AirPort-compatible .11n card for Power Mac G5

jowie74 · May 14, 2011 6:05AM

Hi all,

I recently bought a PCI-E wireless card for my Power Mac G5 (Late 2005)... It was really cheap from Hong Kong and required drivers to be installed to run. The slight annoyance with it is that it isn't recognized as an AirPort card (although it was advertised with the word "AirPort" - naughty)... When it boots up it auto-launches this really horrible control software... The AirPort menu item just says "not connected" and everything has to be done through this utility. The connection once established though seems to be okay.

I was expecting better though, and so I'm still on the hunt for a proper AIRPORT-COMPATIBLE card (one that the system recognizes as AirPort) so I can boot my computer up remotely and not have to worry about all this utility nonsense. I bought a normal PCI card one a few years ago for my G4, but that one won't fit and it's only 11g. I guess my other option is to hunt down a AirPort Extreme inc Bluetooth card that fits in the internal slot, but I'm guessing those only go up to 11g also.

Does anyone know of any proper 11n AirPort-compatible PCI-E cards I can buy for my old PM G5? If I can get one then I'd return this one on the grounds it's not as advertised.

Thanks!

:-Joe

jowie74 · July 30, 2011 7:13PM

bumping this on the off-chance!

Marvin · July 31, 2011 8:03AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jowie74

Does anyone know of any proper 11n AirPort-compatible PCI-E cards I can buy for my old PM G5? If I can get one then I'd return this one on the grounds it's not as advertised.

I doubt you'd get 802.11n PCIe with compatible drivers for the G5 For the standard one, it seems you need two parts - the runway card and rivets to mount on the motherboard:

http://www.applemacparts.co.uk/store...d-p-70931.html

http://www.applemacparts.co.uk/store...t-p-70911.html

and the wifi/bluetooth card that plugs into it:

http://www.applemacparts.co.uk/store...r-p-68772.html

The latter card can be found on eBay (search 'A1126 wifi'):

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-G5-iMac-G4...ht_3072wt_1239

You might be better off with a USB adaptor:

http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPa...duct_Id=372137

but I'd expect them to use 3rd party software too. I'd say the proper card route will be the most reliable even if it means being stuck to 802.11g speed.

jowie74 · August 16, 2011 6:00PM

Thanks for your in-depth reply, sorry for the delay in getting back! It's very tempting to do it properly, but I'm pretty addicted to .11n now

... It used to take hours to backup to the Time Capsule with all the GB that goes through the machine on .11g.

It's just a shame I can't have it initialise before the login screen... Is there anything I can do with LaunchAgents/LaunchDaemons perhaps?

Marvin · August 17, 2011 1:29PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jowie74

It's just a shame I can't have it initialise before the login screen... Is there anything I can do with LaunchAgents/LaunchDaemons perhaps?

You might be able to setup a launchd item using one of the following apps:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/19879/lingon

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/18457/launchd-editor

Another option you have is to connect an 802.11n repeater next to your G5 and plug it in via ethernet:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB...press-AirTunes

You also get connectors that go over your power lines - these are faster than 802.11n:

http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPa...duct_Id=495008

You can get those items cheaper from other brands but they will vary in performance.

jowie74 · August 18, 2011 3:22AM

Some great suggestions there, thanks! I hadn't thought about getting another AirPort Express... I've got one already that I use for AirTunes/AirPlay, but I've had it for quite a while and it's the older .11g model. But I'll have to try and see if I can do this launchd thing first.

Thanks!

AirPort-compatible .11n card for Power Mac G5

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