Wireless Hacks

Increasing the Range of a Titanium PowerBook

Radio waves just don’t penetrate titanium, but that shouldn’t keep your TiBook from getting online.

Apple’s Titanium PowerBook is arguably one of the most aesthetically pleasing laptops on the market. Its wide-screen display is particularly striking, and like the rest of Apple’s entire line, it can accommodate a built-in AirPort card. Unfortunately, while the choice of titanium for an outer shell might make the TiBook pleasing to the eye and touch, it wreaks havoc with wireless.

The all-metal case acts as an effective Faraday cage, blocking radio signals from anywhere but the tiny plastic antenna ports on either side of the keyboard. To make matters worse, the antenna ports coincide with the exact position that most people rest their hands when not typing. When this happens, it’s all too common for connectivity to drop altogether as the client radio desperately tries to find a path to the AP.

Apple is aware of the problem, and is working on improving the situation as new versions of the titanium PowerBook are released. Some users report increased coverage simply by making sure that the antenna connector is firmly seated in the AirPort card, as it can sometimes become dislodged slightly after leaving the factory. But even with a perfectly operating card and antenna, TiBooks routinely see about half of the range of the cheaper plastic iBooks, which have a much more visible internal antenna.

Fortunately, there is hope. Since the TiBooks ...