[Ti] Airport range

[Jim Freeman]

I'm trying to improve the Airport coverage in my apartment. I just 
moved my Airport Express base station into the living room to take 
advantage of the stereo and to locate it more centrally (AX + DSL). I 
still have good internet access with my 12" PBG4 1.33 ghz in my office 
and just about everywhere else, but my wife still has intermittent 
access in her office with her dual usb iBook. This is the latest 
configuration. I've tried several others.

What's interesting this time is that my PowerBook works just fine in 
her office. With both laptops side by side on her desk, I get 2-3 bands 
in the menu bar airport icon, while she gets 0-1.

Could this be a problem with airport extreme not being quite backward 
compatible? In a previous configuration I had my old gray 1st gen ABS 
set up and she still had lousy coverage in her office, although the old 
ABS was further from her office than the Airport Express is now.

Could her Airport card be "wearing out" or something like that? She has 
decent access when she's a bit closer to the base station. Do I need 
another Airport Express to "extend the range"? Would a full fledged 
Airport Extreme base station have a longer range?

Jim