[escher]

I've had an AirPort Base Station since 1999. It served me well until two capacitors blew early this summer. I finally replaced them a few weeks ago thanks to Constantin von Wentzel's excellent instructions. Now that my AirPort Base Station is operational again, I've been experiencing severe interference.

When all is well, I get 4 bars (out of 4) in the OS X AirPort menu item in the whole house. When interference is bad, I get one or zero bars. I've enabled interference robustness and changed AirPort channels to no avail. Our own phone is 900Mhz, so that's not the problem.

My hunch is that our upstairs neighbor (or somebody else in the building) got a 2.4Ghz phone while I was waiting to repair my Base Station. Now, whenever she's yakking on the phone, I'm out of my wireless connection. I obviously can't (reasonably) prevent my neighbor from using her phone. Short of tethering myself to an Ethernet cable, what can I do to avoid interference from my neighbor's 2.4Ghz cordless phone?

Escher

[Landos Mustache]

Try changing the airport channels.

[icruise]

He said he's already tried that.

It seems a little suspicious that this would start right after you have repaired the base station though. Is there any pattern to how long the interference lasts, or how often it occurs? In other words, is it reasonable to assume form the length of time and frequency involved that it is the result of someone using a phone?

[Eug]

The other biggest source of interference I've noticed is microwave ovens. My wireless becomes completely unusable if the microwave is on.

[escher]

Originally posted by Icruise:
is it reasonable to assume form the length of time and frequency involved that it is the result of someone using a phone?

It definitely is. Yesterday, Sunday, I was getting a lot of interference. That's when many people tend to yakk on the phone a lot. Today, Monday, I have no problems whatsoever. I am assuming that this is because the vast majority of my neighbors, including the one with the 2.4GHz phone, are at work. I have no way of proving my theory though, short of physically tracking down the neighbor and his/her offending phone. Even then, I couldn't legitimately control their phone usage.

I forget whether 802.11a uses the 5Ghz band. But if it does, an Apple 802.11a AirPort replacement card (and base station) could solve my problem.

Escher

[-Q-]

Originally posted by escher:
I forget whether 802.11a uses the 5Ghz band. But if it does, an Apple 802.11a AirPort replacement card (and base station) could solve my problem.

Escher

802.11a does use the 5 Ghz spectrum band, so you would remove the interfence from the neighbors phone but Apple doesn't make an 802.11a card or base station (yet), AFAIK...you might be able to find a third party PC card and base station but I'm not sure about drivers...

[dreilly1]

Von Wentzel's site also has some directions for adding an external antenna to your ABS. You could always add stronger antenna. That'll teach 'em!

Seriously, I would imagine that TCP/IP packets over wireless fare worse in the presence of interference than voice would. After all, have you ever heard of anyone' cordless phone going nuts when the microwave was on? I'd say that the odds are pretty good that you can increase your signal strength to compensate for the interference in your house, and the interference from the signal boost wouldn't even be noticible to your neighbor on the phone!

[dreilly1]

Originally posted by Icruise:
It seems a little suspicious that this would start right after you have repaired the base station though. Is there any pattern to how long the interference lasts, or how often it occurs? In other words, is it reasonable to assume form the length of time and frequency involved that it is the result of someone using a phone?

Actually, after I repaired my base station, I noticed that from time to time I'd lose signal for a few minutes. Usually, though, if I am able to go back to the room that the ABS would in, it would "lock" onto the signal again, and is less likely to lose it when I move back to wherever I was in the house.

I have no clue what's causing this. It's not likely to be cordless phone interference for us since we're in the 'burbs and there's plenty of space between our house and our neighbors'

[atomium]

Originally posted by escher:
I have no way of proving my theory though, short of physically tracking down the neighbor and his/her offending phone.

I had phone interference from my neighbors. To isolate it I called each of my neighbors using some specious excuse. By watching the airport signal I figured out which neighbor was using the 2.4 gig phone.

From there it was just a matter of repositioning the base station to compensate. Putting it directly between me and that neighbor cleared things right up. You mileage may vary, but worth a shot if you're at least on phone friendly terms with them.

-atomium

[escher]

Originally posted by atomium:
I had phone interference from my neighbors. To isolate it I called each of my neighbors using some specious excuse. By watching the airport signal I figured out which neighbor was using the 2.4 gig phone.

Wow, atomium! Your troubleshooting prowess impresses me. I guess if it keeps bothering me, I'll play telephone after the holidays. But there are 50 other units in my condo. I know my closest neighbors, but certainly not all of them.

It's certainly interesting that repositioning the base station to be between you and the neighbor solved the problem. I live on the ground level, so I think my offending neighbor is upstairs from me. It might be awkward to mount the BS on the ceiling.

dreilly1: I would rather not add an external antenna to my BS. But if all else fails it might be worth the expense and effort. As for my repair creating the problem, I doubt it. When there's no interference as described above, reception is very strong throughout the appartment.

One more thing. I experienced the interference even when I was sitting at my desk, two feet away from the BS. So I am pretty sure that neither distance nor physical characteristics of my walls and furniture have anything to do with my problem.

Finally, since the interference only occurs when my neighbor makes phone calls, it's difficult to troubleshoot. E.g. I can't change the BS settings when the 2.4Ghz phone kills my AirPort signal. :/

Escher

[Emotionally Fragile Luke]

I found that someone with one of those Panasonic 2.4 GHz phones kills the airport no matter what channel they are on.