Wireless change in Macbook Pro?

Question

So I recently moved my wireless router to the back room in my house. I have two Macbook Pros, one the first version of the new unibody design, the other the old version bought probably about 1 year prior to the unibody design introduction. Both up-to-date in terms of system updates, software, etc. Now when I'm sitting in my living room which is about the farthest away from the router in my house, the older Macbook Pro has no problem. At worst I see 3-4 bars on the wireless icon on the menu bar, usually five. On the other hand, the newer Macbook Pro has become totally useless in the living room. I get about 1 bar at best and the internet runs at a snail's pace (if any all). Both run perfectly in every other room in the house.
I'm probably just going to upgrade to a wireless-N router anyway which I hope will fix the problem but have no idea why this would be. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Then how come my MacBook Pro runs without a problem?
Then how come I can run 10.5.7, 10.5.5, 10.5.4, 10.5.3, 10.5.2, 10.5.1, 10.5.0 and 10.4.11 with narely an interruption in my wireless. Yes I skipped 10.5.6.
But that matters not. My point is, if some people have no problem, it can't be the drivers alone that matter. What matter is whether or not something else is contributing to the driver's demise.
What can't be ascertained from long threads is whether or not the people in question had one of these problems:
1. They used Migration Assistant from a PowerPC to Intel. This creates issues with PowerPC drivers being migrated over occasionally, and why this user tip was written:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350&tstart=0
2. They have some third party wireless device whose firmware is not up to date. 802.11n is a DRAFT standard. This means not every router on the planet speaks it the same way. Furthermore setting up most third party routers is much more difficult than using an Apple Airport base station.
3. As you'll find out one of the common tips for 10.5.8 is to install an older kernel extension. This tip has been passed around before. Unfortunately older kernel extensions may not speak with future updates as well, if the kernel extension wasn't touched in a future update. Stick the kernel extension that came with the update, and run the combo updater from Apple's website for the update you desire*:
http://www.macmaps.com/jaguarleopard.html
4. Many people are under the false idea they should run Onyx, or other cache cleaning software. Alas, this leads to further data corruption, and could end up corrupting the files relating to the wireless. I've written this tip regarding Mac OS X maintenance:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1772235
Improper "maintenance" can cause more problems than it solves.
5. Back to third party routers, many are not "dual-channel", which means they are more succeptable to interference from other things in the 2.4 Ghz spectrum such as microwaves, and non-cellphone wireless phones. So while the Apple wireless software expects dual-channel wireless, some older cheaper routers don't support it. You get what you pay for.
As for my reading the forums, I can tell you that going all Apple can help a lot, because you are then just dealing with Apple's own airport setup software, which is a consistant interface from which to troubleshoot. Trying doing that through the admin page of routers when they vary by router can be hit and miss. Some don't even offer the options you see in the Airport, and some are very specific about which machines they let in on their network. Rather that label people "fanboy" and such, try to isolate your own issue, in your own thread. Wireless issues can be quite hard to pin down, and even though Windows may not have it on the same machine, it does not mean the driver on the Mac is bad. It may just be corrupted, or the router may not communicate exactly the protocol the Mac is expecting. I've written a FAQ on wireless here*:
http://www.macmaps.com/WIFI1048.html
Unless you have a solution to help the original poster, I suggest starting a new thread here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1297&start=0
Where you'll get a wider audience, and more possibility of having someone who actually can isolate your problem. Hiding your problem in another thread solves no problems, except for those who can read through multiple posts and glean the information from there.
- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.
Message was edited by: a brody