Airport card
February 5, 2006 8:29 AM Subscribe
Is an Airport card installed in an iBook compatible with an 802.11g wireless router that serves PCs?
If I understand the question correctly, I would have to say yes. It is compatible. The only issue may be that if your airport is a slower version (802.11b) you may slow the others on the network down to that speed rather than the fast speeds of 802.11g.
Before we went all Mac we ran the wireless through a Windows box and my wife had no problem connecting to it with her 802.11b airport card.
More from wikipedia
posted by terrapin at 8:44 AM on February 5, 2006
Before we went all Mac we ran the wireless through a Windows box and my wife had no problem connecting to it with her 802.11b airport card.
More from wikipedia
posted by terrapin at 8:44 AM on February 5, 2006
If it's a G4 iBook, it's an 802.11g wireless card. If it's a G3 iBook, it's 802.11b, but the two standards are compatible. Previously on AskMe.
posted by mcwetboy at 8:46 AM on February 5, 2006
posted by mcwetboy at 8:46 AM on February 5, 2006
I suppose the only caveat I can think of, would be the encryption methodologies; In my experience, all though you may be using 128 bit WEP (for example, but no limited to), there is a degree of inconsistency between router vendors. This can cause potential connection problems. If you're trouble shooting this, start with no encryption and work your way "up."
posted by AllesKlar at 8:54 AM on February 5, 2006
posted by AllesKlar at 8:54 AM on February 5, 2006
Yes, unless it doesn't. If you had details on the router, you might get anecdotal answers which are much more useful than theoretical ones.
posted by smackfu at 10:04 AM on February 5, 2006
posted by smackfu at 10:04 AM on February 5, 2006
AllesKlar makes an excellent point. One of the main reasons we also switched from a Linksys system to an Airport Express was that it was royal pain in the behind to get the laptops to connect to the Linksys when it was in WEP mode.
posted by terrapin at 1:23 PM on February 5, 2006
posted by terrapin at 1:23 PM on February 5, 2006
If your Mac is very old, and only supports 802.11b, and the modern network is on WPA (as it should be), that would render you unable to connect. Otherwise, it should work.
Note: WEP has been cracked, and you should no longer use it. Use WPA only. A hacker who knows what he's doing can drive up outside your house (or, actually, park several blocks away with a good antenna), and break any WEP encryption within 5 minutes. This can leave you on the hook for hacking or spam, or you could lose financial data without having any idea you were under attack.
Stick with WPA.
posted by Malor at 4:17 PM on February 5, 2006
Note: WEP has been cracked, and you should no longer use it. Use WPA only. A hacker who knows what he's doing can drive up outside your house (or, actually, park several blocks away with a good antenna), and break any WEP encryption within 5 minutes. This can leave you on the hook for hacking or spam, or you could lose financial data without having any idea you were under attack.
Stick with WPA.
posted by Malor at 4:17 PM on February 5, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by kcm at 8:40 AM on February 5, 2006