Airport not showing signal level

[fukachu]

Hey everyone,

I'm pretty sure this picture below shows that aiport isnt showing any signal level. Maybe it is.. caues i'm not familiar with the colours but to me its not showing any signal. Second my airport in my menubar is constantly grey.

Now i do have a connection.. but its working terrible. im getting 100kbs transfer between my computers on a network. i'm about 20-25m away from router but not in direct view. The thing is even with a 100kbs transfer rate i would have thought i'd get some kind of signal showing. but i've got nothing. is there something not configured correctly?

thanks.

EDIT: i put this in software cause i was thinking its a software problem with OS X.. maybe this is better in teh hardware section

[divinatum]

with an ESSID like "Netgear" (the stock ESSID) it's possible your not connected to your router. Take some time and configure your router. (Change ESSID to something unique, add WPA security, change the channel it runs on etc.) Then try again, If its still low try moving your computer right next to the router (i'm assuming you have a laptop) To see if something in the construction of your house or a cordless phone is degrading the signal.

Also check for any firmware updates for the router.

[fukachu]

i am connected to my router.. as it says ni my first post im getting 100kbs download from my other computer on my network. im not on a laptop im on an iMac 20" not exactly a mobile computer to move around the house.

what im saying is my internet is working and my network connection is working but very slow 100kbs isnt exactly fast took 1 hour to sent 400mb. I'm wondering why on earth is airport not showing that im connected even thoguh i am. I'm trying to figure out how strong my signal is and if thats why my transfer speed is suffering. but according to this i have no signal. I'm trying to work out what is going on with my network thats all cause i think that transfer speed between computers is far too slow

My modem is Netgear DG834G

[Etc.]

25m seems like a long way from the router. Is your other computer equally far from the router and showing a strong signal?

[fukachu]

well my friend has the same router and can get a full signal at his back fence which is greater then 30m away. however this is not the point.

please.. the point is im getting a signal that allows my internet connect 512 to work at its full speed (50kbs download) and im able to get transfer of 100kbs betten my PC connected viet ethernet and my iMac connected via wireless.

this may not be a strong signal but why arent i getting any signal status at all... how can i have that much signal yet it doesnt show up at all in the signal level!?!?

[divinatum]

There's been a subtle change in the behavior of the menu bar's Airport signal indicator in Tiger. According to Macworld UK's review of Tiger, "If you're using Airport, you may think that the reception has suddenly improved because it shows more bars in the menu icon. Not so. Apple says 'we revised the Airport indicator so it better indicates the performance you should get with your current connection. In this case more bars means faster throughput.' My tests suggest the signal strength remains the same, but there's less noise."

I'd like to hear some clarification on this, because it sounds a bit odd. I mean, can you have a really good signal, but poor performance so only a bar or two will show? Or a really poor signal with good throughput so the bars are full until you suddenly move a foot to the left and lose the connection entirely?

borrowed from TUAW

you might want to look into a stumbler app like kismac to see signal strength in dB kismac

[fukachu]

thanks for your reply, appreciate it. so how much throughput do you need b4 you can even get one bar. sucks im only getting 100kb download cause i was going to go to a 1.5mbs connection but i'd be maxing out at 1mb :s

[divinatum]

To be honest, I don't know. But use kismac to see a real signal strength. I'm still going to go with someone around you has another router named Netgear (the default ID for netgear routers.. duh) and your accidently connecting to theirs. It's a rare occasion, but it can happen. Just to double check.. change the SSID on the router to a unique name.

[fukachu]

if im connected to another router that would be a decent effort since the nearest house is 50m away.. the other one is over 100m. but i'l try that suggestion and im getting that program now since i wasnt at home earlier. thanks for your help/sugestions

EDIT: Update - i have an SNR average of 10 which means about a 5mps connection according to a chart i found on the net. its considered very low. it seems airport wont even show it up when its this low. hmm... not a lot i can do about this.

thanks for the help!!

Edited May 24, 2005 by Fizical

[divinatum]

you might want to look into replacing the antenna on your wireless router with a directional antenna