[X4U] Airport Extreme Behavior

[David R.Boag]

I just bought a new Airport Extreme yesterday. Spent a good part of  
the day trying to set the thing set up properly. I have my Mac Mini  
connected via Enet, and did most of the initial setup on that.  
Getting the connection to the internet didn't take too long. What  
took forever was setting up the wireless. I was going to try to use  
WPA/WPA2 Personal security for my wireless communications with my PC  
laptop, which has a D-Link DWL-G650 access card--802.11b & g  
compatible. The laptop is running W2k. (I am waiting for Leopard to  
be released to get a MBP 15" to replace it.)

Here is what I know. And just sos you knows, I was setting the laptop  
up wirelessly but in the same room as the AE.

When I initially tried to set up the laptop with WPA PSK security,  
the card would connect, but every 2 seconds, I'd lose the connection,  
rendering the connection completely useless. When I removed all  
security from the AE, I was able to connect, but even when I was only  
5 feet away, I was only seeing link signal strengths of roughly  
50-60%, never higher. I tried again to set up the WPA security, and  
got the same results. I finally changed to WEP 128-bit security and  
it appears to be working, although I would prefer WPA. And BTW, I  
called Apple support to verify my AE settings were correct. They are.

Ended up spending a useless $30 on a support call to D-Link which  
didn't help at all.

Now the interesting part: I was setting up the laptop in the same  
room as the AE to try to maximize the signal, but I normally use the  
laptop downstairs in a different room. When I have the laptop there,I  
actually get very good signal strength ~90% on WEP security. Still  
get similar results with WPA turned on.

Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior from the AE in WPA/WPA2  
mode? Any suggestions?

I'm hoping when I get my MBP that I'll be able to set up the AE for  
WPA and get pretty much seamless performance, but until then, I  
suppose it's WEP or nothing.
--
David R. Boag, DDS
spikedds at bellsouth.net
http://www.southatlantadental.com/