I currently use an Apple Airport extreme base station to broadcast my broadband internet connection across the house.  Most of the time this works ok, but sometimes there are problems connecting, and sods law this is always when I am in a rush.  I have been looking around for solutions and found this system which uses the existing domestic house wiring to send the signal around the house

maybe you should just keep your mac connected 24/7 ?

nobody is going to hack it , i assure you 

  

here is a great review on the topic that is only ~1 month old...

That's curious. I have never had any trouble connecting to the Apple Extreme, whether at home or work.

Which protection protocol are you using? That could be it. I've found that the simplest is to write the machine ID number into the Access Control of the Airport Base Station, and not bother with passwords, etc. If your machine's ID is in the Base Station, then you'll be logged on automatically.

Also check the transmission strength from your base station. I have one covering a very large apartment, with a number of brick walls in the path of the signal, still no trouble with the Airport Extreme Base Station. I can actually log on to my WiFi with my iPod Touch when I'm at the corner newsagent's stand!

And uncheck Interference Robustness if that's been activated.