[Tenacious Dyl]

I recently purchased a dealy, where for $109 you get both Tiger, and an Airport Extreme card. I figured it was a pretty sweet deal, and better than the nearby stores or apple's. (I got it from macmall magazine).

Well, I put the card in my powerbook, as I figured without wireless in my house, putting it in the G5 would be even more silly. Tonight I decided to drive around, go to some downtown areas, rich neighborhoods, etc. The idea was to see how easily it picked up signal, how it responded, etc. Just to teach myself how it all works.

Well, airport card was installed, the antenna was properly connected (though dang that cable is small) and I used both "Air Traffic Control" and "Airport Rader" widgets. Of course, I enabled and "turned on" the airport card in my preferences as well, and made sure every setting was on auto. Also, I set Airport Rader to re-check for wireless every .2 seconds, where Air Traffic Control kind of did its own thing.

I was expecting a few links to pop up, password protected or encrypted, and I was hoping to see how great the range was, if I could find any free access points (at MSU or nearby cafe's, etc) while still in my car. I put the powerbook on my dashboard, and drove VERY SLOWLY, sometimes stopped when other cars weren't around.

After an hour and a half of driving in seemingly good places, I never ONCE got signal.

So my questions are...
1) Is this your experience as well?
2) Is there something I forgot, some control panel, some preference, anything??
3) Whatever.. any comments?

I'd love to hear from ya

[ghporter]

I've never done any driving around to find hotspots or note other people's wireless networks, but there's an issue that might be at play in your not finding any-user density. Are you in the Detroit area, or somewhere between say Flint and Lansing, surrounded by nothing but farms? While it's been a long time since I've been back home to Southeastern Michigan, I'm pretty sure you could drive around for a LONG time without finding any wireless near roads in southern Wayne county...

My first thought would be to go to a Starbucks-it seems like there's one just about EVERYWHERE-and see if your PowerBook sees the network there. From what you say you did in installing and configuring the card, it should.

[topcat]

I second the notion of just going to a coffee shop with wireless (preferably free) and seeing if you can connect. Driving around and hoping to connect is just not an efficient way to find networks.

Since your location is Michigan and you mention MSU, I'm guessing you are in East Lansing. I think there is an Espresso Royale Caffe on East Grand River. They may have free wireless. The ones in Ann Arbor do.