airport / wifi over USB for 10.3!

Zammy-Sam

Zammy-Sam

Desertchild
I was just checking some stuff on the dlink site when I bumped on this. It's a usb stick that brings 802.11b (11Mbit/sec) support to all usb macs running panther (10.3). I remember some threads where ppl asked about all these usb solutions. 11Mbit is nothing to consider on the newer macs, but for older macs and those that support airport it's a great alternative. Especially since the airport cards got so rare and expensive. They should be able to make 802.11g compatible dongles too, but then you will need USB 2.0 and these are just available on the newer macs that already come with airport extreme..
 
I bought one of them at best buy, trying to avoid the cost of a real airport card for my iBook. I also tried a NetGear MA111 which uses a hack of the dlink driver. The results were not inspiring.

Standard surfing and mail went well, data transfer was spotty (lot's of hang time ;)) and the kicker was sound. When a site I went to had sound (JibJab did it first, then everywhere else that had any sound playing) the computer would freeze. Not a kernel panic, but a freeze that locked out the keyboard and the trackpad and even an external mouse. The only solution was a hard restart - cmd-ctrl-power.

iChat also caused the same freeze, and pulling the dongle with the driver engaged produced - you guessed it - a panic.

In the end I forked up the cash for an airport card and have been happy ever since.

btw You can buy new airport cards if you go to an authorized Apple service center. They can get it as a spare part. Cost is tough to bear, but in the end you'll be happier, at least till Apple comes out with a g card in the b format.
 
I have this same USB -- > Wireless thingie from Dlink madel DWL-122 [ worth the 30 bucks and a 20 dollar rebate. 9.99 total ]----- Seems to be working fine in my Beige computer running 10.3. Note that there are updated drivers on Dlinks site which address abunch of issues reported with the driver on the CD..
 
Good to hear. And great price :D

I should mention that my experience was on a G3 800 iBook in a mixed g/b network.

How long have you had it?
 
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