Hehe. My WiFi is faster with my MacBook Pro screen open...!

OK so this is really funny. I've been relegated to my basement for my office, and the signal to my Time Capsule isn't as strong down here. However, if I use my external display and close the lid on my MBP, the signal is much lower, and my speeds decrease hugely. Conversely, my speeds increase when the lid is wide open.

Anyone else experience this? I think it makes sense if the aerial is in the screen, but it's pretty funny opening and shutting the display and watching my speeds go wheeeee!

 

if you want to get better-than-draft-n speeds, you might want to try running ethernet cable down there. If that's no possible, you could try one of those ethernet over power devices. As for the location of the wifi antennae, I have no idea where they're located on the MBP. I know for my dell that they're located on the back of the screen.

 

I remember hearing that the antenna was in the screen lid, or in the part right below where it says macbook pro, at the bottom of the screen (someone might know the exact location.

But I'm thinking its might be because the way radio waves travel.
If you have a vertical antenna, the receiving device should have its antenna vertically. Maybe by closing the lid of the MBP, the antenna is changing its angle, and not getting the waves properly. Maybe try putting the MBP Vertically, like close the lid and have the optical drive facing the ceiling. Might make a difference. And if you had a router with antenna, you coulda tried just putting the antenna horizontally.

It's kind of a stretch, but it wouldnt hurt to try to put the MBP in some different angles (upside down, etc) all with the lid closed, or maybe turn the time capsule.

-NOTE- This whole theory is kind of a stretch, I'm applying stuff that I know is true from ham radios, and lower frequencies, not sure if when it gets up the the GHZ range if it would still apply, or whatever. I'm just thinking that since the signal degrades so much, maybe it does. And what happens to lower wavelength waves, would apply to higher ones.If anyone knows more, please let me know, its all extrapolation from me -NOTE-

 

The MBP's wireless antenna is located in the rubber part of its hinge. There is less inference with the rubber than the metal casing. The powerbooks had it on the side of the screen.

 

The ethernet's a good idea. Does the MBP have gigabit ethernet?

Ethernet over electrical wiring sucks. It gives you sub wifi b speeds.

 

xprohx is correct. The MBP has its antenna in the rubber part at the lcd hinge. For a wifi signal rubber appears transparent and does not interfere appreciably with the signal. However since the entire casing of the MBP is aluminium this allows only a very small window for the antenna to view a router signal. Literally the further back your MBP lid is tilted the greater angle of vision is available to the antenna.

The fact is that making a laptop out of aluminium, as much as I love it, has extremely detrimental effects on attaining and maintaining wifi signals. Its simply not a good design from a wireless perspective. I should know this, I work for DSL support and everyday I talk to hundreds of customers setting and troubleshooting wireless problems. Out of all of them it is the MBP which appears to suffer the most. Alot of my customer have Macbooks as well and this is how I show them the difference. Its actually got to the stage that I will not replace a customers router if they only have an MBP to test with and I demand they come to the troubleshooting table with an additional laptop or wifi enabled desktop.

 

the performance difference is hardly an extreme difference, however, just more of a reason to listen to me and use all carbon fiber casing ^_^

 

Actually it can for some people be not only extreme but extremely frustrating. I feel for my customers who have paid a lot of money for an MBP and cannot maintain a signal in their preferred location. It also take up many hundreds of man hours of troubleshooting trying to solve and assist them as best my teams can to solve an unsolvable issue which Apple have continuously refused to admit (and yes I have contacted them directly on several occasions). When I was in my friends apartment only this week his Dell inspiron could see 9 networks, an IBM Thinkpad could see 12, my MBP could only see 2, and 1 was intermittent even after resetting the Airport. Not good getting badly beaten by a €600 Dell.