I'll try to keep this simple and straightforward.
I have a Belkin Pre-N Router set up in a utility area one floor below
and across an outdoor access corridor from my apartment. Cannot run
CAT-5 to the apartment. I get a good to excellent wireless signal on
several WinXP-SP2 machines using the internal antennas on the
notebooks. I get only a very weak signal on a Mac Powerbook (no
surprise) and sometimes lose it completely.
Before I went to the Belkin, I had a Netgear router which gave a weak
signal with the PC's and nothing with the Mac. So, the Pre-N router
works well if there's an adquate antenna on the receiving end.
Question: Is there anything I can do to increase the signal
sufficiently to use the Mac without running cable? I have a Belkin
Pre-N notebook card that greatly increases signal strength on the
Windows machines, but does not run on the Mac.
Is it possible to set up some kind of wireless device in my apartment
that will forward the signal? I do not know the difference between an
access point, bridge, repeater, whatever. Will any of those do the
job? Would a USB dongle or something that I can add to the Mac get me
a better signal, at least bringing up to the level of the PC's?
If I lose some speed, I'll probably not notice, so that's not that big
a deal. Cost (while obviously important) is not the primary driver
here. I need to get the signal strong enough to run steaming
applications on the Mac; a few bucks more or less isn't going to make
that much difference.
Hope this is clear. I obviously don't have detailed knowledge on
wireless systems (or Macs for that matter). My efforts to educate
myself haven't been all that successful. If anyone can recommend a
good primer on wireless (through Pre-n technology ideally) I'd
appreciate knowing about it.
much thanks for any help.
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