New MacBook Pro Wifi reception is terrible?

people that believe the wifi is good have probably been using only macs for the past couple years.. which explains a lot

the ones that are coming from windows notebooks or have one to compare it to will agree that mbp wifi and internet performance is sub par..

it's hard to know if something is good or bad when you have nothing to compare it to except for another apple
 
PAC88 said:
people that believe the wifi is good have probably been using only macs for the past couple years.. which explains a lot

the ones that are coming from windows notebooks or have one to compare it to will agree that mbp wifi and internet performance is sub par..

it's hard to know if something is good or bad when you have nothing to compare it to except for another apple
Click to expand...

My Dell Precision M4400 work computer has far worse wifi reception then my MBP. In my office I can't even use the Dell's wifi because it cannot pickup a signal while my MBP has no problems.

But you are right it is all relative.
 
PAC88 said:
people that believe the wifi is good have probably been using only macs for the past couple years.. which explains a lot

the ones that are coming from windows notebooks or have one to compare it to will agree that mbp wifi and internet performance is sub par..

it's hard to know if something is good or bad when you have nothing to compare it to except for another apple
Click to expand...

There have been multiple times that I have sat next to somebody with a windows notebook (including sony, lenovo, hp, toshiba), and my wireless signal on my mbp has been better.
 
My 17" i7 has been rock solid stable with my old Linksys wireless router. My '07 MBP 15" was horrible at distance with multiple drops over a couple hours
 
To The OP:

What you're experiencing isn't normal. Take it in to get serviced, I had this exact same issue with an older MBP model and it turned out the wireless was defected in some way. They replaced it for free and had it back to me in a couple of days. It worked perfect after that --- zero drops, always solid bars.
 
i had no problems. i thought the new macbook pro reception was a huge improvement from my previous laptop (dell latitude). if i were you, i'd take it in for a replacement immediately.
 
scaredpoet said:
My 15" i5 actually seems to be doing better than my previous 2.33GHz MacBook Pro (late 2006 model). Where my old MBP had trouble picking up Wifi from a linksys router at the other end of the house, the connection with this one is rock solid. Works fine with the access points at work as well.
Click to expand...
This sums up my experience as well. Since I live on WiFi (office, home, out and about) I ended up selling my 2006, as no matter what I tried it just was too unreliable. Especially at Starbucks where I meet clients a few times each week.

My new MBP i7 is rock solid. No dropouts or any problems at all. Whew...:eek:
 
PAC88 said:
people that believe the wifi is good have probably been using only macs for the past couple years.. which explains a lot

the ones that are coming from windows notebooks or have one to compare it to will agree that mbp wifi and internet performance is sub par..

it's hard to know if something is good or bad when you have nothing to compare it to except for another apple
Click to expand...
You've brought up a very good point. I've been using both PC laptops and Mac laptops for many years, and continue to be amazed at how Apple is still a bit behind in the area of reception and maintaining a solid connection. That said I've only had my new MBP i7 for seven days, and so far it's doing well. I travel a lot and use WiFi everywhere, so I'm hoping my new Macs WiFi performs like that of my ThinkPads, it just works, and you never have to think about it.

This new MBP is great, I really like it. My favorite Mac Laptop so far.

Cheers... :)
 
I am so pissed. All the sudden 2 weeks ago I started having these slow connectivity, drop-out problems and complete no connectivity. To me it is absolutely ridiculous. I was having different problems with the computer back 4 months ago and did a complete reinstall of Snow Leopard, all my software, a new hard-drive, etc....

Now this. I swear I have had more problems with my mbp than my old piece of **** Toshiba Laptop.

Just recently I had to replace the video chip set. That took 5 days and fortunately apple did it for free.

I have 0 internet right now; showing full signal but no connectivity. I have changed the DNS servers, I have reset the pram, I've spent 4 hours trying to figure this out. My wife's macbook works fine. My piece of crap 4 year pc runs fine. All use the wifi and can hit the web fine.

A. Why would this all of the sudden happen.
B. What would cause it to be intermittent?
C. How do I fix this. I have to be able to reliably use the internet?
D. Will Apple fix it? Can they fix it?

Sincerely Pissed, Confused, and Frustrated

Jacob
 
I am confused on what I should do.

My i7's wifi was going in and out occasionally. I took it to the Apple store today, they completely replaced the computer with a brand new one.

I get home and this is still happening. My white Macbook next to me (4.5 years old) is getting faster speeds.

Is this software related, possibly? I hope....
 
Apple moved the wifi/bluetooth boards this go around. Now they are mounted inside the computer and there is an antennae mounted off of the frame that holds the optidrive open (also inside the computer but directed at the gap of the optidrive). They used to intertwine with isight connectors. All signs would point to this allowing better wifi reception than previous models but only time and tempers will tell.
 
I wonder what % of folks with the newer mbp are having this problem. I have a late model 2007 and these problems just started happening. After my post above my internet/wifi seems to be working. I added 2 additional dns servers so now I have 4.2.2.0 - 4.2.2.5 in my dns server list.

I hope that it isn't a large % of people with newer mbp that are having this problem.:confused:
 
mac.by.jake said:
I am so pissed. All the sudden 2 weeks ago I started having these slow connectivity, drop-out problems and complete no connectivity. To me it is absolutely ridiculous. I was having different problems with the computer back 4 months ago and did a complete reinstall of Snow Leopard, all my software, a new hard-drive, etc....

Now this. I swear I have had more problems with my mbp than my old piece of **** Toshiba Laptop.

Just recently I had to replace the video chip set. That took 5 days and fortunately apple did it for free.

I have 0 internet right now; showing full signal but no connectivity. I have changed the DNS servers, I have reset the pram, I've spent 4 hours trying to figure this out. My wife's macbook works fine. My piece of crap 4 year pc runs fine. All use the wifi and can hit the web fine.

A. Why would this all of the sudden happen.
B. What would cause it to be intermittent?
C. How do I fix this. I have to be able to reliably use the internet?
D. Will Apple fix it? Can they fix it?

Sincerely Pissed, Confused, and Frustrated

Jacob
Click to expand...

I see the same things as you and everyone here. Brand new 15" i5 cost nearly two GRAND. I expect signal at LEAST as good as my MacBook, which was great to be honest.

It's slow. It drops out. That is definitely not acceptable. I'm a big Apple fan but I expect to be able to watch Hulu when I have 4 bars of WiFi on a MacBook Pro. I don't care about whether the metal case makes it tricky for Apple or whatever, I want WiFi that works. My MacBook WiFi was fine.

As Dr. Scientist noted...This shouldn't happen. I may end up returning it and exchanging (for no cost I fully expect) for a white MacBook. It's sad because the MBP's metal case feels so much more solid than my old cracking white MacBook which ironically just died. But I need Internet!!! It goes like 30k/sec or something. Sigh...re-installing and stuff...

I read in few places historically WiFi problems were caused by "thermal paste" or the antenna getting moved/disconnected partially etc. I wonder if since this is a Rev. A or something there is some antenna issue.

Anyone else have some WiFi stories to tell?
 
I am having the same issues with a week old 17 inch one. I have had no drops form my other two PC laptops but this one drops every 30 mins or so. At this point I don't know if its my laptop or router or what. I guess its back to the apple store tomorrow and see what they say. If I buy a new apple router and that doesn't fix it is that returnable? This is my first mac and so far I am not that impressed. The connection problems, won't work with yahoo mail, yahoo chat, safari won't connect to my company website, the tiny menus and fonts that you can't re size.

Phil
 
I just figured at least one problem out:

I've just determined that when I plug in an external monitor to my MacBook Pro it knocks out or slows the internet. Don't know if the posters on this thread are using an external monitor or not.

I've been trouble shooting this for a few days and have noticed that the external monitor connection does impact the internet. I don't know why and haven't come across any threads that explain it yet. Many threads talk about people with the same problems and that changing the frequency helps in some cases.

I have tested the external monitor theory 10 different times and each time the results are the same. I plug in my external monitor try to load a page an nothing happens. As the page is "trying" to load I unplug the external monitor and the page loads. Several other test yielded the same results.

Now I need to figure why or how the external monitor knocks out the internet.

I've tried changing the frequency and made some progress but the internet is still slow.

I'll keep trying... :confused::confused:
 
@Who says that it could be a router problem:
I think it is a non-sense. Because with your $2000+ MacBook Pro you MUST be able to connect to EVERY WIFI network, even if you are sitting in the airport or anywhere else with a wifi hotspot available.

Or.... you could go to the airport's IT manager and tell him that, because your MPB doesn't like their routers, they should change them! That is their fault!!

Come on. The world doesn't spin around Apple!!!!!!!!!

Apple MUST fix this! And users, all of them, can't give up fighting for this, only because "shiny and perfect" Apple is amazing.
 
mac.by.jake said:
I've tried changing the frequency and made some progress but the internet is still slow.
Click to expand...

Jake,

When you look at the Scan List (click on the AirPort Bars in the upper left hand corner), how many networks do you see?

Connect your Mac to your wireless network. Go to system profiler and click on AirPort. Copy and paste the information found on the left into this thread.
 
DrVenture said:
Jake,

When you look at the Scan List (click on the AirPort Bars in the upper left hand corner), how many networks do you see?

Connect your Mac to your wireless network. Go to system profiler and click on AirPort. Copy and paste the information found on the left into this thread.
Click to expand...

Way less networks appear on my MBP than my MacBook detected. Like half of them. And half or less the strength (which translates to even less speed...maxes out around 150k/s if I get lucky.)

This sucks. I'm going to be in an Apple store this weekend asking about this.

That and the batter lasts 4 or 5 hours. But I never honestly expected a 10 hour battery. That seems too good to be true. WiFi working though that is kind of key.
 
My Wifi connection (apple wifi router) at home is fine, but at work (linksys brand wifi router), it will drop the connection even though the signal indicator is full!

Anybody know of any software fix? I have a feeling this is one of those things that will be very hard to prove to the Geniuses at the Apple store.
 
Dropping with a Linksys=Cisco Router and not with Apple's one? :eek::eek:
A nonsense at all... Apple really sucks at this!
 
My 15" i7 has been good so far, was able to use it outside on my patio, but thats not terribly far away. (~80 + upstairs)

But then again, I'm not using wireless N since I have the old dome Airport Extreme.
*wishes my dad would understand things about computers and get a new airport and replace his imac g4 or at least use the c2d imac we have* :)
 
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