Wireless Info, Second Try [UPDATED]

I had a question for MyMac staffers last night and got some very helpful answers. This blog post is a result of what I learned.)

THE SITUATION: DSL is finally coming to my neighborhood. The household computers are an original clamshell iBook w/AirPort, a 500 MHz TiBook (no AirPort card), and a 400 MHz B&W G3, all running Mac OS X 10.3. (Yes, you CAN run OS X on that iBook.) I also have an AirPort Base Station, but of course it doesn’t give me 802.11g (54 Mbps) wireless. I obviously need a router to connect the G3 via EtherNet. So what do I do?

THE SOLUTION: Believe it or not, I don’t have to scrounge a pricey orginal AirPort card for the TiBook from eBay. Your OS X-equipped Mac will work with plenty of wireless cards AND wireless routers from other manufacturers — and you can’t get an Apple-branded router, anyway. EarthLink has a page you can check that details OS X compatibility for a wide range of network cards. Buffalo, Linksys and Motorola all make cards that work with Airport drivers, while some of the others require a manufacturer’s driver. (MyMac’s Dave says, “I use a Cisco Aironet 350 that has IMHO a better driver than Airport.”)

There’s probably an Apple list for compatible 3rd-party goodies, but I don’t have the link handy. Anyway, here’s a wireless card I may buy for my TiBook. Sure, I’ll have to stick in in the outside slot, but I’ll get better reception anyway, and it works with 802.11g (802.11b compatible too, of course). Buffalo also makes a wireless 802.11g router with four EtherNet ports that even has a built-in amplifer, and I’m sure other manufacturers do too. (In the signal-boosting area, QuickerTek comes to mind.)

Please note that I have no idea if I’m talking about MyMac advertisers here or violating any internal rules by mentioning brands. This isn’t an endorsement or review, either. I just want everyone to know that there are choices. Even with older Macs I have, I can hook a 3rd-party wireless router to the DSL modem and get cranking, . And maybe the TiBook will actually enjoy 802.11g connectivity with the add-on card.

Some of you out there may know more than I do on this topic, so post away in the comments below. And now, back to work…

UPDATE: A very knowledgable buddy just checked in with the following. First off, the most important detail is that IF THERE’S A SLOWER 802.11B COMPONENT IN THE NETWORK, THE ROUTER WILL SLOW DOWN TO THAT SPEED. Hmm. Anyway, here’s more:

Sounds like a good plan. Similar to mine. However, I do know that the Apple Airport Extreme card will not work in a TiBook. But I think that’s a physical factor – the design of the card changed. And, of course, if you have one standard 11 mbps card talking to the wireless router, all the other wireless devices slow down to that speed.

So the question is, 1) will the Wireless Notebook adapter fit correctly in the TiBook’s PC card slot, and 2) are there drivers for Mac OS X? I see in the OS support section at the URL below that they support 10.2.6 or later, so you should be OK there. I’d still talk to the vendor to insure support for an Apple TiBook since that’s getting to be a fairly old computer these days.

You will probably want to set up the wireless router to be a DHCP server, so it can convert the DSL’s supplied address into an internal non-routable address for each of your computers. The 10.1.x.x or 192.168.x.x addresses. That’s fairly standard.

One usually configures these routers with a Web browser. The default address is http://192.168.1.1 on most of them, and sometimes that’s not well described in the docs because the mfgr doesn’t want to alarm a novice. That’s why a lot of these wireless routers remain “open”. You’ll want to make sure you use the highest level of security (WPA) and set a password. Not that you’re likely to have that many War Drivers in the neighborhood. Still a good idea.

(I tried setting up one of these routers at a friend’s house once, and the UI was so bad and the options so confusing, I was almost not able to get the security working. On an Apple Airport Express or Extreme, it’s just soooo simple.)

This man knows what he’s talking about, so pay attention!