[mjager]

Hello all, I just bought a 15" PB after years with PC's. I guess I started in 93 or so, and have had many laptops and desktop systems, mostly Dell's, IBM's and Toshiba's. My latest laptop (prior to the PB) and which I still have is an IBM T41.

I've been lurking the past few weeks prior to my visit to the Apple store, and just registered today. I hang out alot at corvetteforum.com and there is a group of Mac guys there that helped me in my decision making process on whether to get a Mac or not. Also, that's where I found out about this forum.



OK, now for the questions:

1. My connection speed and page loading is vastly slower on my PB as opposed to my Thinkpad. I'm not a geek at all, so I don't know a ton of stuff, and maybe some one can give me some tips on what to look for or additional info you need from me to help diagnose.

Having said that, I have a network here at home with a cable connection and Linksys router. When I put my network password in while setting up the PB for a wireless connection, at first it would not accept the password. I called tech service and after putting a $ sign in front of the password, it accepted it. I'm wondering if this may have something to do with the slow opening of pages?

2. How does one know if their PB is aluminum or titanium? I assume mines AL, but don't know for sure.

I'll have other questions later, so bear with me, but I'd like to have the same if not faster performance in surfing.

[SpaceMonkey]

2. If you just bought your Powerbook new from Apple, it is aluminum. The last Titanium Powerbooks were discontinued in 2003.

[Al G]

1. Encryption does slow down your connection but I don't think it should be any worse on a Mac. It could be related to your Wi-Fi signal strength; that metal in Powerbooks is known for reducing reception. Try an ethernet cable direct from the Powerbook to your router to see if that gets you up to speed.

Also, which Mac browser are you using? Perhaps you could try Camino 1.0b1 (http://www.caminobrowser.org/) to see if it's any faster.

2. As SpaceMonkey said, any recent purchase would be Aluminum. But the easy way to tell the difference is the Titaniums had the ports at the back. Apple changed the hinge design on the Aluminums and moved the ports to the side. Also, the Al's keyboard is silver while the Ti's was dark gray.

[mjager]

Originally Posted by Al G

1. Encryption does slow down your connection but I don't think it should be any worse on a Mac. It could be related to your Wi-Fi signal strength; that metal in Powerbooks is known for reducing reception. Try an ethernet cable direct from the Powerbook to your router to see if that gets you up to speed.

Also, which Mac browser are you using? Perhaps you could try Camino 1.0b1 (http://www.caminobrowser.org/) to see if it's any faster.

2. As SpaceMonkey said, any recent purchase would be Aluminum. But the easy way to tell the difference is the Titaniums had the ports at the back. Apple changed the hinge design on the Aluminums and moved the ports to the side. Also, the Al's keyboard is silver while the Ti's was dark gray.

I'm using Safari, this PB is less than 6 days old.

I've been researching the connection strength problem. If indeed the Al case reduces reception resulting in slow connection speeds...well that's a total deal breaker. I had hoped this was a high end laptop, and it would be impossible for me pay big buxs and have a slower laptop than what I'm accustomed to.

I'll be going to the Apple store tommorrow, hope I can get this resolved.

[BLAZE_MkIV]

You could always install a dns server on your machine to cache lookups like windows does.

[rem]

I can confirm that web surfing using Safari on my PB wirelessly is every bit as zippy as web surfing from my wired BSD or Windows setups. Only when transferring more than a few gigs do I hook my PB up to the 100mbs wired n/w.

Since I have not had such a prob, sorry I probably cannot be much help other than letting you know that your PB is by no means inherently crippled by its metallic frame. The antennas cannot be at a better place. Either you're getting too far from the base or most likely there is something misconfigured. Have you tried deleting Safari's cache, comparing Safari with another browser like Camino (e.g., to determine if the root cause is at the app or the system level), are you using the same dns settings on mac as pc?