Need wireless network advice

iMan

iMan

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Hi all,
I want to set up a wireless network with my DSL and my two computers. One is an old PowerPC 6500 an the other one is an PowerBook G3 Lombard.
I just don't know what brand to get, apple's basestations are a bit on the expencive side. I want a router and a Wireless PCMCIA card for my PowerBook.
As far as the routers go I just borwsed this forum and saw that people have had lots of problem with linksys are they realy no good? I'm looking to buy the 11mb version and I would like it to be compatible with airport extreme for the future.
I'm also wondering witch PCMCIA card's work with Mac, os 9 and X?
I woud be thank full for som respons, since I don't want to go out and buy some thing that I will find out later on will not work on my macs.
What brand's are mac 'friendly' and for a good price.
Thanks for reading

Viktor
 
I have 3 macs, 3 PCs, 2 printers & a Newton on my network. Works great. The Newt and Mac laptop use a Lucent Wavelan Silver card. The PC laptop uses a "generic" (Addtron) WiFi card. My Router is a NetGear MR314. You should look at this review of wireless routers:
http://www.macworld.com/2002/07/reviews/routers/
The linksys modelss don't pass appletalk packets - that's bad, from my point of view.
Hope this helps.
 
I am useing a SMC gateway at work, and i have no problems with my powerbook G4 with the built in airport card.
i also have a airport base at home location, and a D-LINK DWL 1000, in another, i can roam between all 3 with out any problems, .. hope that helps.
As for PCMCIA i hear all Lucent cards with with OS-X..
 
I have a Dlink 614+ (which has 22mbps, and 11mbps backwards compatibility), these can be had for like $50 nowadays thanks to rebates and the such, just check some tech forums (forums.anandtech.com is a good one, in the Hot Deals forum). This router is pretty good, offers all sorts of filtering (by mac address or IP), 64bit and 128bit encryption, port forwarding, and other nice things. It also has support for DSL or Cable router and it can authenticate through PPPoE, DHCP, etc. Its probably the best for the price, and I've recommended it to a lot of people. As for the Powerbook, I had a G3 Powerbook and obtained an Orinoco Silver PCMCIA card, which has support in Mac OS X and 128bit encryption. It worked fine with my router. Right now I'm using an Airport based iBook with the wireless network and so far so good =).
 
Thanks guys.. You have been most helpful.
this is what I like about this forum, thanks again

Viktor
 
I was able to get wireless working with my B&W using an SMC wireless USB adapter, and an SMC router. The USB didn't come with mac drivers, but you can use the belkin drivers, and everything works fine.

MP
 
I went out and bougth a Wireless Netgear 814 DSL/router all seems to be working but then again I'm hooked up with cables :rolleyes:
I got it for $50 with all rebates and all, not a bad price compared to the 200 for an airport. It's the 11mbs version but since my DSL is only 1.5mbs what do i need a 54mbs for?¿? ;)
Now I just have to get the wireless PC-card, but witch one is the best? I don't want to spend too much money.
As I figured, Netgear seems to be som what Mac friendly, so I whent for that.
Anyone out there with netgear's stuff?

Take care

Viktor
 
I have the MR314 (similar to the 814 in features, but in their old blue industrial case) with an airport client and it works fine. I've never used the Netgear card, but I have used the Orinoco Gold and the Enterasys (128bit) and like them a lot. The Orinoco has an excellent reputation due to it's excellent reception. You can find them for around $50 on ebay. Note that Dell and Compaq both oem'ed the Orinoco and you can usually get them for a bit less. The Orinoco themselves will be sold either as Proxima, Avaya, or Lucent as those are the three companies that have owned the Orinoco name (Proxim is the current owner). All three of the cards are exactly the same. Be careful with the Dell/Compaq versions, though they are Orinoco's internally, they identify themselves as Dell/Compaq cards, and so the Orinoco utilities will not allow you to flash them to the latest firmware (there are of course tricks to get it to work, but it's up to you if you want to take the time/risk to do it).

The Enterasys cards are similar. They aren't as popular, and you can pick them up a little cheaper, but they work just as well as the Orinioco's in my experience.
 
Thank's binaryDigit,
I'll see what I can find, seems like it's going to be easier than I thought to make a wireless network with my old old PowerBook G3 :rolleyes:
Thank's again

Viktor
 
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