OS X Hax

A big congrats Nick, you d'man!

I don't have time right this second, but I do have a G4 Power Mac and a Linksys 54G PCI card. I'll try to it tomorrow.

so are we then saying that we can load the newest airport software with no additional running of the perl script "hack", etc., and we're rocking? i've got this belkin card PCMA card that has been working brilliantly with a belkin wireless router.

i love it and am hugely appreciative to OSXHax for showing me the way. my pismo powerbook is now my rocking wireless media center! yeah!

z
chicago, il

Does one have to still edit the plist as in the very first iteration of the Infamous AE Hack? I'm getting nothin' here.

Never mind. The question posed by my immediately previous post is a non-issue. I am using the Buffalo AirStation WLI-CB-G54 and -G54A with no editing changes to the Info.plist file and it is now working fine after I made a change to the System Prefs -> Network -> Show: Airport -> Airport panel to undo the Join preference. Apply Now, Bingo! The green LEDs on the WLI-CB-G54 jumped to life and all is well.

CAVEAT:

After upgrading to AirPort 3.1, I lost my connectivity to the Linksys router using WEP. My WEP key that worked with 10.2.6 and AirPort 3.0.4 with a WPC54G no longer works now! Connecting to non-WEP networks still works. Downgrading has been a serious problem. Your mileage will vary!

The software update to 3.1 ran flawlessly and my Linksys 54G PC Card worked flawlessly with my Airport Extreme base station afterwords.

What I want to know is this:
Do I need to UNDO anything about the AE Hack that I performed two months ago now that Apple's software has built-in support? Such as fixing the file names that I added .disabled to the end of or anything?

It would be nice to see a set of "uninstall" instructions similar in ease of use to the "install" instructions posted on Feb 23, 2003.

Anyone?

Just as a follow-up:

My downgrade from 3.1 was successful, albeit not easy. The installer for AirPort 3.0.4 kept complaining that a newer version of AirPort, version 3.1, existed. After patching every version.plist in sight, I realized that the /Library/Receipts cache needed to be flushed of the most recent AirPortSW.pkg. A subsequent 'Install' of AirPort 3.0.4 worked, the patch was applied, and my WPC54G is now again talking to my Linksys via 128-bit WEP.

Apple seems to have botched something here. Is anyone else using WEP with a non-Apple 802.11b or g router? If not, can someone try and post back here?

I tried to "Password' and '128-bit ASCII' variants with AirPort 3.1, to no avail. With AirPort 3.0.4, the simple 'Password' variant works flawlessly.

I'm using my TiBook with a Linksys WPC54G talking to a Linksys WAP54G with 128 bit WEP with no problems at all. I've even got beacons disabled and am operating in 'g only' mode.

*I'm sorry. It doesn't understand where a new report should be written.

Please teach me how to use SONY VAIO PCWA-C300S (802.11g) by PowerBookG4 OSX 10.2.6.

Now, since there is no specification of PCWA-C300S, URL of PCWA-C150S (802.11b) is written to an US site. (Here)

Thank you for your consideration!!

Just updated to AirPort 3.1 without a problem!

Running 10.2.6 on a G4 with a Powerlogix dual 1.2 processor and a LinkSys PCI card with the LinkSys wireless G router. I was even able to run the router in "G only" mode!

Just thought I would assure people it does work without any additional hacks. Thanks Apple for helping us little people use new technologies with older machines.

Does anyone know if the firmware update works with the Linksys 54G card?

Have anyone tested with Belkings 54g card?

The have two large mailorder companies here in sweden, and the better of them only sell Belkin, not Linksys. Would prefer belkin, but want it to work too.....

Any who have tested?

hey orjan,

i've used the Belkin 54G wireless router, PCMA and PCI cards. all worked with the original hack. i got rid of the PCI card b/c i needed faster file transfers on that box but still use the router with the laptop card on my pismoG3 powerbook. i upgraded to the latest airport version today and it works brilliantly with no hack required!

2 things though:
1. if you want to use encryption in your setup(you do), you need to set the encryption string manually on the router(if you'll use the Belkin router) b/c airport software and the router use different encryption schema. if you set it manually, you just have to enter that string manually when you select the network. you only have to do it once and then save the password.
2. i can't seem to upgrade the router's firmware with my mac even though it is supposed to be fully supported on os X by Belkin. i've hassled them about this and am awaiting a reply. i'll have an update on this when i get a reply. i'm sure i could do it with my PC but i currently don't have it set up and don't really want to.

z
chicago, il USA

Does anyone have a list of which PC Card adapters use the Broadcam card ?

Also, do I have to disable my Airport (802.11b) card in order for the Cardbus 802.11g adapater to work ?

Or now that the new 3.1 version supports Broadcom chipsets, can the two adapters co-exist? (original 802.11b and Cardbus adapter, like Linksys 54g card)

Please let me know....

I have an older Power Book G4. It has support for the Airport, but not the Airport Extreme. I've been wanting to upgrade to the airport extreme, but don't want to buy a whole new computer. Does this mean I can just stick a Linksys 802.11g card in the PCMCIA slot, and it will work with the Airport Extreme base station?

Hm, updated the Airport Extreme base station without a problem, connecting fine with my internal airport card on my TiBook 1GHz.

Alas, I plug in my Linksys 54g card (which worked great with the patch, pre-3.1) reboot and it notices the card but it won't allow me to turn on Airport. Always stays off. Nothing logged to the console. Deleted the kextcache and mkext files, with no luck. Any thoughts?

my Linksys 54G PCI card work in my G3 blue & white ! :D

Ok, more testing: reinstalled Jaguar from scratch, installed 10.2.6, all the other updates, and also AirPort 3.1: could not connect to the Linksys via WEP. This is on a PB G4, with a Linksys WPC54G.

Downgraded to AirPort 3.0.4 by removing the cached AirPortSW.pkg in /Library/Receipts/ and using Pacifist to install the AirPort 3.0.4 package (extracting the files from the package using Terminal and pax works just as well). Installed the patch, and everything is fine: connects to the base station without any problems with 128-bit WEP.

There's something about AirPort 3.1...

Kevin,

yes, just buy a Belkin(or other broadcom) card and plug it in, remove or disable your old airport card and it should be all good with this latest airport update.

i did notice that my connection doesn't seem to be quite as good with this latest update. kind of annoying considering things should get faster not slower on with updates. not too big of a difference, but i do notice it.

z
chicago, il

How does one disable an installed AirPort card in order to use a Broadcom-based PC card (if one prefers not to totally remove the AirPort card)?

TIA,
Philip

I answered my own question from an earlier post by Nick Sayer:

"If you have an original AirPort card installed and don't want to remove it, go to /System/Library/Extensions and rename AppleAirPort.kext and AppleAirPortFW.kext, adding .disabled to the end of their names. This is so that the original AirPort card won't confuse the Network Preferences."

I inserted a Belkin 802.11g card, logged in as root and performed the above step, rebooted, and that was it! 802.11g in a Ti 667.

I assume that if I wanted to restore the functionality of the built-in card, I'd simply have to un-disable the two files mentioned above.

Philip

I answered my own question from an earlier post by Nick Sayer:

"If you have an original AirPort card installed and don't want to remove it, go to /System/Library/Extensions and rename AppleAirPort.kext and AppleAirPortFW.kext, adding .disabled to the end of their names. This is so that the original AirPort card won't confuse the Network Preferences."

I inserted a Belkin 802.11g card, logged in as root and performed the above step, rebooted, and that was it! 802.11g in a Ti 667.

I assume that if I wanted to restore the functionality of the built-in card, I'd simply have to un-disable the two files mentioned above.

Philip

Does anyone know if they will be releasing an update to support WPA in the near future. My wirless lan has WinXP and OSX clients, but I have to use MAC address filtering because the OSX machines just haven't a clue about WEP or WPA!

Imagine my pleasant surprise to find that the 3.1 upgrade worked with my Buffalo 802.11g card without modification!!!

In comment on others who have run into problems after the 3.1 upgrade, I might offer this: print out the perl script in order to follow it to the areas in your Airport driver that were modified -- remove the mods and return your driver to stock, then run the 3.1 update to get a clean start. The issue of assigning WEP to various cards has always been a little less than standard -- basically, you want to configure your router to have a single manually assigned hexadecimal WEP key -- here's where it can get confusing -- some cards/routers are set to hex by prefacing the chosen key with a $ (dollar sign) - this is the Apple standard, while others can be set to read the following string of characters as hex by using a 0x (that's a ZERO) as the preface -- and now, more of the user interfaces are including the option to designate the WEP key as hex or ascii by pull down menu....cut and try seems to be the answer.

I've found that if the WEP key becomes invalid for some reason while in normal use, there is usually a problem with permissions and a pass through the Disk Utility or CLI equivalent to repair permissions followed by a log-out/in will bring things back to normal.

I'm looking forward to the evolution of the firmware that refines 802.11g throughput. My Buffalo router came with the draft 802.11g firmware version 1.10 and when I updated it to 1.13 after only two days of use, my throughput decreased slightly -- and when I upgraded to firmware v1.30 some things got better, but the throughput in 10.2.6 using 802.11g is still slower than an identical system 9.2.2 802.11b connection by nearly 20%......

hi.
I live in France, and have a french ibook with french Airport card. It can only access channels 10 -> 13.
Is there any way to get channels 1 -> 13 working ?
thanks.

Hi Steven, do you mean you can use Buffalo 802.11g PCMCIA wireless card in Powerbook?

Just Infomation. (and it's for sf's ask)

IBM, NEC, Toshiba, HP and SONY use Atheros chip.
NetGear and D-Link use Intersil chip.
Linksys and Buffalo use Broadcom chip.

Am I missing something?

I put a Belkin 54g PC card in, disabled the internal card, yada yada. The Belkin "works" in the sense that the lights light up and I get a connection -- but it crawls, compared with the internal .11b card. And compared to using an external .11b card, it's in a coma.

Am I doing something wrong?

First of all thanks for this great site. There is always something interesting and exciting and I love those people's determination and sharp thinking, tweaking things.

Every time an update is released I carefully check this board to check other peoples comments, before actually updating. This time I see that lot of people had problems but was tempted to run 3.1 update, so I risked it.

It worked right away. I am using LinkSys   WRT54G router and WPC54G card on my 500MHz Ti. It even logged onto the WEP automatically (password stored in keychain).

I decided to contribute some of my experiences with this hack, now that I have used it for almost 3 months.

Suggestion to those people who have problems with WEP: Try generating a differet key in your router (don't forget to press apply in LinkSys config.) and try to use new key. Make sure you use correctly encrypted keys on both ends.

I have had problems before with card freezing the mac during startup but it has not happened after 2.5 update.

I also had HUGE problems with connection dropping or hanging during browsing. I tried lot of different things and this is what worked:

Log on to your router with your browser and change MODE to G-Only, CHANNEL to 11 -2.462GHz (other channels may work better for you). Make sure WEP is enabled and correct WEP passwords are generated and applied. I usually make default transmit key:1 and use the same key on PowerBook. Make sure you APPLY settings at every screen you make changes.

Next most important to get read of annoying connection drops: Click ADVANCED tab. Set transmission rate to AUTO.

This was causing me problems and I guessed that the connection would hang untill it could get up to 54G. Of course with some interference and walls this may not happen continuously, thus the frozen connection. Make sure you click APPLY at this screen also.

I hope that even though 3.1 update made this excellent hack obsolete (for now), guys and girls here will not quit posting with future updates to ensure that this still is the case.

Dave

I was actually convinced to buy a LinkSys 54g card before I heard the news about the new AE drivers, so I was pleasantly surprised today, as I was about to intall the card to find this out. Thanks a lot for all the information--and keeping me from buying a slow Airport card for my TiG4!

I have a titanium 800 mhz, and only use my internal airport card.

I upgraded airport 3.1 on the laptop while at the office (where I use a wired network), brought my machine home and can no longer access either of my base stations.

My wife with Win 2k and a Orinoco card can access teh network just fine.

I read the install notes and it says that you have to update the base station software as well. It says this:

"1. Make sure that your computer is connected to the AirPort network created by your AirPort Base Station.

2. Open the AirPort Admin Utility.

3. Select your base station from the list.

4. Click Configure.

A dialog prompts you to upload the new software. After the software has been uploaded, the base station restarts."

Well I got no dialog prompt, and have no idea where the Base Station software is stored or can be found. A search of Apple make no note of this.

I'm hoping the lack of base station updates is what's causing this problem,

Any help is appreciated.

Since early March I've been using my Buffalo AirStation 802.11g (CardBus) with my trusty PB G3 and AEBS. Nick's infamous hack did it for me from day one!

Having read here that the hack was no longer needed, I installed the 3.1 upgrade yesterday. It was all OK except for the internet connection. My Cable Modem was receiving the signal, my PB was receiving the AEBS signal but the information was somehow not reaching my PB (i.e. no access to any POP or HTTP servers).

After three hours trying I chose to replace all Airport extensions with the patched copies I had kept (version 3.01). Everything was back to normal.

What's the problem? Anybody having problems with their Broadcom-based CardBus wireless connections? Or is this only a Buffalo-specific issue requiring a firmware upgrade to the final 802.11g standard?

First, thanks for the hack...I've been using it for quite a while.... Long before the airport update came along. Thanks again. Now, I've got my powerbook G3 333 Lombard with a linksys 54G card and 54G wireless router working with the new airport software with no apparent problems in g-only mode without the hack. Linksys updated their firmware on the 54G router today, I applied it and everything is still working just dandy! I just have one question... One thing I have noticed (both with my current configuration and while I was using the hack) that my Linksys 54G card is identified as a Broadcom 802.11b Cardbus in the card menu in the menubar What's up with that? I'm fairly sure I'm getting 802.11g connectivity as I've got the router set at g-only and I'm still able to connect. In addition, I've got throughput via afp and smba on my local network at about 2 MB/sec (about 20ish Mbs as far as I can tell). This would be impossible if I were connected using an 802.11b card right? I am a complete novice at this stuff and I guess I was just wondering why my card is identified as a Broadcom 802.11b Cardbus. Help? Can anyone explain this to me?
Sean

It works!

Got my LINKSYS WPC54G card in the mail today ($52 on ebay; even more of a steal IMO now that no hack is needed), downloaded Airport 3.1, stuck the card in and connected to my bro's network, without any probs. Not sure if his network is "G" enabled, but so far, so good!

Would a Linksys 11g PCI card in a PowerMac G4 work with an Airport Extreme Base Station? Would the same Base Station work with a Linksys 11g PCI & PCMCIA card installed in Windows PCs?

Now that we know that the software drivers work with the WPC54G card... Does anyone know whether it would be possible to modify a WPC54G card (or any other competing 802.11g PCMCIA card, for that matter) to actually replace the internal AirPort card inside a pre-"Extreme" PowerBook?

That is, I'd like to take off the part of the card that sticks out of the regular PCMCIA slot, fit the card in the internal PCMCIA slot (which is normally reserved for AirPort), and have the card plug into the built-in PowerBook AirPort antenna.

It would be nice to not need to have the 802.11g card sticking out of the side of the PowerBook, as well as to still have an available PCMCIA slot...

Apples original AirPort-card doesn't fit in the PCCARD slot and vice versa and the protuding part of a PCCARD WLAN card is actually the antenna.

A rumour that there might be some AirPort-slot compatible WLAN 802.11g card/s emerging circulated earlier, but since some of the thirdparty PCCARD 802.11g cards now works with the Apple AirPort 3.1 OSX drivers, I belive that won't happen.

Not really related to any of the above discussion, but has anyone updated their Linksys Wireless-G Router's (WRT54G) firmware to 1.30.1 yet? This is supposed to bring the router into compliance with the 802.11g standards. I was wondering if anyone had and still had good connectivity with either 802.11b or 802.11g cards (apple or other vendors). Thanks a bunch,

Jeff

I have updated the Linksys WRT54G to 1.30.1 and it did not change 802.11b or 802.11g speeds. Still max out around 5Mbps in 802.11b w/ the internal Airport card and 13Mbps in 802.11g using the WPC54G card in my 15" PowerBook 1Ghz. So upgrading the firmware won't change anything.

I am also having problems with the Airport 3.1 upgrade in connecting to a Cisco base station using WEP 128-bit hex. I would like to reinstall v3.0.4, and would appreciate some advice about how to make it work.

I read the post from "Just another Mac user" on 6/19, and removed the AirPortSW.pkg from /Library/Receipts/. After doing this, I was able run the v3.0.4 install from disk, but it didn't seem to actually overwrite v3.1.

The post also mentions patching every "version.plist" in sight. What do I need to do here, and how? (I'm new to the Mac OS.) Also, are there any other files that need to be cleaned up?

Thanks for any suggestions.

David Naismith,

There might be something here -- is the Cisco basestation using the Intersil Prism chipset? On both a Win2k and a WinME machine, both a Linksys Wireless-G and the Buffalo 54g PC cards wouldn't work via 64-bit WEP with an Asante FR3002AL or a Siemens Speedstreem AP (forgot the model number), both of which use the Prism I chipset.

After reading your comment, I am starting to suspect that there is a 11b WEP incompatibility between Broadcom-based 11g wireless cards and 11b APs that utilize the Intersil chipset.

If you're having problems -- anyone else using an Intersil-based 11b access point?

I'm not sure what chipset is in the Cisco basestation (AIR-BSE342), but I don't think that's the issue. The connection worked flawlessly until I installed the Airport 3.1 upgrade. My goal is to uninstall 3.1 and reinstall 3.0.4 -- I just don't know how to make that happen. Thanks.

After googling around, I am pretty certain your Cisco is using the Intersil Prism chipset. Thus I think both of us are hitting the same interoperability problem.

It may be something with the newer drivers for the Broadcom chipsets, because for the Win2k drivers that come with the Buffalo and the Linksys Wireless-G cards, WEP 64 or 128 doesn't work.

Now I'm wondering what the equivalent drivers for the Airport 3.0.4 software are. This is interesting.

I seem to be having the same problem with a D-Link DI-624 wireless router. "error joining the selected AirPort network." I've just tried reinstalling airport 3.0.4 without success. I removed the /Library/Receipts file and installed. I've not tried "patching version.plist". What exactly do you mean by that. I'm rather new to OS X.

After several unsuccessful attempts to remove the Airport 3.1 related files and reinstall Airport 3.0.4, I finally gave up and reinstalled the entire operating system. This did the trick -- I now have wireless connectivity again.

A few others have reported a similar problem, but I don't see any solutions. After upgrading to AirPort 3.1, I lost my connectivity to the Airport Extreme base station using WEP with a WMP54G in a Win 2K PC. This worked perfectly with 10.2.6 and AirPort 3.0.4 with a WMP54G, but with 3.1 no longer works.

If I re-install the earlier Airport 3.0.4 (difficult to do) I regain communications. Any suggestions?

Hi everyone:

First timer here, but I wish I'd found this place about 4 pc cards ago! Thanks to everyone, I've learned a lot about what I'm buying and how to get the best deal (important for a grad student...)

So, my big question was, "Ah! How do i tell who uses what chipset?" After some creative googling, I came across this link:

http://www.linux-wlan.org/docs/wlan_adapters_supported_html3.html

Seems to be a pretty up-do-date list. Those Linux guys, always thinkin', huh?

Here's my next question, and I hope someone here can answer it:

The Netgear WG511 seems like one of the best deals out there, but does anyone know if the sourceforge.com driver will support the Prism GT chipset? I don't even know what the difference b/t Prism and GT is, so any help is appreciated.

Ok, cool, I think that's it. Feel free to email me at js265@evansville.edu with questions/responses. Thanks everyone!

Guess this is the list of broadcom chipset users.

http://www.54g.org/54gpart.html

Basically Linksys, Buffalo, Belkin and Asante(but not listed).

Also, thanks for all the info guys.

v3.1 caused all my windows (Lucent Gold PCMCIA) clients to not be able to connect with WEP to my Airport Extreme. How do I uninstall 3.1??!?!?!???

v3.1 caused all my windows (Lucent Gold PCMCIA) clients to not be able to connect with WEP to my Airport Extreme. How do I uninstall 3.1/5.1??!?!?!???

Hi,
I just had a most interesting time with WEP and Lucent/Orinoco cards, and Apple Extreme base stations. The WEP at the 40bit level (and maybe 104/128 by what people are saying here) was not working on the PC laptops with firmware already updated. The new mac laptops were talking to both Lucent and extreme basestations but not the PC it only could talk to Lucent.
Though if you take WEP off it would work just fine. So it was determined it had to do something with WEP. Not sure if WEP was updated or what. So I was wondering after reading here that reverting to 5.0.4 on extreme might do it. And it did. Now my PCs and Apples can talk to both Lucent and Extreme base stations.

Though I guess I loose 802.11g standard. But I guess I will just have to wait till I replace all of my cards with 802.11g or WEP works with 802.11b cards on PCs.

Oh if you want to know how to revert the airport software on an existing machine it seems to work what someone else typed above:
Downgraded to AirPort 3.0.4 by removing the cached AirPortSW.pkg in /Library/Receipts/ and using Pacifist to install the AirPort 3.0.4 package
Though if it kills your computer don't blame me.....it worked on mine that is all I am saying. And oh just for good measure I also reinstalled the Airport 3.0.4 package just incase the pointers were off. Though I did also have to download the 5.0.4 firmware file because it would only download the 5.1.1 it had stored somewhere.

Hope this helps others....

Hi. Tried one last thing. Figured out that you don't have to revert your airport software to 3.0.4. You just have to download the 5.0.4 firmware for the airport extreme. The newer airport software can download the old firmware. You just have to remember press cancel whenever you edit your airport station software , it will ask every time you login to it.
So you can avoid having to remove the old application version. You now just need to download the old firmware 5.0.4

ben on ma hacher mon channels commment je peut le rendre

For what it's worth, I just put a Linksys WPC-54G PCI card in a B&W rev1 G3 running 10.2.8 and Airport 3.1.1 and it works great! The base station is a AE running firmware 5.1.3.

Err, I meant WMP-54G card in my last comment above.

My Buffalo card (WLI-CB-G54A) was working fine with Airport 3.1.1 on my PB G4 with no encryption, but would not work when I turned on WEP (Linksys router). Kept telling me the password was incorrect. After doing a bit of research on the Web, I figured it out.
Instead of typing the WEP passphrase into the box, I typed the actual KEY, preceded by a dollar sign (?). Works like a charm.

I just installed a Belkin wireless 802.11g router, and a Belkin wireless PCI card in my 533 MHz G4 tower running OS 10.2.8 and Airport 3.1.1. No problems at all. WEP works with manual setup.

Belkin uses the Broadcom chipset, and although their instructions for manually setting up the router aren't always easy to follow, they got me where I needed to go. Plus it's all on sale at Staples this week, and the router looks much nicer than the black and blue box from Linksys.

This is my first wi-fi setup, so I can't comment on speed. I'll try to test with a PC and Mac laptop soon, and I'll let you know if I experience problems.

Can i ask a question?
Has any one tried to use a 3rd party cardbus type 11g wireless NIC with a 3rd party 11g access point station on the TiBook?

Excuse me. Let me ask my question again.
Has any one tried to use a Buffalo 11g wireless card (cardbus type) with a Bufffalo 11g access point station on the TiBook 15"?

Any hint will be appreciated.

Hi, may i ask another question?
I have bought a pair of Buffalo 11g product, i.e. WBR-G54 and WLI-CB-G54.
When i insert the cardbus WLAN card, the cardbus icon displayed on the right top of the finder shows implicitly 802.11b even if i configure the airstation to '802.11g only' state. After my simple test, i make a FTP connection to another PC via my TiBook with this cardbus WLAN card. The data rate is only 50 kByte/sec. However, in the another test, the speed of the FTP connection between two PCs becomes 1000kByte/sec. Can anyone help me to overcome this problem?

Auto /mode nick +x onconnect is masking your IP.
i wanna know how to see ip when some one tape /mode nick +x

I've got a Linksys WMP54G installed in a Power Mac G4 with 10.2.6 and airport 3.1.1 installed. I'm getting random connection drops that can only be solved by rebooting. Anyone else had this problem?

DJ

Hi All,

I run Airport software 3.3.1, but I do not have any success in using the Buffalo WLI-CB-G54A card. Upon inserion the card in my (airport-Extreme equipped Powerbook G4) the PCMCIA icon tells me that a 802.11b bufallo card has been inserted, both power and link leds on the card glow, but I do not get another interface, and so I cannot config or so.

Any clues on this ?!

Rudi

Hello all,

I have an old G4/400 and I'm tired of having a network cable running through the whole flat, so I thought I should give WLAN a try.

Well, I find the original Apple Airport Card a bit overpriced, so I wonder if it's possible to use another type.

I see that on eBay, Belkin and Linksys PCI cards are available at good prices. Will they work, or do I need to change the firmware first. And aren't there any of these smaller cards for the Airport slot?

Could you give me some recommendations for these cards? I have no clue what to look for and in the technical descriptions they always only say "Windows Compatible" :-(

Thanks a lot in advance

/s.

Rydell: Just ask the provider of the network. Anything else would be plain illegal anyway.

Hello all!

I thought I just give you some feedback: I bought myself a Linksys WMP54G PCI-card, plugged it into my G4/400 - and was able to connect to my G-Only network :-)

This card cost only about half as much as a suitable Apple-branded AirPort card (which is 11b only!) and it worked just like "Plug'n'Play".

/s.

I purchased a Motorola WR850G Router and LinkSys WMP54G PCI Card to communicate between two Blue and White G3 Macs. No problems here!!! I liked the Motorola for the ease of use in setting Parental Controls via the web-based interface. The LinkSys PCI was the only non-Apple option I considered for the "remote" computer after reading all of these posts. Airport 3.1.1 and OS X 10.2.8 worked great using these products without any problems.

Help!
I just bought a Linksys WPC54G Ver 2 PCMCIA card for my 400 lombard and it doesn't recognize it. I can't figure it out, I've tried reinstalling the drivers and nothing works. I am using Airport software 3.4, on Panther 10.3.5. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

Ooooh. "Ver 2" is a scary thing.

For it to work, it has to be based on the same Broadcom chipset that the real Airport Extreme modules use.

In a terminal window, type 'ioreg -l -w 0 | more' and try to find your card (it should be inserted when you do this). Your best bet is to look for lines that say IOCardBusDevice. You should find a section that describes your card.

You're going to look for the 'compatible' section. You should see that one of the entries there says 'pci14e4,4320'.

If you don't see that, then it's possible that Linksys changed vendors on us. :(

Hey, thanks for the info, I just started using Mac again and I know nothing about unix. Here's the bad news, it does not say the entry listed before. Here's what it says:
"compatible" =

That was suppose to say: "compatible" = "pci1737,33","pci104c,9066","pciclass,028000"

I contacted Linksys, and they reported that they are still using the Broadcom chipset in their version 2 PCMCIA card. My guess is they just changed their ID and now airport doesn't recognize it? I'll try changing the driver to get it to work, I'll let you know if I can.

Does anyone have any idea's on how to get this card to work? I would really like to keep this card and not have to return it. I guess my next choice is a belkin.

Hi All, congratulations to everyone who has managed to use third-party cards on their Macs. I've been struggling with mine for weeks.

I'm not a new Mac user, but am pretty clueless when it comes to pc cards and terminal/command line. From a cursory observation, I've noticed that most people have great success using a third-party card with no internal card installed; Phillip has a workaround for the Airport Card - I was wondering if anyone has a workaround for using a third-party card with a powerbook with Airport Extreme card installed?

I have two cards, a new Linksys WPC54G and a Lucent WaveLAN that I removed from an Airport BS.

Linksys: Upon insertion, leds light up and icon appears in the menu. Nothing appears in Network Port in System Preferences. No card appears to be installed - System Profile

Lucent: Upon insertion, leds don't light up and icon appears in the menu. Nothing appears in Network Port in System Preferences. No card appears to be installed - System Profile

I'm hoping that someone can point me in the right direction (and that I can learn along the way).

Much thanks, iggy
OSX 10.3.5 / Airport Software 3.4.3

I have the same problem as Iggy... exact same one. Would getting the Linksys WMP54G with Speedbooster work instead of using the WMP54G card without Speedbooster?

Hello everyone. Well I took the Linksys card back, again, to Wal-Mart after much dismay that I could not get it to work. I then went over to OfficeMax and bought a Belkin 54G for $30! This card is a great deal and it works! Speed and signal seems good. Belkin actually put Mac OS X instructions right in their manual. They said, just plop it in, well not like that but similar. I recommend this card to anyone. Linksys made me mad.

Hi again,

I've managed to get the Lucent card to work with MacSense's Aerocard driver.

Still, I'd prefer to use the Linksys card if possible. Hopefully, someone might clue Carrie and I in.

Does anyone know what the RF power output is on the Airport Extreme Base Station is?

I'm thinking about connecting an amplifier and an omni antenna.

Hi again,

I've since bought a Belkin F5D7010 card. It doesn't work. The system doesn't seem to 'want' to recognise an external Broadcom based card when Airport Extreme is installed - well, that's my take anyway.

This is frustrating (and getting expensive!).

If anyone does know how to use an external (third-party) wireless card on a powerbook (running OSX10.3.5 and Airport 3.4) without removing the internal Airport Extreme Card, please let me know.

Ideally, I'd like to swap and change between using both cards.

Thanks,
iggy

I have a Linksys WPC54G card also. I used to work on my Mac before, but then all of a sudden it stops working (I think after I updated the Airport driver). It says unknown vendor. I tried reinstalling Panther but no luck.

The saga still continues. However, I thought that some people would be interested to know that I've found a USB adapter that works - the ProLink WUB1500 (http://www.fida.com/products/wub1500.htm).

If anyone is thinking about getting this, I'd advise them to download the latest drivers from their site rather than installing off the CD.

I'm not sure what their support is like, but the adapter works!

Still looking for answers on the cards, though.

iggy

I just bought the Belkin card and it doesn't work. I'm gonna return it and get the Linksys card with speedbooster.

Hate to even mention microsoft but their xbox wireless g adapter is ethernet based. You have to configure it on an xbox- but I just plugged it in after all-else-failed to get my G3 AIO online. It worked instantly. (all I wanted to do was deauthorize iTunes before ground up rebuild)

There are many manufacturers of "ethernet bridges" which will do the same thing

Good Luck- I am returning my WMP54g tomorrow

I had a Linksys WMP54G I bought about a year and a half ago. It died on me, so I sent it in to Linksys for a replacement. The have sent me 2 replacement cards and both of them don't work. On one of them, the green light comes on. The other freezes the machine and the light never comes on. What can I do? Any insight?

Is there anyone using a motorola wireless pci adapter Card 802.11g in a beige g3 or blue and white. from the look of things, it seems to be based on the broadcom chipset.

when i go to terminal and type 'ioreg -l -w 0 | more' i get nothing.
what gives? if you could hit me back instead of posting to this site i owuld definately appreciate...
all thankx in advance

i just bought a new WPC54GS (speedbooster version) here in Toronto, works great with latest airport/os x 10.3.7 ... would recommend it. there doesn't seem to be any particular version number, just WPC54GS.

I am using an iMac G4 with an old airport card. I just plugged a Belkin 54g router into the modem and I got a wireless connection. But the airport utility wont 'see' the router as a 'base station'. I don't understand this.

It seems everyone is having my problem! :) dont know if thats a good or a bad thing... ive been looking at CardBus cards for my Lombard.. and im not paying apple prices for something i can get in a PC for 1/4 of the price... but like everyone else that has hit a brick wall here... so have i... even the aftermarket drivers dont work with all cards... i have had some friends who have had some success with different cards... but looking around, belkin make mention on their "F5D7010 802.11g Wireless Notebook Network Card" that it is compatible with AirPort 3.1.1 might be worth a try, as the cards are only like $30US or less...

anyway, the info they sent me was this link to their knowledge base.

hope it helps

http://search.belkin.com/cgi-bin/MsmGo.exe?grab_id=162&EXTRA_ARG=&CFGNAME=MssFind%2Ecfg&host_id=42&page_id=11404800&query=3795%2A&hiword=3795%2A+

Anyone successfully use the Motorola WPCI810G PCI card in a G4? I've got a G4/400 AGP running 10.3.5 and the card isn't showing up in system profiler or being seen by Airport Setup (3.1.2). I know the PCI slot is working.

Is there something else I should try?

I also need to get this card to work-- in a "yikes" model G4 tower with working pci and Mac OS 10.2.0 . If you find a solution, could you please post it on this forum? I'll check back periodically.

Success story: after reading the comments here and tech specs on Belkins english website, I bought an Belkin F5D7010DE (de for german market I suppose) pcmcia adapter for my father's powerbook, and with a new AirPort version, it worked instantly and without problems, even in 54Mb/s mode and with WPA/PSK keys (linked to a Netgear router). ++

Hi

I have an iMac 800 15" with an Original Airpot slot in the round base. Is there any third party 802.11g card I can replace the Original Airport Card with to enable the faster wireless speeds? I know the Sony PCWA-C150S is a possible alternative but it is only a 802.11b card. I have browsed through this thread but still cannot find the answer to my query.

Hope someone has the answer! I plan to upgrade my ADSL to 8mbps so this is essential.

Literally the only card that will work in an AirPort slot is an AirPort card. They are not ordinary PC-Card slots. They're proprietary.

If you had PCI slots, you could use a PCI card with the Broadcom chipset in it, but for an iMac the only possible solution is an Ethernet-to-wireless bridge.

I have an PBG4 with an Airport Extreme card. I really would like to
use an Buffalo 802.11g/b PCMCIA with external antenna (WLI-CB-G54A) at sometimes when I need better antenna than the internal
Apple one. But in places where there signal is strong enough, I don't really want to use the Buffalog card since its kind of in the
way and the inserted card does NOT fit in my carrying case well, and a whole bunch of other whiney no good reason reasons. I really just want to be able to swtich between the buffalo and apple airport extreme. Is this possible? How? I'm a unix type so command line, vi, emacs, etc. is not a prob.

Thanks,
d

For my G4 iMac (1.25 ghz, OS10.3.9), with no wireless card (yet) now wired to a Belkin (g) wireless router--to wirelessly connect with the router, will an Airport Extreme card link with the Belkin without grief? (Less concerning, will an Airport card to be procured for wife's g3 with OS9.2 link to the Belkin?) I see from thread that the iMac cannot use any but an Airport card, no non-apple cards since no slot. Zat true?
thanks...

I have the belkin F5D7010 v3 and it works fine with my g3 lombard, (IT NEEDS A DRIVER FROM BELKINS SITE!!!!)

As a follow up to Nathan's post, the belkin f5d7010 v4 (ver 4000, as labelled on the box), uses a new chipset and does NOT work.

Also FYI apparently the linksys Wpc54GS cards (the speedbooster) have been updated recently and no longer work, at least not on Panther.

I have a Buffalo air station card but I dont know how to set it up please help. thewli-cb-g54
thank you for your time.

I've been following this thread very carefully and have noticed some inconsistent reports concering similar (and sometimes identical) hardware/software -- is anyone working on making summaries by software version? For the time being I'll add to the pile:

I am one of the unfortunate ones who just got a 1.67Ghz PowerBook (OS 10.4.4) that has an *unremovable* built-in Airport Extreme card:

from System profiler:
Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme
Wireless Card Locale: USA
Wireless Card Firmware Version: 404.2 (3.90.34.0.p16)

I, like many others here, would like to be able to switch to-and-fro between the internal (when I'm right next to a broadcast tower) and external Buffalo WLI-CB-G54A (with antenna) for when I'm at normal wifi locations that aren't short range or line-of-sight.

When I insert the card into the PCMCIA an icon on the top of my screen that reveals this when clicked:

Broadcom (in gray)
802.11.b CardBus (in gray)
Power off Card (in black, selectable)

This is not "plug and play" -- the internal card overrides the Buffalo using Apple's software.

If I *take the powerbook apart* and unplug the airport card from the motherboard and boot with the Buffalo in (not for the faint of heart) the card is recognized and works seamlessly (nothing identifying that the card is being used by software).

If I try to boot the PowerMac with all extensions on and the card plugged in I get the international warning:

"You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power Button for several seconds or press the Restart button."

If the extensions are disabled the machine does NOT kernel panic, but also does not allow me to use the card. Airport icon missing from top of screen. In System Prefs I see airport as "inactive" and is grayed out so that I can not turn it on.

I did notice a slight variation to this above mentioned tip:

"If you have an original AirPort card installed and don't want to remove it, go to /System/Library/Extensions and rename AppleAirPort.kext and AppleAirPortFW.kext, adding .disabled to the end of their names. This is so that the original AirPort card won't confuse the Network Preferences.""

My Extensions folder did not have this file:
- AppleAirPortFW.kext

Rather, it had:
- AppleAirPort2.kext

From the "Extensions" in the System Profiler it looks like it's using AppleAirPort2.kext:

AppleAirPort2:
Version: 4.0.4
Last Modified: 19.01.06 20:33
Get Info String: 4.0.4, Copyright © 2002 - 2005 Apple Computer, Inc., All Rights Reserved
Location: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAirPort2.kext
kext Version: 404.2
Load Address: 0x39424000
Valid: Yes
Authentic: Yes
Dependencies: Satisfied
Integrity: Correct

I sent a note to the good people at orangeware.com about the idea of supporting Broadcom chips and they simply replied:

"We do not have any plans on supporting the Broadcom cards."

KisMAC65 didn't seem to recognize the Buffalo card.

Any thoughts?

It would be great for someone to create a little application named "Airport Traffic Control" or somesuch that allows users to go into the System Prefs, choose network, then Network Port Configurations, then "new" and create another "Airport" entry and choose "PCMCIA" or "CardBus" as the hardware and go from there.

Any takers? :-D