[maaacattack]

Hello. I am new to this forum and a new mac user. I recently bought an iBook (the newest edition) and loved it. I was impressed with how the mac ran alot smoother than windows laptops. One of the greatest features I thought was the fact that when I opened my iBook everthing is ready to go including the wireless. I then decided to exchange my iBook to a Powerbook. I was really excited about the PB until I noticed that the wireless was having trouble connecting. When I had the iBook I had no trouble connecting regardless of where I was. In fact I was very impressed on how I can get full signals in most places I go to. This was not the case for the PB. I would go to the exact same places I would use my ibook and the PB would not perform the same way as the ibook. I read somewhere that this is due to the metal casing used in PB laptops. Is this true? Also, a solution might be to buy an external wireless card and use it instead of the built in. This sounds ridiculous how this was overlooked by apple. This would be the last thing I would think of as a computer user. Now I am having second thoughts about the greatness of the powerbook. Maybe I should have stuck with the ibook instead. Please let me know if this is a problem I can fix or if I just have a defective laptop. Thanks

[moose_n_squirrel]

It is totally true. I had a plastic PowerBook G3 and one wireless router that served my whole house. Then I "upgraded" to a PowerBook G4 Aluminum case. With the Aluminum, I can't pick up my good old router in as many places. I had to spend extra money for gear to extend my wireless network because of the Aluminum reception, because there is technically nothing wrong with the machine according to Apple. It also means that we Aluminum owners have slightly less seating options in wireless cafes and airports because we have to sit closer to the router than owners of plastic body laptops. Again, that was something I noticed between my G3 and G4 PowerBooks.
Apple knows about plastic vs. metal. Believe it or not, the Aluminum case is supposed to be an improvement over the Titanium, which had the antenna down in the main case where it was more easily blocked as opposed to the Aluminum where the antenna cutouts are raised higher up in the lid.
We just have to live with it or get an iBook or a PC.