How To: Build your own "Real" Airport Card

[Rakgnakgnak]

This is the lastest driver in windows 7

I don't thing that is a driver issue, whatever Os, it does the same issue.

My adapter must be defective.

 

[BobDobbs]

I built one using the Broadcom BCM94321MC and one of the Winking PCI-E mini adapters. Plugged it into one of the x1 slots and it just worked. Zero configuration.

Thanks to Matix for the blog and pictorial!

 

[littlepooch21]

I built one using the Broadcom BCM94321MC and one of the Winking PCI-E mini adapters. Plugged it into one of the x1 slots and it just worked. Zero configuration.

Thanks to Matix for the blog and pictorial!

can you post where you got all the parts? i'm ready to do this now also.

 

[BobDobbs]

I went to the Blogspot entry that Matix linked in the first post and followed his links to eBay. I found either the same or a similar supplier for the Broadcom card and the PCI-E adapter, and used "Buy it now". I think there are some followup posts in this thread which also provided eBay links, and when I clicked on them they looked good to me.

If you aren't able to do eBay I'm not sure where to recommend a purchase...

 

[littlepooch21]

I went to the Blogspot entry that Matix linked in the first post and followed his links to eBay. I found either the same or a similar supplier for the Broadcom card and the PCI-E adapter, and used "Buy it now". I think there are some followup posts in this thread which also provided eBay links, and when I clicked on them they looked good to me.

If you aren't able to do eBay I'm not sure where to recommend a purchase...

yeah i'm not able to do ebay. is there anywhere else i can get the parts?

 

[Riad]

So I bought the Air Port Extreme Base Station couple days ago to replace my 3+ yr old linksys 2.4 GhZ wifi router. After going through the configuration of the Airport Extreme, my internet connection now becomes intermittent some times. I have Comcast modem/Router > Vonage Router > APE. Vonage requires to be connected directly to the comcast modem. I would have to reboot the machine to get back on the internet. Initially I had the APE Connection Sharing set to 'Distribute a Range of IP Addresses'. That caused some serious internet/connection delay. I switched the connection sharing to 'Bridge Mode', that seems to have made some difference but but the connection is still intermittent at times. It almost like the Mac loses connectivity between itself and the APE base station. This never happened when I had the old Linksys wifi router. Any thoughts? Input much appreciated.

Edit: it is supposed to be in my signature but apparently it is not showing up for some reason. I've got the "real" Airport Card. The following is my APE card info:

AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8E)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.1)

Thanks!

 

[bibbygoodwin]

At the moment i've got two drives and i wanna dual boot with windows 7. would this solution also work with 7? Thanks.

 

[Lupeto]

At the moment i've got two drives and i wanna dual boot with windows 7. would this solution also work with 7? Thanks.

Yes. Dell drivers will work.

 

[Riad]

So I bought the Air Port Extreme Base Station couple days ago to replace my 3+ yr old linksys 2.4 GhZ wifi router. After going through the configuration of the Airport Extreme, my internet connection now becomes intermittent some times. I have Comcast modem/Router > Vonage Router > APE. Vonage requires to be connected directly to the comcast modem. I would have to reboot the machine to get back on the internet. Initially I had the APE Connection Sharing set to 'Distribute a Range of IP Addresses'. That caused some serious internet/connection delay. I switched the connection sharing to 'Bridge Mode', that seems to have made some difference but but the connection is still intermittent at times. It almost like the Mac loses connectivity between itself and the APE base station. This never happened when I had the old Linksys wifi router. Any thoughts? Input much appreciated.

Edit: it is supposed to be in my signature but apparently it is not showing up for some reason. I've got the "real" Airport Card. The following is my APE card info:

AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x8E)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.1)

Thanks!

Still having this issue. I've got a windows mahchine that connects fine to the (Air Port Extreme) APE but the mac bails after certain time. Is there a specific channel I should set the APE to? Any one else have experience this with the Broadcom card?

 

[edised]

Hello there,

I have built according to this
http://tonymacx86.com/viewtopic.php?f=1 ... 3&start=40
my own "airport" card with a broadcom 4312 .
I have used the Prasys rebranding method successfully and it is now recognised as a Airport extreme.
And...it works although I've noticed dropouts...
My problem is, since I have installed this card, only from a cold boot I get a kernel panic (grey screen: you need to restart...)>
If I reboot then, the computer starts and no KP !!!

I tried to boot in verbose mode, and it appears that the AppleAirPortBrcm4311.kext is the culprit.

I have tried to patch the kext with this:
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... opic=51725

of course repaired caches and permissions, still I get thi KP ONLY from cold boot.

What I have also noticed is this:
In system profiler it shows :Interfaces:
en1:
Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x4E)
Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.1)
Locale: FCC
Country Code: US
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 a/b/g
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165
Status: Connected

And if I go to Network Utility :
The card is not recognised as an airport, but stills shows that the vendor is Apple...


Thanks for any input...