Hack your Core Duo MacBook to 802.11n

I walked into the Apple store late Saturday and looked for the new guy. I said, " I need one MA688Z/B". The guy walked back from the back, swiped my card and I walked right out the door. Giddy, of course. It took about 10 minutes to open the MacBook (prior experience with a dead keyboard) and put the card in.
I rebooted and ran the software. It would not take the N enabler because my processor was not compliant, but my signal was full strength and I am using the new AirPort Extreme Base Station.
So, what they heck, let me run the router in N mode only at 5Ghz and see if picks it up. I restarted the router and then the MacBook and it was running N with a link speed of 270Meg. A quick check in the Network Utilities and I was running in a,b,g,n. I take it that it does not necessarily need the enabler? It still will not take the enabler, but is incredibly fast. The 24 inch iMac took the enabler with no problem when I got the router. I am a bit befuddled that it works without the enabler and was so easy.

What do you guys think ?

Service providers are prohibited by Apple from selling the MA688 Kits. They can be ordered and must be installed in towers or else Service providers risk losing their AASP certification. The MA688LL/A is the G only card. MA688LL/B will only be released when the A kits sell out according to an Apple authorized service provider friend of mine.

I just upgraded my MacBook Pro (Core Duo) to the 802.11n card designed for use in the Mac Pro (Apple part no. MA688Z/B "Airport Extreme Wireless Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro). It took 20 minutes, and it works great - better reception all over the house, and faster file transfers and page loads. Woo hoo!

I just upgraded my card to the extreme version today in my 17" MacBook Pro. Its actually a simpler procedure on the Pro than the MacBook. After upgrading, installing, and configuring the extreme base station, my connection speed jumped from 56Mb to 270Mb. Amazing!!

I just upgraded my card to the extreme version today in my 17" MacBook Pro. Its actually a simpler procedure on the Pro than the MacBook. After upgrading, installing, and configuring the extreme base station, my connection speed jumped from 56Mb to 270Mb. Amazing!!

I just installed the latest 10.4.9 adc seed and after that I lost 802.11n functionality. Software that came with Airport Extreme BaseStation does not enable the n-mode anymore. Airport enabler that you can purchase tells that my computer does not meet the hardware requirements for the update.

I just did this to my MacBook today and I want to alert anyone doing this that there were a few problems I encountered before I could get the Network Utility to show a,b,g, and n. Here's what happened:
Disassebly and Installation went fine per Hardmac's tutorial. My problems started when I went to enable the card. Since you're Mac is recognizing this new AE card for the first time, any software updates that you made to your previous card are now wiped out and you have to reinstall them. Specifically, You must install:
1. Turn Airport off
2. AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001 before installing the 802.11n Enabler.
3. Repair Permissions in Disk Utility
4. Then you MUST install 802.11 n enabler with PACIFIST. For over 45 min I tried to install with Apple Installer and kept getting message that my hardware was incompatible with the update, and therefore would not install. It wasn't until I read on another forum that using Pacifist would be the only way to install the software needed for the card to enable it.
5. Ran Pacifist and installed. Verified with Pacifist that the files did indeed get instaalled
6. I then rebooted and ran Disk Utility to Repair Permissions to find out that only a/b/g/ showed up in the Network utility
7. Now, I'm really f'ing mad
8. Re-booted a second time and finally it showed up in Network Utility
a/b/g/n
Avoid these pitfalls and you'll save yourself about 1 1/2 hrs of frustration.

i got the MA688ZM/A @ gravis mannheim, germany. €49,95. they had it in stock to my amazement...

installation was ok, a little difficult to fiddle with the antenna connectors...

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, and @ first i seen 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. 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 this mbp C2D and we did wifi to wifi and ethernet to wifi tests, thruput on wifi to wifi was 3.6MB, ethernet to wifi was 3.6MB to. oddly enuff was that the C2D mbp haad slower upload speeds in the LAN than me, i uploaded to him @ 100% 802.11g speed, but he could only upload to me @ 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 CD seems to work faster than his.... very odd...

I'd be more inclined to buy the new Airport Extreme and Apple TV if Apple would upgrade my Core Duo MacBook to .11n (for a fee, of course).

Ordered mine from Powermax.com. It'll be here soon. This is great, since I just setup my two new Airport Extreme's last night. :) Thanks.