I have a powerbook 15" with an airport extreme card. My roomates all have pc's with wireless cards too. My signal is weak as heck when im not in the same room as the router, yet my companions all have excellent signals with further away desktops. I can pick up like 3 different neighbor signals with almost the same strength as ours, AND ive had excellent signals from different sources in the past. What could possibly be the problem here? Our router? my card? hmm.... It's very frustrating being a mac noob.
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Powerbook weak signal
- Thread starter Terzin1
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Unfortunately, the PowerBooks don't have the best reception, due to the aluminum case. This was ameliorated a bit in the MacBook Pros by relocating the antenna, but PowerBooks are still stuck with subpar wireless performance...it's been a significant gripe of PB owners over the years, myself included. 
i have a very high end router, and 2 imacs 1 15inch powerbook and a macbook, the powerbook cant make it 20ft from the router but the macbook and imac can get it from across the street. its pathetic!
as you might already know powerbooks are made out of Adamantium thats why they cost so much and look so cool, so the signal strenght isnt that good, get a macbook, those are made out of policarbonate sulfate and have better reception.
PBs just have poorer wireless reception because of their materials. If I remember correctly, MBs and iBooks have about twice the range. Some people have solved this by buying transmitters, but those will run you a couple hundred dollars.
i changed the antennas on the router and it made a world of difference i also began using the interference robustness setting. i am at least a good 60 feet and upstairs from the access point
Terzin1 said:
Well, the later Powerbooks have rubber on the top of the screen where the antennae are, in order for them to get better reception.