[BronteJD]

Good morning, everyone.

Not sure if this is the correct forum for this question, but it's worth a start. (Also posted it in the PowerBook forum)...

My 12" powerbook had a tiny fall a couple of weeks ago. Since that time, the airport card has been "nonexistent" - that is, the system doesn't acknowledge that I even have one.

I took it to the Genius Bar, and was told that the card had been damaged in the fall, and since it is built in to the motherboard, it couldn't be repaired, but the whole board had to be replaced, to the tune of $1,000.

The person at the Genius Bar suggested that I purchase an external card??? How does this work, what would I need to buy?

I am confused, because upon looking at the system requirements for the cards available, it tells me that the "The AirPort Extreme Card can be installed only in computers that are AirPort Extreme ready. AirPort Extreme Cards cannot be used in AirPort-ready computers with an AirPort Card slot."

Does the fact that my computer does not acknowledge my card mean that I am NOT "airport extreme ready"??

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

BronteJD

[bradoesch]

External wireless cards came in cardbus, USB and ethernet varieties. In your case only USB and ethernet apply. I would recommend a USB 2.0 adapter.

[ghporter]

Great advice. Look closely at whatever USB device you buy to make sure it supports OS X explicitly. Hunting down drivers for a device that really doesn't support OS X is a heartbreaking and exhausting problem sometimes.

[bradoesch]

Here's a good resource for Mac compatibility.

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~metaphyzx/Wireless.htm

Manufacturers can, and will, start using a different chip which could render the device useless to us Mac users. The trick is to determine if there are multiple revisions of the device, and to make sure you know which revision (if any) you are buying.