[X4U] Airport Extreme

[Ronald Steinke]

On 16 August, 2006, at 6:15:30, Jim Elmore wrote:

> You could use a Belkin G card instead to get the high speeds.
>
> On Aug 16, 2006, at 7:33 AM, Daly Jessup wrote:
>
>> At 12:24 PM +0200 8/16/06, Paul Moortgat wrote:
>>> A friend from Oregon has mailed me with the next problem.  I  
>>> don't have this card, so I ask the gurus from this group.
>>>
>>> <<  I recently bought and installed an Airport Extreme card in my  
>>> Mac G4, which is running Tiger. The card is sloppy in the plug- 
>>> in, and I'm thinking maybe I should have purchased a regular  
>>> Airport Card instead of Airport Extreme for this old machine.  No  
>>> one told me to buy Airport Extreme, I just tried to get the  
>>> latest equipment.
>>> Could you tell me if I've made a mistake? The computer tells me  
>>> that the card is not installed, so I know something's wrong.>>

No. 1:

It appears that the Oregonian has an early G4 and needs the standard  
Airport card instead of the Airport Extreme. The only G4 that will be  
able to use the Extreme card is the 800 FW model and its socket will  
not accept the old style card. The only place these can be obtained  
is on an auction or through a user group member who no longer needs  
his old style card because of a recent upgrade of machines.

It does not matter which OS version is running because the physical  
socket in his G4 is only built for the old card. Sorry about that,  
but you bought without researching and have learned a short lesson in  
haste makes waste. Try to return the Extreme card and get a refund if  
you can. Then you can use the money to bid on eBay to get the right  
card. Expect to pay between $85 and $135 for the card because sellers  
are becoming aware that there are no more new cards like this being  
made for Apple machines and starting their auction at a higher price  
than they used to.

No.2:

If you use a third party card (of any manufacture), you may run into  
the problem of it not being recognized by Apple's software and having  
to buy additional drivers to make it work. I did this with my old  
Wallstreet laptop, and I had to pay twice for the drivers because I  
changed cards from Belkin to Orinoco brands. Both cards worked in the  
laptop, but not in any other machine. They were PCMCIA cards, not  
Airport cards and were too long to let the case be closed after  
inserting them in the socket. They fit the socket, but stuck out too  
far.

Good luck bidding at the auctions.