AirPort Cards

AirPort is a local area wireless networking brand from Apple Inc. based on the IEEE 802.11b standard (also known as Wi-Fi) and certified as compatible with other 802.11b devices. A later family of products based on the IEEE 802.11g specification is known as AirPort Extreme. more...

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The latest family of products is based on the draft-IEEE 802.11n specification and carries the same name.

AirPort and AirPort Extreme in common usage can refer to the protocol (802.11b and 802.11g, respectively), the expansion card or the base station.

In Japan, the name "AirPort" had already been registered by I-O DATA (I-O DATA page in english translated by www.translate.google.com), causing Apple to sell it under the name "AirMac" there.

Overview

AirPort debuted on July 21, 1999 at the Macworld Expo in New York City with Steve Jobs picking up an iBook supposedly to give the cameraman a better shot as he surfed the Web—the applause quickly built as people realized there were no wires. The initial offering included an optional expansion card for Apple's new line of iBook notebooks, plus an AirPort Base Station. The AirPort card (a repackaged Proxim—ORiNOCO Gold Card PC Card adapter) was later added as an option for almost all of Apple's product line, including PowerBooks, eMacs, iMacs, and Power Macs. Only Xserves do not have it as a standard or optional feature. The original AirPort system allowed transfer rates up to 11 Mbit/s and was commonly used to share Internet access and files between multiple computers.

On January 7, 2003, Apple introduced AirPort Extreme, based on the 802.11g specification. AirPort Extreme allows theoretical peak data transfer rates of up to 54 Mbit/s, and is fully backward-compatible with existing 802.11b wireless network cards and base stations. Several of Apple's current desktop computers and portable computers, including the MacBook Pro, MacBook, Mac mini, and iMac ship with an AirPort Extreme card as standard (as of May 2006). All other modern Macs have an expansion slot for the card. AirPort and AirPort Extreme cards are not physically compatible: AirPort Extreme cards cannot be installed in older Macs, and AirPort cards cannot be installed in newer Macs. The original AirPort card was discontinued in June 2004.

On June 7, 2004, Apple released the AirPort Express Base Station as a lower-priced, more mass-market alternative to the AirPort Extreme Base Station.

On January 9, 2007, Apple unveiled a new AirPort Extreme Base Station, now with styling similar to that of the Mac mini and Apple TV.

Although AirPort and AirPort Extreme cards are available only for Macintosh computers, all AirPort base stations and cards work with third-party base stations and wireless cards that conform to the 802.11a, 802.11b or 802.11g networking standards. It is not uncommon to see wireless networks composed of several types of AirPort base station serving old and new Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, and even Linux systems. Apple's software drivers for AirPort Extreme also support some Broadcom and Atheros-based PCI Wireless adapters when fitted to Power Mac computers. Due to the nature of draft-n hardware, there is no assurance that the new model will work with 802.11n routers and access devices from other manufacturers.

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