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Airport Range on 15" TiBooks??

B

bschack

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 20, 2003
2
0
I am in the market for a powerbook and sick of waiting for the 15" to be updated - I am considering waiting or buying maybe a 12 or 17", but assuming I go with a 15" TiBook -

I would like to hear 15" Pbook owner's feedback on the airport range - I have, of course heard about the limitations with the Titanium casing - but, how bad is the reception, and have you found ways to improve it to make it workable? I want to be able to work around my house on-line so this is important in my decision. What about workarounds such as putting a PC 802.11 card to stick out of the slot, or an antannae on the base station? How much better in terms of airport reception are the AlBooks?
 
Oooh...a favorite topic of mine :)

Ok lets say that the AirPort Range is one of the main reasons I got rid of my PowerBook and got an iBook instead.

It's not dismal but it's bad. I moved from a 2 bedroom apt to a 3 bedrooom house and without a Wireless signal booster, I couldn't get a connection downstairs when my WAP was upstairs.

I found 2 solutions that helped...first, I got a linksys Wireless Signal Booster for my Linksys Wireless Router. This helped alot it gave me 75% signal downstairs. Next I bought a Linksys Wireless PC Card. I found a driver for it on the net (Mac version) and that gave me a full strength signal inside the house and on my deck.

Now in comparison... my iBook has 100% signal everywhere in my house without the booster. I even can keep a 75% signal if i walk 3 houses up.

With the booster, I can go 13 houses away before I lose my 100% signal.

The driver is here.


I have heard the 12 and 17 are better but still not as good as the iBook's.

MacBoyX
 
I have a ti-book DVI and a D-link wireless router and I get absolutely perfect reception throughout my entire house and out in the yard. I have been amazed ever since I got the airport card how good my reception has been. Unless you need a huge range (many hundreds of feet) of reception, you should be fine with the tibook.
 
I also have a 15" DVI PowerBook (with a Netgear wireless router) and I get 4 out of 4 bars of range in every room in my 2-story house.

I have heard that the external antennas in other routers (not Apple's Base Station) helps improve the range quite a bit. Although maybe one of those new AirPort Extreme base stations with an add-on external antenna wouldn't be too bad either...

I've never been disappointed with my Airport range. :D
 
How big is your place? Mine reaches through 4 walls and its still not the lowest signal. I say its pretty good.
I love having just a laptop in my room to browse the internet on and chat on MSN Messenger. :)
 
I had serious problems with AirPort reception on my 667 DVI, but on sober reflection, this was probably more due to trying to mooch the neighbor's broadband (with his permission) through the concrete-block wall between our houses. The indigo iBook actually did no better. Those houses are so solid, you can't get a cell-phone signal inside them either.

Now I've got my own connection, but I've yet to test house-wide reception. My brother-in-law has his AirPort in the basement of their split-level, and only has problems in the furthest upstairs bedroom, so I'd say that as long as you don't have extreme range needs, or really thick walls, the Ti should be good enough.
 
i had a 667 too, and the signal in my room, 20 feet away from the base station would fluctuate a lot. however on our office network, i was always at full strength, and i have no idea where we put the basestation. i wasn't actually aware that the issue was the titanium til recently. is this an issue at all with the aluminum pbooks?
 
Originally posted by MacBoyX
Oooh...a favorite topic of mine :)

It's not dismal but it's bad. I moved from a 2 bedroom apt to a 3 bedrooom house and without a Wireless signal booster, I couldn't get a connection downstairs when my WAP was upstairs.

MacBoyX
Click to expand...

Do you use the Wireless signal booster with an 11.G router? WRT54G for example, or an 11.B? (WAP11?)

I have range problems, on a WRT54G, but I also had problems with a Linksys WAP11. I had no problems with the Airport rev.1 until it melted into a clicking slag of grey plastic with flickering red lights.

I just bought directional antennas, but they haven't arrived yet - anyone use antennas and found an improvement?

-Wyrm
 
I have a TI 667 with the second gen ABS. The ABS is on the second floor of my apartment and, sorry I have never measured the distance, I am able to go sit on my porch, first floor, and still work, perfect reception. I have even ventured out on to the lawn but not too far for it does fizzle out soon after I step off the porch. I usually sit out there and listen to music, streamed from the imac back upstairs, and cruise the web in my rocking chair. :D
 
it is like i can already predict the future me sitting, old, on the porch in my rocker yelling at the cars going by and cursing the web on my powerbook G14.

:)
 
I have a rev "d" TiBook (1 GHz, superdrive) with a D-Link .11b access point. My house is 3 stories, heavy masonry and large logs. The acces point is in my ground floor office. I have no problems with wireless connections from anywhere in the house or on the porch.
 
Brick, Stone, and Wood are great for range.

Steel sucks.

I live in a steel reinforced structure - so my range depends on where the base station is compared to a steel pillar.

Some experiments I did show that less than a meter to the structure and the range becomes next to zero.
2m away and I get no range problems unless you move behind a pillar, or near a pillar.

-Wyrm
 
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