[tonton]

Recently my wireless reception has gone way down, to the point that I sometimes lose connection on my MacBook when it's just 10 feet from the router, if it's pointing the wrong way. I am used to getting full reception from the bathroom, and now I can't get any.

I suspect a new neighbor has something that's interfering greatly with my reception. How do I fix this? I'd rather not get into a wireless power war when my apartment is just 400 square feet.

[Cold Warrior]

You should use a utility like AirMoose to scan for and view wifi connections. If there is one on your channel or an adjacent one, you should change your router's channel to one that is unused and preferably not next to a used one.

If you still get interference, it could be from another 2.4 GHz device or a microwave. You could move to the draft-n hardware, which uses the 5 GHz spectrum — assuming your Mac is n-capable.

[ghporter]

If the problem is intermittent, it may simply be that a neighbor has a bad microwave oven or a 2.4GHz phone. Both work on the same frequency band, which is shared by WiFi. If Cold Warrior's instructions don't help, or there are no adjacent networks to blame for the problems, try changing channels on your network anyway. If that still doesn't hurt, relocating your router or changing the antennas' orientation (play with changing their angles until you get the best signal at your computer) might help. THEN (assuming you don't already have a Draft-N router) it may be time to get into a completely different spectrum with Draft N.

[Cold Warrior]

I'm in a similar boat. My microwave completely hoses my wifi connection. The Linksys WRT54G sits about 10 feet from it, but I can't move it because that's where my only good phone line is (I have DSL). So I'm SOL until I decide to upgrade to draft N, where I plan to use the 5 GHz spectrum exclusively.

[ghporter]

You could spend less and upgrade the phone line that goes to a better location. Really. My microwave is on a counter on an outside wall, and my access point is sort of centered-ish in the front of the house, so even if the oven leaks (which it doesn't), it won't hurt me too much. And my phones are all 5.8GHz or wired.

Seriously, one good run of Cat5 from your phone connection box to where you want your router and modem to go could solve a lot of problems. It would also allow you to have a centralized DSL filter and thus avoid all those microfilters all over the house.