I'm trying to make my studio wireless. I have the Airport Extreme and 1 G4 with a Airport card. success here.

However there's still copious amounts of ethernet cable on the floor thanks to an older G4 (quicksilver 933MHz) and a PC which will soon be sorted with a $65 wireless network card.

Unfortunately the older G4s must have an different Airport card costing $200.
Is there a PC wireless card that will work in it's place. I need a cheaper alternative.

I don't think so.
The old wireless cards, simply called Airport, have been discontinued by Apple. So that why the price is so high on them. However, there were a couple selling in the trading forums here, and you can pick them up off of ebay for around $100 to $150.

Because they are no longer made, and people still want them the prices are rising pretty steadily.

Depending on which version of OSX you are using (or if you are using OSX at all) you can buy USB wireless adaptors that work with Macs, but I really recommend it as a last resort.

Yeah you can fokker .

I've got one running in my powermac g4, and has been for a few months now, a few other members are as well, there's a forum thread on it along with the working models ( mines a Linksys wmp54G, works withourt a hitch with the apple base station too. Have a search for the thread.

any card that uses a broadcom chip will work.
belkins work very well and are cheap.i use a belkin pci and a belking pcmcia

Check http://xlr8yourmac.com for more details.

Read this:

http://forums.appletalk.com.au/index.php?s...=1156&hl=WMP54G

pipsqeek

I've pinned that thread to the top of the hardware forum for everyone's benefit

I'll probably merge this topic with the pinned one in a day or two (to give people a chance to read it who were already).

thanks you to everyone who made a post.

Appletalk rocks!!!!!

<span style=\'font-family:Impact\'>Warning!</span></span>

The Belkin F5D7000au is no longer AirPort Extreme compatible.

I just bought one today it's a "version 3000au" which is written on the side of the box, on the box it shows a low profile PCI card with the PCB covered by a shield. I couldn't tell what chipset it used so I installed the Ralink drivers which detected the card but are an absolute bitch to configure so I've pulled the card. Not an absolute waste, I need a wireless card for my PC.

So lets do a round up:

Minitar MN54GPL(-R) - Now uses Ralink chipset NOT AirPort Extreme compatible.

Linksys WMP54G - Now uses Ralink chipset NOT AirPort Extreme compatible.

Belkin F5D7000au - Now uses Ralink chipset <span style=\'color:red\'>NOT AirPort Extreme compatible.

Are there any AP compatible PCI cards left? Looks like I'm in the market for an old school AirPort card.

I have one of those in my B&W G3 and it works fine. Unless they have changed the chipset since I got it or I am not sure I understand what you are getting at this card should work.

Read page two of this thread. Linksys switched to the Ralink chipset when they introduced version 4 of the WMP54G. You obviously have an older version of the card.

So the moral of the story is:
Ask the sales person if this card uses the Broadcom chipset. If they say yes and it doesn't when you get it home you are well within your rights to return it since it unsuitable for the purpose for which it was purchased.

The Broadcom based Belkin card only has the shielding over the radio components and the Broadcom chip is clearly visible.

Try Harvey Norman for a card since they buy a lot of stock and often don't turn it over very quickly.

i bought the belkin F5D7000au thinking it would work i was a bit weary because it had that metal plate over it but i saw the F5D7000 on it and so i thought it would still work so i got it... shocked that is didnt work... i searched high and low for the answer... i found the Relink drivers... pretty easy to set up and works again ... the bad thing is that the computer dosent see it as a Airport card rather as "PCI slot 3" i have to set all settings in the program that it installs but allas it works! i dont know if i should return it and try to find the old F5D7000 any help would be appreciated

EDIT: the card is in my Dual 800mhz Powermac, it is sitting in a corner with a whole bunch of cables and stuff, the laptop (iBook G4) gets about 95% if i got into the TV room (7 metres through 2 walls) when i go to the kitchen (15 metres through a TV and 2 walls) i got about 60%, and when i go into my brothers room (25metres away through 5 walls and a TV i got dissconnected is that normal?

The signal strength sounds about right, in fact, excellent for the card. As a tip you can increase signal strength by putting an upside down CD over the aerial

Where did you get the Ralink drivers?

JB