Off the Shelf Native Airport - PCI Express Wifi Card!

[mrengles]

Make sure your airport 5ghz channel is set to something this wifi card can see. It will not work with the higher Frequencies that the AP base station sometimes defaults too.

 

[jcolinespinoza]

Make sure your airport 5ghz channel is set to something this wifi card can see. It will not work with the higher Frequencies that the AP base station sometimes defaults too.

Thanks for the recommendation, that's an option I can try later if I cannot get to change the locale to get the card to work at higher channels. I want to use channel 149 or higher since those channels provide more power and more range.
Here's a screenshot I took in Win 7. The card is linked at full speed (450 Mbps) on channel 149+153. So I guess this shouldn't be an issue with the locale not being set at firmware level. Is there a way on OSX to force the card to pick a locale? I'm using a mac mini profile, may this profile limit the available channels?
I'll keep investigating and report back.

 

[mrengles]

OS X handles the local by the first few wireless AP signals it sees. So for example if your in the USA and the first wifi signal it sees in set to a USA local, then the card with only work with USA frequencies, same goes for GB, Japan, Italy.... and yada yada yada.... you get the idea.

Does that make seance.


No OSX hack available for this as far as I know. I learned this over at ddwrt.

 

[jcolinespinoza]

I kept investigating and I've learned that the card has all channels enabled regardless of the regulatory domain. Then the only option is try to make the card see the beacon to set up the regulatory domain.

For the moment being I set up the airport extreme to a lower channel the card can see.

OS X handles the local by the first few wireless AP signals it sees. So for example if your in the USA and the first wifi signal it sees in set to a USA local, then the card with only work with USA frequencies, same goes for GB, Japan, Italy.... and yada yada yada.... you get the idea.

Does that make seance.


No OSX hack available for this as far as I know. I learned this over at ddwrt.

 

[mrengles]

That screen shot is from windows, not a mac. OS X is limiting what channels can be used depending on the AP's in the area.

For example. I have a DD WRT router broadcasting on channel 13 in the USA. My Mac will not see the wireless access point. But my iPhone will and is able to connect. If I were in Japan with my MacBook Pro or Hackintosh I would be able to connect to the channel 13 AccessPoint.

That screen shot has nothing to do with how OSX works with this card. the wifi card it's self will only work with the lower channels of the 5ghz band regardless of the OS because that's all it's firmware will allow.

 

[jcolinespinoza]

That is not entirely true. Let me explain. I booted into windows 7 in order to understand how this card worked on the firmware level. I didn't change the 5GHz broadcasting channel as you suggested in my airport extreme and I was able to connect to my airport extreme on channel 149+153 (BSSID AENetwork5). See attached screenshot. So in windows 7 the card is activating all the available US channels since my airport extreme is set up for use in the US.
Then I read at: http://www.insanlynac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=234570 of a windows utility ComView for WiFi and RCU (www.tamos.com) that could allow you to change the reg domain in an atheros card.

I installed ComView and then I run RCU, and I found out that for this chipset 9380 "all channels are enabled in monitoring mode regardless of the regulatory domain", so it doesn't matter what reg domain it has in firmware the card will be able to activate the channels available in the country you are. Based on my experience this is what it is happening in windows 7 but not in OS X.

Then I used this tip (http://www.cultofmac.com/182824/sca...ts-easily-right-from-mountain-lion-os-x-tips/) to scan for active WiFi hotspots around my house. I saw that only my router was active at the moment, I quickly restarted my hackintosh hoping that the first wireless AP signals the card would see were from my airport extreme and would activate all of the US channels but that didn't happen, it didn't set up the locale even though my airport extreme was the only hotspot available at the time.

So for now, the only thing that worked was changing the channel on the airport extreme as you suggested to a lower channel. The card is linked at full 450Mbps speed.

That screen shot is from windows, not a mac. OS X is limiting what channels can be used depending on the AP's in the area.

For example. I have a DD WRT router broadcasting on channel 13 in the USA. My Mac will not see the wireless access point. But my iPhone will and is able to connect. If I were in Japan with my MacBook Pro or Hackintosh I would be able to connect to the channel 13 AccessPoint.

That screen shot has nothing to do with how OSX works with this card. the wifi card it's self will only work with the lower channels of the 5ghz band regardless of the OS because that's all it's firmware will allow.

 

[mrengles]

...Then I used this tip (http://www.cultofmac.com/182824/sca...ts-easily-right-from-mountain-lion-os-x-tips/) to scan for active WiFi hotspots around my house...

/System/Library/CoreServices/Wi-Fi Diagnostics.app

Great tool! It has been completed overhauled with Mountain Lion. There really is no need for other 3rd party solutions now, unless you war-drive and would like to plot on a map.

If I find a solution to getting the upper 5ghz channels working, I'll post my finding back here.

 

[deigm]

working on 10.6.8?

I would also like to see this confirmed. Anyone tried it?

 

[itsjared]

Mine does not "see" any networks. There are networks present (and in use by the machine next to this one).

Anyone know why ML 10.8.2 wouldn't be seeing networks?

 

[jcolinespinoza]

Mine does not "see" any networks. There are networks present (and in use by the machine next to this one).

Anyone know why ML 10.8.2 wouldn't be seeing networks?

You can try deleting WiFi in netwrok settings and adding it again, it has worked in the past and that may help. Also I can confirm the card works great in ML 10.8.2.