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Apple offers both 802.11b and 802.11g solutions. Their 802.11b solution is called "AirPort", and their 802.11g solution is called "AirPort Extreme". These solutions currently consist of 5 Base Station products and 2 client card products.
The 3 Base Stations are:
AirPort Base Station (Graphite) (802.11b, maximum 10 users, Discontinued)
AirPort Base Station (Dual Ethernet) (802.11b, maximum 50 users, had 2 RJ-45 connectors - one for LAN and one for WAN, Discontinued)
AirPort Extreme Base Station (802.11g, maximum 50 users)
AirPort Extreme Base Station (PoE/UL 2043) (802.11g, maximum 50 users, Power over Ethernet support and conformance to UL 2043)
AirPort Express (802.11g, maximum 10 users, pocket-sized Base Station)
The 2 client cards are:
AirPort Card (802.11b, will only work in these systems: G3 iBooks; G3 PowerBooks above 333MHz; Titanium PowerBook G4s; slot-loading G3 iMacs; G4 iMacs below 800MHz; 700MHz eMacs; PowerMac G4 Cubes; all PowerMac G4s except those without AGP slots, or those with FireWire 800 ports)
AirPort Extreme Card (802.11g, will only work in these systems: all G4 PowerBooks without Titanium cases; G4 iMacs above 800MHz; eMacs above 700MHz; PowerMac G4s with FireWire 800 ports; G4 iBooks, although they should come with AirPort Extreme preinstalled; PowerMac G5s; iMac G5s)
The 802.11g base stations can communicate with virtually any 802.11b or 802.11g cards, while the 802.11b base stations can communicate with virtually any 802.11b card. Likewise, either of the client cards can connect to virtually any 802.11 base stations. There is an antenna connector in all AirPort-ready Macintoshes that plugs into the client card; one could assume that you could hack a better antenna. The Lucent Orinoco silver card is a PCMCIA card that can be used nicely in older Macintoshes such as the Powerbook 1400 (see these detailed instructions for doing so). Older Macintosh desktops can use the Lucent card if the computer has an available PCI bus in which to insert the PCI adapter card which holds the PCMCIA card (the PCI holder and the PCMCIA card are quite often sold separately). However, there are a number of PCI and USB solutions for Mac that are far more elegant. I would recommend Belkin's cards, personally, but a host of manufacturers are available.
Pricing and Availability
All of Apple's 802.11b-based products have been discontinued, which means that you can only find them through resellers. Pricing on eBay for the client cards is usually between $50-$100, whereas for the base stations it's usually between $40-$60.
For the 802.11g products, the client cards retail for $79, while the AirPort Extreme Base Stations retail for $199. Interestingly enough, pricing for the PoE/UL2043 version was unavailable. The AirPort Express retails for $129.
AirPort Links
Offers most AirPort-related articles as search results.
iStumbler A nice utility for OS X that lets you find 802.11 and Bluetooth networks.
Wireless Network Products offers antennas.
Many Airport related utilities, written in Java.
FreeBase: Windows configuration tool for AirPort Base Stations Note that this tool does not set up port forwarding correctly on graphite base stations. Otherwise it is excellent.
Instructions for getting an old PowerBook wireless using a PCMCIA card.
AirPort Supported Radius Server
Macintosh Wireless Advice - PCMCIA and ExpressCard information
If you are trying to use a 3rd party wireless card, see the MacOS page for driver and software info.
