Fixing a Weak Wireless Signal

Time_capsule
If you notice that the signal from your Apple Airport Extreme or Time Capsule has suddenly got weaker, it's not a hardware failure but very likely interference from neighbouring devices like a baby monitor, wireless phone or a neightbours router. You can change the Radio Channel Selection using the Airport Utility App on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. Here's how you change it on your Mac. Go to the Applications > Utilities folder:

  • Double click on the Airport Utility.
  • Select your Airport Extreme or Time Capsule in the menu to the left.
  • Click on the 'Manual Setup' button at the bottom of the window. 
  • Click on the 'Wireless' tab to display the wireless settings.
  • Change the 'Radio Channel Selection' option to 'Manual'.
  • Click on the 'Edit' button which displays the different channels.
  • If you have the current version of the Airport Extreme it has two channels, the 2.4 GHz Channel for devices like your iPhone and 802.11b/g Macs and the 5 GHz Channel for devices like the newer Mac using 802.11n. 
  • Set the Channel to one of the Channel numbers. 
  • Click the 'Done' and then the 'Update' buttons to reboot your Airport Extreme. 
  • You should now see the signal strength on your Mac increase dramatically. 

If you still have a weak signal, change the 'Radio Channel Selection' until the signal strength has increased and there is no interference from neighbouring devices. Let me know if this helps to increase the signal on your Airport Extreme or Time Capsule?

Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.6

Time_capsule_2
Logged onto my older iMac this morning and could not access any of my Time Capsules containing my photos and data. Brought up the Airport Utility application in the Utilities folder and my Airport Extreme had an error code showing. It also indicated a firmware update was available. I then logged onto my MacBook Air and my Time Capsules were accessible. Seems the Time Capsules were accessible from my MacBook Air running Lion but not from my iMac running Snow Leopard. I proceeded to upgrade the firmware of my Airport Extreme and three Time Capsules from version 7.5.1 to version 7.6. All the Time Capsules are once again accessible from both Snow Leopard and Lion again. Here is the Apple support knowledge base article for the Firmware Update 7.6.