MBP Wirless fault?

[markjewiss]

Hi,

I've ordered and received three brand new MBPs which I'm setting up for people at my office. All seems well, but I'm having 'issues' with the wirless adaptor.

Here I have a Netgear ADSL router, with a new Airport Extreme plugged in - the base station is about 60 feet away, through a couple of walls, and is setup to run in g and n modes. The MBPs are having a real difficulty in getting and maintaing a signal, unless I'm in the same room as the base station. This is the same if I use g or n or the MBP (i've only installed the n update on one of the laptops so far).

Now what makes me think there may be a fault with something somewhere is that my 2 year old iBook G4 can get a wonderful signal from the base station at all points in the house from the Airport base station (which is much better than the wireless signal from the Netgear where the iBook would sometimes struggle).

I've got the wireless network on the Netgeat disabled, and when testing the MBPs the only device with a wirless connection is the one that I'm using at the time...

Any ideas? I'm currently thinking that the wireless adaptor in the MBP is just not as good as my 2 year old iBook...

Thanks in advance,

Mark.

 

[aristobrat]

I guess one way to prove your theory would be to download and install iStumbler on one of the MBPs.

Start close to your access point and then start slowly walking away. Use iStumbler to watch the levels.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

I"Ve had 2 incidences today where i lost signal - the airport on the MBP is dropping from 4 to 1 and losing the net. I had to reboot fro one of them, the other just started working again on it's own - about 30 minutes later.

I thought is was our net - we had a major outage yesterday - but now i'm not so sure. I wish i had tried another computer at 5am.

We have a dLink G wireless - but we have one to replace it with too...

Crying 2yo - gotta go!

 

[markjewiss]

I guess one way to prove your theory would be to download and install iStumbler on one of the MBPs.

Start close to your access point and then start slowly walking away. Use iStumbler to watch the levels.

Done that, and yep, the MBP just doesn't like being far away from the base station - which drives me mad as my old iBook loves being miles away! Now hoping that the AEX will work fine if I move it to another part of the house and connect it to the network using a home choice power network adaptor...

Mark.

 

[johnmartin78]

From what I know,the aluminium case on MBP interferes with wifi,reducing the range.I don't know if this has been addressed in later revisions or not.But I can't see how they would fix it unless they move the antenna outside of the case.It's a basic design flaw,anytime you put any metal between your computers antenna and the router,it is going to interfere with wifi.The single reason I prefer the Macbook over the MBP 9 times out of 10.

 

[markjewiss]

From what I know,the aluminium case on MBP interferes with wifi,reducing the range.I don't know if this has been addressed in later revisions or not.

Dang. I never thought of something as simple as that. How rubbish! Anyway, have sort of solved my issue... I'm connecting the MBP via Ethernet in the office room, and have moved the base station to the main room of the house that I'll be in when using wireless, and it's connected to my main router using home plug technology...

Ta,

Mark.

 

[johnmartin78]

I think you should still get more than 60 feet if ur using n,but maybe if you are in an office building the metal studs in the walls are nerfing it more.Not sure about that theory though.I know it doesn't take much,like if I walk outside my house and stand in front of a window with a metal screen I can be 20 feet and get no signal.