Airport

15" Titanium PowerBook and WPA

Titanium PowerBookThe original Airport card in the 1 GHz Titanium Macintosh PowerBook cannot handle any network except WEP. It will see WPA neworks, but fail to connect citing an "incorrect password" error.

 

This tidbit of info isn't necessarily easy to sort out because the Airport hardware in the various Mac models is not clearly labeled. How do you know your Mac has an Airport Extreme card if the Airport card reported merely says "Airport"?

 

In any case, the fix I found was not necessarily easy. I bought an EDIMAX EW-7108PCg 802.11g/b Wireless LAN PC Card from Newegg for under $20.

 

It doesn't come with Mac drivers, so you have to download those from the Edimax website. Here's how I got it to work:

  • Unplug the PowerBook.
  • Remove the battery.
  • Remove the torx-8 screws from the underside of the PowerBok. (Requires a Torx-8 screwdriver, available from Sears or online).
  • Remove the panel from the underside of the Mac to expose the wireless card. It will have an antenna plugged into it, and it will be located over by the PC card slot.
  • Remove the antenna by pulling on it.
  • Push the Airport card up at a slight angle, then pull out to remove.
  • If you want photos of any of the above steps, google "titanium powerbook take apart" (no quotes).
  • Ensure the antenna dongle will NOT get in the way of any inserted PC card.
  • Put the lower panel back on.
  • Attach the screws.
  • Put the battery back in the PowerBook.
  • Plug the PowerBook back into the AC adapter.
  • Put the Edimax PC card in the PC card slot.
  • Launch the appropriate Edimax/Ralink installer (10.3 or 10.4 or 10.5, depending on which OS you have installed).
  • Go through the install and reboot when prompted.
  • The RALink Wireless Utility will launch upon reboot. if it doesn't, it's in your Applications folder. Use it to connect to wireless networks.
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