Originally posted by Bruck:
checked it's snapped in fine.
Yeah; that's what I'd expect. You might be able to pick up a signal without the antenna connected, but 80% of the time, you won't pick it up at all.
Am I correct in assuming that you are in a college dorm, with concrete walls, and trying to pick up a signal for the internet in there? That's going to be hard with the airport card. It'll work, it'll just be hard. Remember: if you're having trouble hearing the signal from your router, it's going to have even more trouble hearing you, as your outgoing signal is only about 31 mw, and that incoming signal is probably stronger.
There's no easy fix for this. Airport cards can't take an external antenna without some sort of case modification. I say, if this really irritates you, and you use your wireless a lot, invest in a PCMCIA card that is at least 200 mw in strength. (see
http://www.macwireless.com for a compatible one.) The gain on the external card may or may not be better. Who knows. But the transmission power of the card -- we're talking night and day difference. It'll be much better.
If you find a card that can take external antennas, then you have all your answers right there. But those are generally only out there for PCs, and you'd have to get a sourceforge driver to make it work on your Mac at all. Kinda risky given the price of the high-power cards that take external antennas.
Mark
Top
