Are there airport cards that support WPA for Powerbook G4s

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Level 2

219 points

Are there airport cards that support WPA for Powerbook G4s

I have an old Powerbook G4 I still use as a second machine. However, the Airport card doesn't support WPA2 so I can't connect it to my home network without changing the wireless protection. I'd prefer to stay with WPA protection for all devices (there are at least 5 other devices on the network) rather than reducing the security for all devices.

It is possible to get a wireless card for the Powerbook that supports WPA or WPA2? I don't believe the internal Airport card has any support for this, but what about third party cards? Can anyone recommend an alternate card?

Thanks in advance,

Josh

PowerBook G4 (DVI), Mac OS X (10.4.11), Replaced HD, Replaced Superdrive.

Posted on Mar 15, 2012 4:47 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 15, 2012 7:03 PM in response to thenobleshrew

This is how my AirPort Extreme base station (2003 vintage) is configured:

This seems to work fine with the 1GHz TiBooks, which are supposed to have the same AirPort card as the DVI models. I was actually surprised when the change from WEP to WPA2/WPA actually worked. I have not been able to figure out what the TiBooks are actually using, though.

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Answer 2

Mar 16, 2012 4:46 PM in response to old comm guy

old comm guy wrote:

This is how my AirPort Extreme base station (2003 vintage) is configured:

Following up on this post, I conducted a "science fair" experiment on this topic because I couldn't find out on the TiBooks whether they were connecting with WPA or WPA2. I changed the Encryption Type parameter to "WPA2 only" and lost contact from the TiBooks. (Could change it back over Ethernet with no problem.) This indicates that the TiBook Airport cards (DVI and later) will support WPA under Tiger but not WPA2.

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Answer 3

thenobleshrew Author

Level 2

219 points

Mar 17, 2012 7:18 PM in response to old comm guy

This is great information, however I'm still trying to make sense out of this. My Router is not Apple branded, so my information is slightly different. However, your 1 Ghz Ti book is slightly newer than my 667Mhz Ti Book, so that may be a different. If you go into your System profile, which firmwire revision is listed under airport? Mine is listed as 9.5.2.

When I try to connect to a WPA or WPA2 network, I get the following dialog on my Tibook, asking for the security method:

Does your Tibook have a similar dialogue when you try to join a new network for the first time?

Thanks for your help,

Josh

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Answer 4

Mar 18, 2012 12:07 AM in response to thenobleshrew

OK, I get this in System Profiler: "Wireless Card Firmware Version: 9.52" which sounds right, as the card listed for the DVI and my books is the same model number, that is to say, M7600LL/B.

I don't recall seeing that dialog, at least not in a long while. I only hit "strange" base stations once in a while on the road and do not recall seeing that dialog when I hit those networks. I just did an experiment with the TiBook by selecting the "Other" capability and got the following dialog:

I was going to do another "science fair" experiment and try logging into one of my neighbors' routers, but nobody is on right now. (I'll try it when somebody is actually up.) One further thought is kext version, which I find to be the following:

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Answer 5

Mar 18, 2012 3:16 PM in response to thenobleshrew

Well, the "science fair" experiment continues. This afternoon, lots of routers on the air. Some of them the PC laptop can see, with a little information, fewer are visible to the TiBook, probably because they are fixed on G or N. The two that the TiBook could see had WPA encryption, and I got this dialog when selecting them for connection:

There is no other selection available in Wireless Security, so I am guessing that the TiBook reads the encryption method and sends only that method to the dialog.

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Answer 6

thenobleshrew Author

Level 2

219 points

Mar 18, 2012 3:22 PM in response to old comm guy

Great info. Unfortunately, I don't seem to get the WPA option in my wireless security options. I suspect either my card doesn't support it or I don't have the correct software. I found the following article related to this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2594

I checked my kext files, and both "AppleAirport" and "AppleAirportFW" are listed as revision 3.4.9. Accordingly to that Apple support link, anything above 3.3 should be supported.

old comm guy, where did you find the module number of your Airport card? When I go into the System profiler, if I select "Airport" in the tree on the left hand side, I get the following info:

Wireless Card Type: Airport

Wireless Card Locale: USA

Wireless Card Firmware Version: 9.52

Current Wireless Network: Airport is currently turned off

Nowhere do I see the card model number. Did you find it somewhere else?

Thanks,

Josh

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Answer 7

Mar 18, 2012 5:24 PM in response to thenobleshrew

thenobleshrew wrote:

Nowhere do I see the card model number. Did you find it somewhere else?

Thanks,

Josh

I got the number off of the Apple Powerbook specs pages.

PowerBook G4 (DVI) - Technical Specifications

PowerBook G4 (1GHz/867MHz) - Technical Specifications

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Answer 8

sdfox7

Level 2

158 points

Mar 21, 2012 10:51 AM in response to thenobleshrew

FWIW I have the A1126 Bluetooth/Airport Extreme Combo in each of my iBook G4 and PowerBook G4. They work flawlessly and have large compatibility with multiple Mac models.

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Answer 9

thenobleshrew Author

Level 2

219 points

Apr 18, 2012 7:13 PM in response to thenobleshrew

Turns out while the original airport card supports WPA, it does not support both security methods (AES and TKIP). After playing with configurations, if I switch to WPA (TKIP) I was able to get WPA working with my original Airport card. Tricky and not well documented, but it does work finally!

-Josh

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