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machineknight · Oct 26, 2005, 08:22 PM

Hi everyone. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. My Airport Express has been giving me a lot of problems lately (I know it's not my network). I come home from work and notice that I've been "disconnected" from the internet. As in, there are no signals on the signal bar. However, when I click on the signal bar icon in the menu bar, I notice my network. And I can hop onto my network no problem (as I am right now, actually).

After speaking with my ISP (Comcast), if I reset the modem and AAX, then everything is fine and dandy. A few days of it, and I'm still golden. Then I'll be watching a movie on my computer and BAM my 'net has been dropped. The light on the Express still shows green so I have no idea whats going on. I just tried resetting it, along with restarting my computer and still nothing.

When I go to Airport Admin, it can't find my base station at all. Rescanning or whatever doesn't help either.

I've read a few posts here and there on Google, but none seem to give me a definitive answer. I use Tomato torrent, but thats a rarity. I really only notice that I dont have connection because iChat is disconnected and so is AIM.

If anyone can help, it'd be greatly appreciated!!

I'm running OS X.4.2, Airport Admin 4.2 (so I'm assuming I've got AAX firmware 6.2 but I can't check since AAdmin can't find my base station), on a 933MHz quicksilver, with 1.25 GHz RAM.

Thanks in advance...

macanon · Oct 26, 2005, 09:28 PM

Can you reset the airport express? I've worked lots with the other base stations but not the expresses.

machineknight · Oct 27, 2005, 05:14 AM

Originally Posted by macanon

Can you reset the airport express? I've worked lots with the other base stations but not the expresses.

Yeah, I hard reset it, along with resetting the modem. Still nada.

drainyoo · Oct 27, 2005, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by machineknight

Hi everyone. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. My Airport Express has been giving me a lot of problems lately (I know it's not my network). I come home from work and notice that I've been "disconnected" from the internet. As in, there are no signals on the signal bar. However, when I click on the signal bar icon in the menu bar, I notice my network. And I can hop onto my network no problem (as I am right now, actually).

After speaking with my ISP (Comcast), if I reset the modem and AAX, then everything is fine and dandy. A few days of it, and I'm still golden. Then I'll be watching a movie on my computer and BAM my 'net has been dropped. The light on the Express still shows green so I have no idea whats going on. I just tried resetting it, along with restarting my computer and still nothing.

When I go to Airport Admin, it can't find my base station at all. Rescanning or whatever doesn't help either.

I've read a few posts here and there on Google, but none seem to give me a definitive answer. I use Tomato torrent, but thats a rarity. I really only notice that I dont have connection because iChat is disconnected and so is AIM.

If anyone can help, it'd be greatly appreciated!!

I'm running OS X.4.2, Airport Admin 4.2 (so I'm assuming I've got AAX firmware 6.2 but I can't check since AAdmin can't find my base station), on a 933MHz quicksilver, with 1.25 GHz RAM.

Thanks in advance...

Dude, I have the exact same problem. Its been happening for almost a year now. Every few weeks, my signal drops for no reason but the AE is fine and my modem and router are fine. The ONLY way I can get it to connect again is to reset the AE and reconfigure it. Sometimes that doesnt even work. Its really annoying and Im close to throwing it in the garbage and buying a Basestation.

Ive posted about it here a few times and no one seems to know the problem. I first thought it was my router so I went out and bought a new one but that didnt change a thing.

If you find and answer please let me know. Thanks.

cSurfr · Oct 29, 2005, 03:45 PM

My Airport Express does the EXACT same thing as well. No idea what's causing it, but the computer won't see the express again until I restart it. . .

machineknight · Oct 29, 2005, 09:52 PM

cSurfr and drainyoo,

I just tried a bunch of methods (after reading various posts), and so far whatever setup I've got right now seems to work. Here's what I've changed (I'll post if my setup fails):

Airport Admin:
Airport Tab
- Changed my "Channel" to 9.
- Under "Wireless Options" changed "multicast rate" from 1 to 2. Enabled interference robustness. Changed my transmitter power from 100% to 50%. (My Express is near enough to me that my connection isn't affected and I still have full bars.)
- Under "Change Wireless Security" changed encryption type from WPA to WPA and WPA2.
Network Tab
- Changed my DHCP lease to 60min (tho I don't think this really matters).

Mind you, I have no idea what any of these do, but I changed most of these at once and my network seems to be A-OK. ......for now. Since I live in an apt complex, it may be that a 2.4GHz phone or something else is disrupting my connection. I'm hoping the setup lasts. If not, I'm fresh out of ideas.

Let me know if you try my setup and it does (or doesn't) work!

ghporter · Oct 30, 2005, 10:37 AM

Ok here's a bit of data on some of your changes. First off, dropping connections (while the equipment says things are still working) often occurs because of interference. While WiFi channels aren't exactly analogous to TV channels, they are somewhat similar; changing to a new channel can remove your network from the frequency band area that is experiencing interference. Further, "interference robustness" is an option that also helps defeat interference.

How am I doing so far?

Multicast rate may or may not have anything to do with your specific issues. To be honest, I haven't seen a need for it in a regular, surfing-type network. Reducing your transmitter power may be a good thing, or it may turn around and bite you in the butt-more power on your channel can override interfering signals; if you have more problems, this is the first thing I'd fix, and I'd change it back to 100%. WPA2 is supposedly more secure than basic WPA, but again, that shouldn't have a lot to do with dropping connections. If it works for you, keep it-you can't have too much security-but I don't think this helped fix the problem.

DHCP lease time has NO effect on your dropping connections. But messing with it is useful in a security sense because it means that when your base renews the lease (reassigns the IP address) for a specific device, that device has to check in and if you're using MAC address filtering, you can block intruders through this mechanism.

Unfortunately some of the more nebulous issues with networking, such as dropping wireless connections, are often best solved by "try something, see if it fixes the problem, and if not change it back and try something else." If you're systematic (and record what you did!) you can at least be progressive in your attempts and find out what isn't related to the problem. And as always, ask here and if someone knows something about it, you'll get some answers.

Cheers!

drainyoo · Nov 17, 2005, 04:18 PM

Originally Posted by machineknight

cSurfr and drainyoo,

I just tried a bunch of methods (after reading various posts), and so far whatever setup I've got right now seems to work. Here's what I've changed (I'll post if my setup fails):

Airport Admin:
Airport Tab
- Changed my "Channel" to 9.
- Under "Wireless Options" changed "multicast rate" from 1 to 2. Enabled interference robustness. Changed my transmitter power from 100% to 50%. (My Express is near enough to me that my connection isn't affected and I still have full bars.)
- Under "Change Wireless Security" changed encryption type from WPA to WPA and WPA2.
Network Tab
- Changed my DHCP lease to 60min (tho I don't think this really matters).

Mind you, I have no idea what any of these do, but I changed most of these at once and my network seems to be A-OK. ......for now. Since I live in an apt complex, it may be that a 2.4GHz phone or something else is disrupting my connection. I'm hoping the setup lasts. If not, I'm fresh out of ideas.

Let me know if you try my setup and it does (or doesn't) work!

How is it going so far?

wingchuner · Nov 21, 2005, 03:46 PM

This happens to me sometimes as well...another problem that may be causing this is an actual Aplication. Have you recently installed any new apps? Also haxies(if you are running any)can effect this. What i suggest is to create a new account log into the new one and see if the problem presists, if it does not then it might be an Application conflicting w/the AE.