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Fyre4ce · Nov 1, 2003, 04:37 PM

I believe there have been concerns about the AirPort reception on the 12" PowerBook. I have something to say about that:

I used to have a Pismo, and sitting at my desk I was at the very limit of my wireless reception. I would say maybe one or two nights out of the week I could load web pages but usually I couldn't. Most of the time I still had enough bandwidth to send text emails but sometimes that didn't even work. Now, I have my 12" and it's sitting in the exact same spot. I have had reliable internet access since I got it (Tuesday night). Downloading big files takes a little while (I get around 40 KB/sec consistantly) but I certainly can't complain. Reception on this machine is definitely better than on the Pismo. I don't know what you all are complaining about.

bkb · Nov 1, 2003, 05:01 PM

Originally posted by Fyre4ce:
I believe there have been concerns about the AirPort reception on the 12" PowerBook. I have something to say about that:

I used to have a Pismo, and sitting at my desk I was at the very limit of my wireless reception. I would say maybe one or two nights out of the week I could load web pages but usually I couldn't. Most of the time I still had enough bandwidth to send text emails but sometimes that didn't even work. Now, I have my 12" and it's sitting in the exact same spot. I have had reliable internet access since I got it (Tuesday night). Downloading big files takes a little while (I get around 40 KB/sec consistantly) but I certainly can't complain. Reception on this machine is definitely better than on the Pismo. I don't know what you all are complaining about.

Not everyone is complaining. I'm actually impressed with Airport Reception on my 12". And I certainly don't feel any different with Panther than Jaguar. I suppose people with crummy wireless base stations are the ones you are talking about. But either way, 40KB/sec is pretty slow. What connection/base station are you on?

Grrr · Nov 2, 2003, 01:13 PM

My old iBook fares better in the AirPort reception department. But the new 12" PB really isnt that far behind. I'd guess the reception on my PB is about 15% weaker. A friend of mine also just got a 12" PB, and she also agreed that reception was around 15% weaker on the 12" PB than from her old iBook.

bobpensik · Nov 2, 2003, 01:52 PM

i have a question for all of you that have 12inch PB and AE.

I have a Rev A 12' PB with 640 Mb RAM and like maxed out, i have an AE card and a wireless g basestation, but no matter what i do i can't get faster speeds then around 240k/sec which is really annoying cuz my main computer and my other computer both connected directly to the basestation can dl at around 500-600k/sec

So i was like, ok, i am only about 10ft from the basestation, so i will connect it directly to the router as well, and i still don't get any faster speeds then around 230k/sec??? does this have to do with the PB, can it only handle loads of like 200k/sec???

I get around the same speeds on both Wireless and when i am connected directly!! :-S

Does anyone with a Rev A 12' or even a Rev B get faster dl or transfer speeds then like 200k/sec???

schk · Nov 2, 2003, 02:00 PM

Originally posted by bobpensik:
Does anyone with a Rev A 12' or even a Rev B get faster dl or transfer speeds then like 200k/sec???

My cable maxes out at 10mbit (roughly 1 megabyte/sec) and I can get those speeds on my PB wirelessly.

AssassyN · Nov 2, 2003, 02:28 PM

The AirPort reception on both 12" PBs I owned (Rev. A and Rev. B) was exceptional! I was overly impressed w/ the range.

all2ofme · Nov 2, 2003, 03:13 PM

Mine's perfect as well. I get marginally better reception on my new 1GHz 12" than I did on my 17".

paganini · Nov 2, 2003, 03:51 PM

I can comment based my experiences with a new 12" Rev B versus my trusty pismo.

In identical settings (my apartment with 802.11b, and my reserved space at my library), the 12" poorer reception. That being said, it is still adequate. If, as the first poster noted, you are already on the margins of your range, this is where it will matter.

A few speculations as to why this would be:

Antenna placement:
From my understanding of the developer's tech notes available from apple, the pismo (and clamshell ibooks for that matter) have a looping antenna built into the display. This ends up looking like an AM loop many people use on home stero receivers. The new powerbooks use two seperate antennas, one on either side of the display. Only one is used at a given time, automatically decided by the system.

Bluetooth:
Both bluetooth and 802.11b operate in the 2.4Ghz range (along with microwaves, cordless phones, etc.) Bascially, since all new 12" powerbooks come with bluetooth installed AND TURNED ON BY DEFAULT, there is a possiblity of interference. If you aren't using bluetooth, turn it off in system preferneces (this will also increase yoru battery length).

the Case:
this is the one i want confirmation for, because it is the stupidist one. If someone has a new ibook, that would be the best test. The new powerbooks are aluminium, right? metal. as in metal interferes with radio signals. as in, this has been well known since radio signals were discovered. The casing HAS to be reducing signal strenght and increasing noise. but then again, i'm not a physicist or an engineer (i'm a political scientist, actually) so some confirmation on the properties of aluminium and radio signals would be interesting.

802.11g vs. 802.11b:
if you follow the networking forum here, there has been much discussion about incompatibilties with apple's 802.11g implementation and existing 802.11b base stations. Since apple refuses to support users connecting to non Apple AirPort Base Station users, they are less then forthcoming on how 802.11b compatibility was implemented in the airport extreme cards. but spend a few hours in the networking forum, or on the apple discussions site, and you'll see that lots of folks (myself included) have experienced inconsistent or dropped connections with older and even brand new 802.11b base stations.

javabeans · Nov 2, 2003, 08:29 PM

I don't notice any difference between my 17"PB Rev. A vs. the 12" PB Rev. B. At times, my 17"PB seems to get better signal than the 12".

amazing · Nov 2, 2003, 11:48 PM

Bob: There's a few things to do to improve your range. First, change the channel, and test the reception using something like MacStumbler. Next, change the location of the base station. Higher up is better, flat is better than vertical, etc. Make sure the base station is set for 11 mbps. If you've got a 2.4 ghz cordless phone, relocate it away from the BS, or at least put it someplace where it's not in between your favorite couch and the base station.

You'll have to try a few combinations. You definitely can't judge using the antenna bars, so try MacStumbler (even MacWorld mag used it to test airport range.)

StiZeven · 12:46 AM

My first 12" PowerBook had excellent AirPort reception. There weren't any rooms in the house where it would drop, or give me problems. I am hoping (and assuming) that my new 12" PowerBook (which is on its way), will have just as good AirPort reception.

elmer · 05:26 PM

My RevA, running Panther, seems to drop the connection fairly easily if it's not in the room with the Netgear WGR614 (upgraded to latest 802.11g firmware). It was dropping a lot more when I had the router set to "g only". Now I have it set to "g and b", but it still drops out sometimes, and I sometimes have to powercycle the basestation to get it back. Throughput's plenty fast for 1 Mbps Cable internet when it's working.
Anyone know what the best settings are for this router? Is it possible to use WPA with it, or just the WEP? What's the difference, anyway?

UPDATE: Changed channels on my cordless phone - seems to be reliable now.