Okaym here's the deal. I have an AirPort Extreme Wireless Internet Router. It provides a connection for my 6 year old G4 desktop, my dad's 5 ear old G4 laptop and my stepmom's 3 year G4 laptop. Anyway...

Yeah, so at random times during the day (most frequently around 12pm to 4pm during the weekdays) My signal bar starts hopping around like a rabbit that's been fed Red Bull. The worst part is I lose the signal for seconds at a time (accounting for 837 ping I had one day). Sometimes I lose the signal for longer and I time out from VO.

Now usually, after anywhere from ten minutes to two hours later, the damn thing works fine again. This affects everyone in the house, so it isn't my comp. Plus I'm less than four feet away from it. And this is the second AirPort we have bought, the first one was much worse. What he new Airport manages to lose a signal for a few seconds and regain, the old one just crapped out and wouldnt work for hours on end.

Anyone know what the problem might be, besides crappy construction on Apple's part?

If you have logging turned on, it could be filling up its RAM with logs. If there's somebody else with a WiFi router or card on the same channel, they could be causing interference (or anything else in the 2.4GHz spectrum, like cordless phones). Anyhow, don't complain. My Linksys router is a piece of shit that needs to be rebooted daily or else it forgets its routing tables and refuses to let them be set.

I don't really want to repeat myself, but as I stated sometime before...

"Wireless is Worthless."

Don't use wireless for online gaming. 'Tis the devil.

You can solve this problem with a nice Cat 5 Ethernet cable. There's I think one "in" ("LAN") port in the Airports.
Sit down next to the Airport, plug in, and game away without worrying about wireless.

I don't know if you need a crosssover ethernet (Cat 5) cable or not. Check your manual.

Does express have the same config options as the saucer? If you have the channel select set to auto, that can be annoying for games. 11 is a fairly safe bet to leave it on in my experience (your microwave oven or neighbors wi-fi channel may alter the best choice).

On auto it will hop if it thinks the current channel is congested and your connect will die for a sec while it looks for something clear.

This can be worse than the interference would have been in the first place, esp if the interference is across multiple channels causing the station to continualy switch.

Common interference culprits I've run into include cordless phones, remote video senders, microwave ovens and the guy down the block with all the illegal radio gear (he's cool though).

Are you sure your neighbors aren't getting free internet?

It's unlikely you need to worry about whether you need a crossover or normal vcable if you follow Lebermac's advice. Pretty well any Mac you run into will have autosensing ports, unless it's Infinite Skillz antique iMac.

/mw picks up his AirPort and sees the LAN slot

:D I think I like this option. Now to find an extra Ethernet cable, which I know I have.

Thnx again everyone

I've used wireless internet for online gaming for the last three years and have never had a disconnect. Not one. Keep your software up to date, make sure you have no competing pieces of equipment nearby and you should be okay. For reference, I have a G4 that is nearly 3 years old and an Airport Extreme. I also play PC games (EQ2, D&D online) via my laptop on my wireless (Airport) network and have never had a disconnect there either...