airport or fairport card? is this a real choice?

[allnew jeremy]

Hi People,

I have a mirror drive G4, and I want to install a Airport card.

As I searched around, I came across a 'Fairport' card, a cheaper, but apparently identical item to the offical Apple Airport card.

Has anyone heard of these? Or is it a scam? Or simply a crappy piece of kit.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[topgunn]

The original Airport cards are no longer being manufactured and so there are fewer available today than yesterday and there will be fewer tomorrow than today. Someone saw an opportunity and decided to modify a non Apple wireless card to fit in the original airport slots. I believe they are using old Sony cards. I do believe it is legit.

Me personally, I would go with the Fairport if I could save 25% or more. Otherwise, I would just get the Airport and be done with it.

 

[allnew jeremy]

Thanks for the reply.

I decided to go for the fairport card, as the auction was closing before everyone else got their replies in(!).

I will post a report when I receive the card, for those who are interested.

 

[alexstein]

Thanks for the reply.

I decided to go for the fairport card, as the auction was closing before everyone else got their replies in(!).

I will post a report when I receive the card, for those who are interested.

May I ask how much you payed for theat fairport card? Cause those original Airport cards cost an arm and a leg. I'm just asking for future reference.

 

[allnew jeremy]

£49, which is not bad,
though the guy wants £11 for postage from UK to UK.
I assume he will be sending it in a seriously secure blast proof box

£60 was not the deal of the century, but I cant seem to find a decently priced Airport original card, so I went for it.

 

[ITASOR]

Would you mind linking to an auction (any one with pictures) of the fairport card? I would love to see what they look like!

 

[allnew jeremy]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8741303921&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1

 

[diddy]

I've never seen a third party Airport card like that. Amazing, actually.

 

[allnew jeremy]

that's what I thought.

before I clicked 'buy now' I spent a while searching the web but found nothing whatsoever, hence my post here.

 

[bousozoku]

I've been using a Belkin 125HSM PCI card for my Quicksilver since MacFormat mentioned that they were compatible and it shows up as an Airport Extreme card and it seems to work quite well. The price was reasonable, too.

 

[ITASOR]

I've been using a Belkin 125HSM PCI card for my Quicksilver since MacFormat mentioned that they were compatible and it shows up as an Airport Extreme card and it seems to work quite well. The price was reasonable, too.

Yeah, I put a Motorola PCI Card in my quicksilver, when I had it. It was more than reasonable pricing...think I picked it up for $40, brand new at Walmart. I don't think they get as good reception as the internal airport card does though.

 

[bousozoku]

Yeah, I put a Motorola PCI Card in my quicksilver, when I had it. It was more than reasonable pricing...think I picked it up for $40, brand new at Walmart. I don't think they get as good reception as the internal airport card does though.

Considering that mine has the same Broadcom chipset as the AirPort Extreme cards and it has an external antenna, I would hope that it does so much better than the original AirPort card.