AirPort Blog

The folks at Macwireless.com are offering an AirPort Card buyback program for Titanium PowerBook owners who want to swap up to their higher-powered PC Card to improve range. They'll rebate you $25 for your AirPort Card after you purchase a PC Card from them and send them your card.

Interestingly, the AirPort Card continues to sell for nearly its list price on eBay of about $80, but there's a lot of hassle associated with running eBay sales, making sure your final price is worthwhile, etc. Given their processing costs and the potential glut of AirPort Cards, the Macwireless.com offer is a pretty reasonable middle ground that's zero hassle.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Apple has released the 5.0.4 firmware update for AirPort Extreme Base Station. This may finally fix the configuration errors I've been finding in which a device appears to disappear from the network.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

For those of you looking for a zero-administration file server, you might consider the Martian Technologies NetDrive. It's network-attached storage (NAS), which means that it doesn't require or allow a monitor and keyboard. Rather, you plug it in and it grabs an address off the network's DHCP server and lets you configure via the Web.

The current versions include Wi-Fi (802.11b) and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet for connectivity, and support Samba-style (SMB) filesharing which works under Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) or later. You can type in long URLs in Mac OS 10.1 and mount SMB volumes, too.

The team plans to add AppleShare support -- there are open-source Linux solutions that they can integrate -- and they already use Rendezvous to help your machine automatically find a NetDrive to configure.

The NetDrive is available as a kit with no hard drive ($379), a 40 Gb unit ($399), and a 120 Gb unit ($479).

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 02:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pretty remarkably, Apple has already shipped 150,000 AirPort Extreme Units, which includes cards and base stations. (I represent two of those units.)

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 06:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Derek Miller wrote a long and exhaustive article on adding wireless access to older Mac laptops. He has a PowerBook 1400, but his advice applies to the 1400, 2400, 3400, and G3 series that lacked AirPort card slots but had PC Card slots. He points out that even some older machines might work with old Orinoco (WaveLAN/Agere) cards.

Anyway seeking to add wireless support to their older laptop should certainly read Derek's article first!

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Titanium PowerBook G4 owners have long been frustrated with the 50-percent range they achieve with an internal AirPort Card. Adding a PC Card is an alternative, as several have Mac OS 7.5.5-to-OS X 10.2 drivers or you can obtain drivers from third parties.

But it's extra money and you then have an antenna sticking out the side of your PowerBook. Quickertek has introduced an alternative. Their stub antenna turns an AirPort Card back into a PC Card. You remove the internal AirPort Card and attach their $40 removable Wireless Ti Antenna and insert it i the PC Card slot.

Because the antenna stub is removable, you can leave the AirPort Card in the PC Card slot at all times and attach the antenna stub as you need it. The antenna is sold by Technowarehouse for $40.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Tom Bridge writes about his terrible experience configuring an AxBS. I've had a similar problem. The AxBS, even though it says it'll take a DHCP address, doesn't like it very much.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 09:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)