802.11g on a Titanium Powerbook w/ OS 10.3?

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fastgeek

[H]ard|DCOTM x4 aka "That Company"
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Jun 6, 2000
Messages
6,520
Hey folks,

Hoping the [H] Apple community can give me a hand here. I'm pretty much a PC guy and know very little about Macs and such; but I'm willing to learn. :) Here's my issue:

A client contacted me about wanting to share his new DirecWay service (he lives in the sticks) with his 4x PC's and his wifes Titanium Powerbook. He does have the new DW-6000 modem. He wants to go pure wireless and ideally all Wireless-G hardware. However he mentioned...

"As I mentioned, my wife uses a Titanium Powerbook using Mac OS 10.3 (Panther). I have heard (but not confirmed) that the "Titanium" version of Powerbook won't support 802.11g. Is there an aftermarket PCMCIA card or a card that fits in the Titanium's "Airport" card slot that would enable the Titanium Powerbook to operate via 802.11g?"

Now since I know exactly > < much about Macs my only option was to start doing my own research and ask around various places while I was at it.

Near as I can tell, a decent wireless router won't care what kind of computer is connecting to it, so long as it speaks the proper protocol. So it's not the router I'm worried about, it's getting her PowerBook to play nice. Worse comes to worse it'll have to run 802.11b (I'm assuming Macs have a USB port?)

So my good folks, can you help this PC guy out? I don't want to steer this client down the wrong path due to my making an educated guess that turns out to be incorrect! (Not to mention this fellow works at a company I've been trying to get a job at; so making him happy might yield the proper foot in the door the job market seems to require these days)

Thanks!

Regards,
fastgeek
 
If I remember correctly, the TiBooks have a PCMCIA slot. There is a DLink 802.11g PCMCIA that is mac compatible. The TiBook itself won't limit the 802.11g, but the driver support for the wireless cards will limit which ones will work.

If the PCMCIA 802.11g card doesn't exist and I'm just thinking of something random, then the Netgear 802.11b little thumb USB wireless "card" will work.

Also, you are correct on the router aspect. The routers aren't mac/pc specific. I've got my Powerbook and my mom's Dell 600m running off a Belkin router.

Hope this helped a little.
 
Ive had no problems using a linksys WPC54G which uses a broadcom chipset and ran under the airport software with no need for other drivers or configuration

this was on an origional Ti-book
 
yes the Tibooks have a PCMCIA slot that should accept a G PCMCIA card as long as it has drivers for OS X. Don't try to get a G card to work in the internal slot as it is NOT compatible with G and will kill the motherboard in a heart beat....if you can't find a G PCMCIA card just go with the regular non extreme (g) airport and it will work with your router (unless you get a 802.11g only wireless router) and will just connect at a lower speed (11 Meg vs 54 Meg) but that won't effect internet connections as they are typicaly under 3 meg connects and don't even max out the B connection speed...it will just be a little slower if you transfer large files between this and the other comps
 
Thanks for the input folks. I've been looking all over the place for adapters that are hopefully suitable. I'm still shooting for G cards, but have already told the client that B might be the only choice. Oddly enough I haven't come across any USB-thumb adapters for the Mac; but have come across a couple USB powered external B boxes that ought to do the trick.

If any of you feel up to it, please let me know if any of the following devices will or will not work with this laptop.

http://www.asante.com/products/adapters/AL5403-XG/index.html

http://www.macsense.com/product/broadband/wpe800.html

http://www.macwireless.com/html/products/11g_11b_cards/11gCardbus.html

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/aria_extreme.html


If none of those make the grade, how about something from the wireless selection at ClubMac? Slowly but surely finding good Mac only places, since sites like NewEgg and such really don't do a very good job in presenting Mac only hardware.

Much obliged to all of you for your help.

Regards,
fastgeek
 
for the price get the Asante from clubmac as that will get you the G connection for a decent price...your range should be a little better as well as it has an external antena and saying that...that is the only real drawback as you will probably want to remove the card if putting in a case so it doesn't get caught or jamed in the port
 
gigglebyte said:
for the price get the Asante from clubmac as that will get you the G connection for a decent price...your range should be a little better as well as it has an external antena and saying that...
Click to expand...

Great, was hoping that card would do the trick since it's pretty reasonably priced. :)

that is the only real drawback as you will probably want to remove the card if putting in a case so it doesn't get caught or jamed in the port
Click to expand...

Try that again? I'm a little confused by what you're saying! :confused: As I understand it, this is a simple matter of sliding the card into the PowerBook PCMCIA port... so what's there to get jammed?

Thanks again,
fastgeek
 
the card will stick out about 1/2 - 1" from the side of the comp so if you are not careful it can cause damage if knocked in accidentaly
 
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