WiFi only works near wireless router...

i am having the exact same problem, i have a regular macbook, and today i discovered that if i sit 5 ft from my router, its perfect, literally 2 ft further back, its either very slow (like dial up) or says page could not be displayed, i noticed since i updated to 10.5.7, least were not alone

My black macbook suddenly began doing this a few months ago - I have tried it on 5 or 6 different networks (school, home, starbucks, etc.)....I have to be within 4 or 5 feet for Wifi to work. It is very frustrating.

Any Ideas?

Same problems here for the most part:
This problem first happened about 6 months ago. I have used it on at least 10 different routers/connections, it is always the case that I have to be close to wireless antenna. Im running in 10.4.11. The other thing is I clearly remember when my internet stopped working from long distance. I was using it in my room and it just turned off while I was browsing the net. Because at that time I was not downloading any updates, I thought it was just a faulty router but my roommates macbook pro was not having any problems. Then at home, same story etc.. I just supposed it was always the hardware in my macbook that was broken/breaking/faulty, I never thought it was software.
I hope someone from apple can approach this problem. I'm sure there are other topics on this forum concerned with this problem.

Did you just update to 10.5.7?

I recently did and I've found the range of my MacBook from my wireless router has dropped dramatically. I used to be able to sit in my living room with full strength signal. Now I can no longer connect from my living room and have to be in the same room as the router to connect. I'm hoping to find a fix for this, but haven't been able to find anything yet.

It's not just 10.5.7

I'm on a 2006 black macbook running 10.4.11 and the problem also started for me about a week and a half ago.

I'm going to guess that apple must have released some sort of faulty update that killed the airport, much like when they released an update in 2007 that stopped you from opening any third party applications. It took them like 2-3 weeks to release the fix at the time. Hopefully they get around to it faster this time.

good luck waiting for that update. I too have the same problem. Unfortunately the problem also exists in Windows XP through bootcamp. If it were simply a patch or a driver issue, the wireless card would function fine through bootcamp. I'm going to replace the antenna in my macbook from a busted computer at work as I believe the wireless card has a generic fit for antenna replacement. One day I'll get to that...

I am having the exact same problem after years of a great wireless connection in Mac OS X. However, the wireless connection works just fine in bootcamp - I can go very far away (100+ feet) from the router and maintain a great connection in bootcamp. However, in OS X 10.5.7, I can only go about 20 feet away from the router and the connection will fully drop out. So from my perspective, it does seem to be software related since is still works great on the Windows side. Just started happening after the 105.7 update...

Update: After further testing, the bootcamp side is also losing the signal when over 20 feet away from the router. So it does seem to be hardware related...

I'm having this same problem. Since I updated to 10.5.7, I can't access the wifi once I leave my living room to go to the very next room, where I was always able to browse with full signal before. I tried to wipe the disk clean and reinstall and I still have the same issues. Can only access when right in front of the router, and even then I don't get full signal.

Has this issue been resolved? Is there anyone else still having this, or just me?

Exactly the same problem, exactly the same timescale.

All the evidence suggests that it's a hardware/firmware issue. But I don't recall there being an appropriate firmware update for the airport card recently.

The only updates I know of have applied to the airport router. I suppose those updates could have affected a/b/g connectivity which would have affected the older macbooks.

What routers are people using?

I'm using a linksys router, which still works well with my iPhone and other devices.

the exact same thing happened to me last week! my macbook will only connect to wifi when i'm right in front of it. so weird. and aggravating. i hope this can be fixed somehow. at first i thought it was my linksys so i kept restarting and unplugging it. but..then i noticed it was just my mac. bleh.

I've been having the exact same problem for almost 2 months now!