AirPort Express loses network and will not reconnect

Question

Hi all,
I've seen several postings about similar issues but I'm not sure if mine has an answer or not. I have owned and used an Airport Express (A1084) for a number of years and it's always worked flawlessly. I recently acquired a second one and moved my original one up one floor to extend my G network and stream music to a different room. Now the Airport will lose its connection to the network every few days and then just blink amber until the power is cut off to the unit. It seems to always reconnect with no issue after the power has been shut off for a second. It has not moved that far away from it's original location and it is not placed even close to the effective range of the main wireless router, so I don't believe that incoming signal loss is the problem.
All the settings on the Express are the same as they have been for years, so the only variables are the addition of the new Airport Express, which I don't have set up to accept wireless connections, and the new location of the device.
Does anyone have some suggestions on a direction to go to trouble shoot this problem?

Answer 1

You need to remember that most newer routers sold in the last 3-4 years allow their users to "hide" their network. In other words, the network is operating but your computer, or one of the commonly used utilities used to scan and display other networks likely will not be able to "see" these networks.
In general, you should probably assume there are twice as many networks as your utility can "see" and since you can't see them, there's no way to know what channels they are using. So, it becomes a process of experimentation to try to find a a good channel for your wireless network.
It's not just your cordless phone that can cause potential problems for your network. My neighbor....across the street...could drop the speed on my wireless to a crawl if he was in his front yard talking on his cordless phone. Again, there's not much you can do about this, except to know that there are far more forms of interference than most users ever imagine.
Since most cordless phones operate at the 2.4 GHz frequency, same as your wireless network, you may be encountering some of the difficulties that I have with the neighbors cordless phones at least 100 feet away.
I solved my issues by using 5 GHz wireless as there are for the moment, much fewer networks using this frequency band. You may need to look at that possibility as well if your problems continue.