| Sonnett Technologies G54-PCI Aria Extreme Wireless PCI Card (54 Mbps) |
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Model: G54-PCI
Brand: SONNET TECHNOLOGIES
Manufacturer: SONNET TECHNOLOGIES
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 14
Platforms: Windows
Operating system: Apple MacOS X 10.2.6 or later
Form factor: Plug-in card
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Wireless data transfer rates up to 54 Mbps
Compatible with Apple AirPort Extreme and other 802.11g wireless hubs
Backward-compatible with 802.11b devices
Requires Mac OS X 10.2.6 or later and AirPort Extreme driver 3.1 or later
Supports Microsoft Windows 98 SE/Me/2000/XP |
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| Description: |
| Sonnet G54PCI Aria Extreme 802.11g PCI Card - This PCI card connects your PC or Macintosh computer with 802.11g networks at speeds up to 54Mbps. It's also backwards compatible with 11Mbps 802.11b wireless networks. Covering the 2 most popular forms of wireless networking protocols. |
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| User Reviews (14 total): |
Page 1 of Total 1 Pages
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There could always be more bars, August 1, 2007
By device31 (denver, CO USA)
I put this in to my old G4 mirror, and it worked as soon as I snaped it in. Very simple to install. My connection isn't all that great (about half the full reception), but that could be due the fact that my wireless router is two floors below me. But my G4 laptop gets perfect reception from the wireless router, so maybe it's just not as strong, but it it works well enough that I don't have to download to my laptop then have to transfer it to my desktop. It maybe a little slower, but worth it to cut out that middle process.
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Wireless Card, July 21, 2007
By Henry T. Drew
Works good ... easy install, sometimes, the data download or data transfer from the wireless DSL router could be better...
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Power Mac G5 Wireless Solution, February 23, 2007
By D. Merrithew (Northern CA USA)
I wanted to add my Apple computer to a wireless home network but finding an adapter card that would work wasn't easy. Apple decided that dual processor G5s made after late Oct 2005 could only have an Airport Extreme card installed by an authorized dealer. While searching for a compatible card I found the Aria Extreme and went to Sonnett's web site and confirmed it would work with my Power Mac (works with PCI-X slots but not PCI-E). Installation was easy and connecting to the network was a breeze once I figured out that Apples only use Wep encryption not WPA-PSK and you need to add a $ to the hexadecimal number your PCs use when signing on to the network.
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It can't get any easier, February 15, 2007
By Duffy Tweedy (San Diego)
This is a great product. The price is right, and the installation guide was easy to understand. All I did was open my G4 case, pop the Sonnett in, close it, and turn it on. The OS recognized the new card instantly, and Airport played nicely with it. No complaints.
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It's for a Mac; of course it works., January 17, 2007
By Chuck Mason (Los Angeles)
It was painless. Just like my Mac.
The only pain will be when it goes for $25 next week. Or next month.
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Worked Just Fine on My Power Mac, November 3, 2006
By Markus Bird (Metro Detroit Michigan)
This PCI Card worked just fine on my Power Mac G4 dual 450 mhz. The computer and software treated it as if it was a genuine Airport Card. In fact my WiFi set up for that machine was non Apple products. My base WiFi router is a D-Link DL-524 and all played nice together. I'm in a modest two bedroom Condo with the cable modem and router up next to the TV and my computer is back in the bedroom with me. Not exactly me telling you that it works even in huge 16 room mansion but you should have no problem finding a place to hide the router and have the computer be wireless somewhere in the average home. Install of the pci card was simple plug and play.
It is a little pricey but it is guaranteed to work with a Mac Computer and it does. It is one of the only ways to get
802.11g performance for Power Mac G3 and G4(earlier editions) as I understand it.
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bad idea, September 16, 2006
By D. Kiang (Brea, ca)
They don't back up their products as the tech service is non existent. No one answers the phone over there. And I'm calling them locally!
Beware of Sonnet stuff.
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Its great to go into the Mac world once in a while, March 4, 2006
By MacLove (Tennessee)
I use both a PC (Dell) and Mac on a daily basis. I installed a wireless LAN at home and had some difficulty getting the PCs up and running. My Mac PowerBook is wireless ready and recognized the LAN right off the bat. My G4 was another issue. I did not want to paid Apple money for the 811-b technology they make available. I took a chance on the Sonnett Wireless PCI Card and what a pleasure. Put it in the PCI slot, close the case, power-up your Mac and it runs right out of the box. No software needed. If you have a G4, without the 800 Firewire, don't pay Apple for an out-of-date product. Contact Sonnett ASAP. You will be happy.
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the perfect solution, February 24, 2006
By Rychiar (Waterbury, CT United States)
I recently decided I wanted to hookup my old Powermac G4 once again so as to have 2 computers in the house along with new iMac G5. The problem was the only way to do this was to go wireless. My iMac had all that built in and I had an Airport Express as a base station. The probelm was the G4 had nothing but an Ethernet card. So i went out and bought a cheap wireless card and popped it in expecting it to work. Of course not, I didn't realize the only wireless card apple wants you to us in their computers are airport cards and that computer being old would only accept the dated original Airport card. My hi-speed wireless wolution came in the form of the Sonnett Aria Extreme card. It cost less than an airport tho not nearly as cheap as the PC card i had bought. The shipping however was fast as hell(less than 2 days) and all i really had to do was pop it in the old G4 and i had a fully functional wireless connection at G speeds. I highly reccomned this product to anyone seeking to add such functionality to their dated desktop
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Great for Mac OS X, but its in the fine print, December 20, 2005
By xilly (New York, NY USA)
Purchased one for an old mac running OSX. it worked great.
Purchased another for another old mac, because it said it ran on this particular machine. Further down, where I didn't read, it said it required OSX. But this machine is OS9. So its a no go.
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Tried other products, this works great., September 10, 2005
By speakerface (Niceville, FL)
As some other folks mentioned, I have an older G4 that uses the original Airport card (no longer in production, but you can buy it used for a pretty steep price.) The only other Mac compatible wireless networking solution (I could find) was D-Link USB adapter. It worked intermittantly at best so I took it back after about a day of use. Saw this Sonnet product, I know they do mostly Mac gear, and it works great!
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You can set this up in your sleep (PC or Mac), July 14, 2005
By Ny-er (NYC)
So you want wireless Internet for your home? This is what you need. This card, a wireless router and either a subscribed DSL or cable connection (modem usually provided by your Internet company).
Unless you want to connect solely to your PDA and cellphone, don't get a bluetooth adapter (I was hoping that would be the cheap alternative to get me hooked up, but it's not). You have to have the two pieces of hardware to make it work -- the pci card and the router.
I've been a PC girl all my life, but recently bought an Ibook. I also bought an airport express base station with itunes so that I could have my Ibook online at the same time as my PC, but you could buy any wireless router. However, the aiport base is so easy to use, I highly recommend getting one, takes the headache out of configuring your wireless and allows you to play your stereo in any room of your home (a neat perk). You basically just attach your Internet ethernet cable into it, then plug it into any wall socket and it's set. Even though it's an apple router, it works just as easily with a PC. It's brilliant.
I did a lot of reading to try to figure out a compatible format that would allow both my PC and Ibook to get online and found this. The other reviews are right, this is the easiest set up of wireless imaginable. And the beauty of it is that it works just as efficiently on a PC (I own a Dell Dimension) as it does on a Mac.
Before you install this card though, be sure to drop by http://www.sonnettech.com/ downloads and get the Aria extreme PCI Windows Utility & Driver -- just have it unzipped in a new file folder on your desktop, ready for installation. For some reason the company doesn't ship a CD, and while Windows XP is automated for almost every product out there, for this one, you need to do a bit of legwork by getting the download at the website. So you'll have to be attached to your Internet before you install this card to get the download first.
Next, open your PC, install the card in any open PCI slot, close the computer back up, attach the attena, tilt it vertically up, and then reboot your computer. XP will give you a prompt to install ... just ignore this and close out. Once you're booted up, double click the "setup" file from the aria download and it will install everything for you.
Unhook your Internet cable (you only need to unplug the part that would go into your PC normally), plug it into your wireless router and within minutes it will detect your signal. All set up for your PC. If you are encountering trouble with the signal .. go down to your taskbar.. you'll see a green icon next to your clock, bottom right, double click on it and go into the configuration tab. Mid-way down you'll see something that says Network name, with a pulldown menu. For me, because I'm using an apple router, I chose "apple network" and immediately got "excellent" connection. Experiment with the choices and pick the signal that gives you "excellent."
Now this may sound more complicated than it is. I wrote out the step by step instructions in case you ran into problems, but if your installation was anything like mine, it'll take you about 10 minutes at most to get back online and WIRELESS!
As for the card itself, the speed is stunning. I am impressed that the Internet can go much faster than I already had with a straight cable modem connection.
All in all, this is an excellent solution to going wireless. I highly recommend it, and the airport base, to get you wireless-ed in your home.
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Streaming to Airport Express on no time, January 5, 2005
By Alan Yang
Similar to the other reviewer, I have a dual processor G4 that takes the older Aiport card that Apple no longer makes. This PCI based alternative installed in less than 5 minutes and I was streaming music wireless to an Airport Express device connected to my hi-fi system in under 10. Great card and great combo with the Airport Express.
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Works Great .., December 28, 2004
By M. Hartnett
My wife has a G4 Powermac that takes only the 802.11b AirPort card .. which Apple does not make anymore. I am integrating a Microsoft Server 2000 network using Linksys wireless products and needed to get the mac on the network. I found this card and installed it. Within 5 minutes I was connected to our network and accessing the internet as well as sharing files with the server. Excellent product.
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Page 1 of Total 1 Pages
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