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EricDD · 08:44 PM

hi - i just borrowed a buffalo wifi card to see if wireless reception is better (or how much better) with the external card as opposed to the airport extreme card.

the card is recognized, it shows up in my menu. my question is how to activate it - how do i tell the computer to use this card rather than the airport extrme card. can you switch back and forth between the cards?

specifically, it's the WLI-CB-G54A which supports os x

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/...2&categoryid=7

i am using an al powerbook 1.5. running 10.3.8.

thanks for the help, eric

mgehman · Mar 3, 2005, 11:11 PM

I think what you need to do is open the system preferences, then open the network control panel. Once you do this you should get a dialog that a "new network device has been detected" Just follow the instructions. Hope this helps.

PeterS · Mar 4, 2005, 08:02 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by EricDD:
[B]hi - i just borrowed a buffalo wifi card to see if wireless reception is better (or how much better) with the external card as opposed to the airport extreme card.
snip

You have to take the Apple Airport card out of your PB then the Buffalo card will work.

EricDD · Mar 4, 2005, 11:07 PM

thanks for the reples. i don't see anything about a new network device being detected.

i thought perhaps i needed to restart, but if i try to restart with the card in the slot i get a kernal panic.

i think i probably have to pull my airport card to make this work, will try that this weekend. thanks, eric

romeosc · Mar 5, 2005, 07:35 PM

Originally posted by EricDD:
thanks for the reples. i don't see anything about a new network device being detected.

i thought perhaps i needed to restart, but if i try to restart with the card in the slot i get a kernal panic.

i think i probably have to pull my airport card to make this work, will try that this weekend. thanks, eric

NO!

Not necessary to pull card, just goto the "wifi strength" meter on menu bar and turn airport off! The other card should be recognized as normal!

EricDD · Mar 5, 2005, 11:53 PM

hi - i've tried that, turing off the internal card via the menu, but the buffalo card is not recognized.

i posted this question on a mailing list that i subsctribe to, and one repsonse was that with the buffalo card you can not simply aswitch back and forth, but rather, must pull the internal airport extreme card. a linksys card was recommended as one that you can switch back and forth with.

have you had epxperience with the buffalo card in particlular that you were able to use it without pulling the internal card.

thanks for help, eric

amazing · Mar 6, 2005, 11:36 PM

I've had both a Cisco Aironet 350 and the above Buffalo (mac-version, same model # as above). I used the Aironet in Jaguar in my Ti without removing the internal card. Since the Aironet showed up in the network "ports" as a different en(..x.) device it was simple to just create a new location for it, a location in which the airport card was turned off.

I don't think you can do this with the Buffalo card, because it is recognized natively as an airport card. There is no separate enty in the networks "ports" drop down menu. There may be some way to use terminal to differentiate between the internal card and the pc-card, but that would be for the "pros" to speculate about.

By the time I got my Buffalo card, I'd already given the airport card to a deserving and worthy iBook, so I never had to confront the issue.

amazing · Mar 6, 2005, 11:49 PM

Originally posted by EricDD:

i posted this question on a mailing list that i subsctribe to, and one repsonse was that with the buffalo card you can not simply aswitch back and forth, but rather, must pull the internal airport extreme card. a linksys card was recommended as one that you can switch back and forth with.

My Aironet 350 card could be turned on and off because it showed up as a different "port" in the network prefs. Cisco also had to include software that allowed the card to be configured in both OS 9 and Jaguar and Panther. Since Linksys doesn't have any wireless software for the Mac (to my knowledge), that's because it's using the Broadcom chip, which is natively supported in Panther. Ergo, it shows up as an "airport" card.

In other words, I bet that even the Linksys card wouldn't work unless the internal card is first removed.