AirPort Extreme Base Station

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My house is quite large. Will this cover it all? How big exactly is this thing's range?

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    Like any device that uses radio waves, range is very subjective. Walls, concrete, metal etc can all impact range of any wireless device. For best results, you should attempt to place the AirPort Extreme at the highest point possible in your house closest to the center of any living spaces you plan on utilizing it. For best results, you may need to experiment with the base station location as some locations may provide better results than others. Trying out different WiFi channels may also help, as a neighbor could be using the same or an adjacent channel to your chosen channel, which can cause interference.

    There are third-party antenna kits available for sale that have the potential to increase the range of the device. While many of these kits might significantly increase the range of the product, I cannot vouch for any of the manufacturer's purported claims as they are not Apple products.

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  • While the Marketing hype may say differently in my real world tests I have been able to reliably reproduce an effective radius (distance from your computer to the base station) of 80 feet. This is in a business environment with much metal and concrete, so in a wood framed home the performance may be better.

    Things that will affect this range include Refrigerators, Microwave ovens, large metal masses of some kind such as steel or copper piping, 5.4 ghz and 2.4 ghz wireless phones, and things of that nature.

    You can easily extend your network with an additional airport base station or an airport express base station.

    I replaced two older (UFO style) airport extreme base stations with one of the latest "N" equipped units in a home that was about 1800 sq ft two levels. We even had service about 90 feet away from the base station in the back yard.

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