How To: Build your own "Real" Airport Card

[jhenley01]

Can anyone verify if they have been able to use the wake for Airport access feature with this card? Mine says the feature is available and the machine shows up on the network while in sleep mode but it will not wake up when pinged.

 

[Cubusaddendum]

I build this one, and it works great once it's connected.
However it doesn't connect automatically.
Can i do any about that?

Thanks

Same here. Does anyone know why?

Previously I was using an LM006 wifi adapter, and I believe the crappy RealTek RTL8291 driver installer has messed with something. The reason I mention this is because even though I've uninstalled that driver, when I first examined the Apple/Broadcom adapter in the System Preferences it was calling it the RealTek device :-/

I got the Apple/Broadcom adapter working straight away, but the status tool insisted that the AirPort was "not configured" until I created a manual "location". Something's definitely boned there.

If figure out what file needs editing/blowing I'll report back.

 

[Cubusaddendum]

I build this one, and it works great once it's connected.
However it doesn't connect automatically.
Can i do any about that?

Thanks

If figure out what file needs editing/blowing I'll report back.

Solved it.

In: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

Each 'location' will have an en[n] Airport interface with the property array "JoinModeFallback".

In my case mine both "Automatic" and "Home" locations had set the only item of this array to "Prompt". It you change it to "KeepLooking" that location will perform several retries of your preferred network at start-up (assuming that location is has been selected).

I also advise you to keep any/all kittens away from your keyboard while editing the plist.

 

[remis]

So I've had an interesting experience with this. I purchased a BCM94322MC off of ebay and used the same adapter as mentione by the OP. Got it all in and works fine in OSX, connects the my network and i no longer get KP or freezes. HOWEVER, when I load up Windows 7 it recognises the card as what it is and says that it's installed the drivers correctly...but I can't enable it and use it to connect to my network in W7 :? I can select "enable" in the network adapters management section, but it remains greyed out and doesn't actually enable and still says "disabled"...wierd. So I decided to try running both cards together and see what each system did. Works fine in W7 and I can simply disable the BCM94322MC and use my normal TP-Link TL-WN951N. Interestingly enough, when I'm using OSX Airport will now connect properly using the BCM94322MC and recognises my TL-WN951N but doesn't cause KP or freezes...anyone have any thoughts as to why this might be the case? Any possible suggestions as to how I could get Windows 7 to make full use of the BCM94322MC so i don't need to have both cards installed? Not a huge issue I guess, but still be nice to sort it out.

Cheers

**EDIT** Nevermind, got it sorted...turns out when I reverted back to a more vanilla W7 backup it worked OTB rock on!

 

[Deztrucktor]

Fist of all; thanks for this great guide.

I got the Apple BCM94322MC card with a PCI-E adapter. It was instantly detected by both OSX and Win7 and didn't require any drivers.

However, sometimes it can't find my network. When it works, I'm able to stay connected with full signal strength and it even detects my neighbor's network across the street with 4 bars. And I never lose connection when I've first detected the network.

Trying to adjust the antennas sometimes seem to sometimes do the trick, but how they are positioned when I'm finally able to detect the network seems totally random.

I've never had any problems finding the network with my old Acer laptop.

Any suggestions?

Update: It's working now! I plugged out the black cable and used the blue one instead. It now finds the network every time and it even detects networks that my laptop can't even find.

 

[beelzebozo]

I put one of these puppies together yesterday. A BCM94321MC chip and a mini pci wireless adapter. Both from eBay. Works great!

I had to create a "Home" network in the Network settings since my IP was already used with the NIC, OS X assigned different IP addresses to each network device, the onboard NIC, and the wireless card.

I also had to unplug my bluetooth adapter and plug it back in after installing the wireless card to get it to show up.

And Windows 7 detected it as well.

Software Versions:
  Menu Extra:	6.2.1 (621.1)
  configd plug-in:	6.2.3 (623.2)
  System Profiler:	6.0 (600.9)
  Network Preference:	6.2.1 (621.1)
  AirPort Utility:	5.5.1 (551.19)
  IO80211 Family:	3.1.2 (312)
  Interfaces:
en1:
  Card Type:	AirPort Extreme  (0x14E4, 0x87)
  Firmware Version:	Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.36.1)
  Locale:	ETSI
  Country Code:	US
  Supported PHY Modes:	802.11 a/b/g/n
  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
  Current Network Information:
:
  PHY Mode:	802.11g
  BSSID:	
  Channel:	6
  Network Type:	Infrastructure
  Security:	WPA2 Personal
  Signal / Noise:	-33 dBm / -79 dBm
  Transmit Rate:	54

 

[dothedru22]

What do I do if there is no mounting tabs for the mini pci card to clip into? Are those grounds?

 

[SamMacJunkie]

EDIT:

disregard this.... after looking it was my bad

 

[Maxid]

will this tutorial work as well with a Broadcom BCM4311KFBG card?
I hope so, since I have one lying around

 

[peterhaas]

Some months ago, NewEgg was closing-out an ASUS WL-138G V2 WiFi card
for about $6.99 plus about $0.99 shipping.

It was stated by customers in their comments, but not by NewEgg, to be AirPort-
compatible, and a close-up of the card showed that it had a Broadcom
BCM4318KFBG chip set.

I bought one and confirmed that it was indeed AirPort-compatible, but
when I tried to buy five more, they were "sold out".

Well, I found an affordable work-around.

This work-around comes in two parts: 1) a Broadcom Mini-PCI (NOT Mini-
PCI-e) networking card for a Dell and other laptops, and 2) a PCI-to-
Mini-PCI adapter card with built-in antenna connector (but not the
antenna itself).

Here is the ordering information:

(1) Broadcom Mini PCI WIFI 802.11b/g 54Mbps Wireless Card
Seller: dreambestbuy Item: 320357372876

Price: US$ 2.39 plus US$ 1.79 shipping (from Hong Kong, but the item
was actually shipped from Singapore)

Card is a Mini-PCI (NOT Mini-PCI-e) and has a Broadcom BCM4318KFBG
chip set, which is recognized as an Airport Extreme card, when mounted
in a Mini-PCI-to-PCI adapter (see below).

Card is stated to be for a Dell and other laptops (but NOT for IBM or
HP laptops).

The card is stated to be new.

(2) WiFi 54/108b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI to Adapter #9749
Seller: jinbostore Item: 200442825009

Price: US$ 1.55 plus US$ 2.41 shipping (from Hong Kong)

The adapter is stated to be new, and comes without an antenna
(although an antenna is shown with the item, and the antenna connector
has only one mini connector, which should be connected to the Mini-PCI
card's "Main" antenna connector. (The card's "Auxiliary" antenna
connector is not used).

Final remarks:

The PCI card adapter (2) accepts a Mini-PCI WiFi card (1), and the
combination of the two, plus an antenna, which is not supplied, form
an Airport-compatible which is a Snow-recognized Airport Extreme b/g
system.

DLink antennas are widely available from some of the same sellers. Some sellers are including the antenna with the PCI-to-Mini-PCI adapter card.

I have these cards (and antennas) in most of my hacks as I have run out of ports on my 10/100/1000 switch.

There is NO need to FLASH the card or to update the Airport driver using the widely available script. The BCM4318KFBG card is immediately recognized as a third-party Airport Extreme card.

Here is the About This Mac... information:

Interfaces:
en0:
Card Type: Third-Party Wireless Card
Supported PHY Modes: 802.11 b/g
Supported Channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Current Network Information:
PHY Mode: 802.11g
BSSID: 0:50:18:4f:51:f8
Network Type: Infrastructure
Security: WPA Personal
Signal / Noise: -66 dBm / -92 dBm
Transmit Rate: 48
Other Local Wireless Networks: