I have a 12" PB and it works great and i am very happy with it's performance since it's my very first Apple, no adware/spyware, virus bs either. One thing i feel it's lacking is a strong wi-fi signal. I've read it is due to the fact that the Wi-Fi card is enclosed in an all aluminum case therefore it will weaken/block the signal. Is that true?
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Why is Wi-Fi signal weak on the Aluminum PB?
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I've never experienced a weak wireless signal on my 17 inch PB. I was on my friends wireless network, where the router is on the top floor of his house, and I was in his basement. I was still getting full service.
Maybe I'm just lucky?
Maybe I'm just lucky?
thanks for all your feedback. I dont think this problem is just limited to the 12" PB as the case material, design and wifi card is exactly the same as the other PB models, so it seems the problem is the aluminum case that acts like a "faraday cage" as suggested by someone on one of the mac forums.
Size of the Screen
My brother and I were trying to poach a neighbour's wireless connection last weekend (we were both visiting my parents from out of town and didn't want to pay long distance to check e-mail). We were sitting in the same room, and he was getting a flawless signal on a 17 inch PB, while I was struggling to maintain a connection with a 15 inch PB (I kept tweaking the screen, and would get a signal, then someone would enter the room and I would seem to lose my signal again). We tried switching seats, but that didn't change things. We speculated that since the Airport antenna is in the screen, that the bigger the PB, the better the reception. Anyone know if there is any validity to this theory?
My brother and I were trying to poach a neighbour's wireless connection last weekend (we were both visiting my parents from out of town and didn't want to pay long distance to check e-mail). We were sitting in the same room, and he was getting a flawless signal on a 17 inch PB, while I was struggling to maintain a connection with a 15 inch PB (I kept tweaking the screen, and would get a signal, then someone would enter the room and I would seem to lose my signal again). We tried switching seats, but that didn't change things. We speculated that since the Airport antenna is in the screen, that the bigger the PB, the better the reception. Anyone know if there is any validity to this theory?
take your cell phone. wrap it in AL foil . . . will you get a signal? no. aluminum essentially blocks radio waves. so, if you have an entire laptop made of al will you get good wireless?
thats why apple installed a couple little plastic pieces on the side of the screen. thats the location of the antenna. works great, except there is still a lot of al blocking your wireless signal. know what will help? buying an iBook. . . or buying a half dozen airport express to extend your current wireless network.
thats just what happens with aluminum
thats why apple installed a couple little plastic pieces on the side of the screen. thats the location of the antenna. works great, except there is still a lot of al blocking your wireless signal. know what will help? buying an iBook. . . or buying a half dozen airport express to extend your current wireless network.
thats just what happens with aluminum
My 12" PB has signal problems too. My wife and I are currently traveling the country hotel to motel to find a new area/place to live. We are staying only at hotels/motels with wireless internet. We have had to change rooms several times after checking in d/t the PB not getting signals.....all the while my iMac G5 gets full signals. We were in NYC for around 3 weeks and we were constantly losing signals on the 12" PB. I used to have a 17" PB and never had any problems with signals, not even in NYC in the same apartment we just stayed in with some friends who live there.
Well at least i did not have any problems with Wi-Fi when me and my wife were celebrating our wedding anniversary and we stayed in a hotel in denver with free wifi. We never had any connection problems and were able to use the internet just fine. Now i really think the signal problem is due to the aluminum case. It still wont deter me from buying another Apple pb btw.
matthewr said:
If the antenna in the PBs is a loop antenna (which I think it is), then the net signal received is proportional to the area of the antenna. So, yes, you are on to something.
By the way, the Faraday cage concept technically applies only to electrostatics. Normal metals aren't capable of blocking magnetic fields (if you need that, try Mu-metal). However, it turns out that for most RF signals, the electric field part of the wave is more significant, and thus metals do a good job of attenuating oscillating electric fields, thanks to the skin effect.
Individual results are highly dependant on the positioning of the Mac, the base station and the local environment -- walls, distance, interference from wireless phones etc. I have one client with an Airport Extreme Base Station and 2 15" AlBooks. The base station is in the basement, postitioned near the ceiling, and the Powerbooks are upstairs -- straightline distance is no more than 20 feet. However we had to install an Airport Express as a repeater because the signal couldn't get around or through a rock fireplace, even though there is an open stairwell immediately beside the fireplace between the two spaces. Apple's performance of their internal Airport Extreme cards in those two machines has been maddeningly inconsistent.
My 15" hasn't had any problems. I think it may be more of an issue on the 12 than the 15, from what everyone's reporting here. Also, I get the feeling that the PB's antenna is significantly stronger than the iBook's to make up for the casing. Just a hypothesis.
my 12" 1.5 gets PERFECT signal almost everywhere
i have one aebs upstairs and i get signal everywhere-main floor, basement, even outside. It almost always shows 4 bars of airport.
I am at a big library right now with wi-fi, and everywhere i go, i have 4 bars.
i love this.
zach
i have one aebs upstairs and i get signal everywhere-main floor, basement, even outside. It almost always shows 4 bars of airport.
I am at a big library right now with wi-fi, and everywhere i go, i have 4 bars.
i love this.
zach
maybe the plastic sides on the displays are bigger on the 17" than on the 15", and bigger on the 15" than on the 12"?
It's not just a PB12 thing. At home I have a PB15, two 12" iBooks and one 14"iBook.
At very close range, they all get full strength. Outside of that, the iBooks get better signal strength and much greater distance. The iBooks also pickup other wireless networks nearby that the PB15 never sees.
At very close range, they all get full strength. Outside of that, the iBooks get better signal strength and much greater distance. The iBooks also pickup other wireless networks nearby that the PB15 never sees.
devman said:
that again enforces the "aluminum case" theory. I would've bought the ibook if it wasn't for the white colour, as i've seen permanent dirt marks on the mouse scroll pad area.
f1restarter said:
I would not allow this wifi signal strength issue to sway a decision from PB to iBook. There are many other far more important differences between the two models.
Also, to be clear, it's not that wifi performance on a PB is bad. It isn't. It's just not as good as an iBook.
