Filed under: Software, Airport, Software Update
Did Apple change the signal strength scale with AirPort 4.2?
Since I am in a hotel room with a reliable, but fluctuating wifi signal, I can't verify this, but Avi Flax wrote in with the following:"I just installed the just-released Airport Software 4.2 update, and after rebooting I noticed that Apple seems to have changed the scale that the Airport icon uses to display signal strength. Before reboot, the icon was consistently at 2-3 bars. Afterwards, it's steady on 4, which should indicate a 100% signal, which made me a bit dubious. I doubted that the software update would have improved signal that much. So I launched the always-handy APGrapher, and verified that the signal strength hadn't changed at all, and was still around 40-45% - a far cry from the 100% that the Airport icon now implies. This doesn't actually bother me or anything, I just think it's worth noting. It reminds me of automakers removing oil pressure gages from car dashboards because of people worrying about their oil pressure, or making engine temp gages stay in the middle except in the case of emergencies. These changes were only made possible by engines becoming much more reliable, so wireless technology may one day be able to eliminate signal gages in the same vein."
Can anyone else confirm this behavior?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tony said 9:17PM on 7-14-2005
Maybe I'm going crazy, but I could swear I read that, with Tiger, the signal indicator is indicating bandwidth, not signal strength.
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Random said 9:26PM on 7-14-2005
It's true. Can't find the knowledge base articles on it, but fairly certain it's gone from displaying your signal strength to your connection speed.
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kivers said 9:25PM on 7-14-2005
Tony is on the right track, but I think it indicates signal quality, not strength or bandwith.
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Sivasothi said 9:26PM on 7-14-2005
Yeah connection speed not signal streength. But wasn't this introduced earlier with Tiger?
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Justin said 10:27PM on 7-14-2005
The indicator was in fact changed in Tiger to show throughput, not signal strength. Perhaps the author was on Panther and 4.2 is just now bringing that to that version as well?
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Doug Mayer said 11:12PM on 7-14-2005
I'm on Panther, and I installed my wireless 54g network on Tuesday, just before the update. I was getting about 40-50% "Signal Level" (as it's called in the Internet Connect pane) before the update, and now I'm getting 100% from the same places. I've had no noticable change in data transfer speeds (it's always been pretty fast, regardless of signal strength).
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Dan said 11:43PM on 7-14-2005
Yep. Moved around my apartment with my PowerBook and sure enough, the places where I got 2-3 bars now show 4 bars constantly. Places where I might get no bars I now get three... interesting.
Using Panther by the way. I don't notice a difference in download speeds.
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Savanna said 12:36AM on 7-15-2005
yes, i noticed it too!
when i used to sit out by the pool, i'd get 3 bars. now i always get 4 since upgrading to tiger. i don't notice any speed change but it's always been superfast for me before and still now too. =) <3 my ibook and airport. =)
i wondered if anyone else would write about it. =)
sav.
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Jack said 1:21AM on 7-15-2005
Yeah, but these go to 11.
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Jim Thompson said 4:59AM on 7-15-2005
No change here. 3 'bars' before, 3 'bars' after. However, I did notice a jump in the number of 'bars' with the 10.4.2 upgrade.
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tb said 7:25AM on 7-15-2005
Yes I definitely noticed the difference. But I also noticed a lag when connecting after waking up from sleep mode.
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Rob said 7:42AM on 7-15-2005
More importantly, what are you doing to get the date as well as the time in your menu bar?
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Ean Frick said 8:11AM on 7-15-2005
Does the lenox have open wifi? Cause there's a nice place to sit between the lenox hotel and the shaws nearby and it'd be even better if I could mooch wifi there. (If you haven't figured it out I'm a Boston local)
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Laurie said 8:58AM on 7-15-2005
Rob - the date and time in my menubar are courtesy of iClock, which I encourage you to download and try out. I wrote about it back in December (http://www.tuaw.com/2004/12/01/you-mean-its-not-part-of-the-os/) as one of those apps I have been using for so long I forget it isn't part of the OS. It's $20 shareware, from the folks who make the awesome CopyPaste app.
Ean - The Lenox does have open Wifi :)
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Tim Houghton said 2:11PM on 7-15-2005
I just upgraded, dont notice any difference in my Airporot whatsoever.
> Tony is on the right track, but I think it indicates
> signal quality, not strength or bandwith.
What is the difference between quality and strength?
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paul said 10:21AM on 7-15-2005
UGH. Why did they do that? I don't care about my connection speed. I want to know if I'm getting a signal or not.
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superg said 11:47AM on 7-15-2005
for the date and time in the menubar, use wClock. It's free and it works great too. When you click on the time, a little calendar pops down so you don't have to to iCal just to know what day of the week your girlfriends birthday is.
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Aaron said 12:58PM on 7-15-2005
Jack, I liked your Spinal Tap reference, if no one else did. :)
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Logan said 3:05PM on 7-15-2005
Laurie,
Is that picture a picture of your desktop? If so, how did you get the clock to display like that? Mine displays all black and a bigger font.
Thanks in advance.
Logan
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Laurie said 3:43PM on 7-15-2005
Logan, yes it's mine... scroll up to where I answered that question from someone else earlier :)
http://www.tuaw.com/2005/07/14/did-apple-change-the-signal-strength-scale-with-airport-4-2/#c38005
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