wireless and battery

[dereklai.]

some questions:

1. my wireless connection is not very strong in comparison to my friend's. he can pick up weak signals and can get good connection out of it when i can't even detect the same signal. we often have class together and he's always on the interwebs while i'm stuck with nothing. he uses a white macbook and i'm on a 15" macbook pro. anyone know what the problem might be?

2. there isn't anything wrong with taking out the battery and using the adapter for power while i'm using the macbook pro at home right?

thanks a bunch in advance.

 

[crobbins]

1.) You're friends computer is plastic and yours is aluminum. The plastic machine is always going to get a better signal.

2.) There is nothing wrong with running your machine that way. I would suggest being careful so you do not hit the mag safe adapter and lose all your work though..

 

[mtfield]

my best guess as to why he gets better reception is the fact that your pro is made out of aluminum which doesn't allow signals to flow (like wifi) as freely as plastic does that the macbook is made out of. The iphone is a perfect example of this... the iphone got lousy service compared to many other at&t phones because it was aluminum. They changed it to plastic to allow signals to flow better.. it's a shame, because aluminum looks sooo much better... just doesn't play nice with wireless tho... as for removing the battery i'm not sure... as long as it boot i would say your fine.

 

[dereklai.]

ah. always so helpful. thanks a bunch, people.

 

[!on]

you can buy wifi cards in expresscard 34 format, costly, & well you shouldn't have to. just saying, like

also (can't find it right now) i did see someone made their own by fixing some parts onto a dummy ec34 which actually worked. it was basically attatching antenna from an old wifi router, some copper wire & connector at other end.

won't be trying it myself though