AirPort 3.1 Supports Third Party 802.11g PC Cards
Owners of pre-AirPort Extreme PowerBooks with PC Card slots can now connect to higher-speed AirPort Extreme networks using third-party 802.11g cards. It turns out that Apple's recent AirPort 3.1 update also provides support for PC Cards that use the same Broadcom chip set that Apple uses for internal AirPort Extreme cards.
So, if you've been lamenting the poor signal strength of your Titanium PowerBook G4, you can improve signal strength and jump up to 802.11g's faster throughput with a third party card. Both Asante and Buffalo Technologies claim their 802.11g cards work with Mac OS X and the AirPort 3.1 update; other manufacturers using Broadcom's chip set are likely compatible as well.
Buffalo Technology's card costs about $60 and is available now; the Asante card costs $100 and should be available this month.
[Adam Engst originally wrote this article for TidBITS: permanent link]
Comments
7/21
Anyone else aware of any other 3rd party providers ?
Posted by: Michael Augenblick | July 21, 2003 05:06 PM
www.54g.org has some of the other users (oems) that use the broadcom chip and a few "client" products listed. I bought the Buffalo PC Card with ext antenna jack and it's working perfectly since I hot-plugged it in and connected to my friend's DLink DI-714P+ with WEP 128 enabled. btw use WEPGenX to make and remember hex based passphrases compatible with non Apple base stations and use the "$".
Posted by: Michael McLaughlin | August 8, 2003 01:13 AM