(Note: Many older links removed as they are longer valid as of 2015.)

This page has older mac user feedback/tips on various 802.11n adapters and bases/routers (including Apple's 802.11N Airport Extreme as well as Linksys, D-Link and other models). Also included are notes on the 802.11n chipsets used in later (intel-based) Macs and 3rd party adapters with the same chipset and other 3rd party 802.11N adapters that have Mac OS X drivers (such as RALink).

Early MacBook Pro (core duo) Guide on swapping in Mac Pro 802.11n Wireless card William Rivas sent a writeup with photos of upgrading his Core Duo MacBook Pro with a ($49) Airport Extreme (802.11n compatible) card for the Mac Pro. Several readers with Core Duo Macs (w/mini-PCIe wireless card slots) swapped in a Dell 1500 notebook wireless card instead of the Mac Pro kit card. The Dell 1500 worked (same broadcom chipset as the 2007 Mac Pro kit card)

Apple OEM 802.11n Mini-PCIe Cards for Mac Pros, some Mac Notebooks: Stock can vary but as of summer 2013 OWC's wireless page had several Apple OEM (original mac equipment) 802.11n/a/b/g cards. Check link for current stock status and pricing as they may sell out.

Mac user reports on the 802.11n Cards/Bases/Routers:
If you're using a Mac with 802.11n upgrade, let me know your experience (include Mac model, network details, base/router model, if it's a pure 802.11n network or mixed b/g/n, etc. - send to news at this site.)

D-Link DWA-160 dual-band USB adapter report:

(Added 4/18/2011)
"We have a couple of older G4 PowerBooks and Core Duo Mini for which I was seeking faster-than-802.11g wireless networking. One of the PowerBooks and the Mini have 802.11g built in while the Titanium PowerBook uses a Motorola PCMCIA card for equivalent functionality. (FYI - there's also a previous report on a (Broadcom N chip based w/native support) Linksys 802.11N Dual-Band PCMCIA card in OS X - he actually used it with a PCI card adapter in a G5 Tower.)

I first tried an Edimax EW-7706 PCMCIA card for the PowerBooks (both running 10.4.11). It worked, with speeds a bit faster than the original 802.11g, but it was slow to connect and even slower to re-connect after a sleep - if it would re-connect at all. A re-start after sleep was quicker.

I found a D-Link DWA-160 dual-band USB adapter at a good price locally and thought I would try it. I had read lots of bad things about it but figured it was worth a try. There's absolutely nothing on the box, in the instructions or on the D-Link products site concerning use with Macs, but there is a Mac driver on the D-Link Support site. One should be aware that there are at least three versions of the DWA-160: A1, A2 and B. Mine is the A2 variety and it works fine with the Mac driver from the D-Link site; it may or may not work with the other versions - I simply can't say. I did read on the D-Link users forum that some surgery using Terminal is required when using 10.6.7 - a permissions issue.

Initially I could not make it respond at all and thought it might be DOA, but after de-installing the Edimax and D-Link software and then re-installing the D-Link utility, it all worked just fine. We have two networks: a b/g/n one at 2.4 GHz and an n-only network on 5 GHz. (Two AirPort Extremes of different vintages). The DWA-160 works well with either one. It will not, however, work with older WEP encryption. (You should avoid using WEP if at all possible - WPA2 is a better choice if all your wireless devices support it.)

The DWA-160 also worked without a hitch on the Mini running 10.5.8.

File transfer speeds were not as good with the PowerBook G4/1.25 GHz, as with a 2 GHz MacBook with built-in 802.11n, but still double what is achievable with 802.11g. On the Mini, transfer speeds were about the same as the MacBook: 11 MB/sec. With the Titanium G4, speeds were limited by the USB 1.1 port speed, and so slower than the 802.11g speeds available via the Motorola card. Connections were also dropped frequently when using the Titanium PB with the DWA-160. To be fair D-Link specifies USB-2 as a requirement. I mention this mainly because one of the most-frequent criticisms I had read about the DWA-160 was that it drops connections more often than it should. Perhaps all these folks were using USB 1?

I did find that connections did not always survive sleep, but when it did not, all that was necessary was to unplug and re-plug the DWA-160's USB connection.

The DWA-160 is a little larger than many competitors, but it comes with a USB extension cord and stand. Using the extension cord makes the arrangement less vulnerable to accidental knocks and eases crowding at USB ports, but does leave one with a "tail" to deal with. I did not find placement or orientation of the DWA-160 to be an issue. It worked fine when just left hanging, or lying on its side on a table.

The D-Link support site suggests that for maximum speed one should use no encryption but rather enable MAC-address filtering. I tried it both ways with no difference in observed transfer speeds. Our networks will remain encrypted.

Signal strength was less of an issue than using the Titanium PB's original internal AirPort card used to be, nor is it as critical as is our current iPad using the n-only network. The DWA-160 does not, however, report as many neighborhood networks as the Edimax does. Maybe that's a good thing.
- Harold"

Broadcom N chip PCI Card in G5 Tower: (1/25/2010) Late posting a page on this but see Netgear WN311B-110ISS Rangemax (802.11n) PCI card in G5 Tower for details/pix/screenshots. (From Jan 7th, 2010 mail.)

802.11N card swaps in Early (Core Duo) MacBook Pros revisited:

"I've just installed a SparkLAN WPEA-110N card (802.11a/b/g/n Dual-Band Mini PCI Express Module, Atheros AR9280 - www.sparklan.com/product.php?func=view&prod_id=63) in my (early/core duo) MacBook Pro, it's based on the Atheros 9280 chipset used in the new iMacs.
(Although most N cards in Macs are Broadcom based, some earlier model 802.11N capable Macs (notebooks typically) had Atheros AR5008 based cards (noted some years ago on the Mac 802.11n page here). And back in spring 2007 when the Core Duo MacBook Pro N card upgrade guide here was posted, some readers used Dell 1500 cards bought on ebay - I think they were atheros based also back then. Here's a post from Feb 13th, 2007 news page on that, noting it was an AR5008 based card. Of course like any mfr, they could have changed chipsets used at any time.)
It supports both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz modes and is MIMO capable on the original 2 aerials. It is recognised as Apple supplied by Network Utility. Unfortunately my router is 2.4Ghz only at the moment so I cannot test the 5Ghz mode.

Unlike the Broadcom card it is single sided so it doesn't take up any extra space and fits perfectly. Strangely my card is held in place by with a clip from the fan housing not as shown in the guide. Mine came from Oxford Tech here in the UK for a very reasonable £ 35.97 including postage. Performance seems fine considering my mixed network (Wii and Brother 750 printer on G, iMac and this MacBook on N) and range is excellent, I have a new Sitecom WL-348 300 capable router driving the network.

(He sent a screenshot from Network Utility that showed one transmit and a few recv errors, so asked if that was typical.)
I only get those errors with my Bluetooth mouse and between my Mac and the router so I guess they're related to that. I've always had them.

I had tried a second hand Broadcom card but my 'Book didn't seem to be able to drive it, the throughput was 2mbs at best! I do not know if the card was broken (it was recognised fine) or if there was a quirk with my 'Book which came with an (802.11g) Atheros AR5BXB6 card originally.
-Norman J."

Some other upgraded (core duo) MacBook Pro owners in the past also noted poor 2.4GHz performance, although 5GHz was fine. (See earlier posts below from Dec/Nov 2008.)

Ralink 802.11N OS X Driver Updates: (Late posting this - got lost in the overloaded inbox)

(added 3/6/2009)
"I've been using a Newer Technology MAXPower 802.11n/g/b Wireless PCI Adapter ($45 originally) for a couple of years in my Power Mac G5 2.3GHz DP (PCI-X) with generally good results. I just noticed that Ralink Technology Corporation posted updated drivers for their USB and PCI products in December (08) and January (09). www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=3 (Update: URL no longer valid).
Great site and a wonderful service to the Apple community. All the best.
-George"

Thanks George. I missed the January update to the PCI/CB (cardbus) drivers (not using one of those models) but did update to the Dec. 4th, 2008 USB drivers. I hoped the update may have eliminated the need to edit the driver plist for the Linksys Dual-Band N USB adapter but it didn't. (I still had to edit the driver plist for the ID of the Linksys adapter). I used that USB adapter with my 10.3.9 PB G4 17in as it works in 5GHz band also, not just 2.4GHz as most do. (I like to run my AE N base in 5GHz mode for max performance, but that means all my 802.11G/B devices/clients can't access the network. With the new AE bases you can run both 5GHz and 2.4GHz bands simultaneously though.) I wanted to post already edited files/installer but never got a reply/OK from RAlink... (I'm hoping Linksys doesn't change the chipset used on that USB dual-band adapter, they are infamous for that sort of thing IMHO in the past...)

More Feedback on Core Duo MacBook Pro upgraded w/Mac Pro N card: (3 reports of poor 802.11G/mixed mode performance. (5GHz N only mode OK.) I asked if the card clip was reused, connections tight, if different channels tried, etc.)

(added 12/30/2008)
"After reading your page (Feb 2007 article on MacBook Pro (core duo) Guide on swapping in 802.11n Wireless card), I decided to give the upgrade a try. The installation was simple as I have upgraded the hard drive before. I have a 1st Gen MacBook Pro 2.16Ghz, OS X Leopard 10.5.6, 2GB RAM, Windows is supported through VMWare
Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x87)
Wireless Card Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.38.24)

I don't know if I have the BCM4321 or the BCM4328 chipset because I didn't think about looking at the card until I had a few problems (he later wrote it's BCM4321MC). I am getting the signal fluctuation described by another person on your site. (earlier report below) I have to run a b/g/n mixed mode environment due to iPhone, Wii, and older PC's that I don't feel like spending the money on to upgrade.
(Some users that saw this problem used a 802.11G/B Router in bridge mode, allowing the N macs to run in fastest 5GHz N only mode and B/G clients to use the G router, but that's an extra cost unless you have a spare base already. And that's just an in-home workaround.)
Additionally, I travel with my MacBook Pro and I need consistent performance across the 802.11 standards.
As a test, I did switch to a 802.11n (5GHz) only mode, and the wireless worked flawlessly with the upgraded Airport Extreme card. Again, this is impractical since I travel quite a bit.

After running into problems, I reinstalled the 10.5.6 Combo update with little effect. So far the signal fluctuations are the only problem I have. It does cause connectivity issues and a decrease in overall WiFi range.

I have attached screenshots from the mixed mode environment. (Network Utility Info tab screenshot showing no Send/Recv errors or collisions, w/link rate of 130Mbits/sec. And Airport Utility info SS showing Airport base firmware 7.3.2, channel 11 (automatic), WPA/WPA2 personal security.) I'll keep an eye on your site for updates.
(he later wrote)
I actually reseated the Airport extreme to ensure both the antenna connections and grounding clip were positively seated. The Airport extreme card is the BCM4321MC chipset also. My cordless phones are 5.8Ghz and I see no impact because of the Microwave oven. This is definitely a weird problem. I even messed around with "Interference robustness" settings to see if that helped.
My wife's new unibody MacBook is working like a champ using 802.11n compatibility on the network (attached screenshot). (Not really useful as it just showed the same 130Mbit/sec link speed, no send/recv errors as the MBP) She gets great coverage throughout the house and I never see any fluctuation with her Mac. (It likely has better antennas than the older MBP. And some Mac N notebooks use an Atheros chip based N card. Some with 3 antennas IIRC.)
I have gone back to my original 802.11b/g wireless card. I'm a network guy by trade but I can get around in computers. I wish I had the cycles to debug the wireless driver (if I even knew how).
-Jack P."

Earlier reports follow with similar complaints on G/mixed mode performance:

(added 11/12/2008)
"I thought I would add something to the 802.11n adapter report because so far I've only read of one other person who's had the issue I've been having lately and his was a review of the Mac Pro 802.11n upgrade card they were selling on Amazon.com, he gave it one star due to PEAP and 802.11G performance issues: Apple MA688Z/B Airport Extreme card kit (same card as used in our original MacBook Pro (core duo) Guide on swapping in 802.11n Wireless card)
Here are my specs:
1st Generation Macbook Pro Core Duo 2.0GHz
2GB factory RAM
Leopard 10.5.5 (w/AirPort Extreme Update 2008-004 I assume.)
Boot Camp - Windows XP Pro SP3 (I assume you installed BootCamp 2.1 update (originally leopard shipped w/BC 2.0) as apple said that BC2.1 update reqd for SP3.)

This is what I installed:

MacBook 802.11n AE Card from ifixit

Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB hard drive
The original 100 GB hard drive was starting to get too full and I figured it was time to upgrade so I went ahead and bought a Seagate 7200.3 320 GB (ST9320421AS) bought a fresh copy of Leopard and of course the 802.11n Mac Core Duo upgrade card from ifixit.com (over priced at $89.95 as I've learned).

The HDD and the 802.11n card went in easily and upon restoration with Time Machine my 802.11n card was recognized immediately. The Time Capsule had no problems talking over 802.11n. I installed Boot Camp and XP Pro SP3 and here is what I've noticed. It's important to note that the wireless chipset that Apple now sells (with this kit) is the Broadcom BCM4328 and not the older, perhaps more compatible BCM4321.

Under Leopard System Profiler my Wireless card info is listed as this:

Wireless Card Type: AirPort Extreme (0x14E4, 0x87)
Wireless Card Locale: USA
Wireless Card Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.38.9)
(Reader FYI: firmware updates are not flashed in the card, but are a loaded file that has been updated at times as part of Airport Extreme updates for intel-based Macs. His vers. info is the same as my 2007 AL iMac (10.5.5 w/all updates) except my iMac's card type is ... 0x88 vs 0x87.)
Wireless Channel: 36

Here's a summary of the issues:

802.11g performance has been abysmal probably 40%-50% less signal strength than before under both OS X and Windows. (no change in base location or other factors that could affect this? (like 2.4GHz clutter/interference). Changing channels/relocating base doesn't help?
BTW - Another recent report (below) from a MBP owner that upgraded on disappointing G mode performace follows - his solution was to add a G base for those clients and have his 802.11N base (running 5GHz N only) set to bridge mode.)

802.11n performance (5 GHz N only) under Leopard is excellent 270 Mbit/s all throughout the apartment

802.11n under Windows XP Pro SP3 will not connect above 72 Mbit/s and usually degrades below 54 Mbit/s using that same N connection, weak signal strength

When the battery drops below 15% power life the Airport Card shuts down and will not re-connect until a hard reboot of the machine under Leopard

I've been unable to find updated BCM4328 compatible drivers for XP the links to BCM43xx packages I've downloaded have failed to work with the 4328 chipset.

I hope this can be helpful to someone else as I wrote a post about it on my blog too. (www.marybicycles.com/airport-extreme-broadcom-oh-my/) Thanks for the great resource that is xlr8yourmac.com
-Mark B."

5GHz N only mode performance is much better in my experence also. No MacBook pro here, but an Al iMac and AppleTVs show much higher xfer rates in 5GHz mode, although sometimes I have to revert to 2.4GHz for G and B clients. Definitely takes a performance hit in 2.4GHz/mixed mode. (If non-N clients are on the network with mixed mode it basically behaves like a G (or B) network, sacrificing performance for backward compatibility.) Also 2.4GHz mode is more cluttered.
My router is an Apple (gigE) 802.11N AE base (w/latest firmware), using WPA2 mode (no MAC address filtering).
I don't run bootcamp/windows however but have had a friend's Vista PC w/USB Dual-Band Linksys N adapter (running 5GHz mode) share the network at times. (Shared DSL modem for internet access - low-cost DSL service isn't very fast.)
I use a FW800 connected Ministack for Time Machine backups (as I don't want TM backups to eat into wireless bandwidth) - although I still have TM off and use the "backup now" option every day. (TM by default backs up every hour.)

Another recent report from a MacBook Pro owner that upgraded the wireless card that noted disappointing 2.4GHz/mixed mode performance:

(added 11/12/2008)
"Thanks for the DIY on how to upgrade the wireless N on the 2006 MacBook pro, which I have. Unfortunately I am not getting the speed and reception boost I was expecting.

I currently have a new airport extreme base station running N mixed mode at 2.4ghz as I still have a lot of other devices with G. I also have a Santa rosa macbook and it is extremely fast. However I can't say the same for my pro after upgrading. It is actually worst than the original wireless card.

The reception bars would fluctuate a great deal and it is very inconsistent. I am currently running with leopard on a core duo MacBook pro and even tried using the enabler software but with no luck. (Leopard doesn't need the original Apple 802.11n enabler (as mentioned on the DIY page here it was for OS X Tiger only).)

(Can you test to see if 5GHz N only mode improves things? (just as a temporary test.) Before the card upgrade were you also using the Airport N base? (or was that added recently as well as the N card upgrade. And Airport base firmware up to date?) I asked if there were any issues with the antenna connections. (Tried changing channels, relocating base, etc. to see if that helps with 2.4GHz mode?) Are you running 10.5.5 with all updates (there was an Airport extreme 2008-004 update in late oct. 2008 also.)
I see a big (major) difference in N only/5GHz mode with an Al iMac and AppleTV vs 2.4GHz mixed mode - much better speeds and less interference (2.4GHz is really cluttered in comparison) and with non-N clients on the network performance really suffers in comparison to N only mode.)
Thanks for the reply!
I solved this issue by reviving my old linksys router and have my airport extreme N router as a bridge in 5ghz N only mode. So far so good. Good speeds even through walls.
-Binh T."

SMC Barricade N Combo Bundle

(added 10/14/2008)
"I was reading your page on compatable Draft N hardware and I can confirm that the Barricade N from SMC (part no. SMCWBR14S-N2) router + (SMCWUSBS-N2) USB N network stick works. Although exclusively marketed at PC users I tried the USB network stick from the pack with the 10.4 / 10.5 Ralink drivers from the link on your page and it works well!
Range is impressive too in our all brick house here in England. We were using just standard G before with poor results, with this it has an 100% improvement.
Although just a two antenna version (most have three I have noticed) this unit will blitz any standard G setup in the speed and range department. I paid only £ 39.00 for both the router and USB stick in a combo pack, online order pickup from a large PC equipment retailer, so considering that many G setups go for this price it really is a steal! Speed wise (with bricks and all the RF unfriendly stuff in the way!) I am getting around 100Mbs, not bad considering the unit can do 300Mbs!
I have been using this for two weeks with no problems, altough the Ralink driver has frozen once or twice, which has not been a major issue considering the amount of time it has been switched on.
-Will C."

Time Capsule and AirPort Base Station (802.11n) Firmware 7.3.2 (June 30th, 2008) The Time Capsule and AirPort Base Station (802.11n) Firmware 7.3.2 doc simply mentions "bug fixes". Use Airport Utility 5.3.1 or later (v5.3.2 released earlier this month - downloads included on the linked page also) to get/apply the firmware update. (I updated my Airport N/gigabit base to firmware 7.3.2 with Airport Utility v5.3.2.)

Newer Tech 802.11 Adapters: OWC originally sold the Edimax 802.11n PCI, PCMCIA and USB 2.0 adapters but in Early Feb. 2008 they replaced them with their own line of NewerTech branded models at even lower prices:

" Have replaced the Edimax 802.11n products with our NewerTech product line (PCI, PCMCIA and USB 2.0 models). Our NewerTech line comes with the Mac driver + a real Mac manual right in the box and full Mac support from NewerTech of course... And no one getting better pricing than your readers on this line.
The NewerTech USB 802.11n/g/b adapter is also rather unique in that it includes an extension cradle so you can better position for reception if so desired. It works straight to the USB port too, but the extender cradle is a nice bonus for those that need that extra positioning. (The PCI card model includes a triple antenna pod that can also be relocated.)

Also on the list too is our 802.11n/g/b performance router too.
Best Regards,
Lawrence R. O'Connor
Other World Computing"

Edimax 802.11N PCI Card Reports Updated: - see this page.

NOTE: reports below were from mid-Oct 2007 and earlier, before OS X 10.5/Leopard was released
(FYI - OS X 10.5 does not need the $1.99 802.11n enabler.) Also, initial feedback (from the xlr8yourmac.com news page, and Edimax reports page) noted the RALink 802.11n PCI/PCMCIA/USB adapters still worked in OS X 10.5 even with the Aug. 2007 drivers which noted OS X 10.3/10.4.x support - although they have updated the drivers since then, which now lists OS X 10.5/Leopard support.

Airport 802.11N base w/GigaBit Ethernet: (NAS user upgrade)

(10/17/2007)
"You published an earlier report of my Synology DS-107e NAS on 8/31/2007 (on Mac NAS reports page). Since then I've been totally happy with this unit. After purchasing a new MacBook Pro with wireless "n" capability I decided to upgrade this system by changing my old D-Link router (DI-624 AirPlus Xtreme G, now discontinued) out for a new Apple Airport 802.11n Base w/Gigabit Ethernet LAN/WAN ports. The improvement was immediately noticeable, I've not run any Benchmarks, but when observing the throughput of a SuperDuper "Disk image Clone" operation, the copy speeds average 4-5 faster then with my older PowerBook and D-Link router. To say I'm pleased with this improvement would be an understatement.

(I asked if he'd applied the Airport 802.11N base 7.2.1 firmware update, the latest as of Oct 2007.)
Yes I updated the firmware to 7.2.1 as prompted during the installation. I've not witnessed any problems, then again I'm not using the "AirDisk" feature.
-James"

Airlink AWLC6080 300N Wireless-N Cardbus Adapter

(added 10/15/2007)
"So I needed a new Wi-Fi card for my PowerBook Ti 667 DVI, and I saw this on Frys.com: Airlink AWLC6080 300N Wireless-N & G PC-Card Cardbus Adapter
It turns out it has the Ralink chip on it, so I bought it. Only $44.99! I don't have an N based network, but it works pretty good on my G based one.
My only problems are wake from sleep/boot issues. The card won't connect after a wake from sleep, and it halts the boot process. The fix is to just not put it in the slot until after it's awake or booted. It doesn't cause any major problems, and the minor ones can be solved just by taking the card out.
-Steve F. "

I don't recall anyone that used the Edimax 802.11n (also ralink based) PCcard saying they had boot/sleep problems (although not sure they tested for sleep, I'm sure they would have mentioned a boot problem). One note on the page of feedback on the Edimax 802.11n PCI card was to add the utility as a startup item.

D-Link DIR-655 Base/Router: (there's some earlier reports on this base also here)

(added 10/15/2007)
" Non-Apple wireless routers for 802.11n networking
Just acquired a D-Link DIR-655 (D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router) to use with my MacBook Pro 17" 2.33GHz.
To start with, performance with 802.11n enabled on the router was diabolical -- speed could be measured in kb/sec! Set router to 802.11b/g and performance was OK.
Updating the router's firmware to 1.03 (I am in UK -- 1.05 is released in US with mixed reports), which implements 802.11n v2.0, makes 802.11n work -- getting reported connection of 150+ and file transfers are very fast, but only if I use WPA encryption. WEP slows it right down (50-60). I have an old Powerbook that doesn't support WPA, so until that dies, seems I'll be in the slow lane.
-Andrzej G. "

I asked for more info on the older powerbook/OS used. (Some previous apple airport updates added WPA support years ago even to the original airport 802.11b cards, but not sure what OS he's using.)

Low-cost 802.11N Cardbus adapter compatible with Ralink OS X drivers (from 8/21 news page)

"Have gained much info and help from your site over years now, so delighted to be able to give something back.
I have a 15" 1GHz TiBook which I've used wirelessly since I got it, first with an inbuilt Airport 802.11b card, then with a Buffalo WLI-CB-G54A 802.11g cardbus card, and now successfully with a new Edimax EW-7708PN 802.11n draft 2.0 cardbus card. I can confirm that this uses the Ralink RT2860 chipset.

Installation and configuration of the card was very simple using the Ralink OSX drivers and utility from www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=3 (URL no longer valid) and of course it was from xlr8yourmac that I learned of their existence.

The EW-7708PN connects flawlessly to my aged Belkin 802.11g base station. This is Broadcom based and is doing WDS with an 802.11g Airport Extreme, to which the EW-7708PN also connects fine. The network is rejoined on wake from sleep, but not as rapidly as with a native Airport card.

The Ralink utility shows that signal strength is apparently better than it was with the Buffalo card, with a significant signal associated with each antenna. Certainly performance in g mode is very good. I'm waiting for an Apple pre-N base station to make further tests, but so far I'm delighted.
(Update: I asked the Neville if the Edimax 802.11N PCMCIA card had Multiple antennas/MiMo support. He sent a screenshot from the RAlink utility showing the 3 antennas' signal strength.)

UK readers might be interested to know that I got the EW-7708PN from www.eupac.co.uk for £ 29.16 including VAT which equates to about $58, or less than $50 without the VAT.

I also bought the Edimax EW-7728In PCI version for use in a Quicksilver G4 to replace an old airport-compatible 802.11g Belkin card. This appears to be in every way identical to the Quickertek nQuicky card and cost me $56 (plus VAT) from Eupac.
I'm afraid I haven't tried this yet, but I've every expectation that it will work. Thanks again for the invaluable resource that is xlr8yourmac.
(Thank -you-, and thanks to all the readers that share tips/tricks/mods/guides, etc.)
Best regards, Neville W."

The EW-7728 was one of the RAlink 802.11N chip based PCI cards mentioned earlier this month (see below) after the public release of the drivers - it looks just like the GW-DS300N (first spotted back in Feb) - which appears literally identical to the nQuicky card (less decal).
FYI - Like all the PCI, USB and Cardbus 802.11n adapters I have seen to date (including some without mac drivers available), these operate in the 2.4GHz band. Some 802.11n bases (including Apple's) support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11n modes.

RAlink 802.11N chip based PCI cards and USB 2.0 Adapters (8/7/2007)
In repy to a request in the post on downloads of OS X 10.3/10.4 802.11N drivers from RAlink (below), a reader sent info on two PCI cards based on RAlink chips. One is the Asus WL-130N Wireless-N PCI Adapter (under $90) that has a cabled antenna "pod" that lets you locate the 3 antennas in a better location than when attached to the card.
Another is the Edimax nMax EW-7728In that looks a lot like the GW-DS300N (and Quickertek $149.95) card (see earlier post below). The product page does not mention RAlink but I downloaded the User Manual PDF for it which mentions using the Ralink conf. Utility (for windows).
Edimax also lists a USB model EW-7718Un that per the PDF manual also mentions Ralink.
These may work fine with the RAlink drivers but if you could find one of them at a local (brick and mortar) store, that may give you a easy return option just in case. (I'm going to check local stores here to see if they carry them.)
If any reader tries one of these (or another RAlink based adapter) with the OS X driver downloads, let me know. Thanks.

Airport Extreme 802.11N Base gets Gigabit Ethernet Ports: (8/7/2007)
Another Apple product improvement today (in addition to upgraded iMacs and Minis) - the Airport Extreme 802.11n base has been revised to now include Gigabit Ethernet on the three LAN and single WAN ports. (I got a heads-up on this earlier today and kept watching the specs page for an update.) FYI: In 2017 Apple announced they were no longer making Wireless Base stations.

First Feedback on nQuicky 802.11n PCI Card:
(from a reader mail on Aug. 6, 2007, first feedback on the quickertek products announced back in mid-June 2007.)

"I just want to report that I stuck the new nQuicky (802.11n) PCI card from QuickerTek into my PowerMac G4 Sawtooth (w/Sonnet 800mhz upgrade) and installed the driver, and it worked perfectly. (running OS X 10.3.x or 10.4.x I assume.) 10.4.10.
It connected fine with a Dlink 650 router. (DIR-635 - RangeBooster N 650 Router??) My mistake. It's the DIR-655 with the gigabit ethernet. (D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router)

And even though I have the antennae nearly on the floor, screwed into the card itself, I am getting much better signal strength reported by the dlink (30-40 ft away), and much better reliability and latency, than I have gotten with other N or G clients (I don't have an Apple N base, so cannot comment on that.)
-Mike J."

Back in April (2007) I posted info on an Ralink card that I think Quickertek is rebranding - the GW-DS300N (but no -USA- stocking dealers found - however see above for other models) - here's a photo of it:

The Quickertek (www.quickertek.com) nQuicky PCI card original MSRP was $149.95. (Quickertek also announced USB and cardbus adapters earlier this year and I'm guessing they're also RAlink chip based.)

MiniStack v3 with Airport N Base USB Port:

(added 7/19/2007)
"System: MacBook Pro
Drive: NewerTech ministack v3, from OWC!
Size: 320GB
I had just purchased an Airport Extreme and was shopping for an external drive that I could use with (USB) AirDisk. The new rev of the MiniStack came out just in time. It's perfect for me. I wanted USB and Firewire 800, so I could use the drive for video editing and storage. It also has plenty of USB ports and it's a powered hub, so I can share my printer (canon pixma 4300) and other hard drives. It's quiet and fast. The only minor thing I noticed is you can't have the USB plugged into the Airport and use the FW800. You need to unplug the USB first. (Is the Ministack's FW/USB Hub totally separate from the drive's FW/USB connections? If not, Drive Access/connections on 2 interfaces simul. isn't allowed.)
Also, I had a situation where the FW800 cable was plugged in and the fan running full throttle. Unplugging the cable spun down the fan. Weird.
Thanks for the site!, Greg"

I'm not sure why, but owners of -some- USB drives have reported problems mounting them with the AE N base.

Mac Mini (Intel) 802.11n card upgrade w/2nd Antenna install
Several readers with Intel-based Mac Minis upgraded their airport card with an 802.11n model (either Mac Pro card, Dell 1500, etc.) but the Mini only has a single antenna. (No MiMo with only 1 antenna, although even single antenna users seemed happy with the upgrade.) Some had mentioned adding a 2nd antenna but didn't elaborate on location, etc.

$99 Buffalo N-finiti (WZR2-G300N) Base/Router

(added 6/27/2007)
" Bought the latest Buffalo N-finiti (WZR2-G300N, $99 at Circuit City), not the dual band one, but the N-version. Web site says it supports Draft N version 2.

I have a mixed network (802.11N and 802.11G clients) with a N-enabled macbook pro and 3 windows notebooks. (Performance (and range) is reduced if any device on the network isn't 802.11N mode.)
I don't have a good test suite but I did go to speakeasy.net and ran their tests (I have comcast cable). After I installed the router I had a really slow connection with my Macbook Pro 802.11n with WPA/TKIP encryption. Speakeasy showed only 650kbps upload and download. I also have an 802.11a access point. When I connected to it I had download of 15-18Mbps and upload of 1.5Mbps.
I switched the encryption on the buffalo tech router to mixed WPA/WPA2 TKIP/AES. This time the speakeasy test using 802.11n matched the 802.11a results of 15-18Mbps download, 1.5Mbps upload.
2 story house with a basement. Router centrally located in the basement, tests from upstairs bedroom and 1st floor kitchen with consistent results in both locations.
At least I'm matching the 802.11a results.
-Ken S. "

WD MyBook Esssential (USB only) Mounting Problems: Reply to some earlier reports here on -some- (not all) Western Digital "MyBook" owners reporting the drive would not mount on the USB HD sharing port of the Airport N base. An owner of a MyBook FW/USB model ("Premium" model IIRC) had previously said his worked OK.

(added 6/7/2007)
"Same here My Book essential 500 GB with mac os extended, its recognised but not mounted, another drive with mac os extended journaled is mounting.
-Jens"

Another WD MyBook "Essential" owner mail that I'd missed recently reported the same thing:

(from May 20th mail)
"I have a WD My Book essential, that cannot mount on the desktop either. I initialized with no luck. Have any news concerning getting it to work.
-Peter "

Assuming there were no basic File Sharing problems (Jens said another drive mounted OK), I'm beginning to wonder if there's something in the "Essential" version's bridgeboard that is a factor.
If anyone using a WD MyBook "Essential" (USB only) drive -does not- have any problems using it on the USB port of the Airport Extreme N base, send a note with details. Thanks.
Update - Two MyBook USB only (Essential) owners replied to this post:

(6/7/2007)
" I have been using the WD MyBook (USB only) 250 GB with Apple formatting since the new Airport has been released. Every few weeks it dismounts so that I have to run thought the setup on the Airport.
Please note I don't change anything just go through till it says restart Airport and it fires right up.
-Charles D. "

I asked Charles if he could check Apple System Profiler for any "revision" or bridge info on the drive, in case WD has changed firmware or bridge boards over time. (He later sent some ASP info but it had no drive/bridge details - a direct connect may show more info.) Another WD "Essential" owner wrote that his drive mounts but also has the occasional unmounting problem:

(6/7/2007)
" I have a AirPort Extreme and my 250 GB WD Essentials (green light on the front) works just fine. I have a Japan APE which is supposedly a little different on the 802.11n specs, but since my MacBook Pro doesn't have n capabilities, not that big of a worry. I had it mounted on the APE easily the first time I tried it, the only problem with it was that it seems to disconnect randomly everyonce in a while. Incredibly bothersome to me cause all my torrents are downloaded directly to my WD HD, a disconnect means that they stop downloading. Then I have to manually restart the download everytime the connection drops.
-Kris"

I asked Kris if the drive unmounted after a long idle period or not (i.e. could the drive be going to sleep?) - but if a download is writing to the drive (not just system cache) then it shouldn't be a power saving/sleep issue. Some people in the past have had network dropout problems also. Kris later replied that his unmounting issues may be due to that, and also that he'd not reformatted the drive from the (as-shipped) FAT32:

(6/7/2007)
"yeah, I use it hard connected all the time, I hope to one day solve the issues with it and keep it connected wirelessly through my APE, but since it drops out in the middle of downloads sometimes, and since I have no other computers connected to the network it doesn't make much use to me to not keep it hardwired atm.
I'm fairly positive it's just a momentary network dropout issue, but it's long enough to interrupt the download and knock it off permanently. I do have it connected hardwired now, but I'm not sure how to go about checking for a firmware update, (I was just asking for the info listed in Apple System profiler, which can have info on the bridge board/revision, etc. in case there are various versions out there.) the drive is actually a MS-DOS FAT 32 formated drive, I don't even know if I CAN format it into the OSX format or the upcoming ZFS for Leopard. (Yes you can, just use OS X Disk Utility.) As long as it works FAT32 style, I'm ok.

(In about two months, I'm moving back to the states (living in Japan now) and I'll have it set up to transmit wirelessly due to the multiple computer setup I'll have, and it'll be a multi-OS setup, so I think it's probably best to leave it in FAT32 anyway)
-Kris"

Looking for Ralink 2800 chip based 802.11n PCI card to test with OS X drivers (4/26/2007)
I've not had time to do a lot of searching for one, but if any reader knows of a PCI 802.11n card that uses the Ralink 2800 chipset, send a note.
Earlier this month a reader (Perry) was sent an OS X driver (cardbus/PCI/PCI-e) for Ralink 2800's but he's unable to find a PCI card based on that chip so far. Perry said he wrote Ralink support to ask what card uses their N chip and said they referrred him to planex.co.jp/product/wireless/gw-ds300n/ (japan) which has a pix of the card (with 3 antennas).

I searched for that card's model number and found another site that had an english page (www.optimus.co.th/optimus/index.php) with the same card listed, but it's not a US dealer either.

Searches for 'ralink 2800' didn't find any useful results currently but if anyone else finds this card for sale in the USA (or any other Ralink 2800 series card), send a note. (Trying to find a US source, but a reader offered buy one in Akihabara (7560 yen) plus costs to ship to the US. Another reader found this card for sale on japan's amazon.com.jp.)

(added 4/9/2007)
"I picked up an Airport Extreme (802.11n) base over the weekend and wanted to share my experience setting it up. I bought it so I set up file- and printer-sharing for three Macs running 10.4.9 and a Dell laptop running XP. I'm using a 250 GB Western Digital Media Center external hard drive with a built-in USB hub, so I connected the drive to the base station and then plugged the printer into the drive.

Everything worked straight out of the box on my MacBook Pro. The iBook G4 saw the drive, but required a new version of the printer driver for my old Lexmark laser printer before it would print. My old Dual 450 G4 tower has a Buffalo PCI card (802.11g) for wireless and would not see the base station until I enabled interference robustness. After that everything works great. The Dell prints just fine, but I did not set up file sharing on it since I don't want to take the chance of it getting a virus and hosing the backup drive. I also have a Wii and it has no trouble connecting to the internet.

My 1st-gen MacBook Pro does not have 802.11n capability, but I still get ~3 MB/second read/write to the networked hard drive. (Reader FYI - see previous MacBook Pro (core duo) Guide to swapping in a ($49) Mac Pro 802.11n Wireless card.) Pretty good for wireless.

I'm very happy with the purchase. My goal was to have file- and printer-sharing without having to leave my power-hungry G4 on all the time. It's noisy and uses 150 watts just sitting there doing nothing...
Let me know if you have any questions.
(he later wrote)
The MacBook Pro is from work, so no unofficial upgrades (like the "N" card) for it...

(In reply to the report below on restart problems with a USB shared drive mounted)
No problems restarting or rebooting, but the MacBook Pro does get a little confused when I wake it up at work if I forget to unmount it at home (~10 seconds of spinning beachball of death, then a message that the connection was unexpectedly lost). After that it's fine. It's exactly the same behavior I get if I forget to unmount the Xserve at work before I go home.

The drive I have is a previous generation, 250GB Western Digital Media Center with built-in card reader and USB hub. I can confirm that the card reader does not work with the base station, even though the activity LED next to the memory card slot lights up when I insert a SD card.
-Adam D."

(added 4/9/2007)
"Ever since I've networked my MyBook HD (Is it an "Essential" (USB only) model or the FW/USB model?) into my AE N base when I shut down my computer (MacBook Pro) all my icons disappeared as they do at shutdown the dock falls away and my desktop picture is the only thing exposed but instead of the normal power down nothing else happens. Sort of locks up, well pauses in that state and I have to power down manually by holding the power button. I was considering trashing my auto run files but I'm not sure...
-Thomas O."

I asked if he tried unmounting the shared MyBook volume first. (Anyone else see this?)

More (intel) Mini owner reports on Mac Pro N card use w/only 1 Antenna:
The latest comments from intel-cpu Mini owners on using a Mac Pro 802.11n card upgrade, using only the single Mini antenna. (802.11n cards including the Mac Pro typically have 2 antenna connections.The 2nd antenna is for MIMO (Multiple In/Multiple Out) - here's an old link I had to an article (www.deviceforge.com/articles/AT5096801417.html) on that based on an early Intel white paper on 802.11n, including diagrams on mutiliple streams.)

(3/28/2007)
"Just wanted to let you know that both of my Mac Mini's are working fine with a Mac Pro "n" card. In fact I routinely transfer files from the Mini that records all my TV shows w/EyeTV to the iMac in my office via a USB drive. Well I have this shiny new "n" network so I gave it a try and copied about 5GB without any problems. My wife's Mini has been trouble free since the "n" upgrade too.

(I asked for more info, including if he'd noticed any performance degredation from using only a single antenna, and about range, distance to the base (and type of base).)
No degradation and by a purely seat of the pants benchmark, it is much faster than when it had its original "g" card. I have one Airport Extreme Base Station "N" on the second floor (about 45' walking distance or 25' linear away), almost as far away as I can get in my home and the signal strength is better than my previous "g" Extreme, in the same location.

I use VNC a lot, especially for the EyeTV Mini and before the "n" upgrade it was barely usable, very slow to refresh and respond. Since the "n" install the responsiveness is greatly improved and overall much more usable. I can even see the buttons pulse :-)

Oh and I am using the 5GHz "n" only band since I've been able to upgrade the wife's CD MacBook, which also works great. My newer C2D MacBook and my iMac, so we're just one happy "n" family.

Network Utility reports the following speeds (connect rates):
Both Mac Mini's (one 1.83GHz CD and one 1.83HGz C2D) 270Mbs
20" iMac (2.16GHz C2D) 270Mbs
MacBook 1.83GHz CD 270Mbs
MacBook 2.0Ghz C2D 300Mbs
-Greg "

Another reply regarding benefits of 802.11n dual antennas:

" I was actually informed by someone knowledgable on antenna subject that the second antenna does not boo(s)t range but is used for bi directional transmissions. The performance will be less with only one antenna because of this being taken away. I'm sure when using only one antenna a lot more would have to do with routers used and their settings. I had previously reported poor performance after updating my original macbookpro to a mac pro card. I recently changed access points and all performance issues disappeared.

Another note about reported speeds. Apple (network utility) only shows link rate. But not actual rate. (Note: The little-used Airport Client Monitor shows/graphs transmit rates (in kbps) as well as Signal/Noise.) Windows xp shows actual rate and often shows lower because of this. A utility such as ipnetmonitor for os x will show real rate.

N and windows XP drivers.
Boot camp drivers (as of BootCamp v1.1 at least) are outdated. They won't enable n speeds. Newer ones can be found on web.

Settings in xp driver
Go into device manager. Choose broadcom multiband adapter with a right click then go to properties. Then go into advanced settings about half way down. The driver is usually in default b or g only mode on "xxxx mode" setting change it to a b g n auto so all bands are enabled or all you will get in xp is b and g mode
-Adam "

Earlier reports with some notes on problems (lost network connection) that may be due to a suspect card.

(3/27/2007)
"While my mac mini was having its DVD drive replaced, I had my Apple authorized service center add the Mac Pro 802.11n card. The card works at 802.11n speeds, but after a few minutes of full bandwidth (ie Apple TV Syncing, multiple file downloads) it loses it's connection, and cannot find any wireless base stations. The only way to get a wireless signal again, is to do a full system restart. With the addition of my Apple TV I can replicate the problem very easily.
I have done a reinstall of OS X, and still the problem remains. My next step is to try swapping in another card. Maybe its a bad card. (check internal connections also) Will let you know if I have any luck.

Note: The service center did not add a second antenna. With the original card I had poor reception is OS X, and great reception in XP under Boot Camp. With the 802.11n card the opposite occurs. OS X reports full strength, and XP gets mediocre reception.

I have both an Airport Express base station, and an Apple 802.11n base station. It loses its connection to both. Plus it cannot see any of the 6+ other base stations in the neighborhood. My 802.11n Base Station is in n only mode, no security.
(I mentioned some Apple TV users had mentioned losing connections in some Apple forum posts)
The Apple TV issue they speak of is separate, I have witnessed it disappear even over wired Ethernet. Internet is still active though.
I am using 10.4.9 with all updates, and even have done a clean install.

(Does turning off Airport (from Mini's menu) and turning back on reconnect?)
No, it still does not see any networks. It is like the card is unresponsive to OS X.
-Gardiner "

I asked if he could check the logs to see if they had any related entries. Although I haven't heard from him since, a Mini owner back on March 2nd, 2007 (before Apple TV was released) reported on using the Mac Pro N card (with only the 1 stock antenna) and tested with an AirPort Extreme 802.11n base.
Maybe you have a suspect card (or connections not tight), but if anyone else with an upgraded Mini has seen this send a note.
Quickertek yesterday announced their 802.11n card + (ext.) Antenna kit for Intel-based Minis but it's $179, quite a bit more than the Mac Pro card kit. (Not sure what the best price around is on an ext. Antenna.)
Update: another Mini owner said one of the two Mini's he upgraded had similar problems:

(3/27/2007 - updated 4/2/2007) After reviewing a few articles, I decided to delete all the network prefs for my Minitel which has had problem with its Mac Pro (802.11n capable) wireless card. Specifically the /Library/Preferences/ SystemConfiguration/*.plist files

Then I rebooted. The only glitch I experienced was that the built in ethernet didn't get an IP address from the DHCP server. Rearranging the order of network interfaces in the Network panel (System Preferences), fixed that.

Things seem much more stable now and I haven't experience that glitch where the card turned off and couldn't be turned back on again except via reboot.

However, on a possibly semi-related note, I have noted several times where my wireless routers' (Airport Express and N Airport Extreme) WDS network was no longer selected in my Minis. I've seen this behavior in the past as well. This may be an issue with the Airports themselves. I have seen an Aiport Express, reboot for no discernible external reason.

(his earlier mail follows)
"I've upgraded two Mac Mini Intels to the Mac Pro wireless card. One behaves as your other reader described, the other has no problems with lost connections at all.

In Fact, when I first put a Mac Pro wireless card into my Mac Pro, I experienced a similar problem, though it got worse as eventually the system failed to see the card at all (it was replaced at the Apple Store as a defective card.) I'm suspecting that these cards may be extremely sensitive to static discharge.

On a different note, The Panasonic UJ-215 is finally shipping (at $1000!) slim height slot loading Blu-Ray super drive. Contemplating adding one of these to one of my Minis...
-Kim "

A reader that reported on the Netgear RangeMax base (see 3/13 report below) wrote he's now gotten an 802.11n airport extreme base:

(added 3/19/2007)
"My curiosity won out and I decided to try the Airport Extreme Base Station. In my last message, I gave some pros and cons for the Netgear RangeMax Next router.

I connected the Airport Extreme Base Station to augment my current wired Gigabit Ethernet network with wireless capabilities. Throughput from a Mac Pro (with the N enabler) to Gig-E is approximately 92 Mbps as measured with Iperf. Performance from the mac Pro (802.11n) to a MacBook Pro (802.11a/b/g) was not good, but I have read that 'n' to 'n' performance also experiences a hit. 802.11a mode is nice, because previous Airport Extreme cards in Intel-based systems will generally support 802.11a/b/g. My iMac 17" and MacBook Pro 15" (both Core Duo) machines both support 802.11a/b/g.

Pros:

Dual band wireless -- 2.4 GHz (b/g compatible, or n only), 5 GHz (a compatible, or n only)

USB for printer/disk sharing

Integration with Bonjour

WPA / WPA2 support (prefer WPA2 for AES encryption)

MAC address control

Bridge mode

NAT / DHCP support -- can use both, just DHCP, or neither (bridge mode)

Logging isn't bad (not as good as the Linksys BEFSX41 wired router/ firewall/vpn, but better than the Netgear RangeMax Next router)

Supports multiple configuration profiles

Very easy setup

Cons:

No Gigabit Ethernet support

Would prefer a Stateful Packet Inspection Firewall (not a show- stopper, since decent software firewall solutions are available)

Overall, I would say that the support of 802.11n, Macintosh integration, and the dual band capabilities are the significant features that distinguish this router from others. The extra expense is worth it, especially when you consider that you are getting a dual band router while some companies charge about the same cost for single band routers.

On the security front, I would like to note that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a publication on wireless security, with recommendations for wireless networks. SP 800-97 is subtitled "A Guide to IEEE 802.11i." It can be downloaded from the NIST Special Publications page of the Computer Security Resource Center: csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/.
Thanks, Steve"

More feedback on Netgear RangeMax Draft N base: (reply to an earlier report on the Feedback on Airport Extreme 2007-002 update page.)

(added 3/13/2007)
"I can confirm the performance issue with the RangeMax Next router from Netgear. (in reply to report yesterday) Performance dropped when I installed the Wireless N Enabler from Apple. There are a couple of things to consider. The obvious is to uninstall the enabler. The other option is to reduce the basic wireless settings from 300 Mb to 54 Mb. Even with that, performance is not good. Using Iperf, performance to a 802.11g device is around 13 Mb/s. Performance using the N Enabler (and no B/G devices) and routing the signal to an Ethernet device was in the 28Mb/s range. Better, but not great. (the earlier report also mentioned using only a 802.11n enabled mac and Ethernet connections)
For comparison, Iperf numbers just using the Gig-E switch are around 940 Mb/s. That is just a memory- based connection speed and not disk-based number like you would get with Helios LAN Test. Iperf essentially uses a "server" that listens on a specific port on one machine and a client that makes a connection to a user-specified machine to connect to the server version and check the connection throughput. I don't put much faith in the Network Utility connection number since that is just a link rate and not an actual performance number.

Here are my thoughts about the Netgear RangeMax Next Router (with a Gig-E switch -- WNR854T):

Pros:
• Gigabit Ethernet switch -- Airport Extreme sadly missing this feature
• Stateful Packet Inspection firewall -- Airport Extreme sadly missing this feature
• MAC address filtering
• Shows the addresses of connected devices
• WPA / WPA2 support with AES encryption
• Can disable the wireless portion of the device to use as a wired router
• Doesn't look like something out of a bad '70s science fiction movie
• Netgear has been posting regular firmware updates (6 since May 2006)
• Set-up was pretty easy -- includes an Ethernet cable to connect and set up the wireless portion
• Quite a few configuration settings, with descriptive text
  
  Cons:
• Marvell Top Dog performance for non-Marvell chipset is not good ((802.11n) Macs generally use Atheros or Broadcom)
• Security logging is weak -- I have a Linksys BEFSX41 that does system, access, and firewall logging; Netgear only logs items that you have specified in the blocking address/site configuration page.

The biggest issue is performance right now. I have read that one of the previous firmware updates was to address Broadcom and Atheros compatibility. More work is still needed. I think that a previous version of the WNR834 (RangeMax Next w/o the Gig-E switch) used a different chip-set, which may or may not have the performance problems. I have read that the router companies are "leaning" on the chip making companies to address the compatibility and performance issues. This is one of the biggest problems for 802.11n devices right now.
Thanks, Steve"

To save readers another click/page load, here's a copy of the previous RangeMax user's comments from the Airport Extreme 2007-002 update reports page:

(from 3/12/2007)
"First, i am using a MacBook Pro Core2 Duo (Atheros chip card) against a Netgear Rangemax Next (the Gigabit one) with newest Firmware.
I installed the Updates and n-enabler in several different combinations. But all ends in up in terrible slow airport connections with an enabled N-network. While i get a very constant 3.5MB in the 11g configuration, without the n-enabler istalled, i end up in an earthquake-like graph with an n-network. (seen w/activity monitor.) It is marked as 144MBit connection but it is slower than a 14.4MBit.
I don't have too much numbers but a very impressive one is copying a folder with some cd-images (about 3Gigs) to my old BW G3 on the other side of the net. I never run it till the end, only a few seconds until the calculation for transfer time ended and a few seconds more to see if they change significantly. So this numbers are realy amazing

- estimated 20 minutes for 11g
- estimated 2 hours for 11n
and the feeling is the same. As i said the rates on 11g are very constant the 11n rates are jumping up and down. Sometimes the progress bar seems to be frozen for 2 or 3 seconds, then it jumps 3Mb at once.

Conclusion: i cannot say the update changes anything in this. It is no way better or worth than without it. It ends simply in "do not use the n-enabler while you are using a netgear Rangemax Next". At least at the moment.
Are there any other experiences in this combination?
(I asked if there were any other non-802.11n adapters/systems on the network (which prevents running pure-N mode). Was the connection to the B&W G3 via ethernet - or a 802.11g or b wireless adapter? Did you do other tests (with only N devices on the network, not just tests to the old B&W G3). Try different channels? What security mode was used? (WPA? WEP?).)
There are only two devices on the wlan, the Router and the MacBook Pro. Of course the (B&W) G3 and a linux box are connected with normal ethernet.
Yes (tried different channels, etc.) but nothing helps. There is no other network in the area but i tried different channels and at least no encryption. Normal is wpa2.
And to add some opinion, maybe this is not really a problem of the rangemax. I bought it because c't magazine (you should know) found it fastest with about 90M real transfer rate in N-mode, even at a 10m distance. I hope there will be some solution in the (near) future.
-Michael"

(NOTE: Reports below were from -before- the Airport Extreme 2007-002 update, which some readers said improved performance with their setups.)

802.11N upgraded Core Duo MacBook Pro vs Core2Duo MacBook Pro

(2/23/2007)
"I got the MA688ZM/A at Gravis Mannheim, Germany. 49,95(euro). They had it in stock to my amazement. Installation was ok, a little difficult to fiddle with the antenna connectors (macbook pro 2.0 Core Duo)
immediately after the install the card was recognized and the 802.11 a/b/g/n capabilities were displayed. I had the enabler installed before i installed the card and at first I saw a cap on downloads @ 4mbit. i reinstalled from the 21.5MB dmg with all the APX apps and the enabler, after that the speeds were ok.

In my APX(old white station) in 802.11g are around 3.6MB/sec (all wifi WPA2 Personal). I have 16mbit(2MB/sec) DSL so i have no way of getting to the limit of 802.11g. I maxed that connection out with the old/new wifi card.

I had a friend over with his MacBook Pro C2D and we did wifi to wifi and ethernet to wifi tests, throughput on wifi to wifi was 3.6MB, ethernet to wifi was 3.6MB to. Oddly enough was that the C2D MBP had slower upload speeds in the LAN than me, I uploaded to him at 100% 802.11g speed, but he could only upload to me at 75%. This test was done vice versa, ethernet and wifi combinations. It seems that there's a bug with the s/w/firmware on the Atheros hardware, the broadcom in my MBP Core Duo seems to work faster than his. very odd...
-Cord R."

MacBook Core Duo notes on Mac Pro N card swap, new Airport N base: (from the Feb. 22nd news page - he got his Mac Pro N card kit before they sold out at Provantage)

"I swapped the stock card in my (core duo) Black Macbook (with a Mac Pro N card) and it works perfectly. In fact, I did not have to update the driver because I have had the N-Extreme Basestation (and software) for a week or so.
Booted up and Net Utility read it as a/b/g/n with a Link speed of 270 mbps. From start to finish the process took 25 minutes (and I was being extra careful).

(I asked if he had used Pacifist to install the 802.11n enabler, but he said it apparently was installed with the new Airport base software he'd previously installed on the Macbook.)
The card showed a/b/g/n as soon as I booted up following the Mac Pro Airport swap. I was getting ready to install the "n" enabler when I noticed it looked to be already installed. I was able to connect to my Extreme-N station on the 5Ghz N-only band and Net Utility showed a 270 mbps link. I still have not used the pacifist method to install the enabler. My only guess is that the enabler is automatically installed with the Basestation Software that provides the new Airport Utility whether there is a compatible N Airport card or not.

What I did notice was that none of my Macs (Macbook with n-tweak, Powerbook G4 15", and Intel mini) would connect to my 802.11g router (D-Link 4100 gamer router with gigabit). I was running WEP with a 10-character hex password and had to switch to WPA in order to get the machines back online on the G-band. I noticed the issue with the Macbook first ("Problem Connecting" error pop-up) and disabled the WEP to test. All 3 machines worked fine with the security off. I then re-enabled the same WEP password and changed the SSID name and NONE of the machines would connect. Very odd.
-Chris "

That may be related to the previously reported problem with WEP being broken on some routers after the Airport Extreme 2007-001 update. (The N enabler requires the Airport Extreme 2007 be installed and I think it's installed along with it.) However there's been other WEP problems reported with Draft-N routers (performance problems, etc.) and some readers (but not all) mentioned performance problems in general after the Enabler install.

"Settings in xp driver
Go into device manager. Choose broadcom multiband adapter with a right click then go to properties. Then go into advanced settings about half way down. The driver is usually in default b or g only mode on "xxxx mode" setting change it to a b g n auto so all bands are enabled or all you will get in xp is b and g mode
-Adam"

D-Link 655 (802.11n base/router) user notes on WEP performance problems (from Feb. 20th, 2007 news page)

" I recently purchased a D-link 655 predraft n router. When I hooked it up with my Macbook 2 Core duo (enabler installed), wireless transfer speed between two computers was unbearably slow. Internet speed was same as before from my SMC G router.
My main objective was to speed up transfer of files from my Macbook to my windows server via wireless transfer.
After fiddling around with controls, I realized pre draft n does not support WEP very well. In the Dlink router, it even warns you performance degrades when using WEP.
So changed to WPA-2 Individual and now I'm getting amazing transfer speeds. Transferred 377 MB in 6 minutes.
I am happy now.
-Zeke "

That's still not very fast (just over 1MB/sec), unless the above numbers have a typo? Some readers in the past mentioned performance dropped after installing the 802.11n enabler (some previous reports below here). As a reminder, the Apple 802.11n enabler requires the Airport Extreme 2007-001 update, which reportedly broke WEP on 2wire.com routers/modems which are often provided by many cable and DSL providers. I've had some N users say they saw no performance difference with WPA enabled or not, yet a couple others said there were performance problems with WPA and their N setups. A few weeks ago a N user said switching from WPA to WEP increased performance in his setup. (Go figure... hopefully all this will be hashed out when the N spec is finalized and updates are released.)
I don't have any Macs with 802.11n wireless currently (and no intel-based Macs) but when the N spec gets finalized I'll probably get an N base. Hopefully by then there will be some 802.11n PCI/PCcards, etc. (A couple weeks ago a reader said an RALink support person claimed they'd have OS X drivers for their 802.11n chips by the end of Feb.)

MacBook Pro (core duo) Guide on swapping in Mac Pro 802.11n Wireless card William Rivas sent a writeup with photos of upgrading his Core Duo MacBook Pro with a ($49) Airport Extreme (802.11n compatible) card for the Mac Pro. As other readers mentioned, the $1.99 802.11n enabler (NOT needed for OS X 10.5) was installed using Pacifist as the installer expects a Core2 Duo model or Mac Pro. (FYI: The MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, (intel cpu) Mac Mini and (intel cpu) iMac all use a mini pci-e wireless card.)

Another Belkin N1 base/router user report:

(added 2/19/2007)
"Well I have a Belkin N1 ver. 2000 wireless router and n-enabled Macbook and iMac.
What's peculiar is the data transfer from macbook to imac and vice versa is faster when you set the Belkin router to be 802.11g only instead of 802.11n.

I got 1.5Mbps when transfer files between computer using the 802.11g mode and roughly 600Kpbs when transfering the same file between computers using 802.11n mode. I have tested out all modes and 802.11g is the fastest with a Belkin N1 and 802.11n enabled macbook and iMac.
Please let me know if you have or know anyone who has the same results.
-PP "

Hardware RAID USB drives with Airport Extreme (802.11n) base
A reader last week (below) reported he could not use this Disk Utility setup RAID'd USB drives on the USB port of his new Airport Extreme so I asked if anyone had tried an external drive (w/USB port) that had hardware RAID support. Here's a couple reader reports on that working, including benchmarks comparing AE USB port vs Ethernet vs onboard USB 2.0/FW400/FW800 ports.

(added 2/12/2007 - updated w/benchmarks)
"I had good performance with hardware based mirroring on a OWC mercury elite pro case. (He later wrote he was mistaken, it was RAID 0 mode, not mirror.)... Cheers, Francois"
(He later sent results of Xbench 1.3 disk tests of Wireless (I asked if N-only mode) vs Ethernet with the drive)

I ran xbench, over ethernet and wifi, from a macbook pro.
(I asked if the MBPro had the 802.11n enabler installed and if the network was running in N-only mode.)
Thanks for asking for details, too many things going on here, MacBook Pro, N enabler, and that was the only device on the network at the time, so, presumably it was running in N mode only.

I was wrong about mirroring, that cabinet can only do striping, spanning and independent drives, so I ran the test with striped drives. Results are attached. (he later wrote)
For completeness, here is the xbench benchmark for the same drive, but now attached via USB to the same MacBook Pro.
I would not use the drive for heavy duty work, but for backups and access to shared video and music files it would be ok. (I asked if he tested video playback from the drive when connected to the base and if so to report back on performance and what resolution video was used. QT Pro player has a FPS reporting option during playback.)
No problem, I played apple-getamac-security_848x496.mov, apple- getamac-surgery_848x496.mov and apple-ipod_shuffle_848x496.mov that I pulled from the apple site and got the full frame rate, 24/second. The shuffle ad bit rate is just about twice that of the getamac ads, and they played fine over airport and ethernet.
One final thought, what I cant test is how many clients can simultaneously stream from the Airport Drive before drop outs happen, but it would be very interesting to find out. My conservative guess would be about 3, that would depends very much on the video of course.

(I combined all the xbench results he sent for easier comparison. I think the onboard FW port would be much faster than the onboard USB results. I've seen nearly 2x higher performance with FW400 vs USB 2.0 on my PPC Macs with a single drive.
He later sent results with onboard FW400 and FW800 Ports (case and MBP have both) that confirmed that.)

Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.4.8 (8N1051)
Physical RAM 2048 MB
Model MacBookPro2,2
(BTW - I asked how full the USB drive was, as performance drops as drive fills, becomes fragmented, etc. He said it was clean/empty.)

(overall) Disk Test score: Wi-Fi 4.10 / Ethernet 4.92 / MBPro USB: 16.19, FW400: 40.78, FW800: 45.51

Sequential: Wi-Fi 2.72 / Ethernet 3.19 / MBPro USB: 12.11, FW400: 48.20, FW800: 64.51
Uncached Write Wi-Fi: 1.32 - 0.81 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Write Ethernet: 1.26 - 0.78 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro USB: 20.93- 12.85 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro FW400: 31.67 - 19.44 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro FW800: 39.09 - 24.00 MB/sec(4K blocks)

Uncached Write Wi-Fi: 2.97 - 1.68 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Write Ethernet: 4.07 - 2.30 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro USB: 31.09- 17.59 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro FW400: 63.40 - 35.87 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro FW800: 98.02 - 55.46 MB/sec(256K blocks)

Uncached Read Wi-Fi: 4.58 - 1.34 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Read Ethernet: 7.40 - 2.17 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro USB: 4.42- 1.29 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro FW400: 44.32 - 12.97 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro FW800: 51.54 - 15.08 MB/sec (4K blocks)

Uncached Read Wi-Fi: 6.40 - 3.21 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Read Ethernet: 11.99 - 6.02 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro USB: 41.30 - 20.76 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro FW400: 76.51- 38.45 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro FW800: 146.58- 73.67 MB/sec (256K blocks)


Random: Wi-Fi: 8.29 / Ethernet: 10.80 / MBPro USB: 24.43, FW400: 35.34, FW800: 35.16
Uncached Write Wi-Fi: 4.41 - 0.47 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Write Ethernet: 5.49 - 0.58 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro USB: 9.12 - 0.96 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro FW400: 13.38 - 1.42 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro FW800: 12.97 - 1.37 MB/sec (4K blocks)

Uncached Write Wi-Fi: 5.71- 1.83 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Write Ethernet: 7.58 - 2.43 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro USB: 37.63 - 12.05 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro FW400: 58.36 - 18.68 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Write MBPro FW800: 59.01 - 18.89 MB/sec (256K blocks)

Uncached Read Wi-Fi: 69.14 - 0.49 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Read Ethernet: 77.42 - 0.55 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro USB: 79.39 - 0.56 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro FW400: 103.87 - 0.74 MB/sec (4K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro FW800: 106.38 - 0.75 MB/sec (4K blocks)

Uncached Read Wi-Fi: 15.07 - 2.80 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Read Ethernet: 23.15 - 4.30 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro USB: 67.20 - 12.47 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro FW400: 85.64 - 15.89 MB/sec (256K blocks)
Uncached Read MBPro FW400: 96.67 - 17.94MB/sec (256K blocks)

Just as I suspected with the onboard interfaces (even FW400 a much better choice than USB 2.0). I'd use the onboard FW ports every time for hard drives on Macs here - I have an old FW400/USB 2.0 case w/Maxtor 200GB HD inside - it scores about 2x higher on the FW400 ports as the onboard USB 2.0 ports with my PPC Macs.
These posts reminded me of a Benchmark for networked drives I used many years ago (back long before OS X was released) called Helios LanTest. I found the web page for it and they now have an HELIOS LanTest Universal Binary with support for Mac OS X Intel and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

(added 2/12/2007)
" Just connected my nitroAV raid 5 to the airport...connects perfectly.
It reads nice and fast from it, but write times are sloooooooooow....will call apple to find out more.
(he later wrote)
Ran some tests with xbench. The read speeds I get from the airdisk are between 2 and 4MB/sec, which is fine with me, for backup and general storage of files i rarely use, it is plenty. The write speeds are a joke - i am still in contact with apple about this. I also have a ReadyNAS which shows the same problem since I ran the N (Enabler) upgrade....hmmmm.. (Some other readers earlier noted performance drops (sometimes large) after installing the 802.11n Enabler. Most had 3rd party bases.) I am waiting for a simple USB HD and will plug that in once i have it. All in all very easy to set up and this is a great way to have shared storage. There is simply something wrong with my set-up...
-Paul "

I suspected performance would be well below what even a single drive was capable of (on a faster interface). Good to know it worked however. (For someone that wanted to run mirroring for instance.) The Feb 21st, 2007 news had several Airport Extreme 802.11n use with Western Digital MyBook Drives (RAID and non-RAID), with one reader having problems and 2 others not.

Airport Extreme connected USB Hard Drive Benchmarks:

(added 2/12/2007)
"I just did some extensive testing on a USB drive connecting to the N Base Station. (Although the base/interface is the bottleneck with most any drive, I asked for more details on his USB HD just for the record.) The drive is a Maxtor OneTouch Mini 60GB. USB powered 2.5in drive. I'm not sure of the model of drive in it. (WPA2 personal encryption was on at all times. I ran a few tests with no encryption, but measured no difference at all.) Benchmarked with the base station running:

Ethernet:
Read: 6.34MB/s
Write: 3.6MB/s

B/G/N
Read: 3.89MB/s
Write: 2.6MB/s

N only, 2.4Ghz 130Mbps
Read: 4.16MB/s
Write: 2.6MB/s

N only, 5Ghz 300Mbps
Read: 3.5MB/s
Write: 2.55MB/s

I thought that the speed seemed slow, as I have a NAS that I can read/ write at 9.5MB/s, so I tested the same file on the drive directly connected to my computer via USB, but I could write to it at 23MB/s, so it does not seem to be the drive that is slowing it down. It's really strange to me that the drive is faster in 130 mode than in 300 mode.

Anyone else have this same issue?

I made sure to unplug all of my wireless phones, I used the same file for all tests, and sat in the same position.
-Adam "

I don't have an AE 802.11n base but welcome other reader comments from those that do and have a USB hard drive to test with it.

802.11n Enabled MacBook C2D w/Belkin N1 Base/Router:

(added 2/12/2007)
"I was just reading your reader reports on the Airport 802.11N Enabler. I just downloaded and installed the $1.99 enabler on my Macbook Pro CD2 hoping to get better performance out of my new Belkin N1 wireless router that I picked up at Macworld. However, after the update, my connection speed via wireless to the internet has dropped from an average of 6 Mb/s to 0.6 Mb/s. Additionally, my network connection in Windows XP within Parallels (Build 1970) has been broken. I am trying to find a way to work through these problems or uninstall the N-updater as I need a fast connection within Windows on my Mac for work...
Best, Robert "

Problems with RAID Volumes (Disk Utility setup) on USB Port: A reader mentioned problems using a RAID'd drive (Disk Utility setup) on the USB port. (Note - I asked him if his case supported basic hardware RAID 0 or 1 for tests w/RAID not setup using Disk Utility.) If anyone tries a case w/hardware RAID support with their Airport Extreme 802.11n USB port send a note. (**Update** See later reports above from readers w/hardware RAID ext. cases - it worked, but as expected, performance isn't going to match even a single drive on a faster interface.)

(added 2/9/2007 - updated 2PM)
" Got the new Airport base station, pulled out the old one, factory defaulted the three other Airport Express base stations, joined them as WDS extenders. All is good. Won't be testing throughput yet all I am still all PPC.

Bought the new base station for the USB disk sharing as I have computers all over the home and this was going to be great!
Before it arrived, I purchased a new USB eBOX-U Eight (8) drive enclosure from Firewire Depot (as reviewed by AMUG).
Very nice box for $265. Loaded six new 400GB and a couple of old misc. drives. Formated top two as raid 0, next two as raid 0 and then mirrored the two together. (I just went through the worst hard disk crash I've ever had with a stripped 0 volume, I never want to go through this again - 100% data loss.) Anyways, last 2 400GB drives as mirrored raid.

Fire the puppy up and for an overnight backup device, it's perfect. I couldn't use it for encoding video but for going to bed and letting my computer backup cheaply and safely, I am delighted!

So now I'm ready for the new Airport base station, I can share these massive, safe drives over the wireless network and get all of my computers backed-up. Nope.
The base station refuses to recognize the Macintosh-formated arrays, it only sees one drive and that unusable.
I will be logging a Applecare support question and will post any responses. Thanks for the best Mac coverage on the planet.

(Here's a link I posted awhile back to an apple kbase doc on Using a USB drive with an AirPort base station, although it doesn't mention RAID volumes specifically.
If anyone tries a case w/hardware RAID support with their Airport Extreme 802.11n USB port send a note. Granted the interface is going to limit performance even on a single drive, but some may want to run a Mirrored drive.)
Just got off the phone, 90 minutes on hold
No Raid Support, Request was noted, they said it was at the driver level and they don't know if they can get such a sophisticated driver on this box.

No throughput advantage/disadvantage of using the 2.4Ghz freq vs. 5Ghz freq. Even in N only mode, no difference in throughput for 5Ghz vs. 2.4Ghz. I asked because I've made the investment long ago into Uniden 5Ghz wireless phones to avoid interference with my Airport. Only advantage would be reduced interference from nearby networks.

No support for external antenna.

No way to configure the "automatic" firewall "at this time". Support will be provided in a future software update.

Regarding WDS, current gen. Airport Express and throughput. Should be no additional penalty when the new Airport Express (802.11n) base station comes out and you extend your network using 11n while continuing to support the 11g WDS repeaters. No more than any mixed mode use. (But performance drops with any sub-N device on the network) True, they said it would run slower than all N mode but the new N mode Airport Express WDS would be faster than the G WDS links.
-Jim "

BTW - Apple today revised their previous kbase doc on Setting up and configuring a Wireless Distribution System (802.11b/g) using multiple base stations. One of the notes on the bottom of the page mentions:

" "When you use WDS, some of each base station's capacity is used as overhead for maintaining the network. This means that if you were to measure the maximum throughput speed of your network, it would be less than when using one base station by itself."