MacPro Airport reception, very poor?

[R.Youden]

I just got my new MacPro and the airport reception is all over the place. One minute it is 4 out of 5 bars. The next minute it can't pickup anything.

Also I have just got a new airport extreme base station which is far better than the old one as I now get solid reception from my MBP.

Has anyone else had reception problems with a MacPro?

Now it is running quick again, bloody thing!

 

[Celeron]

No problems here, however, I don't use the wireless much. My MacPro is about 3 feet from my Cisco AP, so the signal is always full.

 

[Apple Corps]

Excellent reception - AEBS @ 50% power / 3 walls between MP and AEBS and 4 - 5 bars consistent.

 

[R.Youden]

I do live in an old house which doesn't help but I have my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro next to each other and I never have any issues with my MBP since upgrading my airport.

With the Mac Pro even if I have 1 bar on my reception indicator it just cuts out. Maybe it is Safari 3.0?

I will give Firefox a go (if i can manage to download it without the network timing out!).

 

[ironic23]

Have you checked the wiring of the antennas on the AP card inside the Mac Pro? There have been some issues related to wireless reception and it was due to this problem. IIRC, the antenna cable #1 should be for BT and #2 and #3 for the AP module. I have my cables set up that way and have excellent reception with my router downstairs (a linksys) and MP upstairs. Cheers.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

Have you checked the wiring of the antennas on the AP card inside the Mac Pro? There have been some issues related to wireless reception and it was due to this problem. IIRC, the antenna cable #1 should be for BT and #2 and #3 for the AP module. I have my cables set up that way and have excellent reception with my router downstairs (a linksys) and MP upstairs. Cheers.

I had the same problem with very poor reception when I first received my Mac Pro. I changed the cables around to sort out a problem with Bluetooth reception and it fixed the Airport as well.

Before I changed the cables my Mac Pro had poor reception even when the wireless router was around 2 meters away and nothing in-between.

 

[R.Youden]

Well I gave up and spent all day putting in a wired network. I suppose it would have been the most intelligent thing to do in the long term anyway. If I ever need the airport I will look at swapping the cables around.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Apple Corps]

FWIW - checking & swapping the cables is no more that a 3 minute job - worth your time just for peace of mind.

 

[theblotted]

FWIW - checking & swapping the cables is no more that a 3 minute job - worth your time just for peace of mind.

i'm in the same boat, MP with poor reception...

is there a tutorial with pic's or something similar to show how to do this? or is it a fairly simple task without any instructions?

 

[Apple Corps]

Here ya go:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/Mac_Pro/Bluetooth_MacPro_install/Bluetooth_MacPro_install.html

 

[theblotted]

Here ya go:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/Mac_Pro/Bluetooth_MacPro_install/Bluetooth_MacPro_install.html

thanks for that link. i actually ended up figuring it out myself yesterday, but...

i swapped the cables according to this link (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=633522&tstart=0), but my airport is still getting crappy reception (only 2 bars, and the router is 1 room away).

hmm.

 

[theblotted]

okay, figured it out. following config on my MP gave the best results:

Cable 1 = BlueTooth card

Cable 2 & BT = Airport card

Cable 3 = plastic cover, dangling.

Bluetooth is working even when i have keyboard in a second room (!), and wireless is getting 5 bars almost all da time. nice!

f u