How to turn off the Airport card through the Command Line?

As an initial bit of curiosity, I did a quick search & see there
are some possible ideas among the first several items in a
first page (among others) in the results of this Google search:

' Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger command line disables AirPort wireless cards '
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=MacOS+X+10.4+Tiger+command+line+disables+AirPort+wireless+cards&btnG=Google+Search& aq=f&oq=Mac+OS+X+10.4+Tiger+command+line+disables+AirPort+wirelesscards&aqi=&fp=KxYPMM6r3XA

Some of the search results will be out of date, some mostly for Leopard
while others may have broken under a Tiger update. One of curious &
possible worth may be this one; or variants of the command line code:

Enable & disable Airport from the command line - macosxhints:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031206194417678

The last item, a tip for Tiger users 'using a command line to effect a
change in the wireless range of AirPort' in this page, may be a lead:
Washington State Ferries Wi-Fi: https://wireless.nnu.com/nw4/sites/wsf/faqs_mac

There may also be a way to run scripted instructions over command
lines, but I am unfamiliar with those kinds of efforts and their effects.

There may be a way to access some computer functions through
the remote access via other system methods, such as widgets
that could turn off wireless access; some of those can also be run
through command line background access, but takes time to figure.

Of course, depending on how the computers are initially networked
and what role the wireless network plays in accessing them remotely
will have a lot to do with the success of using a command line on them.
If they have wired network access to prompt and control the access to
change their wireless setting protocols, then you have access into them
later on, whenever the networked wireless access has been turned off...
Otherwise, there is an obvious contradiction; since there'd be no network.

I'm sure more experienced users and network engineers have considered
this issue and it is only a matter of getting some feedback from some of
them on this matter to find a shortcut or less unknown path to proceed.

And I am not that person...
Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

HI Peggy,

How does one turn off the Airport card in 10.4.11?

Not sure how to use the command line to do it, but the way to disable it is Network>Show>Network Port Configurations, uncheck Airport box, or edit the file...

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

<key>Active</key>
<true/>
<key>BSD Name</key>
<string>en1</string>

to say...

<key>Active</key>
<false/>
<key>BSD Name</key>
<string>en1</string>

There is probably a Command line clue there.

You might also want to look at the non-documented "airport" utility. It might have something you can use.

The file lives in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resource s; You can either symlink it first to something handy, or summon the help contents with */System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resour ces/airport -h*