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Airport Reception Powerbook and MacBook Pro
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Nov 2005
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My roommate bought a MacBook Pro last week, he gets reception in the entire house at full speed, on the other hand my Powerbook, bought last november, the reception is at best marginal. If I'm more than 20 feet a way from the the Linksy's router, no reception. Even that it shows full Wi-Fi bars I can't get online.
Did they improve the MacBooks?
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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PowerBooks have been known to have poor wifi reception for years. With the MBP they've improved, but still aren't as good as some other (plastic cased) laptops.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Nov 2005
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I know, but the difference between the 2 machines is pretty significant. Almost worth upgrading.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: May 2003
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Originally Posted by jorn
I know, but the difference between the 2 machines is pretty significant. Almost worth upgrading.
That improvement can be quite noticeable. I was in one of our regular conference rooms, and my MBP had a decent signal while two different PB12" models in the room could not get any signal.
One of the 'bonus' upgrades.
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
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If you've got a PB with a pc-card slot (namely not a 12") then you should get a wireless card with a Broadcom chip. I've use a Buffalo Airstation card (cost $25 at Target, though they no longer carry it) and the reception was excellent.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: 22 15N, 114 10E
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Yup, I can confirm the same thing. There was a dead spot in my house which the 12" PB couldn't connect, now with the MBP, getting 3 bars and surfing well.
Apple moved the antenna to the hinge part and used rubber/plastic to cover it so reception has to improve.
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15"MBP/C2D2.4GHz/4GB RAM/320GB HD
15"MBP/C2D2.16GHz/3GB RAM/250GB HD
12"PB/1GHz/768MB/60GB/SuperDrive/AE
iPhone 8GB/iPod video 30GB
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: May 2002
Status:
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I wonder if the Intel move will open the door to pre-n card drivers... although no one seems to be making a pre-n card in ecard 34 format yet
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Houston, TX
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Originally Posted by rm199
I wonder if the Intel move will open the door to pre-n card drivers... although no one seems to be making a pre-n card in ecard 34 format yet
Perhaps we'll see ndiswrapper ported from Linux to OSX to make up for OSX's lack of drivers.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: SoCal
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is there any new airport driver or anything available to bump up the reception .. can new firmware help the reception?
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2003
Status:
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well, firmware would improve compatibility with various routers, would lessen dropped connections and facilitate reconnecting after sleep, but it won't do much for "range". The only thing that would help reception is a well-designed and well-situated antenna.
Jorn: after re-reading your posts, you definitely should take the AlPB to a Genius Bar if there's one nearby. No way should reception be that bad at 20 feet. Some PBs were reported to need sending to Apple for wireless antenna or motherboard issues and were reported to come back with way better reception
With the previous gen PB you could check the antenna connection to the card thru the battery compartment--it was a bad move on Apple's part to make the card connection inaccessible in the present gen.
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