Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!

My Mac Airport Extreme base station is acting up. It's never given solid steady signal, but last week my computer went whoopda and lost contact with a harddrive, and after I restored it it still had weak to no internet...and there was an update for the airport. So I figured it might help and I installed it...and it immediately stopped working all together.
Bloody annoying. No signal at all to link to.
Sooooo I reset it to factory settings and still, despite choppy transmissions managed to get it set up and working again like before for our laptops...it took a bit as our signal was cutting in and out..and then the signal went away again...and hasn't come back so I can't set up our main computer on it as it gets nothing to attach to. And the signal is choppy so why?

I've been recommended to change the channel on the airport so nothing interferes with it (there must be one of the neighbor's wireless networks, which I can pick up no problem, interfering with it). This seems all fine and good and logical. Soooo...I go to the software I need to use to do this and it says it is not the right version to work with my airport extreme...so I install the one that came with it. Nada. I get the one off the website. Nada. I have what appears to be a properly set up airport that is not sending out a steady even signal...even when my laptop is 12 inched from it. .
Now I don't know if this is because I get no reception so it can't talk to it or what but I'm ready to chuck the damn thing out the window very soon. I just want it to work again, even intermittently like it used to. I'm doing what I should to fix it and am being bombarded with ridiculous blocks at every turn.

If I get one more "what did you do -it it worked before?" I will scream...because it SHOULD work. As is. Right now. But it doesn't...so we have no wireless...this sucks as we just moved our office upstairs and are using the wireless to get internet there and on our lappy's. This HAS to work.

So my advice to you this fine day?
So don't install updates if everything is working fine... Just don't- they f*ck with everything.

Gorram internet sandwich....