Wireless N on Mac Mini?

the wireless N enabler thing u DL off apple website for like $2 says it will work on any comp. equipped with a core 2 duo...? my parents new mac mini has a core 2 duo...can i upgrade it to wireless N?

According to Apple the Mini has Wireless G so I doubt it will work.

but isnt that what the point of the upgrade thing is?

The difference between "N" and "G" is hardware so the upgrade will not work if it doesn't have the hardware to work with.

However few true N routers are not backwards compatible... so it will(excuse me should) work, if thats your question, and as strange as it seems the upgrade from G to N still gave my pc better speeds, even though it still has a B usb card (I use for injection so don't laugh)

Actingrude said:

However few true N routers are not backwards compatible... so it will(excuse me should) work, if thats your question, and as strange as it seems the upgrade from G to N still gave my pc better speeds, even though it still has a B usb card (I use for injection so don't laugh)

Click to expand...

That doesn't answer the guy's question at all. In fact, it has nothing to do with the question at hand.

The guy is asking whether the 802.11n enabler will work on his Mac Mini. Since his Mac Mini does not have a 802.11n card, the answer is simple, no it won't work. You can't enable 802.11n functionality on a wireless card that physically does not have that function. It doesn't matter how his Mini will function on an 802.11n router, that's not what he's asking for.

Kash said:

That doesn't answer the guy's question at all. In fact, it has nothing to do with the question at hand.

The guy is asking whether the 802.11n enabler will work on his Mac Mini. Since his Mac Mini does not have a 802.11n card, the answer is simple, no it won't work. You can't enable 802.11n functionality on a wireless card that physically does not have that function. It doesn't matter how his Mini will function on an 802.11n router, that's not what he's asking for.

Click to expand...

yeah thanks, just was i was wondering.

i just figured since like every other comp has N now....i think? it might have it "dormant" or something but i guess not...its not like i need it anyway, the thing had freakishly fast internet connection compared to other comps in the house...im not sure why....its very strange....

Well, just so you know, even if you could enable N on your Mini, you wouldn't actually experience faster Internet speeds since there are very few, if any, ISPs that offer speeds greater than 54Mbps (that's the speed of a G connection).

There are only two real benefits to 802.11n: network speed and range. If you have several N machines on your network, the transfer speeds between them will noticeably improve with an 802.11n router. The increased range isn't just for N products, but for B/G products as well. So if your Mini was far away from the router, getting an 802.11n router could help if you were getting slow speeds and/or a poor connection. But since that doesn't seem to be a problem for you, you wouldn't really see any benefit with 802.11n, at least not for the Mini (not sure if you have any other Macs).

Sorry for the thread revival on my first noob post.

I have a Core Duo 2ghz mac mini, and I bought the Dell 1500 wireless n card to go n. When I install the Dell card, Leopard tells me the card is a Third party vendor, and won't allow me to install the n enabler from Apple. If I use Pacifist, will that allow me the mini to install the enabler and therefore allow the card to work? Guys have done this,but I have yet to get mine to work. Maybe I should have done this under Tiger, then gone to Leopard.

Thanks in advance.

Here's the card: http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Draft-N-15...ryZ45000QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Here's the write-up:
http://forum.hardmac.com/index.php?showtopic=1363

Here's one with a MacBook card:

http://www.hardmac.com/articles/71/page1/

Using a Gigabyte card with great success

I used a gigabyte card and 5ghz antennas with great success and a pretty low price...

I did a writeup on my mini upgrade and product selection process.