Slow Wi-Fi on one machine, but not the other

[hayduke]

Hi All - I just got an Airport Express set-up and it is working great with our iBook (1.42GHz), but less well with our PowerBook (1.67GHz). Download test show ~5Mbs for the iBook, but 1.4Mbs for the Powerbook. They are both 802.11g cards. Any thoughts? I'm not sure where to begin. I searched the forums, but got a ton of hits, read many, and didn't get anywhere.

Incidently, I just trashed the /usr directory on the iBook (bonehead move...dont' ask), but I replaced it from the back-up drive...some links are broken, which I still need to fix. I only mention this on the off chance that it is related.

Thanks.

 

[realityisterror]

No offense or anything, but are they in the same location. Proximity to the base station can make a big difference.
PowerBooks are also aluminum and known to have less than stellar wireless reception.
Is it possible that some other traffic could have been "clogging" the network during the second test?

I personally prefer this download speed test.

The user folder is unrelated.

 

[hayduke]

Same location...

If I place them side by side I can get similar download speeds, but the PB is always slower by 50-75%. The router (Airport Express) is ~2-3 feet away (why bother with wireless!). The download speed for the powerbook drops by another ~50% if I am ~10 feet away. Typical numbers would look something like this:

iBook ~4Mbs (~3 feet from Airport Express)
PB ~2-3Mbs (~3 feet from Airport Express)
PB ~1.2-1.4Mbs (~10-12 feet form Airport Express).

Any thoughts? Is this all just to be expected?