PCMCIA WiFi cards?

[mzs.112000]

EDIT: I probably should have looked harder before posting, I found a article that says you can: http://lowendmac.com/2008/wifi-cards-for-powerbooks-with-pc-card-slots/


In the iBook G3(and maybe the G4?), the Apple Airport card is basically just a PCMCIA WiFi card, so would it be possible to put in a different card to get 802.11G instead of just the B that the default card has?

I imagine this would not work on OS X because of drivers, but it would probably work on Linux.

 

[Hrududu]

Since you're talking about iBooks and not PowerBooks, I imagine you're talking about physically sticking a PCMCIA card in the Airport Card slot under the keyboard right?

 

[mzs.112000]

Since you're talking about iBooks and not PowerBooks, I imagine you're talking about physically sticking a PCMCIA card in the Airport Card slot under the keyboard right?

Yes.
Someone else has already done this with a Lucent Wavelan card, i just want to know if other ones will work as well.

 

[bobesch]

Yes.
Someone else has already done this with a Lucent Wavelan card, i just want to know if other ones will work as well.

AFAIK most G4 books come with an AirportExtremeCard (but I don't know anything about Pismos/Lombards/etc).
So you will have the currently latest encryption anyway. For the PowerBooksG4 an additional PCMCIA-Wifi-Card wouldn't make any sense since compatible cards wouldn't go further than the AirportExtreme and in case of newer standards, that are not supported by the AirportExtreme, there won't be any fitting PCMCIA-WLAN-Cards too, since PCMCIA is legacy.

 

[mzs.112000]

AFAIK most G4 books come with an AirportExtremeCard (but I don't know anything about Pismos/Lombards/etc).
So you will have the currently latest encryption anyway. For the PowerBooksG4 an additional PCMCIA-Wifi-Card wouldn't make any sense since compatible cards wouldn't go further than the AirportExtreme and in case of newer standards, that are not supported by the AirportExtreme, there won't be any fitting PCMCIA-WLAN-Cards too, since PCMCIA is legacy.

I am talking about the iBook G3, with Linux, so OS X compatibility is not an issue, and there are PCMCIA Draft-N cards available( https://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksy...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QMR3ZBK2B3XX27YN6ABE)

 

[bobesch]

I am talking about the iBook G3, with Linux, so OS X compatibility is not an issue, and there are PCMCIA Draft-N cards available( https://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksy...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=QMR3ZBK2B3XX27YN6ABE)

Ah, ok, sorry - I was just referring to your first post ("In the iBook G3(and maybe the G4?), the Apple Airport card is basically just a PCMCIA WiFi card") and I have zero knowledge about Linux on a G3 PPC.
As for the G3 Books (Clamshell/Snow) there's only limited space to fit in the AirPortCard. Most PCMCIA WLAN cards sport that huge antenna, that would not fit into the provides space easily, unless you are able to remove the antenna-part and connect the PCMCIA-card to the tiny connector for the inbuilt antenna-frame of the iBook.

 

[weckart]

Yes.
Someone else has already done this with a Lucent Wavelan card, i just want to know if other ones will work as well.

The Airport card is just a modified and rebranded Lucent AFAIR. Your biggest problem even if you could find a card, whose aerial end could be removed or modded to fit, would be getting a signal before you even get to the issue of Linux PPC drivers.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

The AirPort slot under the keyboard of an iBook G3 is a very slightly modified PC Card slot, correct. But it is *ONLY* a PC Card slot, it is *NOT* a CardBus slot. Any card with the "gold lip" like the linked Cisco card is a CardBus card and will not work in it.

Secondly, there is *VERY* little room in there, any card with an antenna that sticks out of the PC Card slot (nearly all of them) won't fit. I managed to cram a Lucent WaveLAN card in to a "gumdrop" iMac G3, because it does have a little more room in its AirPort card area. But even that was a tight fit.

The AirPort Express card in the iBook G4 is a completely custom interface. It uses the "mini PCI" standard electrically, but in a custom form-factor card that isn't compatible with anything else.