Just Bought an iBook

doofy10

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I gave in an bought a new 700 mhz iBook. Remember me? I was the one that was gonna wait for an upgrade at MWNY?? Well anyway, I couldn't wait. I ordered it from MacWarehouse and the order shipped but one item is on backorder. It says that the "Airport Card adapter" is on backorder. The Airport base station and the card shipped, but not the adapter. What is the adapter and what does it do?? I couldn't find it on the Warehouse or Apple websites.
-Doofy
 
FYI: I bought a D-Link wireless router for $157 online and it works great with my iBook. Remember, you don't have to buy everthing from Apple unless you don't mind spending a lot more money.
 
Originally posted by jocknerd
FYI: I bought a D-Link wireless router for $157 online and it works great with my iBook. Remember, you don't have to buy everthing from Apple unless you don't mind spending a lot more money.

I still vote for Apple hardware because the Apple software that integrates with it is the easiest and best to use. Plus, Apple's hardware is always of the highest quality.

By the way, the Airport Card Adapter is only for specific Macs, but I don't think it's for the iBook. It's like a little thing that goes around the Airport card so you can install it into a PowerMac, I think.

Actually, now that I think about it, Apple might have nixed it altogether in the newest PowerMacs.

That's funny that it's holding up your order, though. I don't think you'll need it.
 
The Airport card is a one size fits all item, but certain models of Macs (late model iMacs, for instance), require an adapter, that is included with all new Airport cards, that facilitates housing the card. The first Aiport card I bought for my PBG4 didn't come with this, and I didn't need it anyway. The second one I bought just a few months ago did. It looks like a bracket housing with a circuit board backing.

I'm not certain, however, if the iBook requires this. I would doubt it does, since space inside the iBook is at a premium.

I would search through xlr8yourmac.com and see if they have any visual instructions for installing an airport card in a iBook. That should tell you whether you need the adapter or not. I'm pretty certain you dont.
 
Yeah -- maybe you could call them and ask them to ship it without the adapter, since you definitely don't need it:

"To use an AirPort Card with certain iMac models requires the use of an AirPort Card Adapter kit. Any G3-based, slot-loading, AirPort Ready iMac requires this Adapter kit to install an AirPort Card....Other Apple products, such as iBook, Power Mac, and PowerBook as well as new G4-based iMacs, do not require this Adapter kit."
(from store.apple.com)

I have to disagree with SimX about Airport Base Stations 'cause I think they're way overpriced, like I've said before. Bottom line: if you have broadband (don't know about dial-up) the Base Station does much less at a lesser quality than other companies' products, which happen to be about half its price. And with Apple's built-in airport card slots and OS X, it is really very easy, even for a novice, to plug-n-play their way to wirelessness.

I can't understand why Apple won't bring the price down on the Base Station. Maybe they're trying to recuperate from the costs of building aiport card slots and antennas into all their (new) computers (unique to Apple, and very cool) and selling airport cards at competitive prices. Of course, they do have a $100 discount or something if you buy one with a new computer, I think. But that's still more than I would ever pay. I'll stick with my $150 Router + 4-port 10/100 Switch + Wireless Access Point + Web-based configuration.
 
You won't need the adapter for your iBook. The card will slide right inside your iBook. How much memory did you get? Get more. But buy from Crucial.com not Apple. Way less expensive.

> I still vote for Apple hardware because the Apple software that integrates with it is the easiest and best to use. Plus, Apple's hardware is always of the highest quality.

The software is on the iBook. Therefore it works exactly the same way. It thinks that the D-Link is an AirPort base.
 
Here's an update: I called MacWarehouse and they realized that they ordered the adapter in error. They canceled it and because it held up my order, they upgraded my order to priority overnight so now I will have my iBook tomorrow! Thanks for all of your help!!!
-Doofy
 
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