AirPort 3.3 Extends WPA Security

tackaberry writes "Apple has released an update for AirPort. Version 3.3 (AEBS firmware version 5.3) includes support for Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) specification for non-Extreme AirPort cards (WPA was added for Extreme cards last fall in version 3.2), an alternative to the oft-maligned Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). Those who wish to use WPA will have to have Mac OS X Panther 10.3."

Comments

*&^%$#@ it! I want WPA for non-Extreme hardwa

[alispguru]

... and it ought to be possble. WPA was designed to be implementable with a firmware upgrade to existing 802.11b hardware. See here for more on that - scroll down about halfway on the page.

I have a perfectly useable 500 MHz G3 iBook that's going to be cut off from my company's wireless when they move to WPA, because it's not AirPort Extreme capable. Is Apple's response going to be "go buy a new laptop - your less-than-two-years-old machine is obsolete"? Even though it's supported by Panther (which improved performance on it quite a bit, thankyouverymuch)?

I'm willing to pay something reasonable for the upgrade - I realize code like that doesn't write itself. But just abandoning the non-Extreme hardware sucks.