closing my Macbook Pro for a few hours and coming back, again with the low signal! I just tried the solution above and it seems to work so far, but it also worked for a bit after the factory restore too. Is this a permanent solution? Will I have to use the airport utility every time? Thanks!
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  12. A follow up to my comment from yesterday - it is NOT a permanent solution, and today I struggle again with the same problem. Weak signal with only 1 bar. I have never had a problem with any other Mac product since converting from PC 2 years ago. I am sad to say I am VERY disappointed with the performance of the product.
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  13. thanks for this, i could not understand why i had such a weak signal, when the extreme (as well as an express to extend), and my mac are within 25ft of each other.
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  14. Thanks , so far so good. fingers crossed
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  15. Good to hear this solution has worked for you all. This is a permanent solution and it depends on the density of where you live. If you live in a large apartment block, weak signals can be a part of life with so many people having wireless phones, baby monitors and other wireless devices that interfere with your signal. Also whether you have an Airport Extreme, Linksys, NetGear or other router you will have the same issues and the same solution is applicable to those routers as well.
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  16. This made difference..Thanks..
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  17. Words cannot express my thanks! For weeks we have been battling with this problem, searching the forums, pestering so-called IT experts... finally a solution. Can't believe how simple this is. Absolutely brilliant. Thank you, thank you!
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  18. Simon, glad the post was of help to you. Since I changed my channel over a year ago, I have had no issues and the airport extreme signal strength has been excellent.
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  19. Think it worked. Thx!
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  20. I adjusted per instructions and my download speed decreased 25%
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