Upgrading to a 802.11n Airport Express Card in my Macbook Pro

I found this question on the forums answered over 4 years ago and thought to ask it to get a more current response given that both hardware and sellers have changed significantly in the time passed.
I've also found it difficult to replace the wireless card in my Macbook Pro. I was able to track down the current part number in my device as being 661-3890; but I figure it may be better just to upgrade to an 802.11n compatible card. I've found a few listings on ebay but they are not straight forward. I want to make sure that anything I might buy is at least compatible with my computer.
A creditable site, OWC, has a part number 661-5048 they sell that is compatible but is on the upper end of the price spectrum. I have the A1150 Macbook Pro (1,1) which I believe is also referred to as the late 2006/early 2007 model. In my research I was able to deduce that some people have had success replacing their cards with the Atheros AR5BXB6 card although there appears to be some debate regarding the different Manufacture Part numbers (482261-001 and 482261-002). There are a few of these listed on auctions (used and new) but the range in price is $100.
I'm new to the Mac screen and would appreciate any help in the right direction as I have yet to find an authority that confidently and clearly states what cards are compatible with my box. Thanks!

Here is the ifixit link:
www.ifixit.com/MacBook-Parts/MacBook-802-11n-Airport-Extreme-Card/IF185-038
I just want to know what cards are compatiable so I can pick up a reasonblily priced one on ebay.
Model Name:          MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:          MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed:          2 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          2 MB
Memory:          2 GB
Bus Speed:          667 MHz
Boot ROM Version:          MBP11.0055.B08
SMC Version (system):          1.2f10
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State:          Enabled
Software Versions:
Menu Extra:          6.2.1 (621.1)
configd plug-in:          6.2.4 (624.2)
System Profiler:          6.0 (600.9)
Network Preference:          6.2.1 (621.1)
AirPort Utility:          5.5.2 (552.11)
IO80211 Family:          3.1.4 (314.1.1)
Interfaces:
en1:
Card Type:          AirPort Extreme (0x168C, 0x86)
Firmware Version:          Atheros 5424: 2.1.14.5
Locale:          FCC
Country Code:
Supported PHY Modes:          802.11 a/b/g
Supported Channels:          1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 36, 40, 44, 48, 52, 56, 60, 64, 149, 153, 157, 161, 165

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Can I Use 802.11n Base Station and 802.11n AirPort Express in an 802.11 ac Time Capsule Main Base Station WDS Network?

I havea "wirelessly challenged" 2-story home and need to extend the range. Currently I have an 802.11n Main Base Station with an 802.11n Airport Express Remote. It's not getting the job done (upstairs connection is weak).
I am considering getting an 802.11ac Airport Time Capsule to help, even though I currently only have devices with 802.11n wireless connectivity (future-proof a little).
I an planning on setting up a Wireless Distribution System (WDS) Network:
1.) Setting up the Time Capsule as the Main Base Station connected to a Cable modem
2.) Reconfiguring and Setting up the current AirPort Extreme 802.11n as a Relay Base Station
3.) Reconfiguring and Setting up the current AirPort Express 802.11n as a Remote Station
I cannot "hard wire" one Base Statio to the other.
Will this work?

Will this work?
Unfortunately, no. WDS is a older, very inefficient way to extend the wireless network signal.
As such, newer operating systems like Lion, Mountain Lion and Mavericks do not even offer settings for this older WDS type of network.
In addition, the new Time Capsule has no capabilities to use WDS settings at all, even if you used a Mac with another operating system to try to set things up.
Even if it were possible to set up a WDS network, the speed on the network would be incredibly slow. As you know, WDS only operates at "g" wireless speed levels. Each "relay" or "remote" that you add to the network each cuts that bandwidth or speed in half.
With a WDS "main", "relay" and "remote", the network would be operating at about 14 Mbps......a tiny fraction of what the devices would be capable of providing normally.

802.11n Airport Express won't connect to Internet

Hi,
I have recently purchased a new 802.11n Airport Express which works fine with the Airport Utility, but will not connect to the internet through the Ethernet.
It is plugged directly from the cable model into the 802.11n via Ethernet.
I know that it is not the modem/internet service provider because when I pop my old 802.11b/g (model A1084) everything works fine, and I connect no problem.
The settings appear the same, but with the old model I get internet, with the 802.11n I get the flashing amber light. If I set it up manually, and input the same IP, Subnet Mask, and Router number that is working for the 802.11b/g model, I get the solid green light, but no internet.
Originally, I assumed I'd just picked up a lemon, so I exchanged it and I am getting the exact same results so I must be doing something wrong.
Any ideas?
I wanted to extend my network, but use the 802.11n as the internet input so I could take advantage of the faster speeds.

Welcome to the discussions!
You mentioned that you had a cable modem. Although the ISP will claim otherwise, in many cases it will take 20-30 minutes for a modem to completely reset. The reset is needed whenever you change the device that is directly connected to the modem.
Power down the modem and pull the battery if it has one. Power down the rest of the system as well.
Power up the modem first and let it run for 5-10 minutes, then the Express for a few minutes, then your computers.
Once you get things going, we can look into the next puzzle of extending the network. Please post back when you have the "green" light and internet.

Trying to extend by 802.11n airport extreme using a 802.11n airport express and the express is flashing amber, trying to extend by 802.11n airport extreme using a 802.11n airport express and the express is flashing amber

trying to extend my wireles network using a 802.11n airport extreme and pluging in a 802.11n airport express and the express is flashing amber not solid green
what am i doing wrong
btw I have airport utility 5.5.3

trying to extend my wireles network using a 802.11n airport extreme and pluging in a 802.11n airport express
Can you clarify what you mean by "plugging in"? Are you saying that you are pluggin in an Ethernet cable to the AirPort Express from the AirPort Extreme?
Or, does "plugging in" mean wireless?

Installing airport extreme card in a macbook pro

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Without an airport extreme card, there won't be any Wifi signals going to and from the router (unless you have your machine hooked up via ethernet cable, in which case you don't need an airport card because the signal is transmitted through the cable). Most Macs have a card installed - which Mac do you have?

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I recently set up my new Airport Express 802.11n base station and can't print to my Samsung ML-2010 usb laser printer from my XP boxes using bonjour. I have a mac mini hooked up to the AE via ethernet that prints fine to the ml-2010. the xp boxes are hooked up to the AE by 802.11g adapters. Is there anything I can try to get the XP boxes to print?

I was able to get my XP boxes to print by setting the printer up as a local printer on a port. you can find the directions here....
http://www.ifelix.co.uk/tech/1004.html

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I purchased an Airport Express to bridge my Airport Extreme to my XBOX wirelessly. I used the "extend this network" option to extend my current wireless network. The XBOX is connected to the ethernet port on the express. It seems to connect to the internet fine for streaming movies or downloading files. When I try to play games the connection is extremely laggy. I can manage (barely) if I only play as a client. If I host a game everyone in the room complains that the game is unplayable. _The latency is HORRIBLE_. This is unfortunate considering I purchased this specifically to connect my XBOX instead of the Microsoft wireless adapter.
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Hello Micah Woods. Welcome to the Apple Discussions!
My question is -- Is there a setting I can change to make the connection faster (less laggy) or is a better option just to return the device and get the Microsoft adapter?
Since you are connecting your Xbox 360 to the AX via Ethernet only, I suggest that you reconfigure your new 802.11n AX as a ProxySTA instead of using it to extend the wireless range of the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS). As a ProxySTA the AX would perform like an Ethernet bridge.
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Airport Extreme (802.11n) & Airport Express (802.11g) single net by wire?

I just bought an Extreme-n to replace my ailing wifi router and wanted to use it with my existing Express-g to make a single wifi network so that I can have my 802.11n devices connect to the Extreme-n and the 802.11b/g devices connect to the Express-g using a shared wifi network. The tricky part is that I want the Express-g to be connected to the Extreme-n via Ethernet, not by relay, to get the best performance. This doesn't seem to be a standard configuration with WDS as it expects the Express-g to be a relay over-the-air, not by Ethernet. Is this possible, or do I have to set up separate wifi networks to do this? For either option, do I need to set up both the Express-g and the Extreme-n to be DHCP servers, or can I just rely on the Extreme-n to serve to both wifi networks?

In Apple's documentation and in threads in this discussion area you will find references to "dual band" networks. That is what you want to set up.
Each base station will create a separate wireless network.
The AirPort Express (AX) will connect via Ethernet to one of the LAN ports on the AirPort Extreme base station (AEBS).
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AirPort Extreme (802.11n), AirPort Express, and Client Limit Q

I'm very interested in the new AirPort Extreme (APE) due to the ability to access a hard drive from it for network sharing. I think that is awesome. But I have a few questions.
I am currently running 2 AirPort Express (APX) base stations for my network and am getting great signal strength throughout the house. No real complaints there.
One has the modem plugged into in the basement, and the other is set up as WDS. Unfortunately, I am quickly approaching the 10 client connection limit for the APX, so I was looking for a way to expand it.
If I get an APE and use the APX base stations as WDS access points, will I still be limited to only 10 clients attached at a time? And, since I assume the computer attaches itself to whichever of the three AP base stations has the strongest signal, will I alway be able to access the hard drive attached to the APE if I do that? I understand I won't get the 802.11n speeds (fine, I don't care) , but I would love to keep the APX base stations in my network for stereos and signal boosting.
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Is there a way to use the APX without losing bandwidth?
Configure it to operate as a wireless client. See KB 302153, AirPort Express: How to join an existing wireless network in client mode.
Maybe a way to use it as an extension other than WDS mode?
No
And why does it cut the bandwidth in half?
802.11b/g is not duplex so data can only be transmitted one direction at a time since the same channel (and radio) is used to transmit/receive.
If traffic is flowing from deviceB to deviceA, that traffic will interrupt the flow of data in the other direction and get part of the full bandwidth.
Each WDS link cuts the effective bandwidth in half because the traffic has to be retransmitted again. Let's assume that deviceA and deviceB are connected via WDS. Let's say that deviceA is connected to the internet and clientC is wirelessly connect to deviceB. Let's say that clientC is sending a 54 Mb file to the internet.
- 1 second to send 54 Mb file from clientC to deviceB
- 1 second to send 54 Mb file from deviceB to deviceA
So looking at the bandwidth between clientC and the internet, we see that the transfer rate is:
(54 Mb)/(2 seconds) = 27 Mbps
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802.11N USB/Express Cards

Hi. I have 2 minis, an iMac G5 and a MacBook Pro Core Duo...none of which have 802.11N capabilities. I would like to find external wireless cards that are USB and express card based that will work with OS X. Does anyone have a recommendation?

Yes, check out QuickerTek.

Airport Express connects internet to MacBook Pro but not PB12"

I'm using an Airport Express modem with v6.3 firmware to connect to the internet via a Comcast cable modem. It works fine on a MacBook Pro with 10.4.6 but keeps bringing up Network Diagnostics on a 12" PB also running 10.4.6. The 12" PB ends up at the 'Unable to connect to the Internet' window and says 'Network Diagnostics cannot fix the current networking problems.'
I can connect to the AE modem from the non-interneted 12" PB via the airport card with Airport Utility so I think the Airport card is OK.
Any hints as to what might be wrong?
Thanks.
Bill Whitacre
[email protected]

Try creating a new location in the network settings. Then select Network port configurations and drag Airport to the top of the list. Uncheck any unused connection types such as built-in modem and Bluetooth.

Airport Express Printer Works with Macbook Pro, but not on Macbook

We have two Macs -- a Macbook Pro, and a Macbook. Both are connected to an Airport Express, and can access the internet and control Airtunes without any issue. However, only the Macbook Pro can print to the Aiport Express connected printer -- a Canon ip3500.
When I go to system preferences to add the printer on the Macbook, the printer is available, and it allows me to add it. However, the location of the printer and the driver( or at least the driver number) are different, even though it is pre-populated by the computer itself.
Once the printer shows as being installed, I can print to that printer, but the job is automatically "Stopped" in the status. I cannot restart the job, it just stalls out.
When the printer is connected via USB, the Macbook can print to it without issue. It can also print to it via bonjour if I share the printer from the Macbook Pro.
Anyone else having similar issues? Any suggestions on how to fix it would be greatly appreciated.

Try creating a new location in the network settings. Then select Network port configurations and drag Airport to the top of the list. Uncheck any unused connection types such as built-in modem and Bluetooth.

I won´t AirPort Express Model A1088 to MacBook pro OS 10.9.3

I have AirPort Express Model A1088 and I can´t config in my new MacBook pro OS 10.9.3
And don´t see in my iPhone 5s.
What hapen? my AirPort Express Model A1088 it´s obsolete? and never will use anymore?

Hi Kappy
Thaks for respond me.
I solve a half problem.
I can install Aiport Utility 5.6 and config my AEX and this part OK, but! I can send music from my MacBook pro With Maverick OS to my AEX but I can't send music from my iPhone 5s or iPad with iOS 7 to AEX.
The AEX it´s not more compatible with this iPhone 5s or iPad with iOS 7?
Thaks for everything

Can Airport Express speed up my Macbook Pro's Wifi Connection?

Hey all
Just a thought, I'm with Virgin Media for my broadband and my Macbook and iPhone can be rather slow on the network. Plenty of devices on but my parents broadband speed should be plenty to manage them all.
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Thanks
Rob

Hi Bob,
My router and the Airport Express is located directly beneath my bedroom so within perfect range I'd say. I get between 2-3 out of 3 bars of wifi signal on my iPhone and 4/4 bars on my Macbook so I'd say I'm close enough however I have been thinking of trailing a network cable from the router to the airport express through the floor and putting the airport express in the same room as me.
Thanks
Rob

What's a good Express card for a Macbook Pro?

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Apple refers to it as an Express Card/34, but what is that?
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If it doesn't say Expresscard, and instead it says things like Cardbus, PCMCIA or any other format, don't buy it, it won't work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExpressCard
http://www.expresscard.org
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Upgrading to a 802.11n Airport Express Card in my Macbook Pro

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