Improving WiFi Network Range
WiFi networks can reach only so far.
The range of wireless equipment such as the radios and antennas that are built into consumer equipment such as the AirPort Extreme Base Station can vary from network to network, even minute to minute. But when one node of a WiFi network is too far from another, communications between the two break down, and your network doesn’t work.
While WiFi signals are supposed to reach 150 feet in any direction from a gateway, that optimistic figure is rarely reached indoors. One common cause is absorption. Building materials between two points can soak up so much of the signal that one device can’t detect another. Brick is particularly bad for WiFi because brick retains water, which readily absorbs WiFi signals.
As a result, a gateway that delivers a perfect high-speed connection to a laptop from 500 feet away when it has a direct line of sight might be invisible to a laptop that’s 50 feet away when there’s a brick wall between them.
There are two main indicators that your wireless network is having range problems. First, WiFi networks you know are there don’t show up in the wireless menu. Second, when you do connect to a network, the wireless icon in the system menu bar shows just one or two signal-strength bars and frequently slips to no bars.
