Is Macbook Pro wireless just plain weak?

I've been really impressed with my new MBPs wireless reception. I can see nearly twice as many wireless networks with the new MacBook as I can with my old PowerBook G4. It does help to make sure your wireless access point (Airport Base Station, whatever) is as high up as possible to get the best reception.

My wireless reception is better when plugged in. When I unplug and I'm in my chair (next room from 2wire router running wpa) the connection drops. I can turn off the airport and then back on and it gets reception for about 30 secs then it drops again.

The weird thing is when I switch to windows with bootcamp I get perfect reception. No drops whatsoever.

Im thinking that windows cranks up the power to the airport or the wpa is the problem? I dunno.

How do you explain that I have NEVER had a problem with wireless connection with my PowerBook G4 then, but have had nothing but poor signals, dropped connections on my new MacBook Pro? I am, by the way, running both now, by necessity, which is crazy since I wanted the advantages of the Intel, and the new LED screen, which is great for working outdoors, at least in the shade. There is something wrong beyond the casing . I am seriously considering trying to return mine, after investigating the problem and finding it is prevalent and has not been addressed for months.

Search search search..........it's your friend. This is a known issue.

My problem with the MBP's wireless is not its connectivity, as most people seem to be having, but instead its strength. I have a friend who purchased his MBP (same model as mine) just a week before me and is having the common connection dropping problem while I am not, even on the same network using the same AP.

So, I have to assume mine is different somehow. Which leads me to my question: I have another friend who just bought a 13" MacBook. His wireless functions well. In a public area such as a coffee shop, he will see eight or nine APs ranging from 20%-70% signal strength, while on my system there will be only one, usually the strongest of the bunch.

This strikes me as weird. I shouldn't be seeing one and only one AP when there are three or four just like it with nearly the same signal strength on my friend's MacBook. The one signal we both pick up will always be at least 10% stronger on his machine, and I attribute this to the MBP's silly wireless design. However, that 10% should not be the difference between seeing nine APs and seeing only one. Can anyone else with MacBook-owning friends confirm this behavior?

I haven't yet been able to test side-by-side with my Pro-owning friend to see if there is a relationship between having no connectivity problems and having a weak signal.

I'm having the same weak strength problem with my MBP 17" 2.33GHz C2D.

I didn't really notice till I had to set up my sis-in-law's new Alu iMac. I was shocked that with her iMac next to my MBP, the iMac was seeing about 25 networks whereas my MBP was only showing 3-4!!! This just shows that it isn't the Alu case that affects network performance.

Pretty cr*p really.

I am running a G3, G4 and MacBook Pro. The G4 is three rooms away and has a full window of bars in its Airport menu. My Pro is sitting within two feet of the Airport and stays short one bar in the menu. I can even sit the Base Station right on, near or around the Pro and it still comes up a bar short. The old G3 has a full window of bars also here by the Pro.

I also suffer painfully and noticebly slow internet operations compared to the Ethernet cable connection on the Pro. I've changed channels, unplugged cordless phones and other items, am in the country, no houses near, but nothing makes any difference.

From reading here it doesn't sound like much can be done, and mine's not unusual it seems. Can some kind of third party, or external antenna be bought for the Pro? Thanks.

Hi,
I seem to get farily decent reception/speed in a similary sized two-story townhome. I recently upgraded to a MBP from an iBook (1.2 ghz). The iBook got more bars in more places, of course the CPU was much slower. I was thinking of getting one of these for my girlfriend's PC, which seems to be just out of reach her nearby campus wireless signal (I can walk a half block down the street and get a moderate 2-bar signal):

http://hfield.com/wifire.htm

Aparently these work well with the mac too, but the antenna is not yet cross-platform (apparently the company is working on that currently). The online reviews I read, said the "wi-fire" antennas do not work as well as the manufacurer says (imagine that!), but that they do significantly boost the signal of the internal wireless cards. They are kind of ugly little things, in a PC kinda way!

Hope this helps.

--Pete