Why is Wi-Fi signal weak on the Aluminum PB?

[f1restarter]

I have a 12" PB and it works great and i am very happy with it's performance since it's my very first Apple, no adware/spyware, virus bs either. One thing i feel it's lacking is a strong wi-fi signal. I've read it is due to the fact that the Wi-Fi card is enclosed in an all aluminum case therefore it will weaken/block the signal. Is that true?

[CanadaRAM]

Yup.

PB wireless is a wimp.

[Fezwick]

I've never experienced a weak wireless signal on my 17 inch PB. I was on my friends wireless network, where the router is on the top floor of his house, and I was in his basement. I was still getting full service.

Maybe I'm just lucky?

[benbondu]

yup yup, my 12" pb is pretty weak with wireless too. over time I have grown to accept that fact.

[f1restarter]

thanks for all your feedback. I dont think this problem is just limited to the 12" PB as the case material, design and wifi card is exactly the same as the other PB models, so it seems the problem is the aluminum case that acts like a "faraday cage" as suggested by someone on one of the mac forums.

[eva01]

well my 12" has just as good Reception as my PM G5

[matthewr]

My brother and I were trying to poach a neighbour's wireless connection last weekend (we were both visiting my parents from out of town and didn't want to pay long distance to check e-mail). We were sitting in the same room, and he was getting a flawless signal on a 17 inch PB, while I was struggling to maintain a connection with a 15 inch PB (I kept tweaking the screen, and would get a signal, then someone would enter the room and I would seem to lose my signal again). We tried switching seats, but that didn't change things. We speculated that since the Airport antenna is in the screen, that the bigger the PB, the better the reception. Anyone know if there is any validity to this theory?

[wPod]

take your cell phone. wrap it in AL foil . . . will you get a signal? no. aluminum essentially blocks radio waves. so, if you have an entire laptop made of al will you get good wireless?

thats why apple installed a couple little plastic pieces on the side of the screen. thats the location of the antenna. works great, except there is still a lot of al blocking your wireless signal. know what will help? buying an iBook. . . or buying a half dozen airport express to extend your current wireless network.

thats just what happens with aluminum

[Jovian9]

My 12" PB has signal problems too. My wife and I are currently traveling the country hotel to motel to find a new area/place to live. We are staying only at hotels/motels with wireless internet. We have had to change rooms several times after checking in d/t the PB not getting signals.....all the while my iMac G5 gets full signals. We were in NYC for around 3 weeks and we were constantly losing signals on the 12" PB. I used to have a 17" PB and never had any problems with signals, not even in NYC in the same apartment we just stayed in with some friends who live there.

[f1restarter]

Well at least i did not have any problems with Wi-Fi when me and my wife were celebrating our wedding anniversary and we stayed in a hotel in denver with free wifi. We never had any connection problems and were able to use the internet just fine. Now i really think the signal problem is due to the aluminum case. It still wont deter me from buying another Apple pb btw.

[Rend It]

...We were sitting in the same room, and he was getting a flawless signal on a 17 inch PB, while I was struggling to maintain a connection with a 15 inch PB (I kept tweaking the screen, and would get a signal, then someone would enter the room and I would seem to lose my signal again). We tried switching seats, but that didn't change things. We speculated that since the Airport antenna is in the screen, that the bigger the PB, the better the reception. Anyone know if there is any validity to this theory?

If the antenna in the PBs is a loop antenna (which I think it is), then the net signal received is proportional to the area of the antenna. So, yes, you are on to something.

By the way, the Faraday cage concept technically applies only to electrostatics. Normal metals aren't capable of blocking magnetic fields (if you need that, try Mu-metal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu-metal)). However, it turns out that for most RF signals, the electric field part of the wave is more significant, and thus metals do a good job of attenuating oscillating electric fields, thanks to the skin effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect).

[bursty]

No weak signals here, almost always have a 100% signal strength.

[CanadaRAM]

Individual results are highly dependant on the positioning of the Mac, the base station and the local environment -- walls, distance, interference from wireless phones etc. I have one client with an Airport Extreme Base Station and 2 15" AlBooks. The base station is in the basement, postitioned near the ceiling, and the Powerbooks are upstairs -- straightline distance is no more than 20 feet. However we had to install an Airport Express as a repeater because the signal couldn't get around or through a rock fireplace, even though there is an open stairwell immediately beside the fireplace between the two spaces. Apple's performance of their internal Airport Extreme cards in those two machines has been maddeningly inconsistent.

[Xeem]

My dad's 15" alBook seems to get good reception everywhere my iBook does; I've never gotten a stronger signal than him.

[Meyvn]

My 15" hasn't had any problems. I think it may be more of an issue on the 12 than the 15, from what everyone's reporting here. Also, I get the feeling that the PB's antenna is significantly stronger than the iBook's to make up for the casing. Just a hypothesis.

[Megatron]

Apple's performance of their internal Airport Extreme cards in those two machines has been maddeningly inconsistent.

How could that be possible if it is the exact same equipment?

[iZach]

my 12" 1.5 gets PERFECT signal almost everywhere
i have one aebs upstairs and i get signal everywhere-main floor, basement, even outside. It almost always shows 4 bars of airport.

I am at a big library right now with wi-fi, and everywhere i go, i have 4 bars.

i love this.

zach

[asherman13]

maybe the plastic sides on the displays are bigger on the 17" than on the 15", and bigger on the 15" than on the 12"?

[devilot]

My 12" PB consistently gets worse signal than my 12" iBook.

[GreenDice]

Does anyone here use a upgraded antenna at the base station? Will that help the situation?

Thanks in advance.

[devman]

It's not just a PB12 thing. At home I have a PB15, two 12" iBooks and one 14"iBook.

At very close range, they all get full strength. Outside of that, the iBooks get better signal strength and much greater distance. The iBooks also pickup other wireless networks nearby that the PB15 never sees.

[f1restarter]

It's not just a PB12 thing. At home I have a PB15, two 12" iBooks and one 14"iBook.

At very close range, they all get full strength. Outside of that, the iBooks get better signal strength and much greater distance. The iBooks also pickup other wireless networks nearby that the PB15 never sees.

that again enforces the "aluminum case" theory. I would've bought the ibook if it wasn't for the white colour, as i've seen permanent dirt marks on the mouse scroll pad area.

[devman]

that again enforces the "aluminum case" theory. I would've bought the ibook if it wasn't for the white colour, as i've seen permanent dirt marks on the mouse scroll pad area.

I would not allow this wifi signal strength issue to sway a decision from PB to iBook. There are many other far more important differences between the two models.

Also, to be clear, it's not that wifi performance on a PB is bad. It isn't. It's just not as good as an iBook.

[Melkor]

Ya I'm having signal problems aswell :(

My PC is getting a perfect signal, and my PB is getting a really low one. I'm really disapointed. Is there anyway to strengthen the signal, arial?

[themacmaestro]

i get 50 feet away and I have no signal from my base... It sucks

[slinky0390]

i have absolutely no problem with my wifi in my pb.. although i do have a pre-n router.. i was able to walk with my pb to the end of my block.. which is pretty far.. and still pull a signal from my network

[OutThere]

My new 12" Powerbook has slightly worse reception than my 14" iBook did...but on the whole I can get workable/fine reception everywhere I could with my iBook, which had better reception than pretty much every other computer I've seen. On the whole reception is decent, but I've rebuilt my parabolic reflector antennas with better materials and a more precise shape, so I'll be sitting pretty as soon as the glue dries. :D

[bousozoku]

I've had mixed results but I'm not expert. My PowerMac dual 800 is my basestation at home and moving into the next room, not 15 feet away, I tend to lose about half of the signal.

I noticed that CompUSA was selling a Hawking PC Card for wireless connectivity that promised (up to, I'm sure) 30 % improvement. It seems a rather expensive enhancement since there is an internal card but for business people, I'm sure such things are no big deal. Why not an antenna system instead?

[mbopy22]

Well I don't know about PB's (because I don't have one YET..) but my brand new 12" iBook has GREAAAT reception!!

I stayied in a Hotel in Washington that had wi fi only at the bar, one night the bar was full so I had to go somewhere else... I went to the reception area, kind of far from the bar, and the receptionist told me "Your laptop won't get a signal here..." :p
Either way I turned on and boilaaa... It was full... then another guy came with a Dell Latitude.. and guess what.. It did NOT work!! LOL LOL LOL :p :D

Another thing, I get a 3 line signal from a wireless conection that is 200yards straight line from my house... I can not connect dought cause is blocked???:confused:

By the way does anybody know how to hack and/or crack a secure wi fi conection??? Any good program?? :D

[efoto]

Another thing, I get a 3 line signal from a wireless conection that is 200yards straight line from my house... I can not connect dought cause is blocked???:confused:

By the way does anybody know how to hack and/or crack a secure wi fi conection??? Any good program?? :D

The discussion of such acts isn't exactly 'supported' by MR, so you aren't going to get much help. There are programs available that can locate networks, some that can 'crack' them, but that is obviously illegal and therefore won't/shouldn't be discussed here.

[CanadaRAM]

How could that be possible if it is the exact same equipment?
See the first part of the paragraph - highly dependent on positioning and environment. Because of the interference of the case, I have has 2 identical Powerbooks side by side, one has "3" signal and the other oscillates between 1 and 2"

[mbopy22]

The discussion of such acts isn't exactly 'supported' by MR, so you aren't going to get much help. There are programs available that can locate networks, some that can 'crack' them, but that is obviously illegal and therefore won't/shouldn't be discussed here.

LAWS are like RECORDS... They're meant to be BROKEN!!! LOL:p

sorry just a joke... I'm a Lawyer and I know it is not right... or is it?? hjmm law is a matter of interpretation... :rolleyes:

[Megatron]

See the first part of the paragraph - highly dependent on positioning and environment. Because of the interference of the case, I have has 2 identical Powerbooks side by side, one has "3" signal and the other oscillates between 1 and 2"

I just find that kind of amazing that such a small difference in placement can make such a big difference. I guess with an aluminum case, the panel orientation/placement is crucial and even a small change can affect the signal reception.