Airport Reception

In my own experiences, my Airport reception is exceptional. I can walk outside and walk across the yard almost 200' before I lose reception, and that's going through three walls, the out wall being brick. I'm not saying that all PBs should be this way, but mine is exceptional.

I sold my iBook 14" after having it over a year. Bought the PB, due to the classy look and backlit keyboard. I also do a bit of Photoshop work, so wanted something with a little more juice. Was not overly concerned about battery life, but was an extensive user of wireless.

Foolish, foolish me. Oh how I miss my little iBook. The airport reception was phenomenal. Of course Photoshop did not work quite as fast, but it did work.

PB wireless reception, however, is almost nonexistent. 100% bars one minute, complete loss of reception the next. Check the forums very carefully.

Don't let Apple have $2000 for a defective product, and don't believe the people who claim it's a setting problem, microwave, or otherwise. The latest 15" PBs are defective, and Apple is silent on the issue.

I just got a new 15" powerbook and the airport reception was so bad we took it to the Apple store who told us that the aluminum interfered with the reception! Does that sound right to anyone? I just upgraded from the ibookG4 which had great reception and now I am beginning to regret it. Other than sending this back, any suggestions out there?

my reception is horrible. I have a Powerbook G4 Aluminum PPC, the last revision before the Intel MacBook.

Upon further research it is safe to assume that we are screwed with poor airport reception.

it seems apple does not like to admit to hardware flaws. The 15" powerbook seems to be riddled with them. I've gone through an overheating issue, multiple bad lower memory slot logic boards and now this wifi thing. The memory slot thing is now a n extended warranty issue but it took forever for that to happen. All of my freinds ibooks work beautifully and the 12" powerbook that replaced with my 15 worked great, and i miss it more and more everyday.

My PB wifi reception has been fine, and is similar to a Thinkpad I also have. I have read where some consider the iBook to have better wifi reception than PB's, citing plastic vs metal case as possibly being a reason.

If you're going to consider a refurbished PB, if it's the generation that was just discontinued, read up on screen and sound issues. The sound issues may have been fixed by 10.4.5.

i haven't had many problems with mine, and i have the latest revision. i will say that after upgrading to 2 gb of ram, i believe that the range is less. other than that, i haven't had a problem

my aluminum powerbook reception is horrible, as well.

So we all agree the PowerBook reception is poor. How do we boost it? Can we add a WiFi card to the card slot and use an antenner?


Power Mac G5 2Ghz Duel Mac OS X (10.4.4) Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz

I think Apple should provide a solution to this issue. Really.

I have a Brand new 15" PB, bought it right before the new books came out. I'm about to shove it down someones throat the reception is a JOKE!

Ok, so we all know that there is a problem with the aluminum. Mine is selective at best. I am writing this in the basement with the wireless Netgear 624gt 2 floors above me and right now showing 3 bars and reception is fine, not great but acceptable. I would like this to improve however, because I find that during the day, reception gets very poor and my Thinkpad t41 with 802.11b, sitting in the basement right next to my PB, gets a more consistant and stronger signal.

I would just say that technology has not caught up to the fact that I am in the basement if it were not for the fact that my t41 with earlier technology than my PB gets better reception from the basement. Of course if I walk up a flight with either, the reception improves for both, only normal.

Would a PMCIA card improve this?

Has anyone tried a range extender, such the Netgear wall plugged product? W102 I believe.

I am starting to feel like a Netgear promom here, but their new NEXT model uses 802.11n? It's pricey at over $300 for the router and pc card combo but promises lots of range. Anyone an early adapter and tried this?

I have a hard time believing the problem MOST of us experience is due to a loose AP card. A loose AP card doesn't suddenly heal/reseat itself with a machine restart.

It seems that the only successful fixes for this problem in the last 15" PBs are:

1) Repair Permissions (I'm joking here, it worked for one guy; I've tried it countless times with no luck whatsoever)
2) Another AP base station installed in the home. (Another joke.) This one sounds like it was as much of a signal issue as anything else. That is, the home it was in sounded too big for adequate AP reception with only one BS.
3) Restart your machine. Which does work like a charm, but is not what was advertised by Apple in PB ads. Not even in tiny legal type hidden somewhere.

SO...that leaves us all with only one recourse (actually two, but hopefully the first will be all that's necessary): to constantly call Apple and complain in a firm but civil manner until this issue is resolved. We might have better luck going through Customer Relations. They can be accessed via the regular help line; you just have to ask a person to connect you with that department.

I think a good idea would be to tell the reps that there are multitudes of 15" last-gen PB owners experiencing this same problem (as evidenced by Apple's own boards right here) and we want to know what Apple is doing to address it...or if we need to pursue "other avenues" to get the problem rectified.

It might be warranted to call them oh, let's see...whenever the problem occurs. Or some close variation of that. For me, that would be literally almost every single day. PITA. But if enough of us do it and raise enough of a stink, my guess is they'll realize it will cost them more NOT to address it than to ignore it. As it stands, this lack of ANY official response is simply unacceptable.

The help line is 1-800-SOS-APPL. Dial early and often, people.

I reset my PMU and all is working great now! I was complaining left and right. They said to try that. My first thought was "Wow is that a dumb suggestion!" It actually worked though.

I tried the PMU trick last night. Just now had the problem AGAIN. Dang.