Question : Problem: Airport Card question

My manager says he notices a difference between two separate MacBooks (one white one black) as far as his Airport performance goes.  Both machine have Airport Extreme Cards but the white MacBook (the one he deems faster) lists the Card type as Airport Extreme (0x168c, 0x87) the other reads Airport Extreme only.  Keep in mind the fact that he experienced the better performance on the white MacBook using the same hard drive (his configured drive) on both machines.  What might account for the perceived difference in speeds?  I can't confirm but I believe he also has an Airport Base station at home.  How old it is - I have no idea yet...  I can send the configuration file for his machine (the black one) attached if needed.

Thanks.

Answer : Problem: Airport Card question

The card which has the (0x168C, 0x87) designation after it is for sure an 802.11n card which provides much faster performance when connected to an 802.11n network (the new flat AirPort Extreme base stations, for example). On the computer which doesn't have this designation, go to Applications/Utilities/Network Utility, go to the Info tab, select interface en1 and see if the "Model" lists 802.11 a/b/g/n or just a/b/g or even b/g only. If he's connected to an 'n' network with a card that doesn't support 'n' speeds this definitely can have an impact.

If you do NOT see the "n" designation, fear not, because this handy Apple utility will add it for you for only two dollars if you have a Core 2 Duo MacBook (Check under About this Mac under the Apple Menu).

http://store.apple.com/us/product/D4141ZM/A?mco=9BFE4FC5