How To: Build your own "Real" Airport Card
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kkwan18 said:
The BCM94311 is a slightly older, but still good card. It supports A-B-G up to 54 mbps, but not N 300+/- mbps.
Most CustoMac builders who have chosen it are successful, but that is not a guarantee that your exact config will work with it.
If you have a BCM94311 already, try it with any PCIe 1x wifi card adapter, such as the one in my sig. It may work for you OOB.
But if you not bought it yet, I'd encourage you to choose instead a BCM94321 or BCM94322 for greater probable compatibility and the option of a faster N connection.
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Hey guys, so I ordered the BCM94322, which for some reason I thought was Apple branded but apparently is HP:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GD ... 00_details
I've seen some mention in this thread of other variants, but my question is, should I even bother with this? Is it going to be a huge hassle to get it working or will it even work? I might be able to return it or I can just buy another if necessary.
Thanks in advance!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005GD ... 00_details
I've seen some mention in this thread of other variants, but my question is, should I even bother with this? Is it going to be a huge hassle to get it working or will it even work? I might be able to return it or I can just buy another if necessary.
Thanks in advance!
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Bryan said:
I have the BCM94321 which worked with no hassle. But I have watched this entire thread closely, and see that BCM94322's are working most of the time now, and even faster. HP or not, your new card may well work OOB or with a little tweaking. It can be re-branded, kexts can be modified. There is no way to predict, so here's hoping you have it easy.
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Hot damn! It just worked! No problems whatsoever, it recognized it as a wifi card and I'm in business! Download and upload are about what I would expect. Only possible caveat is that I thought it was an N card but only had the option to connect to my regular network rather than the 5G version I'm also broadcasting. I don't know if there's something I can configure to do that or if I just need to deal, but it's not a big deal either way, as I didn't have N with my previous configuration either.
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Bryan said:
The BCM4322 is definitely an N-capable card:
http://www.broadcom.com/products/Wirele ... ns/BCM4322
But there are drafts and variations of the N-protocol. Do you have other N-devices working at +150 mbps on your LAN?
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Yeah I have an iPad and a laptop that works on the N network. I rebooted once last night and the 5G network was briefly available before it disappeared. So I think there is some sort of hardware or kext issue that could be resolved potentially.alpha90 said:
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I have purchased and made my own airport card but it isn't as good as my Macbook Pro.
On my Macbook Pro I can get 10-12 megabits download on speedtest
On my Hackintosh I regularly get 3-7 download on speedtest
The 2 computers are less than 20 feet away from the router.
I plan on setting up ethernet, but until then, why the big drop?
On my Macbook Pro I can get 10-12 megabits download on speedtest
On my Hackintosh I regularly get 3-7 download on speedtest
The 2 computers are less than 20 feet away from the router.
I plan on setting up ethernet, but until then, why the big drop?
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Denailin said:
My tests show it's primarily due to the antenna. Actual Macintosh models have a perfectly tuned internal antenna.
The antennas that ship with home-brew wi-fi PCIe 1x adapter cards are not the perfect length.
To compensate for this you can do 2 things:
1) point the CustoMac antennas & the router antenna(s) in varying ways until you see a signal boost
2) install a 3rd party antenna on the wifi adapter which has more gain. My signature shows what I am presently using from Rosewill, but I may also try these much higher gain models:
$5 = http://www.amazon.com/10-dBi-2-4GHz-WIFI-Antenna/dp/B000SEQGT2/
$40 = http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Wireless-Antenna-Booster-Bluetooth/dp/B0054MLMLA/
For you, if you'll be getting cabled ethernet, you can just be patient. Still your having even weak signaled wifi on your CustoMac will be useful later because it allows you to see the wifi portion of your LAN while in wifi. I find this helpful for troubleshooting.