AirPort Blog

The Taiwan-based chipmaker Ralink may be the solution for many Mac owners trying to find a Wi-Fi adapter that works with their particular machine. While no company except Apple currently makes anything but a USB 2.0 adapter that has explicitly supported drivers for Mac OS X, several companies use chips from Broadcom, Apple's Wi-Fi chip supplier, that have meant their products work in a Mac without any additional software.

This has changed lately, as Broadcom's competitors have made inroads into the Wi-Fi market, and the same product that worked six months ago--for instance, a Belkin 802.11g PCI Card--have been re-engineered to save costs in a new version and no longer use Broadcom chips. Manufacturers rarely directly disclose which chips are in which products to avoid making promises about the underlying technology; they're promising functionality (i.e., a Wi-Fi connection).

That's what makes the Ralink's unsupported Mac OS X and Linux drivers so interesting. If you wind up with a Ralink-based device, you can still use it with your Mac. Ralink has been listening to its indirect Mac customers, because they recently updated their drivers for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). And they seem to release regular bug fix updates as well.

Their driver page contains downloads and which products are supported using their internal chipset and product names. I hope some enterprising sole will figure out which products and versions from major makers use Ralink chips, expanding Mac users' options.

Belkin's 802.11g PCI Card (part number F5D7000) claims to have Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3 compatibility on its detail page, but doesn't offer drivers for download, and it appears its compatibility was limited to versions 1 and 2 of this card; version 3 (not noted anywhere when you purchase the card) has Ralink chips and requires Ralink drivers.

I noted above that there are now USB 2.0 adapters for Macs--I found this out almost by accident. The Zyxel AG-225H, a Wi-Fi hotspot detector with a built-in LCD screen, doubles as an 802.11a/b/g adapter using USB 2.0. Zyxel has Mac drivers for both Panther and Tiger; I haven't tested them, but have been told by other Mac users that they work. I reviewed the Zyxel unit, looking at its Wi-Fi finding functions mostly, for Mobile Pipeline back in September. It's about $75 from several online retailers.

Thanks to Dave Goldman for this tip!

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Macworld has graciously made available a Mobile Mac column I wrote for a recent issue about ad hoc networking, where you take hook up local computers together without needing an Internet connection or a central hub. In the article, I deal with using AirPort, FireWire, and Ethernet to make sure each computer gets an appropriate self-assigned address among other factors.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 07:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This post is mostly so that if you search on Google for RADIUS or 802.1X bug and AirPort Extreme, you'll find this page that explains the workaround.

RADIUS is an authentication standard that allows user logins. In the Wi-Fi world, RADIUS is typically used as part of 802.1X, another standard that restricts access to a Wi-Fi network until the login is completed. A user needs an 802.1X client--built into Panther and later--with the right security overlay to protect the login. An access point, like the AirPort Extreme Base Station, is configured to hand off the login credentials to a RADIUS server for approval.

In order for the base station to talk to the RADIUS server, they must have a shared secret, entered in both locations. This secret can be quite long. However, the AirPort Extreme Base Station cannot accept a long secret via the AirPort Admin Utility--this is a bug, which I have tried to report to Apple to no avail. It doesn't seem to be fixed after several months and multiple firmware and utility releases.

AirPort Admin Utility won't produce an error on entry but neither will it allow you to update a configuration that contains a too-long shared secret. The solution? Download and use AirPort Management Tool, available on the AirPort support page at Apple.

The tool is designed to allow the group configuration of AirPort Extreme and Express Base Stations, and it doesn't share the bug that prevents entry of the longer secret.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have been asked more frequently than practically any other question on AirPort: Can I upgrade an old AirPort network to use WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) security? The answer: sort of. AirPort Cards installed on computer that are running Mac OS X 10.3.0 or later can use firmware and operating system upgrades that allow an AirPort Card to handle WPA correctly on Apple and non-Apple networks. Earlier versions of Mac OS X and any version of Mac OS 8 or 9 cannot handle WPA because the operating system isn't designed for it; no third party wireless card offers WPA support before 10.3, either.

The bad news: graphite and snow AirPort Base Stations cannot, under any circumstances, be firmware upgraded to handle WPA. The hardware and software combination just won't work. You'll need a new base station, either from Apple or from another firm, to handle it. Mass-market base stations like the Linksys WRT54G can be had for $50 or less. (I write extensively in Take Control of Your AirPort Network about whether a non-Apple base station can work for your network.)

WPA2, by the way, is yet a different answer. WPA uses the TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) encryption system, while WPA2 can use either TKIP or AES-CCMP (a long acronym). TKIP works with older gear; AES-CCMP requires newer hardware--devices shipped since late 2002. Under Mac OS X 10.3.3 to 10.3.9 or Mac OS X 10.4.2 or later, you can upgrade AirPort Extreme Cards, AirPort Extreme Base Stations, and AirPort Express Base Stations to handle WPA2.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When you open a laptop or turn on an AirPort adapter under all recent versions of Mac OS X, you're asked if you want to join the first visible network, and then automatically reconnect to the network in the future. Until Tiger, there was no way to see which networks you had agreed to join nor change your preference as to which to join first if more than one were available.

While Tiger added this option, it's not visible for many people who upgraded from Panther. On several machines I use and have checked, the AirPort adapter (System Preferences > Network > select AirPort from the Show menu) configuration shows just the By Default, Join menu set to Automatic with no other choices. (The options used for Automatic are found by clicking the Options button.)

If you installed Tiger from scratch, the By Default, Join menu also shows Preferred Networks as an option (see screen capture below). You can see which networks you've joined, what security they employ, edit settings, delete those you no longer want to consider "preferred," and drag them to arrange the order in which you join if multiple networks are present.

If you don't see Preferred Networks in the popup menu as an option, try deleting the AirPort adapter:

1. Select Network Port Configurations from the Show menu.
2. Select AirPort.
3. Click Delete.

You may have to repeat this: we've seen and had reports that the AirPort adapter continues to be recreated after deletion. (See below for more advice on this.)

Now create a new AirPort adapter:

1. Click New.
2. Select AirPort from the Port popup menu.
3. Name it something other than AirPort (Tiger AirPort, for instance).
4. Click OK.

Back in the AirPort adapter's AirPort tab you should be able to choose Preferred network. If not, you may need to create a new Location--I've had to create one on at least one machine to make Preferred Networks appear:

1. Select New Location from the Location menu.
2. Name it.
3. Click OK.
4. Select AirPort from the Show menu.

If Preferred Networks is still not an option, we haven't found a workaround. This is so obviously a bug in the Panther-to-Tiger upgrade process, but we haven't seen tech notes or other information from Apple on how to fix this or whether it will be fixed. Or whether they're aware of it.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Peter Horvath wrote in to note that AirPort Express firmware update 6.1.1 disables screen saver mode on a machine that's streaming music. Apple confirmed this for him at a relatively high tech support level. The only solution is to revert to version 6.0 of the firmware. Apple is aware of it, so I imagine we'll see a 6.1.2 release soon.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I received nice email from a fellow who runs Base Station Repair.com, which repairs and buys old AirPort Base Stations. They offer a $6.50 plus shipping do-it-yourself capacitor repair kit if that's what's killed your graphite. You can have them repair it, if it turns out that's the problem, for $45, which includes return shipping. They will refund all but shipping charges to return it to you if they can't repair it. They can also tell you if there are additional parts that need replacing.

They even buy dead base stations for up to $45 to $50 for broken graphite and snow base stations with all of the parts intact (power cord, internal card, etc.). They pay $30 for working AirPort Cards.

I haven't used his service, so I can't vouch for their work, but the site has a lot of excellent information, and it seems like one of the best ways to avoid purchasing a new base station if your current setup works. Let us know how you fare with them, and whether this tip has been useful to you.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The AirPort 3.2 software update not only adds WPA, but it allows French users to choose from among the full range of legal frequencies. Before version 3.2, French users of the AirPort Extreme Base Station were limited to what was previously allowed under French law, channels 10 to 13. Now, they can choose from 1 to 13, which allows much denser overlapping deployments without channel interference. The law changed in July. [via Anthony]

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This AppleScript uses an online hot-spot locator to find Wi-Fi locations in a city that you enter when prompted.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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) | TrackBacks (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) | TrackBacks (0)

Macwireless.com has updated its Power over Ethernet product, which allows you to run DC power over the same Ethernet cable that feeds the network.

What's neat about this revision is that it's just two small sets of plugs (for $30). The original PoE product required a custom built Ethernet cable, but was still a bargain; this is even simpler.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 09:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Michael Oh at Newbury Open Networks walks through Extreme bridging, which Apple likes to call Wireless Distribution System for reasons known best to trademark lawyers, I'm sure.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 09:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Slashdot has a thread on hacking USB support for USB-to-wireless adapters that don't support the Mac.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Poster Nick Sayer fiddled with a WPC54G card from Linksys and was able to get it to act like an AirPort Extreme card by a little file editing. Thanks, Nick!

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 03:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (1)

You'd think that with a new, fully featured base station on the way for $199 in the next few days to weeks that eBay would have already reflected this price drop in reselling new and used graphite and snow units? Yes and know (as in "in the know"). The average price for a graphite seems way down to about $100 or so. But people are still paying $175 to $200 or more for new and used snow base stations.

Advise your friends! Fool your enemies. The eBay price for a snow should be less than $150 within the next two weeks as reality finally sets in once the Extreme units ship.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A friend wrote in to ask whether the bridging feature in the new AirPort Extreme Base Stations -- which allows two to four of them to connect wireless and form a larger network -- works with the older graphite or snow Base Stations. Unfortunately, no. You must have Extreme units to get the bridging function at all.

There are options for adding bridging to existing networks or extending them, notably the Linksys WET11, which is a $100-odd device that looks like a client adapter to an access point, but it can stream all the traffic behind. We write about this in The Wireless Networking Starter Kit or you can read an article I wrote about it for O'Reilly Networks.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 08:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)