Hi, I've been reading MacRumors forums for about 6 months now and decided I'd post something. I'm planning on buying a Powerbook soon, but friends of mine that have them have trouble getting good airport reception in coffeeshops and such while people with other laptops get way more in the same place. The dorm I'm staying in at college next year has wireless instead of ethernet, so I'm worried about signal strength. Has anyone heard of anything you can buy to enhance the reception of your airport card, like an antenna or something? I looked on the applestore but couldn't really find anything. Thanks.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Airport Enhancer?
- Thread starter BDeeb
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you are getting a 15 or 17 inch, you could use a pcmcia card from Linksys or something instead of the Apple Airport card.
There is no real way to get an antenna to plug in effectively. I mean I'm sure you could do it, but it would be a huge PITA. You'd be plugging it in and out when you left your dorm and taking out the battery....Huge PITA.
You could if need be make a cantenna (an antenna made out of a chunky soup can--just google it). I think you could probably hook that into a wireless access point or router and use that to connect to the dorm ethernet. Then just plug your PB into the ethernet jack there.
Honestly, I don't think it will be an issue. I never had any reception problems with my 12" PB. It worked great all over my house. I also never had any problems outside my home. If you did, I'm sure a lot of other people would have problems in the dorm (and be griping about it).
You could if need be make a cantenna (an antenna made out of a chunky soup can--just google it). I think you could probably hook that into a wireless access point or router and use that to connect to the dorm ethernet. Then just plug your PB into the ethernet jack there.
Honestly, I don't think it will be an issue. I never had any reception problems with my 12" PB. It worked great all over my house. I also never had any problems outside my home. If you did, I'm sure a lot of other people would have problems in the dorm (and be griping about it).
Whats wrong with all the products that this company makes, specializing in Mac wifi boosters for Powerbooks?
I use one in my TiBook. If the card has a Broadcom chipset like the AP Express cards do, then it will work out-of-the-box with no drivers necessary. The only thing is, the card manufacturers usually don't tell you what chipset their cards use, and they often will change chipsets frequently even in the same model. My Linksys WPC54G has a Broadcom, but some others might not, and I don't know of an easy way to tell, other than buying a card and taking it back if it doesn't work.tsk said:
tsk said:
really? I have had rf issues with it with this computer i am about 25 feet away from Router and it barley gets signal and has alot of issues.. With last computer same spot with Dlink card and it had no issues... 4 out of 4 bars this on is usally 1 bar mostly sometimes if lucky 2 bars...