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How To: Build your own "Real" Airport Card

Go figure, the wireless card magically began working. I was in the process of copying important files over to my External HDD when I noticed the wireless bars were full. I clicked to discover it was connected to my wireless router (previously said "no wireless card detected" (paraphrase)). I will still order some new parts because they take so long to arrive.
 
@ellis
All the adapters that I came by looked pretty much the same. All made in China.
I spent a few dollars more and bought mine from amazon so that i did not have to wait for it to be shipped from China.
 
titsmgee said:
@ellis
All the adapters that I came by looked pretty much the same. All made in China.
I spent a few dollars more and bought mine from amazon so that i did not have to wait for it to be shipped from China.
Click to expand...
Ah good, cheers. The only adapter from Amazon UK was £20, and the ones from China were <£5, so that was an easy decision really.
 
Build 1
GA-Z77X-UD5H |  i5 2500K |  HD 3000
Any word yet if the BCM94321MC card will work with the recent update for the Airport Utility. It is no longer supporting pre-2007 wireless-g devices. This card supports wireless-n but was made in 2006.
 
Another success here, with a Chinese sourced used HP BCM94321MC off ebay for <£12.

Didn't work at first, I don't think the wireless card was sitting in the slot properly and you can see that the screw holes on the PCIE card are slightly mis-aligned, in fact it's only got one screw in at the moment. Now works fine with no packet drops though.
 
Stussmachine said:
Any word yet if the BCM94321MC card will work with the recent update for the Airport Utility. It is no longer supporting pre-2007 wireless-g devices. This card supports wireless-n but was made in 2006.
Click to expand...

Yes, of course 4321's still "work," but that is because the AirPort Utility's version is does not affect function of whichever wi-fi card is in use.

The AirPort Utility is only a tool to administer Apple-brand AirPort Base Stations/routers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AirPort_Utility
http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/fea ... setup.html

The AirPort Utility does not even see wi-fi cards, regardless of branding. It aids in configuring a Base Station. Wi-fi NICs must be set up in Network Prefs.
 
aFlockOfMoosen said:
I'm just not having good luck with this project.

At first, i ordered an AR5BXB72 and a PCIE adapter that had superglue on the circuit board. The combination *kindof* worked, with a very spotty connection that dropped frequently and other times would not connect at all.

Recently, I purchased the recommended BCM94321 and a better quality PCIE adapter... and got basically the same results. It connects easier with better speeds and for slightly longer intervals, but still -- it slows to a snail's pace frequently and drops occasionally. At times it won't connect at all, but this is less that before.

I'm not sure if it matters, but one of the antennae i'm using is the one with the striped wire.
I've got it plugged in to the blue PCIE port.
I've built a "windsurfer"* for my wireless router, which i'm not very far from. My MBP works flawlessly when placed next in the same spot as the tower.
*http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/index.html

Any further tips would be appreciated...
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I have no idea what changed, but my card has been working at full speed for a few hours now -- a new record :D

I had disabled wifi and was sharing via ethernet from my gf's iMac. Gave it a whirl this morning and it connected flawlessly. Crossing my fingers that it holds up :silent:
 

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hey guys, i am hoping someone has been through the trouble i am going through and can provide some suggestions!

I have a fully working 10.7.3 which I have been using with ethernet faultlessly. I recently started using a Belkin N300 Wireless USB adaptor temporarily which also worked great. I am now trying to get my "real" airport card which just arrived to work, but i having some issues!

I am using the 4321 card and it shows up in Lion fine and detects my network, but just wont connect. I keep getting time out errors or sometimes it connects but with the assigned 164.. ip issue. I have tried every single suggestion I could find on google but with no luck :(.

I am pretty sure the hardware is not faulty as the card connects fine to my galaxy s2 in wireless tethering mode at full speed. also my macbook air connects fine to my router which i have reset tonnes of time so I dont know if its the router..

please help :crazy:
 
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