blizzardkmb4

Q: MacBook's Wireless range diminished

About two weeks ago the wireless range on my MacBook suddenly fell dramatically, so I have to be about twice as close to the router to receive signal, corresponding to a four-fold decrease in signal reception.

Let's say X is the old wireless range. When the laptop is within 1/2X, the internet works perfectly. When I am at distance X, the network doesn't appear. When I am at 3/4X and try to connect to the network, I get "Connection timeout" notices. Sometimes after I enter in my password and click "Connect," the "Network Preferences" window reloads the password prompt dialog box, with an empty password. If I turn off the AirPort and turn it back on, the network often fails to appear unless I move back to within 1/2X.

The wireless router is 3Com, with WEP encryption. I am 99% sure that the problem is with my computer, because my brother's similar black Macbook gets wireless in the old areas with no problems. I'm using 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for DNS.

I've tried: Forgetting the wireless network and then reconnecting to it, powering off and on the router, manually entering the network name and password, and none of these steps has worked. I would appreciate if you could tell me other steps I can take to troubleshoot the problem, including possibly checking for damage to the wireless antenna. Thanks very much!

White late 2008 Macbook, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Jul 5, 2010 7:22 PM

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Q: MacBook's Wireless range diminished

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  • by dsam7,

    dsam7 dsam7 Aug 26, 2010 4:39 PM in response to WilsonGarr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 26, 2010 4:39 PM in response to WilsonGarr
    Hi,

    It is this one: Edimax Wireless Mini-size Nic Network Card 150mbps USB Ew-7711utn

    It's tiny and works perfectly

    http://www.edimax.co.uk/en/producedetail.php?pd_id=280&pl1_id=1&pl2id=44
  • by WilsonGarr,

    WilsonGarr WilsonGarr Aug 27, 2010 12:43 PM in response to dsam7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 27, 2010 12:43 PM in response to dsam7
    Terrific ... Thanks so much. Now I will do the research to see if it is compatible with 10.6.4. The other 2 I tried are not. Belkin and Net Gear.

    Cheers
  • by WilsonGarr,

    WilsonGarr WilsonGarr Aug 27, 2010 1:57 PM in response to WilsonGarr
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 27, 2010 1:57 PM in response to WilsonGarr
    For those of us in the USA. I have found that the Edimax EW 7718 UN wireless USB adapter is available to us and it supposedly works with MAC OS 10.6.4. I just ordered it and will let you know the results when I plug it in. $40 US

    EW-7718Un
    nMax Wireless 802.11n USB Adapter for PC and Mac

    http://www.edimax.us/html/english/products/EW-7718Un.htm
  • by Charles Noll,

    Charles Noll Charles Noll Aug 29, 2010 11:25 AM in response to Charles Noll
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 29, 2010 11:25 AM in response to Charles Noll
    OK I got mine fixed. I opened it up (thank you www.iFixit.com for showing me how) and found that one of the two antenna cables was not plugged in. In fact it was not even close to the connector. I wonder if these move and get pulled on when the lid is opened and closed?
  • by undervegs,

    undervegs undervegs Aug 30, 2010 1:13 PM in response to blizzardkmb4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 30, 2010 1:13 PM in response to blizzardkmb4
    Thanks to this tread I did not feel so lonely with the problems of loosing the wireless connection...
    I also have a 2006 Macbook that started to lose connection a few months ago. I became more and more sure it had to be a hardware problem.
    With inspiration and help from this tread and ifixit.com instructions I removed the airport card from another broken macbook and replaced it with the card in my macbook. Now I can sit happily 40 meter from the antenna and write this post with full wireless connection.
  • by yyz2,

    yyz2 yyz2 Aug 31, 2010 6:35 AM in response to blizzardkmb4
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Aug 31, 2010 6:35 AM in response to blizzardkmb4
    After downloading from Snow Leopard to Leopard, and seeing a slight improvement, I purchased an AirLink 101 Wireless USB Adapter and am now happily surfing from the location I need to. Certainly not a fix, but at least I can use my laptop.

    http://airlink101.com/products/awll6075.php

    Thanks to Stacie for posting this idea in another thread.

    Message was edited by: yyz2
  • by yyz2,

    yyz2 yyz2 Aug 31, 2010 7:18 AM in response to yyz2
    Level 1 (25 points)
    Aug 31, 2010 7:18 AM in response to yyz2
    Sorry, that should have read "downgrading" not "downloading", but I can't seem to edit my post. sigh.
  • by mindmeltdown,

    mindmeltdown mindmeltdown Sep 3, 2010 8:19 PM in response to blizzardkmb4
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Sep 3, 2010 8:19 PM in response to blizzardkmb4
    I am having the exact same problem. Wi-fi will not connect on my 2006 MacBook unless I am about 4 or 5 feet away from the base station. It does not matter if I am using Mac OS X or Windows XP. Someone on the thread said they had success after changing out the Airport card. Are there any good instructions online on how to swipe out the old for the new Airport card? I was not able to find any myself after a google search etc... (I am in Japan and that has an affect on the results even if you switch your search preference to English)

    All I can say is that the plastic MacBook has just been one headache after another... I have had the hard drive, logic board, and battery all replaced. The display flickers regularly as well. I use to be a big Apple fan boy. However, this MacBook has proved to be a strong dose of humility.
  • by InuNacho,

    InuNacho InuNacho Sep 5, 2010 3:33 PM in response to blizzardkmb4
    Level 1 (30 points)
    Sep 5, 2010 3:33 PM in response to blizzardkmb4
    I've got the same exact problem as everyone else on my early 2008 Blackbook. I can connect to my wireless WPA2 network but there is no internet at all, all of the other Mac laptops (iBook, Powerbook, and newer Macbook) can connect to the internet with no problem.

    It used to happen every once in a while for a few minutes when I was using 10.5, but after upgrading to 10.6 last night I've only been able to use the internet during a software update.
  • by nick17afi,

    nick17afi nick17afi Sep 23, 2010 10:39 PM in response to blizzardkmb4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 23, 2010 10:39 PM in response to blizzardkmb4
    I have a 2006 macbook w/ the same issue. Oddly, I get full signal strength on my campus and evan at the local mall's food court; however, I don't get a signal in my room which is about 20 ft away from the router (the route is a brand new Cisco Linksys E2000, so no problem there).
  • by Side_Step_Society,

    Side_Step_Society Side_Step_Society Sep 25, 2010 9:40 PM in response to nick17afi
    Level 2 (434 points)
    Apple Music
    Sep 25, 2010 9:40 PM in response to nick17afi
    Bump for anyone else affected by this problem.
  • by SHBshbshb,

    SHBshbshb SHBshbshb Sep 26, 2010 6:32 PM in response to Side_Step_Society
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 26, 2010 6:32 PM in response to Side_Step_Society
    2006 MacBook - Same seriously diminished wireless reception. I have several wireless networks I use . home, work, in-laws . . Over the summer, my MacBook started having problems on ALL of these wireless networks. Suddenly, I couldn't connect from distances that used to be fine. My wife's Dell still works great. Happens on three different brands of routers. Definitely hardware problem.

    Strongly considering replacing Airport Card. Seems there has been some success with this option. Any thoughts?
  • by Dimmalo,

    Dimmalo Dimmalo Sep 27, 2010 11:20 AM in response to blizzardkmb4
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 27, 2010 11:20 AM in response to blizzardkmb4
    It's definitely a hardware problem. I've bought a replacement for my old airport card on ebay (£20), opened my macbook (it was painful, I have to admit), swapped the old card and, that's it, the wifi is working again.

    So, if you have run out of warranty, the solution I'd like to suggest are the following:

    - buy an external adapter (like the one suggested a couple of post above)
    - buy a replacement for you airport card (on ebay, possibily a newer one) and, thanks to ifixit.com, change the card.

    Hope this is helpful, feel free to ask any question
  • by SHBshbshb,

    SHBshbshb SHBshbshb Sep 29, 2010 5:16 PM in response to Dimmalo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 29, 2010 5:16 PM in response to Dimmalo
    OK, ifixit.com here I go! Ordering new Airport Card now. I opened up the case once before to replace the hard drive. while i was in there, i looked at the old Airport Card to see if it was loose. Everything seemed nice and tight. You're right, it was a little painful. But, in and out in less than an hour. Worth it if I can go back to browsing freely throughout the house.

    I'll report back to the forum after I replace the Airport Card.
  • by Side_Step_Society,

    Side_Step_Society Side_Step_Society Sep 29, 2010 5:19 PM in response to SHBshbshb
    Level 2 (434 points)
    Apple Music
    Sep 29, 2010 5:19 PM in response to SHBshbshb
    Nice, hopefully this fix works out for you. Good luck!
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