[gomariners]

I live in NYC. Needless to say, since I am not fabulously wealthy, I have a lot of nearby neighbors. Recently, they all seem to have bought wireless routers as I now see (at times) 7 or 8 networks (including my own) on my powerbook. The problem is that sometimes (often!) my network will drop out (even at full strength) and vanish from the toolbar and sometimes even from the available list of networks. This could be that in addition to the other networks, someone is using a cordless phone or something like that, but in the event it's just too many routers, I'm thinking I don't see why I should be the one losing internet. (Especially as probably they have windows boxes full of viruses using the bandwidth to perform DOS attacks - or so I tell myself to feel better.)

Anyhow, I don't know enough about 802.11g/b to know if this would work. Right now I have an airport express - I like the airtunes - if I bought an airport extreme w/ antenna, would the increase in signal strength make my network just dominate whatever channel it is on? I'm really at a loss here. Airtunes is near useless, and about 1/2 the time at evening, morning and weekend hours the wireless is inaccessible. Suggestions welcome!

[mduell]

The Airport Express isn't known for having good range, but the Airport Base Station is an expensive way to go ($200!) just so you can attach an external antenna. Look at access points from D-Link (my pick), Linksys, and Netgear that allow you to connect an external antenna; the access point should be $40-50 and an external antenna is $20-45.

While an external antenna will let you drown everyone else out for now, your neighbors could do the same (although you would hopefully still be able to maintain a connection to your access point due to your proximity to it). A better long-term solution would be to switch to 802.11a (in the larger and less crowded 5.8Ghz band), but Apple doesn't support 802.11a with their Airport cards so you'd need a PC Card with a dongle hanging out the side.

[ghporter]

Have you tried just changing the channel your base station is on? Just about all wireless access points come out of the box on channels 6 or 7; if you go with channel 1 or 11, you could sidestep a lot of the other traffic.

[gomariners]

I have tried changing the channel. I think some of the routers just seek out open channels. But the massive increase in signal strength should do it?

Since most of the networks have the default names and some have no encryption, I think these people in general have friends/relatives setting up their stations (certainly some of them, I know). Anyhow, so I think they won't go out and buy an antenna and signal booster.

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by gomariners

Since most of the networks have the default names and some have no encryption, I think these people in general have friends/relatives setting up their stations (certainly some of them, I know). Anyhow, so I think they won't go out and buy an antenna and signal booster.

Well, your problem is solved, then, just use their connections. And download a lot of pr0n or p2p music while you're at it.

[John Strung]

You might try a directional antenna.

[Tomchu]

What I would do is pick up a Linksys WRT54G/WRT54GS (make sure the G is not a v5!), then install DD-WRT on it. It's 3rd-party firmware that allows you to make lots of nice changes to the way the router works.

I would then proceed to pump up the transmit power from the default 28mW to about 70mW, change the channel to either 1 or 11 (best channels since most routers come default on 6), and possibly get Linksys' upgrade antennas for that router. Set the router to G-only mode, allow only yourself to connect to the wireless (through MAC address restrictions), and then watch as people cry because they can't get on their own networks, while you're sailing along smoothly. :-)

[ghporter]

Tomchu's suggestion is a good one (particularly the part about NOT getting a V5!), except that you are likely to make unpleasant acquaintances with this method, AND you'll have to set up pretty strong WPA encryption to keep the other wireless folks around you from using your network.

[gomariners]

Thanks for the suggestions! Can I interface through Airtunes with the Linksys? WPA is fine w/ me (still need the old 802.11b for my g3 PB, tho)

[Langdon]

Originally Posted by gomariners

Can I interface through Airtunes with the Linksys?

no, only the Airport Express will

[gomariners]

Right, I meant could I use my present AEX airtunes w/ the Linksys, either through the ethernet port, or as a range extender? I didn't mean could I stream airtunes directly through the Linksys.