Feed Sign in with OpenID OpenID

Simon Willison’s Weblog

Early adoption, and Airport Express cut-outs

I don’t know quite how I did it, but in the past 48 hours I’ve become an Apple early adopter. I spent the weekend in Minnesota, where a visit to the Mall of America (aka Unholy Temple to Consumerism) resulted in a visit to the Apple store, and a visit to the Apple store resulted in a shiny new fourth generation 20 GB iPod. Of course, the seven and a half hour journey back south would go so much faster with an iTrip to play with, so I picked one of those up as well.

The Apple store also provided me with the most intensely Apple moment of my life, when I overheard a store employee in a blue t-shirt, with blue hair, holding a blue mini iPod, telling a customer: “Oh, and of course there’s the ’cool’ factor”.

The iPod is a lot of fun, especially now that I’ve enabled it as a hard drive (through an option hidden in iTunes for some reason) and started messing around with it at the command line. Here’s an iPod tip: if you want to access the music files stored on the device, open up a terminal and cd to /Volumes/iPod/iPod_Control/Music. The Finder won’t display the files (presumably as a nod to the music industry’s legal eagles) but you can still get at them using good old fashioned Unix commands. The next step is to set up some kind of automated backup script for all my other important files.

Another iPod trick for the thrifty: if 20+ dollars seems too much for a case, a sock makes an excellent low budget alternative.

Gadget number two was ordered nearly a month ago, but arrived this morning: an Airport Express. If Gartner thought that the iPod was a corporate security risk they’re going to have a field day with this thing: it’s the size of a power brick, and setting up wireless access to a network is as easy as plugging in an ethernet cable and hooking it up to a power socket. It’s an instant network hole in the palm of your hand.

Mine’s now doing service as a wireless speaker cable (to a set of JBL Creature Speakers), and have actually just started randomly cutting out. Here’s hoping it’s just a temporary glitch. I’m also crossing my fingers for Apple to release a software update that lets me channel all of the sound output from my laptop through the Airport Express, rather than just music from iTunes.

Actually, the random cut outs are getting really irritating now. Any other early adopters experienced this problem?

Update: Turning off the “Use Inteference Robustness” option for my AirPort card seems to have fixed the cut outs. Update a few minutes later: nope, they’re back with a vengeance. Not good.

Posted 3rd August 2004 at 5:02 am

This is Early adoption, and Airport Express cut-outs by Simon Willison, posted on 3rd August 2004.

View blog reactions

Next: Participatory journalism

Previous: Improving online credibility

22 comments

  1. It's good to read someone's having fun with the 20GB 4G, because mine is underway :D

    I'm also looking for some nice speakers, but not a big name, because it would get a little bit too expensive. Too bad, but I'll live to tell the tale.

    Rob Mientjes - 3rd August 2004 05:48 - #

  2. I just wanted to say, as someone who is on a tight-budget, that I really appreciate your "inexpensive iPod case" idea. I plan on using this idea the very second my said tight-budget allows for the purchase of an iPod. Great tips.

    Colin D. Devroe - 3rd August 2004 06:40 - #

  3. I've been using the Express for a couple of days now without any kind of cut outs. Setup was a bit harder than expected, though, because the Express would randomly switch between green and orange status, and I actually had to reset the thing a couple of times before it was properly setup. The manual doesn't even mention what kind of problem is indicated by a constant orange status light. Hmm.

    And about the Express only getting audio from iTunes, I personally think that's a big advantage. Before, I would have to quit all sound-producing apps (like Mail with the new mail notification sound) if I wanted only the music out of the stereo.

    Christopher Lenz - 3rd August 2004 08:12 - #

  4. I had the same cutout problems with my two new Expresses, here's what I did. I have 802.11b cards in both my powerbook and my wife's ibook. For some reason, forcing the AE into b-only mode on the AE (connected to the internet) cleared up the issue completely. I went from a cutout every 30-45 seconds to one every hour or so. I've read on Apple's forums that other people are having problems with AE when mixing b and g devices. Not sure what I'll do when I get a 802.11g device, but b-only works for now. Hopefully there's a firmware update in the works.

    Joe - 3rd August 2004 12:01 - #

  5. Simon, in case you've forgotten you are a student, you're not supposed to have all this money! Now where was that blog entry about applying for your job...

    Marc - 3rd August 2004 12:50 - #

  6. Are there any cordless phones in the the area disrupting the signal?

    David Ely - 3rd August 2004 14:31 - #

  7. I've been using the Airport Express for about a week now. The sound quality has been pretty good, but I have not been able to set it up to piggyback on my existing wireless network. So I can connect to the Aiport Express and play music, but cannot connect to the internet at the same time.

    Brian Sweeting - 3rd August 2004 16:26 - #

  8. To re-route *all* audio to your speakers, try Rogue Amoeba's Detour

    Trent Davies - 3rd August 2004 18:56 - #

  9. Hi Simon, You might look into Sci-Fi-Hi-Fi's (Buzz Anderon's) PodWorks - a Mac OS X application that compensates for the iPod's only downside: Apple only allows you to copy songs to your iPod. I love it, and use it all the time. PodWorks allows you to copy songs from any Mac iPod to any other Mac, and works great for back-up purposes. Combine that with adding your iPod as a device in iSync, and you can make quick, easy, and effortless back-ups of everything on your iPod. Aren't Apple products just "great"?

    Ryan J. Bonnell - 4th August 2004 07:38 - #

  10. A sock as a carrying case! I like that idea. I've just been using a wash cloth. Both are good ghetto style cases

    Todd - 5th August 2004 19:38 - #

  11. Brian Sweeting: Could this be your problem?

    John - 5th August 2004 19:46 - #

  12. The music folder on the iPod isn't using any sort of special magic that prevents the Finder from displaying it or its contents -- it's just a folder with the HFS invisible bit turned on. You can toggle this bit using a utility like Bare Bones Software's Super Get Info or Rainer Brockerhoff's XRay.

    Or if you want to tweak it manually, you can use the command-line SetFile tool installed in /Developer/Tools/. (See the man page for details.)

    John Gruber - 5th August 2004 21:14 - #

  13. Forgive me if this has been mentioned, I don't have time to read the comments right now. Anyway, I noticed that Airport Express cuts out on my a lot when I'm using my PC laptop, which is 802.11b. When using my 802.11g-equipped PowerBook, it works great. I think Airport Express sucks with 802.11b.

    Jeff Croft - 6th August 2004 00:10 - #

  14. one thing i've found is that windows is actually a much easier tool for getting music off of an ipod. in windows, if you enable the ipod as a disk and then enable the option to show hidden files and folders in windows explorer, it will show the music folder, which you can actually open up and pull the (hidden) files out of. this was useful to me when my hard drive crashed and i did not want to lose all of my music collection, which was on my ipod. i was able to pull off ALL of my music (including the stuff i bought on the music store), reinstall itunes and reauthorize my computer and life was back to normal.

    Michael Romero - 10th August 2004 15:41 - #

  15. Maybe this Apple support document might help.

    Dylan Beadle - 17th August 2004 04:15 - #

  16. I too have had trouble with airtunes on the express cutting out, but it is also cutting in and out on internet signal, the express never flinches, it stays green constantly, but it just decides not to listen to the cable modem. I really enjoy it when it works, (i use it in my dorm room with my 12" powerbook, and my G5 20" imac.) I must also say that of the 5 apple stores i have been to, i really like the mall of america one the best, partially because it is an hour away from home, and partially because they know their stuff. If anyone has answers to the cutting in and out let me know. Thanks

    Eric - 22nd September 2004 21:40 - #

  17. My dad got one of these Airport Express suckers while I was visiting him over Christmas. I set it up in record time (apparently, after reading all the problems). However, I noticed the cutting-out problem, too, but only on my G4 667 TiBook 802.11b. I have a feeling it is a problem with the heat my powerbook generates causing the airport card to become less efficient and lower the bandwidth output to the already limited bandwidth available on the 802.11b network. My dad's G4 1.5GHz 17" Albook, which runs much quieter and cooler, and has the 54Mbps Airport Express, does not have this issue at all. Just a thought. Either way, my experience definitely made me decide I am not gonna get one of these little things for myself, at least not until I can afford to upgrade to a newer Powerbook.

    Bob - 17th January 2005 04:57 - #

  18. Hmmm...

    3 August 2004:

    Another iPod trick for the thrifty: if 20+ dollars seems too much for a case, a sock makes an excellent low budget alternative.

    26 October 2004:

    Apple releases ipod Socks.

    Does anyone else know they were your idea?

    Michael Moncur - 6th February 2005 04:43 - #

  19. Wow. setting linksys wrt54g and AE to 802.11b has solved for now, most of my stuff is b anyways. It's a band aid fix for now but I'll check out other sources. Give it a try. First time I've tried since I installed the 54g (replaced 11b that had wep issues).

    Eric Pykonen - 24th March 2005 03:04 - #

  20. For sending all audio (or -other- audio), check out Airfoil. I wanted to do that too, and I discovered this. The problem is, audio sent to the Express is delayed, so it's not great. However, I now use my Express with RealPlayer to listen to MLB games. Very nice.

    John - 23rd October 2005 18:59 - #

  21. I just bought a Airport Express yesterday. Hooked it up to a 802.11b network in "client" mode (connected via wireless to an old Netgear MR314 router) and noticed the sound cut out several times per minute. I reconfigured the network so that the Airport Express was the router/gateway. Streamed music through the Airport for 3 hours with no cutouts-- while Here are some tips I used for troubleshooting: 1) SIGNAL QUALITY: Try moving the stuff around. Physical location affects signal quality. 2) NETWORK CONGESTION: If you are using the Airport Express in "client" mode as a part of an existing wireless network and you have problems with cut-outs, try making a direct connection from your PC to the Airport Express (so the signal doesn't go through the rest of your network). If cut-outs persist, it may be your PC. 3) Apple's streaming audio relies on compression, which is CPU intensive. Older computers may not be able to hack it. You can check CPU utilization in the performance tab of "task manager" on a PC... If the CPU is maxing out when the cut-outs occur, you might have found your problem... From task manager, you can also look at network utilization for a similar pattern... I don't know how you can check either of these on a Mac. For me, the cut-outs disappeared when I connected my PC directly to the AE through 802.11b (my laptop is old, and doesn't have 802.11g). The streaming audio worked perfectly. I ended up using the AE as the new router for my network/internet connection. This seems to have totally fixed the problem, although I had to relocate my whole cable modem setup to the room where the AE is located. My old router was 4 years old, so this might explain why my home network was too slow. Not a problem now, since as of this morning it is "retired" and collecting dust. Although it took some messing around to get it to work, the sound quality is great even played through expensive home stereo. Very cool little device. Love it!!

    Carl - 2nd March 2006 17:18 - #

  22. It's the speakers skipping i sne tmy creature speakers back to JBL and they gave me new ones

    Person - 22nd March 2006 06:30 - #

Comments are closed.

Previously hosted at http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2004/08/03/airport

A django site