I have an AL 17" that's about five years old. The wireless reception has been getting worse over the past couple of years, and now suddenly has stopped working completely. It can't see any wireless networks. My other computers see the wireless network fine. I'm thinking it's probably the antenna cable as opposed to the airport card itself.

Rather than take the computer apart and replace the antenna wire inside, I'm wondering if there is an easier workaround to restore wireless. Would one of these options work?

Quickertek 802.11g PCMCIA Card for Powerbook
Quickertek USB N-Card nNano for all Macs
Or one of the external antennas? If so, which one?

Thanks for any insight/ideas you can provide.

If you get your Powerbook right up next to the base station, it should be able to pick it up even with the antenna damaged. It might be the card itself has gone bad and thats a relatively cheap repair at $49.95 for the part and $95 if you want us to install it.

Thanks!

If I got one of these instead, would it work? Or do they require the internal Airport Card to be working?

Quickertek 802.11g PCMCIA Card for Powerbook
Quickertek USB N-Card nNano for all Macs

Either of those will work. They just won't be internal.