Filed under: Portables, Wireless, MacBook
MacBook has great Wireless range
I like the screen on my new MacBook, that's a fact. I'm loving the WiFi range of the little bugger as well. Mac Geekery points out that Apple repositioned the wireless antennas on the MacBook, and boy does it make a difference. I had no idea that there were so many wireless networks near my apartment (though I only use mine, and you can't freeload off of my bandwidth because I secured my wireless network).Yet another reason to buy a MacBook (I really need to justify the purchase).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
podge said 12:43PM on 5-23-2006
i cant wait 4 mine i've fallen in love since my ipod all
hail steve jobs
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Andy Lee said 1:42PM on 5-23-2006
"I had no idea that there were so many wireless networks near my apartment"
I had the same observation. My PH BiRes and Intel Mini see from 0-6 networks at any given time. At the moment they're both seeing 0 whereas my MacBook sees about 20.
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Ian said 1:48PM on 5-23-2006
I concur. My MacBook sees a TON of wireless networks while the Toshiba laptop and G4 Mini both see less.
Buy one! I love mine and am considering a top of the line Pro to replace my Athlon 64 3500+ photo editing desktop...
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Brad said 1:56PM on 5-23-2006
Well, it's also got to do with the fact that it's a plastic casing rather than aluminum. That's why the iBooks were superior to Powerbooks in wireless reception.
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Thorn said 2:10PM on 5-23-2006
I think it might have something to do with the WiFi chipset too.
At work, we have 11 APs that don't broadcast their SSIDs. My 15" PB never displayed them, but my 15" MBP shows them all.
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J.T. Mill said 2:25PM on 5-23-2006
I've noticed that the new Macbook Pros also have a good distance on them. I haven't been able to test it formally, or even against the original Macbook Pros, but compared to my brother's Powerbook it got twice the signal strength.
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rob said 2:27PM on 5-23-2006
you mean the gloss wasn't enough justification??
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Bill said 2:27PM on 5-23-2006
well all that means is that they are broadcasting them now because they is no way to get around that.
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Ben said 2:34PM on 5-23-2006
Just got the new sleek black MacBook this past weekend. When I fired it up, I could see all kinds of wireless network from my neighbors. A lot of them didn't show up on my iMac and my old Dell laptop couldn't even see half of them.
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Ian Smith said 2:35PM on 5-23-2006
I wonder if repositioning the antennas inside the MBPro would help at all. I have a 17" MBPro and I can tell the range is pretty bad. I bunnyhop networks at school (technically, internet isn't supposed to reach our dorm rooms, but what the hey) and my iBook could receive the signal from the desk while at the same time I have to prop my MBPro on top of the open window for it to get just 1-2 bars. Is it possible to reposition the antennas? I'm looking now for an ExpressCard antenna...
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Thomas said 3:38PM on 5-23-2006
One caveat about this: my MacBook shows a lot more wireless networks than my iBook used to, but a) when I ran Kismac on that iBook, it was able to see all those networks and more, and b) the MacBook isn't actually able to connect to many more than the iBook could. So though the reception seems a bit better, I think mainly they've just changed the software to report more faint networks.
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Reg said 8:31PM on 5-23-2006
You like the screen on your MacBook?
Better not let John "people are idiots" Siracusa hear you say that! He'll call you a, well, idiot.
(Which is okay, because I call most of the Ars writers arrogant know-it-alls.)
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Jim Thompson said 10:33PM on 5-23-2006
This "Airport performance has improved, a LOT" is to be expected. Not only does the MacBook (and MBP) use a far superior antenna layout, but the chipset used (on the embedded PCI express slot) is from Atheros, and Atheros has vastly superior receivers.
Putting the antennas in a horizontal/vertical configuration allows the MB to do a "slow" diversity scan, picking the antenna that is "best" for a given Access Point.
I'm waiting to see what Apple does with 802.11n. Thats going to rock.
I'm sure I'll replace this 12" PB with a MB before then though. Just the "gimme" factor will do it.
Hopeless, I know.
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