How To: Build your own "Real" Airport Card

[Badaboum03]

i givveee uuupppp, theres no converter sold here (indonesia), i have atheros AR5BXB72 (from apple branded), and I'm stuck with converter, i can't buy from ebay, so instead using an ebay, i found this converter,

RouterBOARD 11E miniPCI-e to PCI-e Adapter for using four miniPCIe cards inside regular PC with PCI-e slots. Doesn't require any drivers. Note that this adapter doesn't support 3G modems, and doesn't have a SIM slot. For wireless cards only.


Do you think i can use that adapter ?

This adapter doesn't have antennas : :

 

[alpha90]

i givveee uuupppp, theres no converter sold here (indonesia), i have atheros AR5BXB72 (from apple branded), and I'm stuck with converter, i can't buy from ebay, so instead using an ebay, i found this converter,

RouterBOARD 11E miniPCI-e to PCI-e Adapter for using four miniPCIe cards inside regular PC with PCI-e slots. Doesn't require any drivers. Note that this adapter doesn't support 3G modems, and doesn't have a SIM slot. For wireless cards only.

Do you think i can use that adapter ?

Yes, you can use the RouterBOARD 11E mini PCI-e to PCI-e Adapter, but then you'd have to acquire an external antenna and route its cable through a hole in the case because the RouterBOARD card itself has no antennas fitted.

Why can't you buy from eBay? I went to Indonesia eBay here, searched and found several deals:
http://global.ebay.com/Mini-PCI-E-to-PC ... 31715/item
http://global.ebay.com/PCI-Express-PCI- ... 73126/item
http://global.ebay.com/Mini-PCI-E-to-PC ... 33231/item

 

[amsart]

This adapter doesn't have antennas : :

yeah it suck

Yes, you can use the RouterBOARD 11E mini PCI-e to PCI-e Adapter, but then you'd have to acquire an external antenna and route its cable through a hole in the case because the RouterBOARD card itself has no antennas fitted.

Why can't you buy from eBay? I went to Indonesia eBay here, searched and found several deals:
http://global.ebay.com/Mini-PCI-E-to-PC ... 31715/item
http://global.ebay.com/PCI-Express-PCI- ... 73126/item
http://global.ebay.com/Mini-PCI-E-to-PC ... 33231/item

wow thanks in million alpha, i will try it, This Routerboard is the only one i can reach for in here, i can't buy from eBay cuz i don't have any credit card or paypal and theres a eBay services order in my country but it seem it have stop to ordering from eBay...

 

[alpha90]

.... i can't buy from eBay cuz i don't have any credit card or paypal and theres a eBay services order in my country but it seem it have stop to ordering from eBay...

What, no credit card!? You gotta get your own card. Until then I refuse to call you "geek."

Seriously, PayPal can work without a credit card, but then it requires giving them access to your bank account. I don't trust PayPal enough to allow that. I do allow PayPal to charge on one of my credit cards, but that's it.

I suppose you could set up a second checking account, just for PayPal, and limit your exposure by transferring just enough money into it to fund your geek purchases. (Unless you cannot get free checking.)

But whatever, you gotta get a credit card or other way of setting up PayPal, because there's too much geek stuff on eBay and Amazon.
(And even if the Indonesian eBay service you mentioned is available again, don't they charge a surcharge? As a true geek you should not pay a surcharge! Your mission is to set aside that money towards your 32 GB memory!)

 

[amsart]

What, no credit card!? You gotta get your own card. Until then I refuse to call you "geek."

Seriously, PayPal can work without a credit card, but then it requires giving them access to your bank account. I don't trust PayPal enough to allow that. I do allow PayPal to charge on one of my credit cards, but that's it.

I suppose you could set up a second checking account, just for PayPal, and limit your exposure by transferring just enough money into it to fund your geek purchases. (Unless you cannot get free checking.)

But whatever, you gotta get a credit card or other way of setting up PayPal, because there's too much geek stuff on eBay and Amazon.
(And even if the Indonesian eBay service you mentioned is available again, don't they charge a surcharge? As a true geek you should not pay a surcharge! Your mission is to set aside that money towards your 32 GB memory!)

I'm just an artist who have a low payment, and it's very hard to make a CC without any 'real job' here, i have paypal, but someone hacking my paypal , and many bank in here doesn't know what paypal is or ebay services, yeah, they just an individual man's, not a big, just like a broker, I'm paying for the charge about 5-15 dollar, depending from the stuff that i purchase, the higher of the prize is the bigger you get charge , by the way, the link that you gave me, ralink one, is it an adapter or just a wifi card ? maybe i could get that one...im still learning to be a 'geek'

 

[alpha90]

... by the way, the link that you gave me, ralink one, is it an adapter or just a wifi card ? maybe i could get that one...im still learning to be a 'geek'

Oh, I did not notice at first that the Ralink link was to a combo adapter with wifi card integrated already.

That could be good if it works - everything in one package -- but it may not work if the wifi your OS X doesn't detect and run the card's chipset. Even though the product description says it is OS X 10.5 compatible, it may not work out of the box in your CustoMac's 10.6 or 10.7.

So you may be better off going with the other 2 links for PCIe adapter only, with their integral SMA antennas.
But even with that choice, there is risk. Until you put your Atheros AR5BXB72 card in there and it works, you won't know for sure. You may have to modify a kext.

 

[amsart]

Oh, I did not notice at first that the Ralink link was to a combo adapter with wifi card integrated already.

That could be good if it works - everything in one package -- but it may not work if the wifi your OS X doesn't detect and run the card's chipset. Even though the product description says it is OS X 10.5 compatible, it may not work out of the box in your CustoMac's 10.6 or 10.7.

So you may be better off going with the other 2 links for PCIe adapter only, with their integral SMA antennas.
But even with that choice, there is risk. Until you put your Atheros AR5BXB72 card in there and it works, you won't know for sure. You may have to modify a kext.

i hope it will work, i read from this site Airport Cards report on Lion Airdrop, it just only tweak the dev id from the atheros, but I'm not sure, cuz i have read from insanely, the atheros that i have still need atherosfix.kext from netkas, but I'm not sure, is it work from apple branded or just work from not-apple-branded...

 

[JimmyCypherz]

just found out that Toshiba has a whitelist on the BIOS so that certain cards can work. HP does this too. I managed to find a BIOS with the whitelist removed for the HP laptop i have and now i'm able to freely use any wifi card

found one for the toshiba, but i'm having a hard time changing it cause the software detects that i'm trying to use the same version and i get a message saying BIOS is same version so no changes will be made. Looking into it though. Hopefully i'll be able to figure it out

Rock on! You are getting close.

Obvious question you're probably miles beyond: can the BIOS file be renamed so that it is not seen as the same version?

well, i found the solutions. my HP i was able to use a hacked BIOS and i'm using a dell 1390 wifi card and works like a charm, and for the toshiba i found that by taping pin 20 it worked, but it was a little flakey connecting and disconnecting to the internet. i also found a mac os compatible wifi card for the toshiba i have. bought it and installed it and lo and behold it worked
now they're both working
thanks

 

[Badaboum03]

just found out that Toshiba has a whitelist on the BIOS so that certain cards can work. HP does this too. I managed to find a BIOS with the whitelist removed for the HP laptop i have and now i'm able to freely use any wifi card

found one for the toshiba, but i'm having a hard time changing it cause the software detects that i'm trying to use the same version and i get a message saying BIOS is same version so no changes will be made. Looking into it though. Hopefully i'll be able to figure it out

Rock on! You are getting close.

Obvious question you're probably miles beyond: can the BIOS file be renamed so that it is not seen as the same version?

well, i found the solutions. my HP i was able to use a hacked BIOS and i'm using a dell 1390 wifi card and works like a charm, and for the toshiba i found that by taping pin 20 it worked, but it was a little flakey connecting and disconnecting to the internet. i also found a mac os compatible wifi card for the toshiba i have. bought it and installed it and lo and behold it worked
now they're both working
thanks

How did you hack it? My Broadcom won't work with my HP G5000 :s

 

[JimmyCypherz]

^^check in here, they have a lot of hacked bioses with the wifi whitelist removed in there.
There's also instructions on how to do it yourself just in case the one you need is not in the list.

here's the link

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... post111460

good luck