Airport Extreme signal reception

Mar 17, 2005 4 Replies

I'm wondering if anyone can suggest a solution to a problem I'm having getting wireless Internet reception with new G5 iMac.



The set-up is this:



In Room A, I have a Netgear wireless router (WGR614), connected by Ethernet to a G3 iMac.



In Room B (about 2 metres (6 feet) from Room A), there is a Wintel machine with a Netgear wireless card.



In Room C (about 10 metres (30 feeet) from Room A), is the new G5 iMac with an Airport Extreme Card.



The G5 network connection will not work in Room B or C, but does work in Room A. I made sure the aerial connection in the G5 to the card, was properly in p;ace, but that did not help. I also changed the channels, but that did not help either.



The Wintel machine works perfectly in Room C, with the signal showing up as ³very strong² to ³excellent².



My conclusions are:



(1) as the G5 will connect in Room A, the settings must be correct, and there is no incompatibility between the Netgear router and the Airport Extreme card.



(2) As the Wintel machine will connect in Room C, the router must be sending a good signal to Room C.



(3) Therefore, the fault must be in the reception by the Airport card, either because it simply is not as effective at picking up the signal as the Netgear card, or because the Airport card or its aerial is faulty.



Does anyone have any comments or suggestions (other than to try a repeater)?



Kind regards



Allan Passmore


My guess(tm) is a defective connector from the internal antenna and the wireless card in the iMac. The connector is very fragile and seems to be easily crunched. You'll need a magnifying glass or microscope to see the damage.

formatting link

Your conclusion is correct. The iMac's wireless reception is unacceptable. At two meters, you should definitely have a usable signal. The most likely cause is a defective antenna, but it could be the AirPort card itself. You might try using one of the stumbler apps (MacStumbler, iStumbler, etc) to get some relative signal strength numbers for the iMac in each room. Before you buy a repeater, use what you've already got: a warranty. Call AppleCare.

First, forget the Ethernet attache ddevice, that's not relative. Second, if the PC connects wirelessly just fine, you know ther eis nothing wrong with the access point. Third, by a process of elimination, it means the new Mac is getting interference...and probably from the nearby PC wireless connection. Try simpler setup: first, remove anything that uses wirelessles (phones, etc.) and power done everything except the router and the new Mac. Does it now work in that room?

Also, do you have the latest OS X AirPort driver?

Can you try the AirPort card in the other iMac and see if that one connects?

Is that an internal card and antenna? Maybe it's as simple as the antenna not being connected to the card?

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