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lextek · Nov 11, 2001, 01:32 AM

Is there any improvement in Airport performance in the latest Tibooks?

Bob

[ 11-11-2001: Message edited by: lextek ]

Nov 11, 2001, 04:52 AM

Speaking of Airport performance, what kind of throughput are people getting over their wireless LANs?

I have an SMC router and I don't get more than about 150k/s between two OSX machines (one being connected by wire to the router). Putting both machine on the wire gives me the full 1MB/s one would expect from a 10bT. Having WEP on or off doesn't seem to effect throughput.

Nov 11, 2001, 05:04 AM

well, i didn't have the previous titanium powerbook to compare against, but i've been working in an airport enabled editing studio for the past few weeks with my ti 667 and i can say that the airport reception is generally not that good. it's totally sketchy and can change from one inch to the next. so, if it IS improved from the last version, it must have been pretty bad.

seanyepez · Nov 11, 2001, 06:19 AM

The AirPort reception on my new 667-megahertz TiBook is about ten percent better than my mother's 500-megahertz G4 'Book. My Pismo gets about twice the effective range as either notebook.

Nov 11, 2001, 06:22 AM

My old TiBook was indeed pretty bad.

On my G4 desktop, I've seen 300-400 kilobytes/sec via Airport. I haven't done any proper tests, so it may go higher, but you should be able to get at least that much.

Alex

seanyepez · Nov 11, 2001, 06:40 AM

Today, I was transferring files from my AirPort-enabled Pismo conneced to a base station which, in turn, was connected to a switch to my desktop PC that connected to the switch via Ethernet at 450K per second.

Nov 11, 2001, 02:49 PM

i have a new 550 TiBook...the range is soooo bad!!! my sister's ibook can receive signal at least 50 more feet than my TiBook! .... i wonder how bad it was with the first version of TiBook

seanyepez · Nov 11, 2001, 02:59 PM

Is it really that bad, though?

My VAIO with the "best" 802.11b card (Orinoco Silver; Gold uses WEP encryption that slows down the card) for the PC is getting about the same reception (or a tad bit worse) than the first-generation TiBook.

jjokerski · Nov 11, 2001, 03:24 PM

Wow. I must have gotten lucky, because as I posted in another thread, my 667 gets great reception, as good as my Pismo did in every situation that I use it in.

seanyepez · Nov 12, 2001, 04:07 AM

What base station do you use? The Apple AirPort Base Station, or a third-party one like the Linksys gateway?

jjokerski · Nov 12, 2001, 04:04 PM

I use a regular ol' AirPort base station with the latest firmware. Actually, I connect to three different AirPorts over the course of a day and it seems to get good reception on all of them. One is usually only a few feet away, so I get full strength. One is one floor almost directly above through VERY thick concrete, and I get 4-5 dots. One is two rooms away through metal studs and I get 3-4 dots. Same as my Pismo.

BahnStormer · Nov 13, 2001, 04:55 PM

My girlfriends 550 gets good reception when it's in the line of sight of the Base Station. However, as soon as it's around a wall, reception drops significantly.

For those complaining about the range, how many are actually behind walls or other obstructions? In the clear, this gets about the same signal as my Orinoco Gold.

~e

seanyepez · Nov 13, 2001, 05:45 PM

Despite being the best PC 802.11b solution, the Orinoco cards still aren't as good as any Apple notebook.

TiG4 · Nov 13, 2001, 05:47 PM

When the new airport arrives, I will perform a simple test by leaving it in my 2nd floor apartment before attempting to surf the Internet in the middle courtyard on the 1st floor (approximately 87 feet apart).

The apartment blocks were once warehouses and the walls are relatively thick, so this should be interesting.

Nov 13, 2001, 07:25 PM

Originally posted by TiG4:
<STRONG>When the new airport arrives, I will perform a simple test by leaving it in my 2nd floor apartment before attempting to surf the Internet in the middle courtyard on the 1st floor (approximately 87 feet apart).

The apartment blocks were once warehouses and the walls are relatively thick, so this should be interesting.</STRONG>

you can forget about airport reception w/ your tibook. no way it'll work in that environ

mcaswell · Nov 14, 2001, 04:06 PM

To answer the question that started this thread, as far as I can tell there is no sigificant difference in Airport reception on the new Ti's (despite a specific statement from Apple touting the drastic improvements in this area).

I did a side by side test with my old 400 and new 667 using the Airport Admin Utilty's bar graph... I could not detect much, if any, of a difference.

--Mike

GhOST51 · Nov 15, 2001, 12:39 AM

My new Ti667 is getting as good reception as my Pismo 400 was. I know that doesn't compare Ti Rev A's with Rev B's but as far as I can see Airport is working quite well all the same. Signal strength is generally full strength around my house, both up stairs or down. The Base station is located roughly centrally in my home (about 2,500 ft2).

Nov 15, 2001, 07:49 AM

I've updated the SMC router's firmware and updated my airport card to 2.0 and now I seem to get decent performance (400-500kbs) when not using wep. I guess I'll just rely on ssh for encryption.

dopeavy · Nov 15, 2001, 05:25 PM

I have a new Ti 550. I just updated the Airport Card to the Airport 2.0 software. I use a Linksys wireless router and get good receptio, not 100% of the progress bar, but about 85% to 90%. One thing I noticed, is that the signal stregnth decreased a tad when I updated to Airport 2.0 software on the card. I would check your connection (Airport card to built in Antenna) and adjust the antenas on the Linksys or SMC. If ot's Airport Base Station, then not much you can do. I went with Linksys because I heard the reception was better and it has four built in 10/100T ports and many PC users have cards that work well with it.

Nov 15, 2001, 06:43 PM

I have opened up my Ti and reconnected the airport, but reception was is still is in the 80-90% range. My router is actually a Japanese OEM version of the SMC that has the wireless card sticking out the back in lieu of antennas. The Japanese website mentions that WEP is not supported for Mac users although I have been able to get 40bit to work (no luck with 128bit even after upgrading both the router and the airport's firmware). Perhaps the 66% drop in performance when using WEP is the reason they say it doesn't work with Macs. I thought I read somewhere that the SMC routers were much better at WEP than others though. SSH for encryption is far better than WEP anyways.

MickS · Nov 19, 2001, 05:30 AM

My experience with my new Ti is that it is significantly worse than my previous Pismo, also it is worse than an original G3 (Kanga) with a TechWorks 802.11b card in it.

I ended up relocating my Airport base station so that I could use it with my Ti

applenut1 · Nov 20, 2001, 08:09 PM

Originally posted by <forget about it>:
<STRONG>

you can forget about airport reception w/ your tibook. no way it'll work in that environ</STRONG>

similar environment here and I am getting 4 bars on the airport reception. don't speak if you don't have any basis to you statements

mrtew · Nov 21, 2001, 05:04 PM

The trick I found with my TiBooks is to one side of the computer or the other, where the antenna windows are, 'aimed' in the direction of the base station, rather than the front or especially the back of the computer pointed towards it. I haven't noticed a difference beween my old and new TiBooks because I almost always have 4 bars anywhere in my house or yard. I don't know why some people's is worse... maybe apartments with lots of interference or something.