[X4U] USB WiFi

[Stroller]

On Jan 14, 2005, at 1:48 pm, Winston MacKelvie wrote:
>
> I have a white G3 iBook and would like to Airport with my iMac G5. Any 
> suggestions for a plug in USB adaptor? Apple AP cards for the iBook 
> are no longer available.

I made the same enquiry you did to this list in August last year and 
came to the conclusion that USB wireless devices are best avoided on 
the Mac.

I believe Airport cards are still available from Apple's service 
section - they're just not available as "upgrade" items to end users. 
Check with your local Mac dealer - he should be able to get & fit one 
for you. Alternatively you might be able to get a "clone" Airport card 
- Apple's Airport cards are simply OEM items with Apple's branding 
printed on the case, so I believe these are identical internally to an 
original. I bought an "OEM" airport card on eBay which turned out to be 
IBM-branded - see <http://mac.stroller.uk.eu.org/OEM-Airport.jpg> 
<http://mac.stroller.uk.eu.org/OEM-Airport-2.jpg>. It was recognised 
immediately by the iBook as "Airport".

IMO this is a much better option than a USB adaptor, which at the least 
is going to clumsily stick out the side of your laptop.

I also have a D-Link DWL-122 USB wireless adaptor, which was fairly 
cheap, so I bought it to have handy around the house & in my work-bag. 
The DWL-122 works under Windows & allegedly under OS X but its Mac 
drivers aren't so good - see the customer comments at 
<http://tinyurl.com/4uj9b>. Frankly the Preference Pane the drivers 
install for connecting to wireless networks is just nowhere as polished 
as one would like on a Mac - it looks like the sort of thing installed 
by WLAN cards under Windows 98. As far as I know, all the USB wireless 
devices which "work under Mac OS X" use the same chipset & drivers, and 
so have similar problems. The DWL-122 is interesting for me because it 
can be used in "passive mode" under KisMAC to sniff wireless networks, 
but I found it extremely poor for real use compared to my internal 
Apple Airport card.

Stroller.