Which Airport Card do I need for my eMac?

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Level 1

38 points

Which Airport Card do I need for my eMac?

Hello,
I'm about to buy a brand new iMac and am taking the airport plunge. However, my wife wants to keeps the eMac and have it be her iPod computer. (A computer I am in NO WAY allowed to "tune up".)
So, since I'm going airport extreme for the new computer, I might as well spend the extra little $ and put the eMac on our new wireless network. However, I just want to be sure that I'm getting the right card for it. Am I supposed to get an Airport Extreme card to put into my computer? I think so but wanted to be sure. Few things for frustrating than spending toil and tears on a piece of hardware that's never going to work.
Thank you much.
Brian

800Mhz eMac. Superdrive. 60Gig HD, Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Nov 24, 2006 1:57 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 24, 2006 2:49 PM in response to brian hardy1

hi there Brian-

you for sure need an original airport card, available on ebay. here is a link which verifies this. http://reviews.ebay.com/Apple-Airport-Card-Guide_W0QQugidZ10000000000748015 good luck. [ 8 ) ]

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Answer 2

PT

Level 7

20,894 points

Nov 24, 2006 4:11 PM in response to brian hardy1

Assuming you are talking about an 800MHz model of eMac (in your sig line) then you need the old type of airport card which Apple no longer sells and is getting harder (and more expensive) to locate these days. If you have a newer eMac, say one of the last couple of models, those use the newer Extreme cards.
If your is indeed one that requires the old card, you can instead buy an Ethernet-to-Wifi bridge.
Avoid USB adapters as they often either don't support Macs with the right drivers, or offer flakey limited drivers that likely won't be updated for new OS versions.
But the Ethernet-to-Wifi bridges (often sold as Gaming Adapters) are driverless and work on almost any Ethernet enabled device. They likely will be cheaper than finding an old style Airport card anyway.
Patrick

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Answer 3

brian hardy1 Author

Level 1

38 points

Nov 25, 2006 6:42 AM in response to sherry johnson

Well, this is good to know though a bit of a bummer. The cards on eBay seem to be twice as much.
Is setting up with a airport card and an airpport extreme basestation just as easy or will I have to jump through a few additional hoops?
Brian

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Answer 4

Nov 25, 2006 3:51 PM in response to brian hardy1

Brian, here is where you can get the Original Airport Card reasonable.
http://store.airportcardsdirect.com/
Cheers Don

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Answer 5

Nov 26, 2006 2:23 AM in response to brian hardy1

hey again--

setting it up is exactly the same. it only varies according to which operating system you have, and even then the differences are minor. it's pretty easy to set up a base station. if you have any difficulty, you could always post back. [ 8 ) ]

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Answer 6

brian hardy1 Author

Level 1

38 points

Nov 28, 2006 6:09 AM in response to sherry johnson

All good information. Thanks.

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