Mac mini wireless woe's

[yagran]

hi. just a few points about wireless on my mac mini.


i have a pc sat next to my mac mini, it is connected wirelessly to my router downstairs and recieves a FULL connection. however my mac mini skips between 0-2 bars of signal...why?!

its really annoying me now..is there any way i can get a better anntenae for the mac mini? or possibly run a ethernet cable between pc and mac and share the pc's FULL internet connection with the mac?


thanks in advance for ur knowledge

 

[mkrishnan]

You can run an internet cable -- you just patch it across and enable internet sharing on the PC. The only thing I'm not 100% sure of is whether applications that use ports besides 80 (HTTP) will work or not. On Macs 80 is the only port that is shared, AFAIK.

You might also try changing the router channel and seeing if this helps performance at all.

 

[guitarmaster18]

Yeah, mac minis have crap AirPort cards... Try getting a wireless N router.

 

[mkrishnan]

Yeah, mac minis have crap AirPort cards... Try getting a wireless N router.

Mac Minis also lack 802.11n at present.

Another potential option, if you spend money, is to get a second cheap 802.11g router that can extend the downstairs network from upstairs (wirelessly). This will give you much better blanket coverage upstairs anyway, I guess.

 

[zap2]

my Mini gets from 2 bar to full bars, while my iMac and iBook get full all the time upstair...the internet is slower on my Mac Mini, but its not by a ton, and doesn't really effect me

 

[yagran]

okay sooo..could you tell me a bit more about how to set up this 'internet cable' between mac and pc?

also while im on the network topic, i tried to remedy this solution by using a network through powrline networking using a couple of these wall plug bridges from netgear (http://netgear.com/Products/PowerlineNetworking/PowerlineEthernetAdapters/XE102.aspx) but they dont work anymore, dno why, it says on my mac that there is a connection but my computer has no ip address and cannot connect to the internet, i tried unpllugging and restarting everything, renewing dhcp, manually setting up the network, it jus wont work

 

[JAT]

Yeah, mac minis have crap AirPort cards... Try getting a wireless N router.

It's the antenna, not the card. There are various ways to improve antenna reception by adding others. I agree this is a major pain.

 

[mkrishnan]

okay sooo..could you tell me a bit more about how to set up this 'internet cable' between mac and pc?

Can you please try these instructions? I'm not so so Windows XP familiar.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070317141730703

 

[Cave Man]

i have a pc sat next to my mac mini, it is connected wirelessly to my router downstairs and recieves a FULL connection. however my mac mini skips between 0-2 bars of signal...why?!

Have you ever opened the mini's case? If so, it's quite easy for the antenna to come unplugged from the Airport card. I always check this before I close up minis.

My minis (I have two) each have full-strength signals, but their distance from the AEBSn is within 10 feet and only through one wall.