[mac-at-kearsarge]

I don't have time to explain why I need to have this answered, nor due I have an airport extreme card in any of my systems at the moment to look for myself.

But what I need to know, before Midnight (EST) tonight July, 15, 2005 is how can you force an airport extreme card to use 802.11b WITHOUT access to the router/access point/Base Staion?

[budster101]

You don't force it to do anything, it automatically steps down to the router's speed.

[mac-at-kearsarge]

Originally Posted by budster101

You don't force it to do anything, it automatically steps down to the router's speed.

But what if you you want the little extra range that 'B' provides and you don't have access to the router (which is G) to turn it down to 'B' for example in a public building. (I know this is an extremely unlikely sceario). And I know it will do it automatically (in terms of range), in miost cases.

This is a question on a very important test I'm taking, that must be submitted by midnight. Budsters answer may be right, But I want to make sure. So if there is a way to force it, please let me know.

[ghporter]

Nope, the card changes to accomodate the network you select for it to connect to. I know of no setting that will force it to stay in "B" mode if the network is a "G" network.

[bstone]

In Windows, one would use the Device Manager and set the card to B only.

I am assuming one can set this using ifconfig in OS X.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by bstone

In Windows, one would use the Device Manager and set the card to B only.

I am assuming one can set this using ifconfig in OS X.

The hardware has to support B only, and I haven't seen a way to do this with an AirPort card. I may have simply missed it, but I don't see a reason to have it myself.

[tooki]

Setting the card to B mode would NOT increase range. At the fringes of reception, G has about the same speed. (In other words, G only has higher speeds when you,re very close. At larger distances the speed difference vanishes.)

tooki