[geeks] Airport Express

[sammy ominsky]

On Jul 15, 2004, at 09:21, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> Is your neighbor's access point "open", so your notebook tries to 
> switch to
> the stronger signal on channel 11?

Nope. It's actually a fairly weak signal from everywhere but the back 
of my bedroom, and it's not  open. He's using WEP (that I haven't tried 
to crack). I do suspect he's some sort of pseudo-geek, as his WLAN is 
named "BelligerentLaboratories".


> Have you tried upping the power of your access point (if possible)? I 
> know
> some linksys APs have the ability to adjust power output via 
> software...

Apparently it's doable by recompiling firmware and you have to fake the 
checksum somehow. Someone mentioned it to me, but with no details and 
I've been too busy this week to look into it. I have an editorial 
deadline at noon today, and about 15 pages left to write.


> Tried any upgrade antennas? External amplifiers?

No. Unfortunately, they're not readily available here and I don't have 
the patience to order stuff off the 'net and wait.


> When you get the Airport Express, set it to channel 1, that way none 
> of your
> APs (or your neighbor) *should* interfere with each other...

My understanding was that if there's a WLAN already in place, the AE 
will pick it up, join it, and configure itself as an additional AP. 
That's exactly what I want. I just hope it doesn't do the same thing 
the card in my powerbook does, and reset regularly.


> When you know what changed, you'll know what your problem is ;^)

Unfortunately, being in a rented apartment for the time being, I may 
not be able to rectify the situation so easily. I can't exactly demand 
the people upstairs buy a different phone. :(


> Of course, this assume you have a cat 5 connection in the room with the
> Airport Express.

No, no. See above re: how it joins a network.


> My hope is to upgrade to support 802.11g and add USB printer to be 
> shared
> between PC and Mac WiFi clients. I don't think the iTunes streaming 
> will be
> used, but that is a nice feature...

Ah, I will be using it for that, since as I've told my wife repeatedly 
"It's a laptop, not a stereo system". All my music is on my powerbook, 
and playing it loudly enough for all to hear is just not possible. But 
there's a system right across the room that'll do nicely.


---sambo