Geekery

I live in what I would consider to be a reasonably small house — but it's large enough that it has become a problem for my wireless network to maintain a strong, durable connection throughout. I'm not entirely sure why this has gotten so much worse over time, though lately I've noticed that the signal seems as though it's being overpowered by interference from others in the immediate neighborhood, even in this rural community. (I was an early adopter, back in the day.)

I tried carefully positioning the router at different angles, which seemed to help (though it really shouldn't have). I tried changing channels. I tried almost everything. I tried moving everything into the garage, but that didn't do much to help this particular problem.

Then along came Apple's (relatively) new dual-band AirPort Extreme, which promised to allow me to maintain a better and faster network and still support the half-dozen devices around the house that rely on an older standard. I like "better" and "faster" (and my older router had been such a source of irritation over the past several years that I was eager to be rid of it), so I bought one.

The initial results were very disappointing — I was having the same problems maintaining a connection, particularly in my office. (What is it about this house?) But here's where I was able to deploy a secret weapon: Apple's companion AirPort Express, a device I could use to extend the range of my network.

That did it. It was a bother to configure the mechanism to extend the network, even with detailed instructions (I just gave up and let the devices do it themselves), but now that it's working, it just works — I get a strong, consistent signal throughout my house. It can even let me know if there is a problem. (That should be a good deal more useful than wondering why I suddenly can't seem to download my email and having to go down to the garage to check if the router is still working, which used to happen from time to time.) It's one less thing for me to think about it (or to be mildly frustrated by).

All is right, with my wireless world, at least.