Original Airport Card, WiFi b, and WPA/WPA2.

[tevion5]

I have recently installed the original airport card into the appropriate slot of my 2002 Quicksilver.

That Mac is currently in my college apartment on campus. However, while it is aware of my iPhone 5S when it is a personal hotspot, it cannot even see the university "UCD Wireless" passwordless network, or the the secure 801.X "eduroam" network.

My suspicion is that the router only broadcasts at wifi g/n, but that seems unlikely for compatibility.

Also, I hear conflicting reports of what security standards the original airport card supports. I am currently running OSX Tiger 10.4.11 on this Mac.

Can somebody clear this up for me?

 

[eyoungren]

802.11a/b only. WPA max and the router has to be using TKIP and not AES.

 

[tevion5]

802.11a/b only. WPA max and the router has to be using TKIP and not AES.

I am aware the router must be broadcasting wifi a or b.

Interestingly however, I remember "Intell" stating that the original card was compatible with WPA, when updated with late versions of OSX 10.3 or later.

However, I could not find a hint of WPA in the settings of my Power Mac G4 running tiger, despite finding multiple versions of WEP and LEAP.

 

[weckart]

Intell disputed it but I showed that it does work. You need to be running 10.3.3 and you must apply Airport Update 4.2 as this also updates the firmware in the original Airport Card so that it can deal with WPA encryption.

If WPA is not showing under Tiger then it means that no prior installation of Airport Update took place and the card's firmware is still at its original factory level. Just apply the Airport Update under Tiger and you will get WPA.

 

[tevion5]

Intell disputed it but I showed that it does work. You need to be running 10.3.3 and you must apply Airport Update 4.2 as this also updates the firmware in the original Airport Card so that it can deal with WPA encryption.

If WPA is not showing under Tiger then it means that no prior installation of Airport Update took place and the card's firmware is still at its original factory level. Just apply the Airport Update under Tiger and you will get WPA.

That is good to hear.

How can I update with the 4.2 Installer? When I attempt to install this software under Tiger, it refuses to do so stating that it is already up to date.

Is there a way around this?

 

[tevion5]

I am currently attempting to force install the 4.2 Airport Update in Tiger using Pacifist.

 

[tevion5]

After installing the 4.2 update with Pacifist, I had to repair my disk permissions. However, after this, I now appear to have WPA and WPA2 security systems available.

Although, I still cannot see either networks in my apartment.

 

[eyoungren]

After installing the 4.2 update with Pacifist, I had to repair my disk permissions. However, after this, I now appear to have WPA and WPA2 security systems available.

Although, I still cannot see either networks in my apartment.

You can see WPA and WPA2. But you cannot connect to WPA2 or WPA using AES encryption. You can try but the Mac will tell you your password is wrong.

If where you are does not have any networks using WPA with TKIP or WEP, you are not going to be able to connect.

 

[weckart]

Check your firmware revision on your card first before forcing an update your system refuses.

It should be at 9.5.

There was a separate updater for 4.2 for Tiger 10.4.2, which is probably why your machine is refusing the Panther code. It may have been rolled up into the combo updater except for the firmware part. See if you can track down the older Tiger updater first before messing around with Pacifist and maybe killing your Airport altogether. Otherwise, just create a junk Panther installation on an external Firewire drive and upate your card that way.

 

[tevion5]

Check your firmware revision on your card first before forcing an update your system refuses.

It should be at 9.5.

There was a separate updater for 4.2 for Tiger 10.4.2, which is probably why your machine is refusing the Panther code. It may have been rolled up into the combo updater except for the firmware part. See if you can track down the older Tiger updater first before messing around with Pacifist and maybe killing your Airport altogether. Otherwise, just create a junk Panther installation on an external Firewire drive and upate your card that way.

Oh, I killed it and had to bring it back to life :L Since then I've seemed to have gained WPA/WAP2 however, but still no network in sight.

I'll check the firmware version next.

 

[headsh0t95]

Here in the Netherlands, 'eduroam' is also used but it uses AES encryption on 802.1x meaning that the original AirPort cannot connect to it.

 

[tevion5]

Here in the Netherlands, 'eduroam' is also used but it uses AES encryption on 802.1x meaning that the original AirPort cannot connect to it.

Ahh this could be a dead end so. I suppose I'll just have to use a cheap Wifi n USB dongle instead.

I'm still talking to the IT department here anyway.

Thanks

 

[bunnspecial]

My experience with multiple computers is that Airport cards can not even "see" the 802.11x networks at school.

I've had no issues with Airport Extreme cards or their equivalent, just no luck with Airport cards.

The Airport cards can see my WPA2 network at home under 10.4/10.5, but can't successfully connect to them. I ended up buying a cheap first generation Airport Extreme base station and setting up with WEP just for these computers.

I'll also add that I have a PCI WiFi card in my Quicksilver that is recognized and acts as an Airport Extreme. I don't recall the part number off-hand, although it is a Motorola card. It has been able to connect to every network I've tried without issue.

 

[128keaton]

Ahh this could be a dead end so. I suppose I'll just have to use a cheap Wifi n USB dongle instead.

I'm still talking to the IT department here anyway.

Thanks

Use an Edimax one. Very small, cheap. It does have issues occasionally, but nothing too inconvenient.

 

[ClamshellOfDoom]

My experience with multiple computers is that Airport cards can not even "see" the 802.11x networks at school.

I've had no issues with Airport Extreme cards or their equivalent, just no luck with Airport cards.

The Airport cards can see my WPA2 network at home under 10.4/10.5, but can't successfully connect to them. I ended up buying a cheap first generation Airport Extreme base station and setting up with WEP just for these computers.

I'll also add that I have a PCI WiFi card in my Quicksilver that is recognized and acts as an Airport Extreme. I don't recall the part number off-hand, although it is a Motorola card. It has been able to connect to every network I've tried without issue.

I've done something similar -- though this won't help the OP any -- I reused my old wifi modem and turned off encryption completely. Then I restricted the network to only known MAC addresses. It was somewhat of a pain with guests, but it was one way to avoid the encryption issue and still be able to use original Airport machines on a modern network.

 

[tevion5]

I've done something similar -- though this won't help the OP any -- I reused my old wifi modem and turned off encryption completely. Then I restricted the network to only known MAC addresses. It was somewhat of a pain with guests, but it was one way to avoid the encryption issue and still be able to use original Airport machines on a modern network.

Oh, at home I have the Aiport Snow router set up to manage all devices of this class,
as well as to link AppleTalk via an AssanteTalk bridge so my G4's can communicate with my 512K and Classic II and such.

It's just being in my campus room where I am not the admin is annoying in many many ways...

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Use an Edimax one. Very small, cheap. It does have issues occasionally, but nothing too inconvenient.

I got some cheap one on eBay a while back for my Power Mac G5 that works awesomely, so I might just swap that one for now.

 

[128keaton]

Oh, at home I have the Aiport Snow router set up to manage all devices of this class,
as well as to link AppleTalk via an AssanteTalk bridge so my G4's can communicate with my 512K and Classic II and such.

It's just being in my campus room where I am not the admin is annoying in many many ways...

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I got some cheap one on eBay a while back for my Power Mac G5 that works awesomely, so I might just swap that one for now.

Great! I despise the ridiculously large ones that are prone to breakage when you sneeze around them.

 

[Intell]

The original Airport cannot do WiFi A, that works at 5Ghz. While 10.3.3 may work with WPA networks, it is unstable and does not properly conform to the specification until 10.3.9.