powerbook poor wireless

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ziddey

Supreme [H]ardness
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My friend has a powerbook with the airport builtin wireless. I bought a dlink di524 for her to use, but the signal is just terrible. I can get access to it parked in my car sitting outside her house. But if she leaves the room and the room immediately next to it, she loses all signal. Being about 20ft from the dlink, she has barely any signal with her powerbook and I'm still full. So of course down in the basement or on the other side of the house, she gets nothing, whereas I still get a very good signal. I've never used a mac before really so does anyone have any knowledge about this? I think I ruled out the dlink fairly well..
 
how old is the powerbook that she is using? is everything up to date? firmware/software?
 
I had a similar issue with a DLink Wireless router and my iBook with wireless. Fixed the problem by exchanging it for a Linksys. :D Signal on the DLink just flat out sucked.:mad: Frequently lost signal all together. It also ended up being pretty flaky with our ISP and our wired machines. Linksys blew it away.

I use Linksys wireless routers here at work and at the house perfectly with my iBook.

My $.02, exchange it for a Linksys.

Mr.Dearthian
 
The chipsets that dlink used in some of the routers in the past had issues with a bunch of units but I don't think they were apples. I would verify that the powerbook works ok on someone elces network and if it does change routers. It is possible that the powerbooks antennas are not hooked into the card well.
 
Good point Swatbat. Unfortunately this was about two months ago for me (forget the model but it was wireless G).

For me, I knew it was the router because my iBook worked fine with the Linksys at work and had strong signal anywhere in the store. It also worked fine with the Wireless Router/Modem from Verizon that a buddy of mine had at his house. Oh well.

I would check with another wireless point like Swatbat suggested. I still say it's the DLink, but checking it with another wireless point is a cheap diagnostic.

Mr.Dearthian
 
Netgear routers work well w apple too. i can get signal three floors down in my condo with my 1st gen 15" pb
 
my powerbook works very well with my dlink router, but it's the 4300, so it's pretty new. other than getting a new router, which it might come down to, see if there's a more recent firmware for the router?

does her powerbook work on other routers just fine? otherwise it could be something wrong with the airport card...
 
I would suggest checking the antenna cable on the Airport card. It sounds to me like it isn't plugged in all the way. You should be able to check it by turning off the Powerbook, removing the battery, and opening the Airport access door. Check the little cable and make sure it is connected all the way.
 
Not that easy unfortunately. If you want to check the antenna connection, you're gonna have to visit an apple store. In the new PBs the airport card is no longer user accessible.

-Idler
 
Well I just got my new pb about a month ago and also had wireless problems. My PC laptop never had problems reaching my bedroom, but the powerbook was constantly dropping the connection... I'd say it's almost 100ft away. Anyway, I downloaded a widget called Airport Radar and noticed I have a lot of wireless networks in my area. In the end changing channels on the router completely solved the problem... I can use it anywhere I want now and it never disconnects or has trouble connecting from sleep. I recommend looking at the local networks and pick a channel that is farthest away from stronger signals. Channels 1, 6, 11 are the most popular... and actually use something like 3 channels a piece. I found single channels like 3 or 9 worked best. I have interference robustness disabled. Hope this fixes it for yah... 20ft is pathetic.
 
Yea the channels was something I forgot to bring up. That can help. But since your pc notebook can connect i would think more of a problem with the powerbook or a compatability issue.
 
yeah I did move channels around since it was having interference with the 2.4ghz phones. seems to be clear as hell with my 2200bg intel
 
my recently purchased ibook has really good connection with my dlink router (same model as yours). It also picks up the signal of about 4 other routers around my house.
 
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