Wireless for PowerBook G3

U

uwjosh

Registered
Hi,

I have a PowerBook G3 233 MHz (Wallstreet?) running MacOS 10.2.8.

It still runs really good so I was looking into getting wireless for it. I have a 3com PCMCIA card that I found out won't work. I also have a Linksys PCMCIA card that crashes the system when I insert it.

Has anyone here successfully gotten a "PC" PC card to work in this laptop? I'm not sure what I should try/buy next. Since I don't know how long this thing will last, I don't want to spend too much on it...

Any help would be much appreciated... resources online are scarce.

Thanks :)
 
I use the dlink DWL-G650 pc card with my tibook and 10.3.x using these drivers. It works just fine and cost me something around 50Euro including the 13Euro ($15) for the driver. However, there is also an option to use a dlink DWL-122 usb dongle, which works with 10.2.x and 10.3.x. This dongle is the cheapest wifi solution.
And welcome to the forum. :)
 
Hey--thanks for responding, and thanks for the welcome. :)

I went to look at the driver that you purchased, and I noticed that the Linksys card I have, WPC55AG, is supported.

You wouldn't happen to know why the system would crash when I insert the card would you? Is this maybe a bug with MacOS? The only thing I can think of is maybe it's a 32-bit PCMCIA card and I'm trying to put it into a 16-bit slot? I thought I read that the G3 I have has a 32-bit slot though.
 
Hmmm, I am not familiar with the pcmcia slot of the G3 powerbook, but it might be the problem. Such a crash shouldn't be caused by the software.
Maybe you should give the dlink usb dongle a try. Does your G3 powerbook support usb?
 
No, I don't have USB. I looked at that first as that sounded like the best idea.

Are system crashes recorded anywhere else besides /var/log/system.log? I couldn't find anything in there related to a kernel panic...

I'll probably just end up purchasing that D-link PC card you have. I found a couple on eBay for US$20 or so.
 
Crashes caused by the hardware are tough to be reported or registered. I could think of one possibility to make sure this crash is not caused by the software: boot into your jaguar DVD. Don't initiate the installation but insert the linksys pc card adapter. Does your system crash? Before you purchase the same dlink card that I have, make sure your pc card slot does support the card.
 
Good idea, I left it at work so I'll try it tomorrow. I'll let you know as soon as I find out! Thanks for your help...
 
Ok so I'm trying to install Panther and let's just say it is most certainly not easy!! I think I figured it out, with the help of XPostFacto, so I should be able to get it going tomorrow. (Hopefully)

Bob, you probably won't believe this but I actually thought about that today through all my frustration with Panther! If this all fails, I'm definitely going that route... it just sure would have been nice to use one of these PCMCIA cards that I already have...

Thanks for all your help guys... if anyone else has any input, please feel free to share! I'll be checking back often... :)
 
It crashed in the jaguar setup... I didn't try it with the panther setup... I got a copy here at work so I'm going to put it on anyway, and then try it. I'm just getting it started now so we'll see!
 
My Pismo Powerbook G3 works perfectly with the Belkin wireless G PCMCIA card. I'm running OS X 10.3.7.
I don't have the one with the Broadcom chipset, it's the newer RaLink model. Airport software dosen't see it, but I downloaded the cardbus driver from the Ralink website and it worked instantly after reboot. Nice and Fast and only $25 shipped from Ebay.
 
Success!!!

Apparently the ROM update for the cardbus in 10.3 works like a charm... not only did it not crash, but with Orangeware's atheros driver my Linksys WPC55AG works like a charm! Well... it worked off the bat... we'll see how it performs over time.... :)

Thanks again for all your help guys...

- Josh
 
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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