Bill, I have had the exact same setup you are describing (other than I have a Dr. Bott antenna) and have experienced the same difficulties. We lived in an 800 sq. foot two story while our home was being built, the Airport Extreme was on the second floor. I could point the antenna various directions and really improve the reception, our daughter lived across the street, the antenna was close to the window so pointing toward her house allowed me to walk across the street, go inside her home and get reception, yet I couldn't get any strength in my own home if I went downstairs, just too many walls to go through, two many obstructions.
In the home we built the Airport Extreme is on the lower level, back in the corner where all the utilities come into the home, the demarcation point for electric, cable, DSL, phone, etc. I have mounted the Airport Extreme about 7 feet off the floor, the antenna beside it, and I can get NO reception anywhere other than the lower level. To the rescue the Airport Expresses! I have another Airport Express in the lower level, this helps with the other end of the house, and I also have connected the Express to the Bose Theater speakers so now I have remote music from any of the computers using iTunes from the server. On the main floor I have two of the Airport express units, one in the living room, hooked to a Bose Theater system, another Express located a good distance from the first unit, this is hooked to a Bose speaker system above the kitchen cabinets, so again remote music to any area of the house. The third level has the say system repeated, so now anywhere in the home, any room, any bath, closet, you name it I have full strength of signal. Right now I am in Williamsburg, VA in a Hampton. This place was just built, only 30 days old, the construction was made to withstand hurricane force winds so they tell you when you register that you will not receive wireless connection due to the construction methods, only on the first floor near the lobby, and even though I am on the second floor, right next to a window overlooking the lobby I only get one bar, sometimes two, so I have to use ethernet. I imagine there are too many bends and objects in your home for the signal to have a straight path, of course others may have a better solution. John R. On Sep 22, 2006, at 11:52 PM, Bill Micou wrote: > Hello Group- > Looks like a wet week-end, perfect time to solve my only Mac > problem. I have had an AirPort Extreme for over a year and have > never been happy with the reception. I have it sitting on a top > shelf of a 2nd floor room in a not-huge house. I start losing the > signal almost as soon as I take my PowerBook G4 down to the first > floor, even though I'm almost directly under the room where the > AirPort is. I added a Hawkings Techology antenna, which has a jack > made for the AirPort, but didn't really see much improvement. I also > added an AirPort Express to the basement area in hopes of boosting > the signal. That helped alittle, but only in the basement. > I heard on a podcast that airport channels should be set on 1, 6, or > 11. Both my units are set on channel 10. What channel do users in > this group use? Should I reset both devices to default, and start > over with the airport admin utility? Should both be set to the same > channel? > Always appreciate any help. > Bill Micou > _______________________________________________ > The next Louisville Computer Society meeting is September 26. > Posting address: MacGroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu > Information: http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup _______________________________________________ The next Louisville Computer Society meeting is September 26. Posting address: MacGroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu Information: http://www.math.louisville.edu/mailman/listinfo/macgroup
