Non-Apple wireless-B PCM/CIA cards on a Powerbook G4

[tedkolb]

Hello out there,

I'm trying to decipher how to chose a non-apple wireless PCM/CIA card to establish a wireless connection between my old Airport-less Powerbook G4 (867mhz) and my Desktop iMac G4 (800mhz) with the DSL modem/router combo attached (BOTH running OS-X 10.4).

I received a free Linksys Wireless-B Router (BEFW11S4) from my DSL provider. I'm trying to save some money by purchasing a third party wireless-B card on ebay but I don't know about the driver situation (IOExperts vs. Orangeware). The going price for an original Airport card seems to be about $70 on eBay and I don't even know if that will work with my Linksys router.

Thanks in advance for any guidance,

Ted

 

[symphonix]

The Apple Airport cards should work with the Linksys router without any real trouble. The other advantage of an Apple Airport card over a third party PCMCIA wireless card is that it uses the built-in antenna that is factory fitted to all Macs, whereas a third-party card would leave an antenna poking out of the PCMCIA slot. Not stylish at all!

The other advantages of an Airport card are that its drivers are automatically updated along with the Mac OS X software update, while third party cards will require you to find and install drivers manually.

If you do decide to go with a third party wireless card, you can check for suitable drivers for it by searching versiontracker.com.