I bought these antenna leads to develop a work-around for Apple's glaring wireless antenna design flaw found in early 2008 aluminum MacBook Pro laptops (also found the same issue in the late 2008 unibody MacBook Pros as well). The design problem consists of Apple placing the internal antenna leads inside an aluminum covered screen hinge.

The location of the leads isn't the problem, but their location and being covered by aluminum is (the aluminum causes signal attenuation). I have 2 "all-plastic" MacBooks from 2008 (that also have their wireless antenna leads located within the screen hinge) that connect to my 300 Mbps home wireless network at 243 Mbps and higher within certain areas in which I like to work.

However, my early 2008 aluminum Mac Book Pro won't even connect at any 802.11n data rates in those exact locations (it even sometimes has a problem connecting at the full 54 Mbps 802.11g data rate in those areas). After disconnecting the original antenna leads (and cutting them back--wasn't in the mood for several hours of surgery just to remove them from the screen hinge) and connecting these antenna leads and leaving them externally located (threaded them through a few exhaust holes in the case and attached to the back of the latop screen), I'm now getting the same 243 Mbps and higher data rates as my all-plastic MacBooks.

By the way, if you attempt to replacate this project, don't affix the flat aluminum ends of the antenna leads to the back of your aluminum laptop screen because it will cause attenuation and loss of higher data rates. What I did was use some pieces of aluminum tape to affix the wires to the sreen back, but I left the ends unattached and I left the adhesive paper attached (leave about an inch of free wire just before the aluminum ends).

In my opinion, Apple should be made to provide everyone who has identified this wireless design flaw with a free replacement laptop (current model). Incidentally, for those wondering why I didn't contact Apple years ago about this issue, the early 2008 MacBook Pro belonged to my father-in-law and was placed in a drawer because he got fed up with taking it to Apple for repair only to find the issue unresolved.

Apple has a 3-same-issue-repair policy in which it provides a customer with a free replacement laptop if the same issue is repaired 3 times and the issue isn't resolved. The reason I know about this policy is I forced Apple to replace a late 2008 unibody MacBook Pro (found out about this policy by accident). Unfortunately for my father-in-law, Apple didn't replace his laptop.

The reason: because Apple knew this was a design flaw and simply providing him with another similar model laptop wouldn't have resolved the issue. Fortunately for Apple, he went out and bought a newer model that didn't have the same issue.