Weak wifi plus various mac equipment...anyone know about this stuff?

[LowLevelWhiiingeing]

Our wifi is not reaching some rooms of our house. We particularly wanted to be able to stream music around the house, so DP bought 3 Airport expresses. this worked in only one room.

I've just spoken to a talktalk engineer (here for another job) who said I should up date our ancient router (provided by talktalk years ago) and get one with a wider range.

DP reckons airport express can be used to boost wifi range, but it clearly isn't working like that

We also have a Mac Time Capsule, originally bought just for backing up. But I've just been reading up and this works as a router too??? So why do we have a router AND a Time Capsule??

So, in summary, we have:

Ancient talktalk provided router
Mac Time Machine
3 Airport Express.

So should I update the router?
Or use the Time Capsule as router?
Or do something else with the Airport Express??

TIA

I would get rid of the ancient router and use the time capsule. Hopefully you should see an improvement.
If not, you can get boosters (which you place around the house to boost the signal where needed)
I had an issue with the Mac and our 2-year-old D-link router, and invested in a Netgear N300, it's dual band router, so we can use the N band for our Mac. The signal is strong throughout the house, and we can get very good D/L speeds. Hope this helps!

I'm not quite sure why so many Airport Expresses were needed.... Airport Expresses are WIFI Routers, so they take in a network signal and then share that over WIFI to other devices that connect to it. The network signal they share is usually be a cabled network that it's plugged into. I believe that they can also connect onto a WIFI network and share that again.

To share a WIFI network it will need to be able to see that network. And it will be about as good as seeing that as any other computer will be. So, for example, if you have the main modem router (the thing plugged into the phone socket) downstairs and are unable to access WIFI in a bedroom upstairs then popping an Airport Express in that room isn't going to help. If a computer in that bedroom can't see the WIFI to connect to it then the Airport Express won't either.

However what you could do is to put the Airport Express halfway between the bedroom and the main modem router downstairs. The Airport Express can then act as a stepping stone, an intermediate link between upstairs and down.

Instructions for doing this are here ("Wi-Fi base stations: Setting up and configuring a Wireless Distribution System (802.11b/g)"):
support.apple.com/kb/HT4262

And again why you'd want so many of those stepping stones inside a house is a bit of a mystery, you must have a very big house :)

Time Capsule...

Yes the Time Capsule contains another wireless router, so think of it as being an Airport Express inside a box that also holds a disk drive.

"said I should up date our ancient router (provided by talktalk years ago) and get one with a wider range."

Well you've got lots of routers in the house already....

So what I would try first is to turn off your ancient router's wireless network. Then plug your Timecapsule into you router via a network cable and use that as your houses wireless network. You've now got a nice modern wireless network and that might, just might, get the wireless into rooms that can't currently see it.

Instructions for this are on this page under the heading "Creating a wireless network.":
www.apple.com/uk/timecapsule/setup.html

As said that might work, and it might not.

So what you could try doing, being as you've got the kit anyway, is plugging one of the Airport Expresses in on the landing upstairs (guessing you've got a typical scenario with the modem router under your stairs) and then using the instructions mentioned earlier ("Wi-Fi base stations: Setting up and configuring a Wireless Distribution System (802.11b/g)").

Using that articles definitions the "WDS main base station" would be the old modem router which is plugged into your Time Capsule which is acting as the "WDS relay base station" which is talking to the Air Port Express upstairs which is acting as the "WDS remote base station".

But in some houses that might still not cut it.

So what might be best would be trying to either run a network cable upstairs to one or more of the Airport Expresses or to use one of ways of using your home wiring as a network.

this is brilliant, thanks y'all.

we have 3 expresses (bought in a rush for a party, admittedly) for plugging into 3 speaker docks. We were aiming to stream party music from the laptop into different rooms around the house you see, but maybe we have misunderstood what they are! In the even we could only get music in two of three rooms with this method.

I'll have a go at getting rid of the old gear ad using airport express as a bridge.

thanks

Badger, what DO you do for a living? You could make a fortune if you charged us for your advice!

Shhhhh, wahwah, Badger's in it purely for the altruisitic glory, eh Badge?

"I'll have a go at getting rid of the old gear ad using airport express as a bridge."

I think you'll still need the "old gear".

Your Talk Talk device is, I guess, also a modem. It plugs into the phone line, connects to the internet and then also acts as a router and shares that internet connection out.

You'll still need that modem bit of what the box is doing, so connect it with a network cable to the Apple Time Capsule and then let the Time Capsule take on the wireless network provision. Ideally you'll also turn off the Talk Talk devices WIFI network, it won't be used any more and might just get in the way.

"Badger, what DO you do for a living?"

I work in IT, which I guess comes as no surprise :)

"Badger's in it purely for the altruisitic glory, eh Badge?"

It's payback, I get lots of hints and tips about children from this site, so in return I give back where I can. Children are harder than computers, they never come with a manual and you can't turn them off and on again :)

Oh I seeeee! I still need the modem bit but not the wifi bit. Gotcha...

Just setting up the time capsule after it's been offline for a bit... (moved house ya see).

I like your community spirit Badger and hey, if you ever need advice on slow cookers ('don't buy one") I'm yer gal.

ok, I'm now on the time capsule wifi. Badger, how do I switch off the talktalk wifi network? I can still 'see' it.

"ok, I'm now on the time capsule wifi"

Is the range any better?

"how do I switch off the talktalk wifi network?"

You'll probably need to access the router's config web page, and how to do that will vary according to the router. The general rule of thumb is that you want to connect to the old talk talk router's WIFI network and then go to something like 192.168.1.1 with your web browser. It's the place you would go to set up passwords and things, there should be an option to turn the WIFI off.

Or maybe not.

It might not cause a big problem to turn it off, it's just neater if it can be.

So, Badge-old-mate... Why is my wifi so crap in the living room?

This is either our network I'd open zone. I suspect my neighbours are blocking our signals. Probably russian spy's or some such.

Works better in the morning for some reason, then by lunchtime it thinks to itself 'had enough, I'm off' then proceeds to go slower than a snail, or not at all.

Bloody buggery BT - did I say that already?

iPad typing still crap. That's either using our wifi or open zone

"This is either our network I'd open zone."

The OpenZone will be just another BT wireless access point, and that you're getting it in your house indicates that there's a lot of WIFI signals floating around your area.

In another post you mention a little box that you plug in between your phone and your modem, you need this, you always need this. BT should have given you one in the beginning.

Try using a cable to connect your computer to the modem. Does that help matters?

If it does and everything is now fine all day long then your Broadband connection is fine. The problem is therefore with WIFI in your area, switching ISPs will not change that.

If it does not change anything then the problem is with your broadband connection, phone up BT and give them hell... Changing ISPs might fix this one.

Good morning folks

After extensive experimentation with airport expresses last night, I still can't get reliable wifi in our back room. It is kind of there, but it disappears.

It's not working using the airport express as a bridge due to a lack of power points in suitable places. The wifi signal from the time capsule seems to be of similar strength - if not weaker - than the talktalk modem thing.

So, is my next step to upgrade the modem?

"After extensive experimentation with airport expresses last night, I still can't get reliable wifi in our back room. It is kind of there, but it disappears."

Have you tried changing the channel that the Time Capsule is using? There might be intereference on the channel it's using now and another one might be clear. To do this you apparently:

1. Open AirPort Utility - Click Manual Setup
2. Click the Wireless tab just below the row of icons
3. Look for the Channel setting to make changes there
4. Update to save your new settings

And try to work out how to turn off the WIFI from the modem if you can, let's take as much potential interference away as possible.

A very quick test of this would be to try turning the modem completely off and see if that affects the Time Capsules WIFI. You won't be able to get onto the internet but computers and devices around the house should still be able to get a wireless connection. So look for the little icon (on Macs up the top on the tool bar, on PCs generally down the bottom near the clock) that shows if you're connected or not.

"So, is my next step to upgrade the modem?"

No.

The Time Capsule has some really rather good WIFI technology in it, it's better than the Air Port Expresses you have. So if that's having trouble it's pretty likely that anything else will.

So if this really isn't going to work I think you need to start looking at a solution involving wires...

What you can get is devices that use the power cables as a network. So you'd have this scenario...

1. Your Modem plugged into a phone socket.
2. Next to that a plug in device that's connected to your modem with a network cable.
3. In each room/area another plug in device.
4. Next to the plug in device an Air Port Expresses connected to the plug in device with a network cable.
5. Devices in that room/area connect to the Airport using WIFI.

We can go into that in more detail later, let's see if we can get what you've already got working without the need to buy more equipment.

wow, thanks Badger, that's brilliant. I'll report back.