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kmarketing · Aug 28, 2004, 07:34 AM

Hi there,

I'm not sure if this applies so much with other models, maybe the 667mhz (non dvi), but the airport reception is pretty poor compared to my pismo and some of the ibooks that I have had.

My question for you is do you use the internal airport card or an external wireless card?

certainly, it doesn't look as good as not having anything there. I can get a linksys wireless g card to use and then sell the airport card for $100. That should improve the reception and speed, right?

How do these cards drain battery life? What would you do?

Thanks!

Detrius · Aug 28, 2004, 04:26 PM

I don't think the Linksys cards will work with OS X. I put a third party wireless card in my wife's Pismo the other day... better reception than my Dual USB iBook.

kmarketing · Aug 28, 2004, 04:46 PM

Hi,

i tried the linksys card, and it works beautifully. Sleeps and awakens instantaneously. I just don't really care for the thing hanging out on the side. The airport card reception on the titanium is just really terrible. When I put in the card, I noticed that the reception was much better, and since it was wireless g, I'm thinking that the speeds are better also.

Does the titanium utilize wireless g technology if i use the linksys card, or is it only limited to wireless b?

How much battery power does the card drain when compared to the airport card?

Are there any other advantages of the airport card over the pc card (besides cosmetically, free pc card slot)? Like I mentioned before, these cards are going for quite a bit these days.

What would you do?

Thanks!

rytc · Aug 30, 2004, 05:02 PM

Originally posted by kmarketing:

Does the titanium utilize wireless g technology if i use the linksys card, or is it only limited to wireless b?

It certainly should, the OS supports both.

egghead · Aug 31, 2004, 09:55 AM

Hi,

I have the same sort of problems with my Airport Card and am thinking about the Linksys. Does the Linksys or other third party card require special drivers? If so, where can I get them?

Thanks,

Nike

kmarketing · Aug 31, 2004, 10:35 AM

Hi,

My linksys is just plug an play. There's no question that it is a ton better and now cheaper than the internal airport card.

Now the question is, sell the airport card for an easy $100 or keep it in there, as pretty much a useless piece of equipment.

What reason would there be to keep it?

Thanks!

egghead · Aug 31, 2004, 12:05 PM

Hi,

Can you please give me the Linksys model number? Also, which version of the OS are you running?

Thanks,

Nike

QUOTE]Originally posted by kmarketing:
[B]Hi,

My linksys is just plug an play. There's no question that it is a ton better and now cheaper than the internal airport card.

kmarketing · Aug 31, 2004, 12:08 PM

Hi,

Sure- Running Panther OSX 10.3.5

The card is a linksys wireless g - wpc54g

Everything works - sleep, restart etc. i did have to use the airport assistant utility (which is part of the os) to configure it. After that, it's been great. reception is much better.

Good luck!

egghead · Aug 31, 2004, 03:12 PM

Thanks very much! I hope it works for me too. My current Airport card is pretty much useless.

Originally posted by kmarketing:
Hi,

Sure- Running Panther OSX 10.3.5

The card is a linksys wireless g - wpc54g

Everything works - sleep, restart etc. i did have to use the airport assistant utility (which is part of the os) to configure it. After that, it's been great. reception is much better.

Good luck!

iREZ · Aug 31, 2004, 03:35 PM

Regular Airport cards are getting a pretty penny now a days on ebay, seeing how they aren't made anymore.

kmarketing · Aug 31, 2004, 03:38 PM

Hi,

I think I'll be putting up my card for sale. It would have been nice to have internal wireless, but it really is useless in the titanium. Like you said it will be for a pretty penny!!

Thanks!

egghead · Sep 1, 2004, 10:04 PM

Well,

I tried the Linksys card too, and it works great. Installation was a snap, once I realized I had to take the internal card out first. Sleeps, wakes, connects, without any trouble, while reception range and speed are vastly improved.

Time to sell the Apple card, but I have to say I'm puzzled that they are so popular, given our collective experience that they don't work very well.

-- Nike

kmarketing · Sep 1, 2004, 11:14 PM

Hi,

Whoops, I forgot to tell you about taking out the original first. I think the linksys has made the titanium much more useful. I was even able to surf outside on the street of manhattan today, it was so cool.

The airport card, while useless on many of the titaniums, are great with ibooks, pismos, and even imacs and powermacs. So i guess those are the ones picking them up.

Since you are not using the airport card, I agree, sell it while you can to get some cash out of it. And as your doing that, enjoy your new wireless speed demon.

Congrats!!

csean · Oct 13, 2004, 04:47 AM

Very true re. the original Airport cards. And there will always be iBook owners ready to pay $100 for the card, so you could sell it and buy a cardbus 54g and make $50-70 on the deal and get better speed/reception.

Another card reported to work is the Belkin 54g F5D7010 with Broadcom chip (*having the Broadcom chip is the key for any card to work seamlessly with Airport software in 10.3). Seems to be cheaper than the Linksys card and I like Belkin's (real) lifetime warranty. No tech support needed with the card, as it appears as Airport card in 10.3 (saying this because people have lamented Belkin's tech support; though they do issue RMAs pretty quick).

Chris

drHo · Oct 13, 2004, 09:14 PM

hmm...weird...what do u guys mean 'useless' on the titaniums? i have a Tibook550 with the OEM Airport card and i use it to go online with my wi-fi network at home, or were ever i find a hot spot. i find the reception just fine. or is it a range thing?

audvidsvs · Oct 13, 2004, 09:22 PM

I just put one of the Belkin cards in my 667DVI TiBook and it was just Plug and Play. I did have to restart the machine to get the airport configuration utlity to start but that may just be my lack of knowledge of OS-X?

It seems very fast and I have great range and flawless performance.
It goes to sleep and wakes up without fail.

It was at least half the price of an Airport card that I could find and much faster.

jacques210 · Jan 3, 2005, 07:26 AM

it's a year now that i've been using an external antenna from quickertek (www.quickertek.com), and reception has been much better than before.
it's not the most elegant of solutions with the wire sticking out of pc-card slot and contrasting black on Ti silver, but the instructions were very clear and works in & outside the house with good reception.