QuickerTek antenna worked well

jkundrat (apparently) - 08:42am Mar 9, 2005 PST
via email

Last Fall I wrote to TidBITS Talk:

"My son has a Titanium Powerbook with b wifi card not
a g. It seems to have poor range in a WiFi network and
from the beginning December 2002 would not work
on campus in certain locations that Windows laptops
worked fine.
  The current problem: he is just off campus and in his
apartment he gets only intermittent connection with
a Network. Good connection occurs on
campus with the Powerbook in most locations.
  What can a Mac user buy to act as a network
extender, that is, receive the weak WiFi signal and
then rebroadcast (network) to his Powerbook when
the Powerbook is in his apartment.
  Apple WiFi solution (AirPort Base Station) is too
expensive for him to buy for the apartment even
though it has a better range (I have been told) than
his Titanium PowerBook. The cheaper AirPort Express
does not link wireless signals according to a Genius a
Apple Store that I talked with about this problem.
  Any ideas on what can be purchased to cheaply get
reliable networking and is Macintosh compatible? I
believe a 802.11g Wireless Broadband Router is
needed but all of the cheap ones (with rebates less
than $50.00 total cost) are WINDOWS products. Any
ideas would be appreciated."

Adam responded and suggested the e-book Take Control of Your AirPort
Network
  by Glenn Fleishman.

I bought it and learned much. At this point I will explain what I did
to solve the WiFi range problem.

Over Christmas week my son and I tried using first an Asante WiFi
wireless router and then two Linksys WiFi wireless routers that the
"expert help" at Fry Elecronics suggested. We never could get the
Asante router to do the job and Asante phone support was not helpful.
Hours with level one and level two phone support via India with Linksys
ended with "it can not be done."

A month later we visited the Genius bar at an Apple store and found the
solution:

Add to the Titanium PowerBook the following product:

<http://www.quickertek.com/whip.html>

A QuickerTek Airport Whip Antenna for the 15-inch Titanium PowerBook G4. The antenna has worked perfectly with the campus WiFi network both at the University and in his apartment.