Mac mini AirPort reception
Reader Mark Boszko writes about the relatively poor AirPort reception of his new Mac mini:
"Perhaps it's due to the lack of a larger antenna around a screen, but I find that in an area of my house where two 17" iMac G4s get, on average, three 'bars' of AirPort signal in the menu bar icon, the Mac mini will get one bar, or drop out completely. Turning on "Use Interference Robustness" seemed to help a marginal amount, so the signal would not drop out completely, but still never more than one bar. There doesn't seem to be anywhere to plug in an external antenna, so I'm not sure how I might enhance the reception."
We haven't seen this issue with our Mac mini; however, our only point of comparison is a 15" Aluminum PowerBook G4 -- the two machines get nearly identical AirPort reception. We'd appreciate feedback from readers who have both a Mac mini and another Mac or Apple laptop with an AirPort Extreme card.
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Mini in my basement. The Cube was usually at 4 bars at all times and never
dropped out. The Mini frequently drops to 2 bars or 1 or drops off
completely, although it usually comes back right away. It's really only a
problem when steaming music from my server, as it tends to pause quite a
bit.
in some situations. Apple did the best job it could with the antennas, putting
them next to the plastic top. (WiFi is above the power switch; Bluetooth is in
the opposite corner.) But for both, the signal going out horizonally is blocked
by the aluminum casing. What signal that does get out is radiated
upward and has to bounce off something to go to the side.
Those with this problem might play with mounting an angled reflector above
the mini to bounce the signal going upward in a horizonal direction. You
could build a test rig out of cardboard with a foil reflector to get the
dimensions and angle right. One side effect would be that your radiation
would become directional and you could aim the signal by adjusting the
direction the reflector points. You might even end up with a better coverage
than with other Macs.
If you're successful, please publish a description of your device.
--Mike Perry, KE7NV, Inkling Books, Seattle
Or simply mount your mini vertically using a stand such as this:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000937029857/
Mounting the mini vertically will make its Airport antenna transmit in an even more directional fashion, which is fine only if the devices communicating with it are in the direction the mini is pointing.
This makes me wonder why Apple didn't just run the Airport antenna along the sides of the Mac mini, and have its radiating point(s) along the sides (and even have another radiating point along the front), since it's more likely people will need to receive and transmit to/ from devices more or less at the same height as the mini, than to/ from an upper floor. Apple could even have provided radiating points along the sides AND the top, if they'd thought about it.
Hopefully the antenna's radiating points aren't also blocked by any conductive paint on the inner surface of the case, as was mistakenly done in some early Powerbook G4s--this paint is meant to stop undesired radio energy from the Powerbook's other circuitry from radiating out and interfering with TVs, radios, etc., but it shouldn't be painted over the spot where the antenna's radiating point is located.
Apple says you shouldn't place anything on top of the mini, so this is one of the reasons they say this, though something nonconductive and thin, like a file folder or a book, shouldn't interfere with Airport, though it might make the mini get hotter.
I haven't looked at the insides of a Mac mini, except in a few pictures, but maybe the antenna could be repositioned along the sides, by removing the mini's case and seeing if this is possible. If it is, also check for conductive paint along the inner sides of the case--if there is any, scrape it off where the end(s) of the antenna are moved to.
This also makes me wonder why Apple doesn't just include an external antenna mounting jack on all Macs they make now. It wouldn't have increased the cost of the mini, and would have paid for itself in more satisified customers and fewer tech support calls from people unable to get Airport to work properly with their mini. The mini is supposed to become a fixture in home entertainment and home control centers, potentially having more non-wired devices communicating with it than previous Mac models, so it should have had a good Airport antenna design.
Oh well!
antenna cable is crimped or if the connector is not securely seated the result
will be poor reception. I saw this on one 15" FW800 PB.
- by russ.laplante February 18, 2005 11:53 AM PST
- I ran into a bad reception issue when I upgraded the memory in my new ibook. The problem was I did not plug the pigtail into the card completely. The square base of the pigtail plug should be almost completely flush with the wireless card. Snap it in there HARD! After that, my reception has been excellent.
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