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AirPort Extreme Card: A Wise Choice?
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Rockville, MD
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Please tell me if my thinking is right regarding the means of wireless-enabling my PowerBook:
The chief advantages of an AirPort Extreme card are: - It's internal and doesn't stick out like a PC card or external wireless access point.
- It works out of the box and is easily configurable within OS X.
- Its performance is predictably good.
The main disadvantages of the AE card are: - Pricey compared to PC cards.
- Can't be sweapped out to a Windows machine like a PC card (although, in the final analysis, who really cares?).
- Harder to remove.
- Won't fit earlier PBs like the Titanium.
Comments please.
(Last edited by selowitch; Jan 1, 2004 at 04:05 PM.
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Administrator  Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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I think you're on target. You should also add to the "Pros" column that the internal card uses the built-in antennas in your computer, which are substantially better than the little patch antennas in PCMCIA wireless cards.
Your "Cons" column has a mistake, though. The AE card is a mini-PCI card, and can be shared or swapped into a Windows laptop that has a mini-PCI slot. You can do this without too much hassle, since computers that have these slots make them pretty easy to get at.
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Glenn -----
OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Rockville, MD
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Originally posted by GHPorter:
I think you're on target. You should also add to the "Pros" column that the internal card uses the built-in antennas in your computer, which are substantially better than the little patch antennas in PCMCIA wireless cards.
Aha. Thanks for mentioning that. Useful to know!
The AE card is a mini-PCI card, and can be shared or swapped into a Windows laptop that has a mini-PCI slot. You can do this without too much hassle, since computers that have these slots make them pretty easy to get at.
Like me, I'll bet a lot of MacNN readers didn't know that. Thanks!
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Administrator Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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The form factor came to light when I began researching a new iBook for someone. I had bought a mini-PCI Cisco wireless card for my Dell laptop some time ago, so I was familiar with the terminology, and it caught my eye on the Apple Store site. Since the cards are of a standard form factor, they should work in any computer that supports that form factor-assuming there's a driver available for the OS in question.
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Glenn -----
OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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