Time capaule droping signal :(

[johnbusby]

Hi All

Just recently I have been having a problem with my time capsule dropping wifi intermittently. Had been working fine before, anyone with the same problems or an idea of a fix?

Cheers

John

 

[zygon8]

Are you up to date with firmware updates?I had problem with airports and latest update solved problem.

 

[johnbusby]

Was on the latest firmware but have just rolled back to 9.5.2 to see if that helps. Ive also moved the TC tos somewhere better ventilated. Could overheating be causing the drops?

 

[CamFire]

Overheating in the past has caused many TC woes, so you should be able to search and get some information on your issue and see the connections.

 

[johnbusby]

Ive got it all backed up and its under warranty so, to be honest, it failing wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I picked it up last night and it was very warm to touch

 

[MAGiK]

I have a TC and it is slightly war to the touch all the time but hasn't had any issues, however this might sound stupid, but it might be your internet provider!!!!

Sometimes connectivity will drop due to peak times and so on! we have 30mb virgin and on a saturday night struggle to get 2mb of speed! :O

 

[johnbusby]

Sorry, I wasnt really clear. When I say drop I meant disconnects completely so I cant even access the internet or the data stored on the drive. I usually get an error message saying the server has lost connection.

I have applecare so perhaps I should give them a ring and see what they say but the problem is so intermittent that I can see it being a frustrating experience!

 

[Bennybeanbag]

After the recent update I had a similar problem. I simply unplugged it for a couple of minutes then plugged it back in and its been fine ever since. It started after the I did the last update so I assume it was something to do with that.

 

[johnbusby]

I restored to factory defaults and then rolled back the firmware to 9.5.2 to no avail - what happened to "it just works"?

 

[Bennybeanbag]

Have you tried powering off and on though?

 

[johnbusby]

Loads of times, when it drops signal that is the only way to get it going again. It will then work without problems until the next crash which requires another reboot

 

[mikelj]

My TC (latest revision) suffered a similar problem once, although weirdly I could happily surf the Internet but couldn't locate or connect to the TC HDD. When I took my MBP upstairs nearer to the TC I could access the HDD (so maybe a signal quality issue). Either way, I reset the channel selection by selecting manual, restarting and selecting automatic again (and a further restart). That seemed to solve it and I've not had any issues since, so maybe worth a try?

 

[johnbusby]

Cheers Ill give it a go

 

[CamFire]

Excellent point made on the channel used.

Use AboutThisMac > MoreInfo > SystemReport > Wifi to figure out what the surrounding wifi settings are and configure the TC to use one that is un-allocated.

For SnowLeopard, its AboutThisMac>MoreInfo>Airport.

 

[johnbusby]

That great hopefully I can sort this out. I have just reset everything (modem and time capsule) to default settings and reconfigured in the hope that it will sort my problem out. It pretty disappointing given the price of the kit...

 

[bpsmith]

I was just going to suggest that. Installing latest FW or resetting to older ones is one thing, but the settings still stay active. The only way to rule out a SW issue is to to a full reset to factory settings and start again.

Fingers crossed for you.

 

[CamFire]

A factory setting of the TC will return the channel to 6 (2.4GHz) - a value just about used by every wireless router, even the so-called smart BT ones.

 

[bpsmith]

A factory setting of the TC will return the channel to 6 (2.4GHz) - a value just about used by every wireless router, even the so-called smart BT ones.

True and that will need to be tweaked after reset obviously.

 

[johnbusby]

Cheers guys Ill be doing all the above when I get home from work. However I was having the issues on the 5GHz network which is relatively infrequently used.

Is there any chance that this is a hardware issue?

 

[bpsmith]

Potentially a hardware issue, once all other possibilities exhausted. You are aware that the 5Ghz network has far less range than the 2.4Ghz I assume? Are the issues there when in the same room as the Extreme?

 

[johnbusby]

Yes, they there a couple of feet away from each other

 

[bpsmith]

Do you get the same issues on the 2.4Ghz feed?

 

[johnbusby]

Its not something I have tested, do you think it is something worth considering? I did briefly connect to test the difference in speeds and noticed the drop was significant 14mb->7mb

 

[surfymark]

I often have issues with the 5Ghz feed but my 2.4Ghz feed is rock-solid.

Previous to the latest update my 5Ghz was pretty good but it definitely seems worse since this update.

HTH
M

 

[johnbusby]

Cheers, Im going to drop my 5Ghz network and see how that goes, fingers crossed