Apple 661-4907 AirPort Extreme 802.11n Wireless Mini-PCIe Card for Mac Pro 2006-2012 Models. Includes screws & tools to install, 30 Day OWC Fulfilled Limited Warranty. IPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 6 or later and AirPort Utility 1.3; Mac with OS X Lion v10.7.5 or later and AirPort Utility 6.3; Wireless Device Access. Any Wi‑Fi-enabled device that uses the 802.11a/b/g/n/ac specification. Shared Printing with a USB Printer. USB printer; Mac with OS X v10.2.7 or later.
Mac Musings
Daniel Knight - 2009.04.16 (updated) -
- The AirPort Extreme Card allows your AirPort Extreme-enabled Mac to communicate with local AirPort Extreme networks or other Wi-Fi certified 802.11b or 802.11g networks, including earlier versions of Apple's AirPort Base Station.
- IPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 6 or later and AirPort Utility 1.3; Mac with OS X Lion v10.7.5 or later and AirPort Utility 6.3; Wireless Device Access. Any Wi‑Fi-enabled device that uses the 802.11a/b/g/n/ac specification. Shared Printing with a USB Printer. USB printer; Mac with OS X v10.2.7 or later.
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When Apple introduced the original iBook in July1999, it did for 802.11b wireless what the 1998 iMac had done for USB- it took an emerging technology and moved it to the forefront.
The iBook shipped in September 1999, the same month the 802.11bprotocol was finalized. Winpcap for mac. The standard has a raw data rate of 11 Mbps andreal world throughput of approximately 4-5 Mbps. Apple's AirPort Cardwas a repackaged Orinoco Gold PC Card.
Over time, Apple brought AirPort to its entire product line -PowerBooks, Power Macs, and iMacs as well as iBooks. But by 2003, the802.11g was replacing 802.11b. AirPort gave way to AirPort Extreme -and the two cards couldn't be swapped.
802.11g has almost five times the bandwidth, 4-5 times thethroughput, better range, and much better security. It is giving way to802.11n, which has nearly six time the bandwidth of 802.11g, five timesthe throughput, three times the range, and operates at two differentfrequencies: the same 2.4 GHz as 802.11b and 802.11g as well as5 GHz, the frequency used by 802.11a. (Most 802.11n hardware alsosupports 802.11a, b, and g.)
Stuck in the Past
Only Apple has ever produced WiFi cards for the AirPort slot, andthat card - the original AirPort Card - has long since beendiscontinued and tends to get a premium price on the used market.
UPDATE: After this article was posted, we learned that Apple's AirPortCard can be updated to support WPA encryption. The balance of this articlehas been updated in light of that. dk
The biggest drawback of 802.11b isn't speed, as it's as fast as manyhigh-end broadband connections, but its range and limited securityoptions. Although 802.11b is optimistically rated at 100', real worldrange tends to be quite a bit less. Worse,WEP(Wired Equivalent Privacy) encryption, part of the 802.11b standard,is weak and can be cracked within minutes using the right software.
![Mac Mac](https://cdn1.macmaniack.com/56146-thickbox_default/map-airport-extreme-80211n-macbook-pro-imac-20.jpg)
In these days of ecommerce and identity theft, that's a dangerousrisk. Yes, WEP encryption is better than no encryption at all, but ifsomeone is looking to steal your credit card information and not justpiggyback on your WiFi router, it's not strong enough to keep yousafe.
WPA(Wi-Fi Protected Access) is a lot more secure, but it requires802.11g or later hardware or an 802.11b card that can have its firmwareupdated. Fortunately, Apple's AirPort Card is one such card. If youare running Mac OS X 10.3.3 or later and AirPort Software 3.3 orlater, you can use WPA. However, 802.11b hardware cannot support thenewer WPA2 encryption.
802.11g Options
For G3 and Titanium PowerBooks, there are PC Card and CardBus802.11g and 802.11n cards available. For Power Macs, there are PCIcards that hold an 802.11g/n CardBus card and antenna. And for any Macwith USB, there are 802.11g dongles for as little as US$20.
On the plus side, prices are reasonable. On the minus side, thoseolder Macs only have USB 1.1 ports, which means they can't even usehalf of the bandwidth of 802.11g, and most of these Macs only have acouple built-in USB ports (the Clamshell iBooks have only one). Remote desktop mac os to pc. Also,those USB dongles stick out a ways (3' is not uncommon), and while thatmight not be a big issue with a desktop Mac, it's simply awkward with anotebook.
Why No 802.11g AirPort Card?
The most simple and elegant solution would be for someone to producean 802.11g card that would plug into the AirPort slot used on Macs from1999 through 2002, particularly notebooks. Because 802.11b and 802.11guse the same 2.4 GHz frequency, the antennas in these Macs are alreadya match for 802.11g.
Find Airport Extreme Mac Address
Ideally this 802.11g AirPort-replacement card would use the samechipset as Apple's AirPort Extreme so it could also use Apple's AirPortExtreme drivers.
On the plus side, this would give those with these old Macs an802.11g/WPA2 option (which means better security, speed, and range) thatdoesn't use a PC Card/CardBus slot, a USB port, or a PCI slot. Anotherplus: 802.11g/n CardBus adapters generally sell for a lot less thanused 802.11b AirPort Cards.
Airport Extreme Card For Mac Pro
On the negative side, Apple's AirPort Card use a 16-bit PC Cardconnection, which limits throughput to either 8 Mbps (using 16-bit I/Otransfers) or 20 Mbps (if it uses 16-bit memory transfers). Regardless,even if these Mac users are only getting a bit more speed than they dowith 802.11b, the improved range and wireless security should providesufficient reason for them to buy an 802.11g AirPort-substitutecard.
If you wonder whether there's a viable market, follow this link to Alibaba.com. Shenzhen Time In Top Technology Co., Ltd.in China is somehow able to supply 'Original, bran-new, in stock' AppleAirPort Cards - and in quantities up to 550 per month. Botanicula for mac os.
Authentic? Licensed? Authorized? Not likely, but I'll bet theseAirPort Card clones work and sell in sufficient quantity for Shenzhento keep producing them. And that bodes well for whatever company wantsto step up to the plate and release an 802.11g card for the AirPortCard Slot. If anything, the market for an 802.11g card should be biggerthan for a simple 802.11b replacement card.
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Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986,sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, andhas been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.
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