MBP 17 sees many more wifi networks than MP

I have a Mac Pro (Jan 2008) and a MacBook Pro 17" (Jan 2009).
I've noticed, when I click on the Airport Icon on the menubar, the MacBook Pro scans and sees many more wifi networks than the Mac Pro does... 6 or more versus 3. (My network, and others in the neighborhood.)
I'm curious. How is the Airport client card in the MBP different from the one in the MP? Does the MP get a weakling Airport card (expecting that it wouldn't move around too much?)
I haven't yet had the time to experiment with moving my Airport Base Station too far away from the MP (more than a few feet.) What are your experiences with the Airport card in the Mac Pro? How does it compare with the wifi in your MacBook Pro?

My MP was purchased online with the Airport Extreme card included.
I had to have my MBP replaced, for a different reason. This new one doesn't see any more wifi networks than my MP does... it sees the same ones. Now my question has become... a non-issue. Too bad it didn't occur to me to record the specs of the AE in my previous MBP. It was probably the same as in my new MBP (?)
Sysprof says the following about the Airport Card in my MBP:
Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8D)
Wireless Card Locale: USA
Wireless Card Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.38.27)
Wireless Channel: 7
Sysprof says the following about the Airport Card in my MP:
Wireless Card Type: Airport Extreme (0x14E4, 0x88)
Wireless Card Locale: USA
Wireless Card Firmeare Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.38.27)
Wireless Channel: 7
The card type is (slightly) different !?

Similar Messages

My iphone wifi data from the consolidated file shows more wifi networks than I have been exposed to. Does the iphone also collect location on wifi networks that are within reach of the wifi networks it has access to?

I took out the wifi location data from the consolidated file and plotted into google maps. Clearly, not all those wifi networks are in areas or really close to areas I've been to, yet somewhat close. Does it mean that if I am within a range of a wifi network my iphone will not only collect location data of that particular wifi network but also all others that are within reach of that wifi network and so forth?

Andy2005 wrote:
Does it mean that if I am within a range of a wifi network my iphone will not only collect location data of that particular wifi network but also all others that are within reach of that wifi network and so forth?
Yes:
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/04/27location_qa.html

MBP not finding open wifi networks, but iPhone is?

Hello, I'm a newbie to the forums and I am quite frustrated at a recent set of events. I currently live in Seoul Korea and decided to walk around the other day to find open usable wifi hotspots at coffee shops so I could study. Unfortunately it seems that while my iPhone can "find" and successfully connect get online with dozens of open wifi networks, my MBP only seems to find 1 out of 5 on average. As I sit here, I have full signal strength on my iPhone wifi (cellular does not work in S. Korea) and cannot find, nor connect manually to any one of a dozen networks that all work with my iPhone. I was wondering if anyone can assist me with this? Is it a software setting issue? or simply a matter of weak hardware on part of the MBP?
I also tried searching with XP using bootcamp and parallels with no avail. I'm restarted, erased the preferred networks, erased network keychains, and tried manually entering the router info found on my iPhone. No luck.
Thank you.

It may be simply that the iPhone you have is able to see the networks more easily owing to the nature of the antenna. That in the MBP is shielded a bit by the aluminium casing. I have an iPod touch and that does also see more networks than my MBP, although 1 in 5 seems a little sparse.
On the other hand, there have been situations where the antenna has been found not to be connected internally. If you can check with an Apple agent, that might help here.

Solaris 11 host no longer sees a ZyXEL wifi network router

This issue is on a Toshiba Tecra M10 running Oracle Solaris 11.1 SRU 0.5.11-0.175.1.0.0.24.2
The once functional wifi network iwh0 (net1) no longer sees a ZyXEL NBG-416N wifi network router.
The e1000g (net0) can connect to the router when direct connected via TP ethernet cable from the laptop wired ethernet port.
There are other wifi networks visible from iwh0 (net1) when the command 'dladm scan-wifi' is run.
When attempting to connect with the 'dladm connect-wifi' command (I know the command is good I recall it from the shell command history) .. I get "no wifi networks with the specified criteria are available"
The laptop is able to connect to one of the other wifi routers over this interface however not my own router (which appears to no longer be visible from Solaris 11.1).
I am able to connect to it from an HTC mobile phone and a Windows 7 laptop.
Removed wifi cache file /system/volatile/dladm/network-datalink-management:default.cache.0 and rebooted. No joy.
If I boot from the Solaris 11 DVD, I can still not see the expected wifi router.
At this point I am suspecting the ethernet address of the M10 iwh0 (net1) interface.
'dladm show-phys -m' lists the interface ethernet mac addresses (even if not plumbed).
Connected to the router (from alternative system, over wifi) and looked around. Noted the logs had a messages "possible DNS-rebind attack detected: a-0.19-*8d9zff4tq7njzcj.avts.mcafee.com" that seemed to start about the time I lost sight of the network? Can no longer say for sure as I restarted the router and it seems to have lost those log entries.
Contacted the ISP who provided the ADSL/router for use with their FTTC service offering - they are not aware of any 'protection mechanism' on the router that might mask a misbehaving mac-address.
Tried changing the mac-address on the iwh interface with 'dladm set-linkprop -p mac-address=06:05:04:03:02 net1' and ran 'dladm scan-wifi' without success (then reboot with 'init 5') resets to original but after reconfiguring again -still not available.
If anyone can help .. perhaps having seen something like this and solved it .. or even simply help with better troubleshooting, please advise.

Okay .. I changed the routers 'channel selection' from 13 to 7 and this wifi router network ESSID is again visible to the Solaris 11 instance. I expect the other OS's cater for this a little more elegantly?
~ # dladm show-linkprop net1 | grep -i channel
net1 channel r- 7 -- --
~ #
It seems the channel property wont be visible unless there is a connection (I suppose obviously).
I expect another router has moved into the radius close enough to interfere?

MBP Retina "wake for wifi network access" while on battery power?

I have USB printer connected to Airport Express, and i can print from iPhone using "Printopia" while MBP on, but cannot print when the lid is close (sleep mode) & unplugged, so is there any way to activated "wake for wifi network access" while on battery power? Thanx...

Hi,
I am coming from the MacBook faction, but there were similar posts in there, regarding at least your picture#2, the vertical colored lines.
The consensus was (and I cannot write from own experience here, just relaying the message) that this has something to do with system parameters. To rewrite these parameters, one has to set a different screen resolution than the current one and save the settings and then go back to the old resolution again and save the settings as well. We were told, this would prevent the colored vertical line issue, at least for the MacBook.
Worth a try, it is easy enough to do.
Regards,
Woelund

Can't figure this out: locating a MBP on the same wifi network

Can't figure this out: when my 13" MBP is connected wirelessly to my Airport base station, my iPad can see it. When I connect the MBP to the base station via ethernet cable (for faster connection), the iPad can no longer see it.
Note: my airport is not connected to the internet. I'm simply wanting to setup a closed network for the iPad to connect to the MBP. There's nothing else on the network. The app on the iPad is locating the MBP by ip address so it must be a permanently assigned number.
Message was edited by: Alan Schmidt

Am having the same problem.
Everything was working fine until yesterday.
Now if I connect my iMac to the Extreme with Ethernet the Airport is not visible and I can't connect to the internet.
iPods and iPhones can still use the wifi to get on the internet.
If I switch the iMac to Airport it works, but, will not work with the Ethernet cable connected.
Have tried changing ethernet cables and still no go.
Can't figure this out.

I do not have many messages but my iphone 5s says messages take up 4.6GB of space. When comparing with friends who have many more message, less than 1 GB is being used on their phones. Why are mine taking up so much space and how do I correct that?

I do not have that many messages on my new iPhone 5s (maybe about 15 conversations and only one or two going back a little ways) yet when I go to Settings, Usage it shows that my messages are taking up 4.6GB of space. When comparing with others (some who have hundeds of messages) they are using under 1GB for their messages. Why are mine taking up so much space??

I found a post with this solution that worked for me - .Do a backup, then download ibackupbot. It lets you look into the contents of that backup. Look in system files>mediadomain>library>sms>attachments. I found a ton of huge files related to long deleted texts. ibackupbot let me delete all that old crap. I then restored the phone with that now modifec backup and Bingo! freed up 9 GB. No problems.
But note, if you are not technically inclined you probaly don't want to be digging around and deleting back up files. You delete the wrong thing and you could jack up your phone badly. Be careful.

Available WiFi Networks

During the times when my cranky SpeedStream modem stopped functioning entirely, I tried to sign on to some of the WiFi networks that I could see in the Network Diagnostics window. There are usually about 8 of them shown in the window. First question
I live in sprawling suburbia with the houses far apart from each other on each side of the street and the street itself is pretty wide. I thought that the WiFi networks that a homeowner sets up has a very limited range, usually not extending beyond the confines of the house. So how could it be that I see so many potential WiFi networks to sign on to?
The second question is that when I try the same thing with my iPhone - it doesn't show any networks as being available so how do you reconcile the iMac showing 8 networks while the iPhone doesn't "see" any? Is it just a question of a much more sensitive receiver in the computer than in the phone?
Thanks
John

+I thought that the WiFi networks that a homeowner sets up has a very limited range, usually not extending beyond the confines of the house. So how could it be that I see so many potential WiFi networks to sign on to?+
Some of the answer may depend on what you mean by "range". Most modern wireless routers will broadcast a signal that may reach 150-200 feet or more depending on how many obstructions affect the signal. While it's possible to limit the broadcast power on most routers, I've yet to meet the first person who felt that their wireless signal was too strong. So, most leave their routers at max power.
Whether or not any of these other networks you see actually have a usable signal would be open to question and they are probably secured anyway. To know more about this, you need a utility like iStumbler. It will probably only run on Snow Leopard, 10.6.x, so if you are still running Leopard, I don't think it will work.
The iPhone requires a somewhat stronger signal with low noise to connect. If it doesn't see a network with acceptable parameters, it will ignore it.

Can't reliably connect to my home wifi network

My wifi keeps cutting out on my macbook pro, and when it does work, it's VERY slow! My ipad and iphone have no problem connecting to the wifi network, and it works fine on those devices. I tried using network preferences and network diagnostics and all that, but it's had no effect. It's been like this since I had the internet and cable installed (about 1 week). The modem is on a wooden shelf, not sitting on a carpet floor or anything. I've checked the wires leading to the modem, and they all seem connected and fine. Is this a problem with my computer or the wifi modem? What else can I do to try and fix this?

In About This Mac > More Info ... > System Report ... > Network > Wi-Fi, how many other wifi networks do you see besides your network? And do any of the others have the same channel number? If so, might be worth trying a different channel. IIRC, that is done in Airport Utility (if you have an Airport base station).

IPhone 4S - iOS 6 - can't see WiFi networks

I have a strange problem with my iPhone. It's a locked iPhone, bought from Vodafone from my country. I use it locked and un-jailbreaked. I went in France for 2 weeks where i had my Roaming active, but i didn't used cellular data, only WiFi. Now, back home in my country, it seems that i can't see wireless networks. I tried to reinstall, update to the last firmware, it seems that wireless appear for 1 second when at first start, then it disappears and i can't see no more WiFi networks in list, tho there are like 10 networks around me.
Any ideas? Or someone else had the same issue?
Thanks,
Nick

i went to Vodafone. They said they will replace it. It seems like a manufacturing defect.

TP Unable to See Wifi networks for more than a few seconds

I've read a bunch of wifi related posts on these forums but none seem to be the same problem as mine.
My touchpad rarely, if at all, sees any networks. If it sees my network it usually loses it before I have a chance to finish typing in the password. I can wait, sometimes up to 20 minutes for it to finally see any networks again and try to login again only to have it lose it and start searching for networks. Manually typing in the network tells me no network with that name can be found. I managed to set my android phone up as a hotspot (without any security) and connected to it long enough to get through the setup and reboot, then it was back to not seeing any networks, not even my phone.
Things I've tried:
- Sitting 2-3 feet from the router
- New router (bought it the same day I got my TP)
- Disabled all security
- Tried setting router to 802.11b only, g only, mixed, different channels, rebooting router
- MAC filtering is not enabled
- Resetting the TP (power + home) sometimes gets me a connection for a few seconds.
- I have 2 android phones, 2 laptops, a home theatre, and a wireless printer that can see my network and my neighbors networks all the time and have no problems getting and staying connected.
- Did the 3.02 upgrade by usb to my computer
- Toggled wifi, toggled airplane mode
I called support and had my TP sent in for warranty. I received a new one (serial number and MAC addresses are different so it is a different device), but it's doing the same thing.
I called support again and did all the usual troubleshooting and the guy felt like I do, very confused how it's losing ALL networks so often. I'm taking it to work where there's an open wifi network I can test it with and do the 3.02 upgrade (new TP came with 3.0 installed).
Has anyone else run into this? Is there a bad batch of TPs with faulty wifi chips or antennas? Is the TP just not compatible with my Cisco E1200 router (and causes it to stop seeing all networks?)? Does anyone else have any ideas? I'm at a loss and find it hard to believe having this one exchanged as well will be any different.
Thanks,
Brad
Post relates to: HP TouchPad (WiFi)

Are you broadcasting your SSID? Sometimes this can cause a problem connecting. Is this Cisco router running any turbo modes or special preparatory protocols.
There are no know issues with Wi-Fi connectivity except on first connection; and the chance of 2 devices having the exact same issue is very unlikely. This sounds like something to do with your wireless router.
Have you tried to connect to another Wi-Fi hotspot elsewhere?
Do you have any 2.4 GHz wireless phones or security system that could interfere with connection?

I synced with iMac itunes and got many more contacts than I want on the iPhone. How can I delete multiple contacts rather than having to do so one at a time?

I synced my iPhone with itunes and iMac and got many more contacts than I wanted on my iPhone. How can I delete quite a few of them at one time as opposed to deleting one at a time?

iTunes does not handle the import of photos/videos from the iPhone's Camera Roll.
If this is not the computer you sync your iPhone with, you should have been provided a warning message that your iPhone is associated with an iTunes library on another computer and when trying to transfer any iTunes content from a different computer, a warning message is provided indicating that all iTunes content on the iPhone will be erased first.
When connecting an iPhone to iTunes on another computer, none of the options under the various tabs for the iPhone sync preferences with iTunes are selected automatically. This means you had to select Sync Contacts under the Info tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes on your wife's computer.
Assuming you are syncing contacts with a supported address book app on your computer, connect your iPhone to Tunes on your computer and without syncing, under the Info tab for your iPhone sync preferences below the Advanced section, select Contacts for replace info on this iPhone followed by a sync.
For importing photos/videos from the Camera Roll which can be done with a computer that is not used for syncing the iPhone since syncing with iTunes is not involved.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083

Is there a limit to how many times you can extend a WiFi Network?

I assume there is a limit based on the number of IPs available but is there a limit to how many times a WiFi network can be extended or is there a limit to how many Airport Extremes can talk to each other?
I know this probably not a concern of the average home user but if you wanted to deploy these in a large building or even a very large piece of property, what's the upper limit?
I already have 3 Airport (n) routers and I was thinking of adding two more. Will i hit a physical limit or just a point of diminishing returns?

Can you clerify by what you mean when you say "remotes" sorry for my ignorance. but just trying to understand.
A remote WDS node is connected to a main or base WDS node wirelessly.
A base WDS node is connected by wire to the interenet.
A relay WDS node relays or passes the wireless signal from a base WDS node to a remote WDS node.
Clients connect to either the base or remote nodes. A relay node can be configured to accept connections from clients as well.
Also This reduction in half is this a limitation be design? Is this caused by the limit in channels or is there some sort or mechanism in place? just curious.
Think about how the remote WDS node needs to communicate with both the base station and the wireless client at the same time, so the available bandwidth is effectively halved as half is used by the remote to connect with the client and the other half is used to connect with the base node.
It's not quite the same as two wireless clients on an individual base station as they would rarely be using the full bandwidth at the same time.
iFelix

12" doesn't pick up as many wifi networks as other powerbooks

My sister has a 12" powerbook and at school her wireles card only picks up half as many networks as other students computers. Any ideas?

I tend to actually pick up more wireless networks or a stronger connection to wireless networks with my Powerbook 12" than most windows computers.
It may have something to do with the airport card that's in each powerbook - I've noticed that the Airport in my desktop (intel mini) is stronger than my powerbook G4, so it could just be the strength of the card varies from computer to computer.
Are the other powerbooks 12"'s or are they the 15" and 17"?

My MBP keeps having to switch between two WiFi networks

Our current WiFi network set-up at home is one Cisco router provided by our ISP (WiFi network: GIORGETTI), connected to another Linksys router (WiFi network: GIORGETTI II) which allows us to use the WiFi upstairs. The signal from both networks reaches my Macbook, but I'm finding that I'm constantly having to swap connections between the two because at some point it the internet connection on my Macbook seems to freeze, websites stop loading or working and I'm forced to connect to whichever of the two networks I'm not currently connected to to access the internet again. I don't know if I'm overloading the internet or something, cause it seems to just happen at random as I browse. I have to do this several times every hour and it's getting really irritating. I've tried restarting the routers and forgetting the networks and re-joining but still the same thing. The internet seems to work fine on my iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2. Any thoughts?
I'm running a Macbook Pro Retina 15-inch, Mid-2014
2.5 Ghz Intel Core i7 - 16GB 1600 Mhz DDR3 - 512 GB
OS X Yosemite 10.10.3

Do both wi-fi base stations share exact settings and name, if they do, perhaps
there would be a seamless use of either one across all of the devices in use.
•Wi-Fi base stations: Extending the range of your wireless network by adding additional Wi-Fi base stations - Apple Support
With Apple AirPort base stations, you can set them up a special way to extend
a network, if they are using the same setting. - With your other brand, it may be
the fact is their ranges do not overlap well for use with your MacBook Pro. Are
you certain the iPhone and iPad products are using the same wi-fi as the MB/P
or are they able to access by cellular network instead of the wi-fi base stations?
In the past, my wi-fi base station in use was one with an external antenna port
so I was able to obtain an antenna so as to add range to the main base station.
This worked well, so long as I avoided placing wi-fi device by metal walls, or
concrete, or near other devices that generate interrupting similar signals. A fair
way to extend a network is by Ethernet between wi-fi base stations.
There is a possibility of having over-extended or over loaded the wi-fi capacity
of your local internet connection, in some instances. Note this is mentioned in
the above linked article in the section where the topic covers using a single or
more than one base station in a local wireless network.
You may be able to check the MacBook/Pro settings to see if you can allow it to
see and use more than one wi-fi source of your choosing, not 'any' but just those
in your Location for more seamless use. Or re-design the wireless network for
better use in the location the problem currently exists.
•Solutions for connecting to the Internet, setting up a small network, and troubleshooting - Apple Support
•AirPort + Wi-FI -- AirPort Base Stations - Apple Support:
https://ssl.apple.com/support/airport/basestations/
Anyway, there are some workable answers in the above Support site pages and
to discover the best way given your circumstances, and particular settings, may
take some time. You may have to work around a few blind-spots where signals
get dropped or are weaker due to construction of the building or layout of content.
Good luck & happy computing!

MBP 17 sees many more wifi networks than MP

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for