Original AirPort Card withdrawn

On Jul 6, 2004, at 2:50 PM, Mike Millard wrote:
> But Apple has also stopped selling the "old" AirPort card, the
> original 802.11b one. This suddenly leaves many people with older
> machines who might want to get into Wi-Fi without a means of
> connecting.

I purchased one of these just today from the Short Hills Mall Apple
Store for my CRT iMac---they seemed to have about a dozen or so out on
the store floor. So I guess these will be available until Apple
depletes inventory. The issue for iMac users who want this card is not
only getting the card itself, but also getting the special bracket that
you need to use the card in the original CRT iMacs. Apple stopped
making those available long ago. (Though, there seems to be a nice
secondary market for these, too.)

However those users of older machines still have an option---use
AirPort Express as a bridge (or what I think Apple refers to as
"client" mode). After all, all Macs have Ethernet ports. I suppose
this is Apple's way of migrating people over to 802.11g (AirPort
Extreme)? But I agree, the price of admission has just gone up from
$79 to $139. And if you use an older iBook, you might not like being
tethered to an outlet. (At least PowerBook users have the PC card
option.)

Perhaps this is an opportunity for some enterprising third party to
write drivers for one of those USB based wireless adapters that are
available for PCs.

I know of one USB option for older Macs. D-Link currently markets to DWL-122 USB (802.11b) adapter to Mac users.

I purchased one for an iMac DV Special Edition running Jaguar. In my brief experience, the D-Link software seemed somewhat kludgy and not terribly user-friendly. Furthermore, I encountered a number of significant problems. When rebooting or waking from sleep, even though the menu bar indicator showed an active connection, I was often unable to access my wi-fi network until I first opened the D-Link System Preference pane. Also, I encountered periodic, inexplicable Internet connection losses, even when the D-Link software reported a strong, stable signal (up to 81%). Finally, sometimes opening the D-Link System Preference Pane would result in a never-ending Spinning Pizza of Death. Attempting to force quite would immediately result in a complete freeze. (Yes, you read that correctly--it would crash the entire OS in a way I have not seen since I regularly booted in System 9.) I even experienced freezes when using Mail and Safari. After crashes on three consecutive days and my discovery of similar reports in Amazon reviews, I returned my DWL-122 and began a quest for a more expensive, but more predictable AirPort card.

The discontinuation of the AirPort card and low price of DWL-122 (on sale at Office Max this week for $20 w/ rebate) make the latter a tempting item. My advice: should you decide to try the DWL-122, be sure to save your receipt!

-Matt Carter

For a client, who had a pre-Airport B&W G3, I purchased a ME101 Netgear Wireless Ethernet bridge and plugged it into the ethernet port.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=178

Voila! Instant wireless. Sometimes they are called "gaming adapters".

Overstock.com had them for about $30 but they are out of stock now.

Tom

Has anyone tried using the 802.11g usb-based devices (the small devices that plug into your usb port and act as a wireless card)- for iBooks etc. that Apple says cannot "handle" (g)? I know many PC's that use these.

[There's not much point in using 802.11g devices on USB 1.0 ports, since 802.11g is 54 Mbps (or 20-25 Mbps real world) and USB 1.0 is 12 Mbps (and I believe slower in the real world). -Adam]

On 7/14/2004 21:36, "DaveG" <davegoldenbergweb.com> wrote:

> Has anyone tried using the 802.11g usb-based devices (the small devices that
> plug into your usb port and act as a wireless card)- for iBooks etc. that
> Apple says cannot "handle" (g)? I know many PC's that use these.
>
> [There's not much point in using 802.11g devices on USB 1.0 ports, since
> 802.11g is 54 Mbps (or 20-25 Mbps real world) and USB 1.0 is 12 Mbps (and I
> believe slower in the real world). -Adam]

I can barely use one of those in my 1999 IBM i1472 laptop (definitely a
cycle-challenged machine these days). I can connect...I haven't been able
to pass bytes over an encrypted connection yet...my suspicion is that the
CPU is too weak. This result is better than with the PCMCIA card I tried
first...that would connect over a plain connection but not pass bytes
reliably, and thus was useless.

I would think that "iBooks" would be OK...but some of the machines implied
by the etc in "iBooks etc" are unlikely to work.

  --John (who has no wireless gear in his Macs)

I've had good results with a Belkin USB adapter and a Linksys
ethernet-wireless bridge. The former seems to work trouble-free with
just about any access point, and performance is quite good. The latter,
however, seems to only work with Linksys-branded access points, and
some experimentation with Netgear and D-Link bridge products indicates
that this lack of compatibility is rather widespread. Not sure how any
of them work with Apple equipment, but I suspect not well. On the other
hand, if you want 802.11g/a access for your Mac, they offer excellent
throughput since they're on a 100bt network port rather than the measly
USB port. Just make sure you're a single-vendor network gear
office/household, or expect to try a few brands until you get to one
that works.

--Nik