Customer Reviews

APPLE AIRPORT CARD WIRELESS ADAPTER ETHERNET p/n M7600LL/E

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm using an Airport card with my iBook, and have been extremely impressed with the way it "just works". Part of the credit goes to the Mac OS X operating system of course, but such totally transparent ease of use is rare in any piece of consumer electronics.

There is one caveat: Apple's very newest machines come with slots for "Airport Extreme" instead. Since Airport Extreme cards are smaller (as well as faster), they aren't interchangeable with "classic" Airport cards. Whichever kind of Airport card your computer supports is what you need to get.

Should you wait to get a machine with Airport Extreme? Probably not, if you're ready to buy. Since even the older Airport cards are faster than any connection to the Internet you're likely to find, the extra speed is only really useful when transferring files between machines at home, or at the office.

I'm not quite sure what the "electronics fan" from Los Angeles is blithering about. On any recent machine from Apple, the Airport (or Extreme) card installs without an adapter. The last "special edition" iMacs came out about two years ago. All of the flat-panel iMacs with G4 processors take Airport cards without needing an adapter, or so says Apple's spec site.

As for Apple being a non-contender in wireless, the previous reviewer couldn't be more wrong. Not only were they the first to make widespread use of WiFi (802.11b aka Airport), they were first to market with 802.11g (Airport Extreme). And as far as criticising them because a computer needs an adapter to use a technology that didn't even exist when it was designed, well, be glad you can buy that $20 adapter instead of having to buy a whole new computer.

The wireless revolution has seriously altered the way I work. It didn't seem like it was that big of a deal, to be able to work anywhere in the house on a laptop. And then I was home over Thanksgiving and tried my father's - it was incredible. So, soon after I had my own and I love it - I even ended up getting another one for my wife's laptop.

Whether it's browsing amazon.com late at night in bed, checking morning email in the kitchen while the kids run around, or being able to set up a writing desk anywhere in the house without worrying about an accessible internet port - the airport system is awesome. Even if you only have a desktop computer it's worth it - you can to put the computer in a place where there's no internet plug, without the 40 foot cord draping your wall to connect it. All in all, a wireless system may seem extravagant, but once you have one you'll wonder how you got by without it.

The airport card, along with the base station, allows you to connect several computers, even ones that don't have wireless cards in them (i.e., we have two laptops on the wireless system, and then one iMac that doesn't have an airport card is plugged directly into the base station). You can print, scan - anything - wirelessly, as long as those extra components are connected to the base station.

If you have a big house and the base station won't be centrally located, you may want to look into the antenna. I have a 2500 square foot house and the base station is at one end of it. I can get access from anywhere in the house without the extra antenna, though in one or two places it's a weak signal. My father's house, on the other hand, is over 5000 square feet and the base station is at a far end - you can't even get a signal on the other side of the house. However, he purchased the antenna and the signal is now very strong wherever you are. A warning - you should make sure your airport network is password protected, especially if you get the antenna. The signal will be broadcast through half your neighborhood and if not protected, people can get on and use your airtime, clogging up your bandwidth.

Make sure you get the right card! There's the airport extreme card and the regular airport card (I believe they are both compatible with either base station). Check Apple's website for direct compatibility between your computer and the two different cards. They are different sizes and will only fit in the right kind of slot.

One final word - I've heard from others that certain products from Net Gear or other wireless manufacturers accomplish the same thing as the airport card and base station for much cheaper. I can't attest to the validity of this, but it might be worth looking into. I'd exercise extreme caution, since if you go with Apple products it will be covered with tech support, even if it's more expensive. And putting third party hardware in your computer will likely void the warranty on your computer.

This card is great for the seamless apple look and feel (and only option for internal in imac/ibook/PB) but it is way overpriced now that it is out of production. There are other options. Belkin F5D6050 USB B adapter has drivers for 9.2 and OSX, several manufacturers (e.g. certain Belkin, Linksys, Microsoft) PCI cards have airport extreme chipsets (broadcom) on them that OSX reads as a real airport Xtreme card. You need to do your research and some cards have different chipsets in different revisions, but it is pretty easy overall - and you can save $100!

Just to clear things up a bit further on the adapter business. When Apple started selling Airport-capable systems and cards, the cards could be used with the CRT iMac or an iBook or Powerbook. Rather than build a special slot in the iMac that you could slide the card into, the card came with a little wraparound bit that had a socket on it which plugged into the iMac. If you were going to use the card in an iBook or Powerbook, you didn't need the adaptor, the card slides into a slot. I guess after awhile they decided to including the adapter was a bit wasteful if a large segment of the buyers weren't going to use it, so they made it an optional extra. The fact that their newer systems didn't need the adapter, and that sales of the CRT iMac were slowing down probably had something to do with it as well.

I've bought 3 Airport cards myself for various systems, and have been very impressed with the ease of use and reliability of the product.

Recommend and rating, hard to say. My intent is to make sure that people don't make the same stupid mistake that I did! An Apple iBook G4 can only accept an "airport extreme" card. I suspect that most of the latest generation ibooks, powerbooks, and powerpcs and etc can only take the extreme card.

Do your homework beforing buying the M7600LL card.

I've just bought my 4th airport card and am about to order another one. I also have an airport extreme card that I'm waiting for for the new Imac we just got. Between myself and my husband, we have a G4, 2 ibooks, 2 old iMacs, and one new 17-inch iMac. The cards used to be shipped with the adaptor (I have 3 of them for the G4 and the iBooks), but it seems like the later ones don't. If I didn't remember about the adaptors that came with the first cards we got, we would never have been able to put the last card I bought in the older iMac that I worked on today.

Overall, I still think Apple's products are easy to work with. I'm a pretty recent convert, and coming in from the Wintel world without prior experience with Macs, I set up our home wireless network in a snap (that's two years ago). When I had to add another iMac that didn't have an airport card, figuring out how to add an ethernet connection to the base station (graphite) was still easy.

Airport is the easiest way to go if you want to go wireless at all.

Apple's airport is handsdown the best implementation of the 802.11 hardware. After 2 years, only a select few PC vendors have copied the internal design (with no adapter to break off) exceptional reception, or first rate software support included in every apple product. Intel's new Centrino product line only recently brought PC laptops up to the level of EVERY Mac portable - for noticably more than the $999 iBook as well.

Airport installs easily, and Apple still supports cards for computers going back as far as 3-4 years, something only a select few companies would even bother consider doing. A solid recommendation for this product.

It is so difficult to find plain old Airport cards these days! I was so happy to find this one at a good price. I am now wireless on my old G3 iBook and couldn't be happier.

I am a recent convert and just got a new 12-inch powerbook. The retailer who sold it to me was supposed to have installed the airport card themselves, but they did not. The airport card came separately and I decided to install it myself. Not only was it the easiest thing to install in the world, it began working immediately. I'm impressed with how non-technical you need to be and how smoothly you can just do all these things that I would never have dreamt of doing myself in the PC world.

The vendor shipped almost immediately and the card arrived in perfect working condition. The seller stocked this product as either 'used' or 'new'. The only difference was the price. I purchased the "NEW' product at the higher price. It was advertised to be shipped in it's original anti-static bag.
The airport card arrived in the aforementioned bag HOWEVER, the bag was not sealed and the card was NOT new. It bore scratches and other telltale marks indicating that it had seen previous service. It works fine and I have no complaints EXCEPT: the product is not 'new' as advertised and that is what I paid extra for.
Caveat emptor with this vender!