# Mac compatible wireless adapters



## monktus (May 12, 2006)

I'm upgrading my Linksys modem/router and the wireless adapter for my girlfriend's iBook and could do with some recommendations. I'm currently using an old Belkin 802.11b USB adapter and I'd recently bought a Linksys modem and adapter bundle that was on offer, however no Mac drivers for the adapter. There's no mention of Mac compatibility on Belkin's site for their new G and G+ adapters and couldn't find anything for D-Link or Netgear either. 

Can you still get Mac compatible wireless adapters or I'm I better going for an Airport card? The price had put me off however I found some cheap ones on eBay, the only thing is that PC World (I know but bear with me) has some good offers on routers and adapters. I suppose I could always just sell the spare adapter if I bought one.

Anyway, just wanted to see what other people's experiences are.

Cheers,
Craig


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## powermac (May 12, 2006)

I would believe you are always going to be better off with a Airport Card, simply because support for it will never be in question. Although there is support for third party cards at 
http://www.orangeware.com/endusers/wirelessformac.html


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## nixgeek (May 12, 2006)

You could also check this list to see which cards are compatible with the Mac.  Remember that the latest Airport software will work with any third party cards that have the same Broadcom chipset as the Airport Extreme.

http://home.earthlink.net/~metaphyzx/Wireless.htm


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## bobw (May 12, 2006)

http://www.ioxperts.com/devices/devices_80211b.html

http://www.macwireless.com/html/products/11g_11b_cards/11bUSB.php


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## monktus (May 12, 2006)

Thanks guys. I checked out that list and the few USB adapters on it all seem to be 802.11b so I think I'll just go for the Airport card.


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## BoneFill (May 12, 2006)

I'm now using a Linksys WUSB54G V.4 which is working really great it has a Ralink chipset you can find more info about devices using Ralink at http://61.222.76.235/phpbb2/viewforum.php?f=3 (Ralink's forum). 

As mine, some devices are a bit tricky but nothing too cmplex to fix, once you get them working you never care abot it again.


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## monktus (May 12, 2006)

That's good to know. Does the speedbooster stuff make much of a difference with the Linksys adapter? I was reading some of the threads on that forum and the drive seems a bit unstable, how have you found it? It would be cheaper for me to get the Linksys (or a D-Link) wireless kit than a new router and an airport card but I wanted to see if there was any speed increase and if it was worth the hassle.


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## BoneFill (May 12, 2006)

Well I'm on a first floor and the router is 4 floors above and really wide walls (this is an oooold building), like 15 meters (49ft ?), I have 98% signal strength at day and 100% at night... the link quality is at 100% all day , both %s much better than on my iBook's Airport Card. I must tell that the router is not that good, still I don't have any connection problems.

There are people complaining about the driver stability but you'll find complains about almost anything these days most of them are user's fault. What I can tell is that my only problem is (as you can read at Ralinks forum) that I have a conflict with Photoshop and some USB devices.

I came to this device because my brother surprised me with a SMC wireless device which was a piece of crap (jut don't tell him), I was googling for an Atheros chipset driver which does not exist by the way, and came to Ralink site (Ralink RT2500 chipsets based wireless 802.11g devices) which stands that some Linksys devices had a RT2500 chipset and they had a Mac driver so I returned the SMC and changed for the Linksys WUSB54G (RT2500 chipset) without knowing if it would work or not... As you can see, it works and I'm happy with it.

The rest of the story is at Ralink's forum whith a How-to make it work.


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## pinkylbh3 (May 23, 2006)

I picked up a USB 802.11b/g stick by Compucable (Micro Center, $39.99) and it seems to work real well. Comes with both Mac and windows drivers on the CD


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## lovetruth (Jul 21, 2006)

You can get the latest drivers that do work on Mac OS X 10.4.7 Tiger at http://www.factman.com/USB_Wireless_Installer.dmg

This driver came today 7/20/06 direct from the Ralink engineer, and it for sure works.

Further, if you are looking for the longest range wifi connection for your mac, go with the usb antenna/Ralink card combo (there are different sizes antennas, but same 802.11g card from this guy in Canada found at:

http://stores.ebay.com/Wireless-Online-Depot

I'm bought the 4 inch square usb version for under $100 (28dbm) and the larger 14 x 15 inch version (38dbm) at about $120.

My new MacBook Pro has the smaller Expresscard/34 slot, which is useless for wifi, since there are no cards available yet. The above Superpass antenna/cards (http://www.superpass.com/Superusb.html) are definitely the way to go for Mac. They are convenient, portable, and have the high output usb radio card built inside the antenna box. Neat!


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