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Babar · Jul 4, 2003, 12:26 PM

Hi

I own a PowerBook G4 DVI, I need to access a CISCO AIRONET 350 wireless network at work. The Access point has some specialized security features such as TKIP and MIC which are not supported with Apple Airport software. I used the PCMCIA (AIR-PCM350) card for some time now and it works great. But I need my PCMCIA port now and I found that Cisco is making a PCMCIA card without built-in antennas ( just like the airport card ). I has dual MMCX connectors instead ( just like to airport card). So my question is : Is it possible to insert a Cisco LMC352 card in an Airport Socket. Afterall, the Airport socket is little PCMCIA socket?

I found a review on amazon which states that it IS possible, but I cant find the email to talk to the guy.

Reference
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...693868-0807936

Thank you !

vmarks · Jul 4, 2003, 12:55 PM

The Amazon guy says it will fit, but he doesn't say if it actually works or not.

The airport slot is not exactly the same as a PCMCIA slot.

I do not know anyone who has made this arrangement work.

Babar · Jul 4, 2003, 12:58 PM

you say that you dont know anybody who made this arrangement work, but do you know anybody that actually tried it, thats what I want to know

Thank you!

Originally posted by vmarks:
The Amazon guy says it will fit, but he doesn't say if it actually works or not.

The airport slot is not exactly the same as a PCMCIA slot.

I do not know anyone who has made this arrangement work.

tooki · Jul 4, 2003, 01:22 PM

Originally posted by vmarks:
The airport slot is not exactly the same as a PCMCIA slot.

Actually, it is exactly the same slot, it's not even keyed such as to prevent non-Airport cards from being inserted. You can insert a Lucent WaveLAN card into said socket, and it will work with either Apple Airport or Lucent's drivers.

I tried a PCMCIA hard drive in there, and it didn't work.

A Farallon wireless card would not work, if I recall correctly.

My guess is that it won't work, but you could always buy one from a retailer with a liberal return policy and try it yourself.

tooki

Babar · Jul 4, 2003, 01:40 PM

You say the WaveLAN works, which is a regular PCMCIA Card, the only difference between the wavelan and the cisco is essentially the chipset so is it just a software issue ?

Originally posted by tooki:
Actually, it is exactly the same slot, it's not even keyed such as to prevent non-Airport cards from being inserted. You can insert a Lucent WaveLAN card into said socket, and it will work with either Apple Airport or Lucent's drivers.

I tried a PCMCIA hard drive in there, and it didn't work.

A Farallon wireless card would not work, if I recall correctly.

My guess is that it won't work, but you could always buy one from a retailer with a liberal return policy and try it yourself.

tooki

tooki · Jul 4, 2003, 01:52 PM

Essentially, yes. The question is, how much of that software is just the driver, and how much of it is Mac OS? The reason I bring this up is the well-known fact that an Airport card is simply a rebadged, no-antenna Lucent WaveLAN gold card, which is why it will work even with Apple's drivers.

I really don't think there's any more guessing anyone can do... it just needs to be tried. I moved this to the networking forum, since that tends to be where networking-savvy people poke in, maybe someone knows. (But don't get your hopes up; you'll probably have to be the guinea pig.)

tooki

Babar · Jul 4, 2003, 01:57 PM

Nice,

I will try to find a way to get a card from a retailer that accepts returns no question asked.

Thank you!

Babar · Jul 4, 2003, 03:32 PM

Wow, check this out

seems that the Airport is a PCMCIA card afterall!

http://www.quickertek.com/antspecs.html

ghporter · Jul 4, 2003, 05:10 PM

Let's just make sure we're all on the same sheet of music, here.

The AirPort card IS a PCMCIA card in that it uses that kind of slot, meets the form factor, and so on. HOWEVER (and it's a big however), the AirPort SLOT is NOT your typical PCMCIA slot. It does not support Cardbus, does not necessarily support voltage select, and so on. It is optimized for the particular needs of the AirPort card. NOW-we should all remember that the standard AirPort card is a WaveLAN product built to Apple standards, so it makes sense that a WaveLAN card should work in that socket.

All squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares. The AirPort card should work in a standard PCMCIA socket because it needs a subset of the PCMCIA (original, non-Cardbus) services. The AirPort slot, on the other hand, is only supposed to work with an AirPort card.

You may find some serious problems with any other device (which is probably why tooki had trouble with the hard drive card), but it probably won't burn anything up. If you find that liberal-return-policy retailer, make sure you post your results, because not all of us are likely to find that sort of retailer on our own!

vmarks · Jul 4, 2003, 09:36 PM

The one thing in your favor here is that Cisco does have OS X drivers, and they have managed to keep them up to date.

tooki · Jul 6, 2003, 07:07 PM

Very excellent explanation, Glenn! You filled in the gaps in my explanation!

tooki