Airport extreme avalable for G4 Macbook?

Simon_Radcliffe

Hi all,I've removed the airport card from my macbook (had to unscrew the bottom cover). I wondered if there is a n airport extreme card available for this or the best way for me to connect to wifi?

The laptop looks like this sort:-



http://km.support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECARE_ALLGEOS/HT1621/HT1621_1.jpg

WilliamO

Apart from getting a replacement Airport Extreme card I would opt for a wireless network card (adaptor) as it will give you WPA-PSK security for example - The AE cards are normally WEP only.

A TP-Link or Netgear wireless network adaptor from Amazon or Maplin should be okay.

Gratis

Simon_Radcliffe wrote: »

Hi all,I've removed the airport card from my macbook (had to unscrew the bottom cover). I wondered if there is a n airport extreme card available for this or the best way for me to connect to wifi?

The laptop looks like this sort:-



http://km.support.apple.com/library/APPLE/APPLECARE_ALLGEOS/HT1621/HT1621_1.jpg

Simon,

The first thing you need to do is establish just what model of Mac this actually is. Because it certainly isn’t a “G4 MacBook”. Apple never made such a thing.

“MacBook” was a new name that Apple introduced for its laptops when it switched from Motorola G4 PowerPC processors to Intel Core Duo processors in 2006.

The first of these, in January 2006, was the MacBook Pro.

The first (non-Pro) Macbook was released in May 2006.

Both of these came with 802.11g “Airport Extreme” wi-fi cards installed.

The predecessor to the MacBook Pro was the G4 PowerBook of October 2005 and the predecessor to the MacBook was the G4 iBook of July 2005.

Both of those came with 802.11g “Airport Extreme” wi-fi cards, too.


The wi-fi card you have shown, and to which you have provided a link, is an original 802.11b “Airport” card.

The last Apple laptops that used those were the titanium G4 PowerBooks of November 2002 and the polycarbonate iBooks of September 2003.


So, if the Airport card you are displaying came out of an Apple laptop, the youngest that Mac can be is ten years old.

The bad news is that you won’t be able to put an “Airport Extreme” card into it. They are a different shape and have a different interface. They won’t fit.


If your Mac is a G4 PowerBook, your have the option of using putting an 802.11g PCMCIA wi-fi card into its CardBus slot and using that instead. But an iBook has no CardBus slot.

I had three G4 titanium PowerBooks and I used to use a Buffalo 802.11g PCMCIA wi-fi card in them. You have to remove or disconnect the original Airport card or the two cards will clash. It didn’t need any drivers; it worked straight out of the box (but it wouldn’t use Channel 13 and it wasn’t happy with Channel 12 because it was an American spec card).


To summarise, your Mac is not a “G4 MacBook”; if the card you show is what came out of it, it’s either a pre-2003 G4 PowerBook or a pre-2004 iBook. If it’s a PowerBook, you could buy an 802.11g PCMCIA wi-fi card and put it in the CardBus slot. If it’s an iBook, you cant; so the best thing to do would be to put the Airport card back into it.

Remember, also, that its USB port(s) will be USB 1, not USB 2. I used one of those to give my G4 PowerBooks Bluetooth, via a D-Link adaptor. (Still got one of those in my G4 Cube, along with an original "Airport" card!)

I never found 802.11b to be too bad in itself (back in 2005). For anyone still on 8 mbps ADSL broadband, the 11 mbps of 802.11b is not the bottleneck when using the Internet!

As a matter of interest, what version of Mac OS are you running on this?


§

WilliamO wrote: »

Apart from getting a replacement Airport Extreme card I would opt for a wireless network card (adaptor) as it will give you WPA-PSK security for example - The AE cards are normally WEP only.

A TP-Link or Netgear wireless network adaptor from Amazon or Maplin should be okay.

Even the Apple "Airport Extreme" card in my six year old 2007 MacBook Pro supports 802.11n, dual-band, wide channels and WPA2 !

Simon_Radcliffe

Thanks for your help. Looks like it's a Apple PowerBook G4 1.0 (Ti) (you were right). So I should be able to fit this card that youspeak of?
I just want to be able to join wifi hotspots which isn't possible with airport standard.

Simon_Radcliffe

I've ordered this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=271233790583 so that should solve it?

Gratis

For the sake of ten quid, I’d be minded to try putting one of these into it and seeing if the Mac can handle 802.11n with it. If not, I would imagine it would default to 802.11g if it can’t. Worth a punt.

Remember to disconnect (unplug) the Airport card if you put it back into the Mac for safe keeping. Otherwise the Airport and the PCMCIA card will clash and neither will work.

I can’t tell you for sure whether a TP-Link (or any other specific brand of) card will need a driver. I only have experience with a Buffalo 802.11b/g card. But that didn’t need one, it worked straight out of the box. And if you do need a driver for it you’ll probably be able to download one free from the Internet (using an Ethernet lead to your router!).

Also, bear in mind that the CardBus will use a different MAC number to your Airport card, so, if you have enabled MAC filtering on your wireless router(s) you will need to add that number to its/their Access List(s) or it/they won’t let your Mac on to your wireless network!

I’m surprised you write that you can’t join wi-fi hotspots with your standard 802.11b Airport card. It was never a problem for me.

The titanium G4 Powerbooks are beautiful machines. I loved mine. I had a 1 GHz model at home (and as a backup) and an 867 MHz for travelling. I also preferred the slightly taller and squarer shape of their screen to the shorter and wider shape of more recent ones. I found that more useful, on a laptop. But perhaps the default aspect ratios of website pages have changed since then.

So, post on here if you need any more advice or help with it. (Although, I’m returning home to France very soon and then won’t be following this site much).

One very important word of advice with a Ti: always open and close its lid slowly and gently – its two hinges are notoriously fragile and can snap off, causing irreparable damage to both the lid and the casing of the Mac in the process. :eek:

You can run Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard on it but not 10.6.8 Snow. Apple no longer supports Leopard so you may need to Google for any updates.

Simon_Radcliffe

Thanks for your reply Gratis. Now I haven't had time to look deeper but after taking out the airport card and plugging in the new TP-Link card.
Under the system info it shows the card being inserted but isn't looking to join a network and there are no icons at the top that I'd associate with wifi. The driver cd was one of those mini ones which wont work in the slide in drive so I'm just going to get the drivers which may sort it all out?

No lights are showing on the card apart from one quick flash when powering on.

Gratis

Simon

Sorry to hear you're still having problems.

It’s not easy, however, to assist you when you haven’t answered my question as to which Mac operating system you are using. For all anyone can tell, you might even be running System 9.

Nor have you indicated at any stage whether or not the Airport card you have removed from the Mac enabled you previously to connect wirelessly when it was installed.

Whether or not you need any additional driver software at all, I cannot tell. I know only that the Buffalo PCMCIA card that I used worked straight out of the box.

If, as you state, the Mac isn’t searching for any networks and there is no Airport icon displayed in your system toolbar at the top of your screen, the first thing that I would do is see whether Airport is actually switched on.

The way to do this under OS X is to click on the Apple logo at the top left hand corner of your display, which will activate the same drop-down menu as you used to reveal your system information.

From that menu, select System Preferences.

In System Preferences, select Network.

In the page which opens, there will be a column of options on the left.

In that column should be an item named Wi-Fi.

(If there isn’t, go to the + symbol in the bottom left hand corner of the list and click on it to add Wi-Fi.)

Beneath the label Wi-Fi will be the word On or Off.

Either way, click on the label Wi-Fi.

In the page which opens, start by ticking the box marked “Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar”.

There will also be a button box marked “Turn Wi-Fi On” (or “Turn Wi-Fi Off”).

If it isn’t switched on, switch it on.

Tick also the box “Ask to join new networks”.

Then – importantly – click the box in the bottom right hand corner labelled “Apply”. (Otherwise your changes won’t take effect.

Now restart the Mac.

If, previously, your Mac worked wirelessly with your Airport card installed, it should work now with your PCMCIA card installed instead.

If it doesn’t, your best move would be to put the Airport card back into your Mac and get it working and configured with that.

Then, shut down the Mac, disconnect the Airport card (pull its plug out) and try again with the PCMCIA card installed.

Gratis wrote: »

Also, bear in mind that the CardBus will use a different MAC number to your Airport card, so, if you have enabled MAC filtering on your wireless router(s) you will need to add that number to its/their Access List(s) or it/they won’t let your Mac on to your wireless network!

Try all that. If it still doesn’t work, get back here quickly: I’m about to head off back home to France at the end off this week!

If you do need to return to here with this matter, specify your operating system and whether or not you have (ever) been able to connect wirelessly with your Airport card installed. You should be able to. If you can’t, you may have a hardware fault. either with your Mac or with your wireless networking card(s).

Simon_Radcliffe

Hello there Gratis,

Firstly here is my system info. Using Mac OS X 10.4.11
Could connect using airport but not over WPA, can only use WEP which is rare to say the least.

Now when following your instructions, "In the page which opens, there will be a column of options on the left." there is no column on the left. Just get a box showing

• Location
• Show
• TCP/IP
• PPPoE
• AppleTalk
• Proxies
• Ethernet

There is a drop down box which shows "internal modem/internal firewire/internal ethernet" but nothing really seems to work.
Think it's time to get a Dell laptop that works out of the box but any assistance would be welcomed

Simon_Radcliffe

MAC going to charity shop as a non internet laptop. Hopefully will raise a quid or two. Although it is next to useless these days unfortunately.

almillar

WEP isn't rare, it's just an older and less secure type of wireless security than WPA. Your laptop isn't non-internet, it's non-WiFi (or up to date WiFi).
There are 2 easy options I can think of for this computer, to keep it online, wherever it's destined to.
1. Surely there must be a USB WiFi 'N' dongle that works on Mac.
2. It does have an ethernet port, just like a PC, so can be plugged into a router or modem.